Are you tired of hearing Taylor Swift's familiar "You Belong with Me" played over and over again? Or are you part of the cool set of music listeners, identifying the next great hit or indie band on the rise? Many music listeners, especially the younger generations, want to perceive themselves as listening to cool music. But new research by SMU Cox Marketing Professor Morgan Ward and co-authors says otherwise when it comes to real choices. The tension between the novel and the familiar leads to interesting insights for marketers. The research offers lessons about how actual behavior trumps media portrayals of consumers' perennial desire for....

For distressed firms, the prospects of receiving additional financing can mean the difference between continuation or liquidation. Firms have sought equity investment from sophisticated private investors at an increasing rate — the share of private placements in secondary equity issuance has increased from 4% in 1995 to 27% in 2007. New research by SMU Cox's Finance Professor Indraneel Chakraborty and co-author Professor Nickolay Gantchev from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that these private investments can improve coordination among shareholders. The improved coordination among shareholders leads to favorable debt....