Online markets have dramatically altered the retail landscape. By eliminating barriers associated with geography as well as the physical costs of maintaining a storefront, online markets have created a "democracy" of buyers and sellers. However, the fluidity of this marketplace and the relative anonymity of transactions has made the problem of maintaining trust critically important. Solving the "trust problem" represents a key competitive advantage for many of the successful players in the online space. For instance, much of the remarkable success of eBay has stemmed from its ability to create valuable and informative reputations for its users through its feedback system. The lock-in associated with a user's reputation on eBay helped it to stave off challenges by Amazon and Yahoo. Describes how eBay's solution to the "trust problem," has led to the creation of a "market for feedback" whose sole purpose is the "manufacture" of reputation for eBay users. Presents a study and statistical analysis of this market in order to show that its maintenance represents a crucial challenge to eBay's future competitive advantage and, more generally, to solving the "trust problem" in other online markets.

No question, Galen McDowell knew how to sell. He quickly hooked a big-league outfit, Kinan Motors, as a potential customer. He invited their representatives to come take a tour of the company and, while they were in town, visit the Red Ruby Club. The Red Ruby? That's a strip club. Galen assured CEO Bob Carlton that it was upscale and full of businesspeople. He said his reps had often made use of the club to woo important accounts away from rivals. As if to prove his point, Kinan quickly signed a multimillion-dollar contract with OptiMotors after the visit. Then April Hartley, Bob's first salesperson, quit. She had tried to build relationships with customers, but the really big accounts, it seemed, were looking for "more exciting stuff" than she could give them. Now Joan Warren--another saleswoman, and one who would happily close a deal anywhere she got the chance--is complaining because Galen won't let her go to the club with him. "I won't stand by and be disadvantaged simply because I'm a woman," she says. When does client entertainment cross the line? In R0604A and R0604Z, four experts discuss this fictional case study: John Brown, the director of institutional sales and customer relations at Fortis Investments; Katherine Frank, a former dancer who is now an author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Das Narayandas, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School; and Denise Rousseau, a professor at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School of Public Policy and Tepper School of Business.

No question, Galen McDowell knew how to sell. He quickly hooked a big-league outfit, Kinan Motors, as a potential customer. He invited their representatives to come take a tour of the company and, while they were in town, visit the Red Ruby Club. The Red Ruby? That's a strip club. Galen assured CEO Bob Carlton that it was upscale and full of businesspeople. He said his reps had often made use of the club to woo important accounts away from rivals. As if to prove his point, Kinan quickly signed a multimillion-dollar contract with OptiMotors after the visit. Then April Hartley, Bob's first salesperson, quit. She had tried to build relationships with customers, but the really big accounts, it seemed, were looking for "more exciting stuff" than she could give them. Now Joan Warren--another saleswoman, and one who would happily close a deal anywhere she got the chance--is complaining because Galen won't let her go to the club with him. "I won't stand by and be disadvantaged simply because I'm a woman," she says. When does client entertainment cross the line? In R0604A and R0604Z, four experts discuss this fictional case study: John Brown, the director of institutional sales and customer relations at Fortis Investments; Katherine Frank, a former dancer who is now an author and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Das Narayandas, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School; and Denise Rousseau, a professor at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School of Public Policy and Tepper School of Business.

John Browne believes that all companies battling it out in the global information age face a common challenge: using knowledge more effectively than their competitors do. And he is not talking only about the knowledge that resides in one's own company. "Any organization that thinks it does everything the best and that it need not learn from others is incredibly arrogant and foolish," he says. British Petroleum's chief executive, who engineered the revival of BP Exploration and Production and poised BP for spectacular growth, never accepts that something can't be done and is always asking if there is a better way and if someone might have a better idea. Under his leadership, BP is doing the same. And no matter where knowledge comes from, Browne says, the key to reaping a big return is to leverage that knowledge by replicating it throughout the organization so that each unit is not learning in isolation.

Wherever you look in business, there's a new level of interest in entrepreneurship. As attention at corporations swings away from retrenchment and toward growth, more and more people are wondering why some companies are able to stimulate creativity and initiative among their employees more effectively than others. What do those organizations do to convert intriguing ideas into commercial ventures?