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Benchmarks are critical to decision-making. It stands to reason, then, that an investment decision should have its own benchmark: the cost of capital. Here, Darden Professor Michael Schill offers four principles to guide the investor in measuring risk and expected return to estimate the cost of capital.
Collection: Investing Insights

The 4A model of strategic execution is a system of interrelated, interdependent factors. Two of the four factors: alignment with core strategy and the ability to nurture talent to ensure future success. Drawing from their forthcoming book, Scott Snell and Ken Carrig offer steps to excel at each and critical questions for leaders to ask.

In less than five years, Myanmar coffee went from a low-grade commodity to a high-value specialty sold for premium prices globally. Through training in farming, expertise and training itself — as well as attention to both the supply and demand sides of a market — Value Chains for Rural Development helped farmers and others across the value chain.

A group of prominent CEOs recently issued a statement encouraging business to create value for all stakeholders, not limited to investors. Ed Freeman and his colleagues have been working with Stakeholder Theory for decades. Here, Darden professors across disciplines offer examples of how businesses can (or already are) prioritizing stakeholders.

Confident people are seen as competent people. And people of higher social class tend to have more confidence than others — yet perceptions of their abilities tend to exceed their actual performance. Darden Professor Peter Belmi studies cycles of inequality and here explains what the phenomenon means for businesses and what to do to stop it.

Environmental conservation and economic development can both be sustainable — and are not mutually exclusive. The Andean bear is a symbol of the potential for the multiple wins of preserving land and growing incomes in Colombia, where Conservamos la Vida serves as an example of a public-private partnership improving the world.

Visitors to hospital Emergency Rooms wait, on average, more than two hours—some even leave without treatment because of the time. New research by Darden Professor Ozlem Yildiz shows how hospitals can be incentivized to make the process more time efficient.

Famous for producing pork products, Smithfield Foods had a history of aggressive growth. But when that growth stalled for a matter of years, it was time to consider acquisition by ShuangHui International. This case in point discusses the pros and cons and strategic considerations that went into the international deal.

Haiti is one of the lowest income nations worldwide. Though the government provides many public health care clinics, they’re under-resourced. One public-private partnership is working to deliver sustainable primary care to low-income families through a social enterprise model.

As a faculty member at both the UVA School of Medicine and the Darden School of Business, Matherne is an expert in both the health care and nonprofit sectors.