Business and Economic Review

Surviving an Economic Downturn

A recession occurs once every six years or so. To survive, a company must know how to successfully market itself during these economic downturns. Often, the first and biggest casualty is marketing. The researchers found that the most successful advertisers during a recession share several characteristics: they place a strategic emphasis on marketing; they embody an entrepreneurial culture; and they possess slack (underused) resources and have the flexibility to redeploy these resources. Still...

Marketing Blackness: Using Race to Sell Products

In an interview, Dr. David Crockett, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Moore School of Business of the University of South Carolina, talked about how blackness is being marketed today. Crockett said that if you looked at the presence of black actors in ads, you see that by the 1980s, blacks were appearing in ads well beyond theirs numbers in the general population. When advertisers create ads, they want people to adopt their point of view, and they find that a variety of cultures is a v...

Deleveraging the Economy

The economic data are now available to support what most people have felt for some time now -- the US economy is in recession, and according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, has been in recession since December 2007. Ultimately, it was the bursting of the housing bubble of the early 2000s that sparked this recession. Overall, the current recession is characterized by a dramatic global deleveraging on the part of households, businesses, and governments. The purpose of this article ...

Tapping University Innovation, Talent

In 2002, BMW Manufacturing Co, which has its only US production facility in Spartanburg County, SC, invested $10 million in the state's Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE) Program. An investment in the CoEE Program offers compelling benefits, including R&D savings, access to the work of world-class researchers, and long-term workforce development advantages. The CoEE Program is a challenge grant program; the universities must raise dollar-for-dollar, nonstate matching funds prior to acc...

Civil Liability and Economic Development

The reform of many aspects of South Carolina's civil justice system in 2005 demonstrated the legislature's recognition of the role civil liability plays in business planning and risk management. Several of the new provisions no doubt grabbed the attention of the business community and were met with its approval. This article analyzes the connection between civil liability and economic development in light of the latest major development in South Carolina tort law. This article will not attemp...

Quarterly Outlook

During the last quarter of 2008, the US economy experienced a severe contraction, putting in one of its worst performances since World War II. Of particular concern is the marked deterioration in the job market. The US economy lost more than 3 million jobs in 2008, with the worst losses occurring in the final months of the year. South Carolina has also been shedding jobs in other areas, including manufacturing, tourism, and retail. As a result, in January 2009 the South Carolina jobless rate ...

Editor's Desk

Surviving Recessions

Health Care Corner

Nurse Practitioners - an Unsung Resource

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses or Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses with graduate degrees and additional clinical training -- either a master's degree or a doctorate along with advanced knowledge and skills in a specialized area of care, such as pediatric care, women's health, cardiac care, or primary care. In South Carolina, there are an estimated 800,000 people without health insurance who postpone or avoid care until there is an emergency. If Pres Obama's health reform i...

Business Forum

Women's (Still) Under-Realized Economic Potential

Three years ago, the author wrote an article for this journal about the under-realized economic potential that women hold for South Carolina. At that time, the Alliance for Women, founded as a partnership between Columbia College and the Commission on Women, had just received the results of an economic impact study requested from the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. There is certainly ample room for progress. Since the 2006 article, women in South Carolina have lost gro...

Your Finances

Producing a Healthy Cash Flow for Your Business

With the recent difficulties surrounding capital availability for business growth, it is more crucial than ever for businesses to produce healthy cash flow to finance growth internally, to the extent possible. The largest issues in producing cash flow in a difficult economy revolve largely around the relationship between payments to and from suppliers and customers, respectively. The management of these cash flows and the balance sheet accounts that represent this working capital have implica...

Trends

South Carolina Economic Facts

Technology

Nuclear Power: Part of the Answer

In your recent Technology column ("Energy Advice from a NASA Scientist," January-February-March 2009 issue), astronomer and climatologist James Hansen asserted that American nation's energy challenges cannot be solved through energy efficiency alone. That point was agreed. But his conclusion that "the rest of the answer" lies in the pursuit of renewable forms of energy (e.g., wind, solar, and biomass). SCE&G recently completed a thorough evaluation of its options for meeting South Carolin...

Sustainability Watch

Sustainability Watch