Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Crypto Market Raises $13 Billion Since 2014, Amid Zero Regulation – Columbia Business School News
Columbia Business School’s Thomas Bourveau recently co-authored research, which analyzed 776 initial coin offerings (ICOs) shared between April 2014 to May 2018 to reveal a number of key insights into regulating the decentralized platforms that comprise the current cryptocurrency market, as well as the “value of disclosure in this fast-growing global unregulated market.”
According to the article, the market offers “virtually zero protection for investors since issuers are not required to register with any securities market authority.” Moreover, issuers are “not required to provide periodic financial or non-financial disclosures.” Crypto market participants prefer “self-regulation” and decentralization to securities regulation, although it’s unlikely that the “ICO market will remain completely unregulated for much longer.”
The research, which was co-authored by LBS’s Emmanuel De George, the University of Utah’s Atif Ellahie and Daniele Macciocchi, highlights characteristics of successful ICOs, which includes “disclosure of the source code; provision of genuinely informative white papers; substantial social media activity; disclosure of vesting periods for founders’ tokens; and issue of tokens that are well rated by crypto-market information intermediaries.”
You can read the full article here and the full working paper here.
Applying Military Experience To a Sustainability Challenge – Johnson Business School Feed
Johnson Association of Veterans VP of Community Relations Jason Buselli (MBA ’19) recently wrote about his experience using technology to solve “security problems of the Afghan National Police” to his semester working on the KAZNET mobile crowdsourcing platform in Kenya as part of Johnson’s Sustainable Global Enterprise (SGE) immersion.
According to Buselli, KAZNET was “developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and funded through a USAID grant to help alleviate data asymmetry within the livestock value chain in Kenya.” Data asymmetry contributes to exploitation of small holder farmers by traders and brokers.
The platform uses “contributions from mobile users to collect, synthesize, and distribute livestock market prices.”
Buselli writes of his semester in Kenya:
“I have gained invaluable exposure to work in emerging markets, in-field consumer research, value discovery/development, market sizing, tech platform monetization, financial modeling, and implementation strategy development. I am confident that I can apply the business skills I gained through the SGE immersion to my internship [at Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies] this summer.
You can read the full article here.
Summer Camp Introduces Students to World of Business – Rutgers Business School Blog
Rutgers Business School recently held its fifth annual Summer Camp, which hosted ninety high school students at its Livingston campus, over the course of seven days.
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Finance and Economics Ron Richter says, “The camp allows high school students to experience business and college life in a manner that allows them to make informed decisions about the next chapter in their lives.”
Yvonne Tang, a camper who took part in this year’s session, writes, “The Rutgers Business School summer camp opened my eyes to the world of adulthood and professionalism. Regardless of whether my peers decided they were interested in business, the most important part was that by the end of the week, we learned what business really meant. This learning experience is a must for anyone who thinks they’ll be interested in business.”
You can read the full article here.