Leadership & management

New research from UVA Darden’s Kimberly A. Whitler finds that underpaying your CMO relative to the CFO could stunt the firm’s revenue growth. When CMOs feel undervalued, their performance falters — and so does revenue. The fix? Pay your marketing chief on par with finance.

The Savannah Bananas have turned baseball upside down with a culture that prizes innovation — and accepts failure. A new case by Darden's Professor Les Alexander explores how owners Jesse and Emily Cole disrupted the sport by building a fans-first brand. What comes next for the Bananas and the modified game of baseball they invented, Banana Ball?

Writing for The Conversation, Christoph Herpfer, an assistant professor of finance at UVA Darden, and colleagues, explore the enduring effects a government shutdown would have on the federal workforce, 

From impoverished orphan immigrant to America’s first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton combined bold vision with fatal flaws. Darden professor Scott C. Miller delves into the founding father’s varied career and distills timeless lessons on leadership and the dangers of hubris.

The chief marketing officer is often blamed for poor growth performance. But new research from UVA Darden’s Kimberly A. Whitler suggests that the fault could lie in the design of the CMO role.

Impostor syndrome has become a go-to explanation for why smart, capable people doubt themselves at work. A new integrative review, co-authored by UVA Darden Professor Sean Martin, challenges many of our assumptions about impostor syndrome — and offers a more productive way forward.

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) offers MBAs a path to business ownership. UVA Darden’s Professor Les Alexander breaks down four key funding models — Traditional, Self-Funded, Accelerator and Sponsored — highlighting trade-offs in control, risk and equity.

In today’s volatile global business environment, CEOs face unprecedented complexity and scrutiny. Here are 10 strategic imperatives for the modern CEO, drawn from UVA Darden's faculty research, timely case studies and external partnerships.

The widely watched Economic Policy Uncertainty Index has reached its highest level since the pandemic. And we’re only halfway through 2025. How can business leaders best navigate this environment? UVA Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy shares lessons from successful entrepreneurs.

In his last lecture to the Executive MBA class of 2025, Professor Dan Murphy encourages leaders to move beyond simple stories that seem aligned with individual values and perspectives and to wrestle with the real-world complexities and tradeoffs found in economics, leadership and society.