Business & Economy

Scholarships are more generous for wealthier families Click here for more information Businessweek.com -- Most Popular

July 24, 2013 at 3:17 am | News Desk

The triumph of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's party could lead to a shift in focus from the economy to foreign policy—and moves to counter China Click here for more information Businessweek.com -- Most Popular

July 23, 2013 at 7:20 am | News Desk

ENTREPRENEURSHIP is the modern-day philosopher’s stone: a mysterious something that supposedly holds the secret to boosting growth and creating jobs. The G20 countries hold an annual youth-entrepreneurship summit. More than 130 countries celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. Business schools offer hugely popular courses on how to become an entrepreneur. Business gurus produce (often contradictory) guides to entrepreneurship: David Gumpert wrote both “How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan” and “Burn Your Business Plan!”.But what exactly is entrepreneurship (apart from a longer way of saying “enterprise”)? And how should governments encourage it? The policymakers are as confused as the ...

July 22, 2013 at 10:16 pm | News Desk

DOTCOM mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete. Meanwhile, the MOOCs have multiplied in number, resources and student recruitment—without yet having figured out a business model of their own.Besides providing online courses to their own (generally fee-paying) students...

July 22, 2013 at 10:15 pm | News Desk

“GSK shares the desire of the Chinese authorities to root out corruption.” So declared GlaxoSmithKline, a British drugs giant, this week as it struggled to respond to a scandal in China. Four executives, all Chinese nationals, have been arrested on accusations of, among other things, paying nearly $500m in bribes to doctors and officials to boost sales of the firm’s treatments. Chinese state television broadcast an interview in which one of the arrested executives gave details of the alleged bribery scheme. Another executive, who is British, has been told not to leave China. GSK said it would co-operate with the investigation.Scandals involving the marketing of medicines are not just a Chinese phenomenon. Big Pharma&rsqu...

July 22, 2013 at 10:14 pm | News Desk