Scrabble -- the board game in which you compete with other players in making words -- has become a familiar household name since it was introduced in 1948. Its unofficial online double, Scrabulous, has become one of the most popular applications on Facebook since it was launched in July 2007. Now, both games are making waves as Hasbro, the copyright holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, has filed a lawsuit against the creators of Scrabulous -- following which Scrabulous was yanked off Facebook in late July. But in today's fast-changing social networking environment, Hasbro's lawsuit and its attempt to control its online image may not be the right move, Wharton faculty say.

Progress toward unfettered international commerce stumbled last week with the collapse of the World Trade Organization's Doha talks, a seven-year effort to establish new global trade rules. The lengthy talks were complicated by the rapid emergence of China and India as major economic powers with commercial and strategic interests to protect, and the clout to do so.  Many observers say the talks' collapse is a setback for poorer nations, which need access to larger markets in order for their economies to grow. Wharton professors Stephen Kobrin, whose research interests include globalization, and Marshall Meyer, an authority on China's economy, recently spoke to Knowledge@Wharton about the talks' collapse, global commerce and China's interest in the rules governing trade.

Retailers are in a tough situation, locked between rising product costs and a limited ability to raise their prices. Even cost-savvy market leaders such as Costco are having a difficult time. But Wharton faculty say that handled carefully, the current inflationary period may actually be a business opportunity for some companies. The key: Forgetting some of the old rules of retailing.

Managing the forces arrayed against them -- hostility against Islam in the Western world, resistance to change among Muslims and hostility to the West among Muslim populations -- is no easy task for Muslim women in positions of leadership. As one of the participants in a recent leadership conference noted: "A Muslim woman must prove not just that she is as good, or better, than a man, but as good as a Western woman." Two Wharton leadership experts were among the presenters at the three-week event.

Many public funds don't adhere to basic norms of modern money management and most don't even appear to make an effort to match their investment strategies with their future financial obligations. "As [sovereign wealth funds] have grown, they appear to be demonstrating an increasing risk appetite, very little transparency and virtually no clarity of objectives," write three researchers, including Wharton professor of insurance and risk management Olivia Mitchell, in a soon-to be-published paper titled, "Managing Public Investment Funds: Best Practices and New Questions."

After the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 2005 that Internet file-sharing sites Grokster and StreamCast had illegally aided their customers' efforts to share pirated copies of copyrighted music and video files, many commentators predicted the demise of businesses that depended on online file-sharing. But new start-ups say they have found ways to make peer-to-peer (often called P2P) file-sharing legal and perhaps profitable. Still, their business plans need tweaking, according to a paper published recently by Wharton professor Kartik Hosanagar and two University of Washington colleagues. One suggestion: The networks should sometimes be willing to pay more than they get for content.

Despite warnings of a bubble, investors and entrepreneurs see long-term promise for firms that make efficient technology and alternative energy. Unlike the vaporware of the tech bubble that burst in 2001, these technologies are up, running and proven, say participants at a recent conference sponsored by Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation.

America has been failed by its government, and the nation now faces economic and security catastrophes unless its leaders change their ways, Wharton management professor Lawrence G. Hrebiniak concludes in his new book, The Mismanagement of America, Inc. He directs his severest criticism at the government's supervision of the Social Security Trust Fund and an intelligence infrastructure in which various agencies are no better at communicating with each other than they were before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Media outlets and regulators have scrutinized the securitization of risky residential mortgages for their role in the global credit crunch. Not as much attention has been paid to their less-risky cousin, the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market, which has been tarnished by problems on the residential side. Despite their superior fundamentals, says one Wharton professor, the CMBS market is "pretty much gone." The question now: Can it come back?

"There's really nothing illegal about it" is a phrase often heard in descriptions of the practice of shorting, or short-selling, which are essentially bets that a stock price will decline. But after some market watchers accused short-sellers of unfairly depressing the stock prices of several key financial institutions, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed new rules. Wharton finance professors Marshall Blume and Franklin Allen suggest the impact will be minimal.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been talking about -- and making -- deals that each believes will help secure its future in the fast-growing market for online advertising. No matter how their maneuvering concludes, advertising and marketing firms must get ready to adapt to new technology that promises to speed the migration of ads from traditional media to the web.

In June 2007, the stock price of Radian Group was at $64 a share, close to its all-time high. In late June 2008, in the thick of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the company's stock had tumbled below $1 a share. Yet S.A. Ibrahim, CEO of the Philadelphia-based credit risk management firm, honored a commitment he had made a year ago to speak at the recent 12th Annual Wharton Leadership Conference. After all, Ibrahim noted, "What could be more relevant than hearing about leadership from someone in the middle of a multitude of challenges?"

Some Internet entrepreneurs are blazing new trails to real revenue in the virtual world. In the examples that emerged from the recent Supernova conference, an annual technology event in San Francisco organized by Wharton professor Kevin Werbach, these models have something in common: building long-term relationships with customers.

Companies ranging from Yahoo and CSX to Motorola, H.J. Heinz and Time Warner have been the target of proxy wars over the past few years as disgruntled shareholders try to force changes in corporate behavior and/or top management. But while proxy battles these days are more prevalent and easier to launch than ever, it's unclear exactly what they accomplish. As one Wharton professor notes: "It's a good thing for shareholders that these activists rattle the cage. Whether they ultimately create value for shareholders is another issue."

Diamonds aren't forever. Just ask John J. Teeling, executive chairman of Dublin-based exploration company African Diamonds. During a panel discussion at the recent Wharton Global Alumni Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, Teeling noted that despite its storied past as a leader in gold and diamond production, South Africa "is mined out." Yet conference participants overall suggested that mining will continue to play a major economic role throughout Africa, including in South Africa, as emerging markets like China and India fuel a long-term commodities "super cycle" and African nations become more adept at extracting value from their abundant natural resources.

Earlier this summer, when employees first learned of a Google plan to upgrade and dramatically raise the price of its day care program, they wept. According to Wharton faculty and compensation experts, that reaction shouldn't come as a big surprise. Trying to eliminate any perk, they say, can cause feelings of betrayal and even retaliation against the company on the part of employees. With the current economic slump, more 'de-perking' could be on the way.