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RESEARCHERS FROM GERMANY, THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND THE UNITED STATES RECENTLY EXAMINED THE STATE OF THE MODERN MOVIE THEATER. Hamburg in Germany; Mark Hous- ton, associate professor of marketing at the College of Business at the University of Missouri in Columbia; Victor Henning, a doctoral student at Bauhaus–the University of Wei- mar in Germany; and Felix Eggers, a doctoral student at the University of Hamburg. They examined dis- tribution and revenue changes in the movie market by analyzing data from 1,770 consumers in the United States, Japan, and Germany—collec- tively, these three countries represent 53 percent of the global film market. The researchers found that film studios in the U.S. could increase revenues by 16 percent if films were simultaneously released in theaters and on rental DVD and VOD, with a three-month window between release and DVD retail. However, if studios did so, movie theater rev- enues would drop by 40 percent, forcing many to downsize or close. The news was different for stu- dios and theaters in Germany and Japan. There, studios would need to release DVDs for retail three months after theater distribution, and offer DVD rentals and VOD one year after screening to increase profits by 14 percent in Germany and 12 percent in Japan. Unlike theaters in the U.S., theaters in these countries would experience an increase of rev- enue of 15 percent and 6 percent, respectively. The researchers looked for a similar win-win scenario for the U.S. market. They found that both studios and theaters would increase their profits if there were a three- month window between movie release and DVD retail; DVD retail prices were slightly increased; and DVD rental and VOD release came another three months later. STUDY BRIEFS n CONTROLLING CARBON The world can't institute controls of carbon emissions fast enough, say Jay Apt, professor at Carnegie Mel- lon University's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada; and M. Granger Morgan, co-director of the Elec- tricity Industry Center and head of Carnegie Mellon's Department of Engineering and Public Policy. The three have co-authored a forthcoming paper outlining incentives for emissions control. In the U.S., electric power gen- erates more carbon dioxide than any other industry sector, which will place the brunt of the costs for emissions control on the electricity industry. However, Apt warns that if policymakers wait until crisis or public panic forces the issue, the costs of sector-wide carbon controls could double and U.S. competitiveness could be diminished. n PROTECTING SMALL INVESTORS New research confirms that, when analysts issue misleadingly positive stock reports, individual investors suffer—not institutional investors. The paper, "Wealth Transfer Effects of Misleading Investor Behavior," was published in the March issue of the Journal of Accounting Research and was co-authored by Gus de Franco and Hai Lu, accounting pro- fessors at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management in Canada; and Florin Vasvari, a profes- sor at London Business School. The researchers examined documented instances of misinformation by Wall Street analysts. They found that individual investors who heeded the misinformation had negative returns overall, while investors guided by large financial institutions in a matched control group gained. The report suggests that recent regula- tions that change analysts' behavior were necessary to improve the plight of small investors. n WHY WE CALL IT QUITS Employers would be better at keep- ing workers if they focused on why their employees stay rather than why they choose to leave, accord- ing to research by Wendy Harman, lead researcher and assistant profes- sor of business at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri; and Terrence Mitchell, professor of management and organization, and Thomas Lee, professor of management, both of the University of Washington in Seattle. After studying 15 years of research on employee job satisfac- tion and voluntary turnover, the researchers developed two theories of job turnover. The "unfolding model" explains why employees quit; "job embeddedness," why they stay. "The reasons we keep a job are not necessarily the opposite of why we leave," says Lee. Understand- ing both sets of reasons, say these researchers, may help employers keep their best employees on the job. The paper appeared in the Feb- ruary issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science. n z BizEd MAY/JUNE 2007 61