PhillyInc

For many years, BusinessWeek magazine published a list of "best and worst boards." Now Penn State associate professor Henock Louis has documented that roughly two-thirds of those "worst" companies did shape up after the media exposure. In a research paper, the Smeal College of Business professor concludes there is a causal link between the publication and cleanups. He also says savvy Wall Street traders profited handsomely from the articles by buying -- not selling -- the companies' stocks in response to the exposure that they saw not as bad news, but a harbinger of corrective action.

- Thomas Ginsberg