The frontiers of digital innovation are vast. And the ride into the great unknown of digital innovation can be fraught with challenges. The auto industry is a highly competitive market where digital innovation plays an important role in each player’s strategic differentiation. New research by SMU Cox Information Technology Professor Ulrike Schultze and Ph. D. student Lena Hylving (at Viktoria Swedish ICT, in Gothenburg, Sweden) offers insight into some of the challenges faced and overcome by an auto manufacturer searching for competitive advantage as cars sport more digital features.

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 the novel.

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 renegotiations within one year of issuance, and ultimately decreases the odds of firm default by half.

Stock markets can be volatile, to the benefit of certain traders. With greater sophistication of market players armed with clever algorithms and computational powers, how they trade and profit impacts market stability and confidence. In new research, SMU Cox Finance Professor Kumar Venkataraman and co-author Amber Anand push the debate about high-frequency traders' or proprietary traders' impact on market stability and the value of the "specialist" market maker. Regulators are grappling with serious questions about liquidity in the market, especially in light of stresses like the Flash Crash of 2010.

Earlier research has shown that consumers may erroneously recall entire experiences or details about experiences that did not occur. These false memories are important because they have downstream effects on consumer attitudes and behaviors. In novel research, SMU Cox Marketing Professor Priyali Rajagopal and co-author Nicole Montgomery explore how brand commitment influences "false memories." Firms need to understand how to protect their turf from this subtle form of manipulation, especially with online reviews taking up more of consumers' mental bandwidth.