WRDS' Best Paper Award Recipient Highlights Role of Social Networks in Business

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), the leading data research platform and business intelligence tool for corporate, academic and government institutions worldwide, is a proud sponsor of Best Paper Awards at prestigious financial conferences, including the recent Western Finance Association conference.

“Executive Networks and Firm Policies: Evidence from the Random Assignment of MBA Peers”

By highlighting the finest and most current research in academia, WRDS stays at the forefront of trends in the field and the research needs of our users, which translates into better search methodologies, analysis and research support for our clients.

The 2012 WFA conference Best Paper Award winner, Kelly Shue, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, explored how social and informal networks of peers impact executive decision-making relating to compensation and acquisitions.

Her paper, “Executive Networks and Firm Policies: Evidence from the Random Assignment of MBA Peers” examined the long-term effect of peer networks among CEOs and CFOs from the same MBA sections at Harvard Business School. Industry leaders interested in understanding executive behaviors and corporate outcomes should add social connections among CEO and CFOs to their explorations, according to Professor Shue.

Shue’s challenge was to determine whether executives are influenced by their section peers at HBS. To address this Shue used WRDS for access to Compustat and ExecuComp, as well as proprietary datasets from HBS. To Shue, WRDS’ file linking was critical. “Linking files is very helpful – each data has different codes and it's often hard to match across different datasets. WRDS provides matching files to improve efficiency and reliability in searching.”

To read more about Professor Shue’s award see the WFA Conference Program.

About WRDS and the Wharton School

Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) is the leading, comprehensive, internet-based data research service used by academic, government, non-profit institutions, and corporate firms. Developed in 1993 to support faculty research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS has since evolved to become the leading business intelligence tool for a global research community. http://whartonwrds.com

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania — founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school — is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The School has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of 91,000 graduates.