‘Doing Great Things’

December 21, 2016

Management student Alleya Jenkins '17 wants to incorporate community and giving back into her career. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Management student Alleya Jenkins ’17 wants to incorporate community and giving back into her career. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Management Senior Alleya Jenkins Envisions a People-Focused Business Career

For Alleya Jenkins ’17, helping others will never be an afterthought in her career, extracurricular activities or free time. Continue Reading

Enhancing Corporate Strategy

December 20, 2016

UConn Management Professor Timothy B. Folta (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
UConn Management Professor Timothy B. Folta (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

International Conference Organized by Professor Folta Yields Strategic Management Book

An international conference about resource redeployment in multi-business or multi-product firms, organized by UConn management professor Timothy B. Folta, has yielded a new book on the subject. Continue Reading

Answers to Your Questions About the Interest Rate Increase

December 19, 2016

UConn Today– The Federal Reserve Board announced Wednesday that it would raise interest rates just in time for the new year. During its meeting on Dec. 14, the Federal Open Market Committee voted for a 0.25 percentage-point increase, raising the federal funds interest rate to 0.75 percent. It was the first increase since an identical rate boost at this time last year, which was the first increase in almost a decade.

Yaacov Kopeliovich, assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Finance, discusses what the increase means for the economy and consumers. Kopeliovich recently left a career in industry to join UConn. Now he instructs students on such current issues as the microstructure of specific markets and the contemporary way that financial institutions manage their financial assets and set their targets.

Towards Sovereign Equity

Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2016)

Stephen Park, Tim R. Samples

Sovereigns are unique market participants in the global financial system, and sovereign debt markets largely operate in a legal and regulatory void. This Article adds an important and timely perspective by examining the concept of equity in sovereign debt finance. Governments, unlike corporations, rely almost exclusively on debt to externally finance their investments and operations. GDP-linked securities, which provide interest payments indexed to the sovereign issuer’s rate of growth, are sovereign debt instruments with certain equity-like characteristics. This Article considers whether innovation towards sovereign equity can help mitigate problems associated with sovereign debt crises. To address this question, we analyze the use of GDP-linked securities in recent sovereign debt restructurings by Argentina, Greece, and Ukraine. Drawing on this analysis, we explore more broadly the legal implications of sovereign equity, and conclude that these applications offer opportunities to help manage sovereign finance in the absence of readily enforceable international financial regulation. Full article.

UConn Foundation Receives $40,000 Grant from Newman’s Own Foundation

December 13, 2016

UConn Alumni– The UConn Foundation has been awarded a $40,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman.

The funds will support the UConn School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a program offering cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management for post-9/11 veterans with disabilities resulting from their service to the country.

‘Beloved By All His Students’

Accounting professor Francis Ryan will be honored through a new scholarship that bears his name.
Accounting professor Francis Ryan will be honored through a new scholarship that bears his name.

Accounting Professor Francis Ryan Would Be Pleased with New Scholarship in His Honor

A beloved accounting professor who never regretted trading in the bustle of New York City for the tranquility of Storrs, will be honored through a new scholarship that bears his name.

Francis E. Ryan joined the faculty at the School of Business in 1949, founding and leading the accounting department for more than 20 years. His former students recalled that he taught them not only accounting, but also about hard work, dedication and honesty. Continue Reading

Contracting for Innovation and Innovating Contracts

December 12, 2016

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (2016)

Thomas D. Barton, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Helena Haapio

This special issue of the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation (JSCAN) is devoted to “contracting for innovation and innovating contracts.” From the inception of planning for the issue, the co-editors hoped to attract contributions from a full range of professionals engaged in contract theory and practice: research academics, contract managers, corporate executives, and legal counsel, plus what JSCAN Editor-in-Chief Tyrone Pitsis told us are called “pracademics:” those who straddle research and commercial environments, making concrete contributions through collaborative projects, experiments, interviews, software development, or theory-building. JSCAN is a natural publication outlet for such partnerships, since so many of the 40,000 worldwide members of the International Association of Contract and Commercial Management (JSCAN’s parent organization) are thought-leaders in every aspect of commercial contracting. Full article.

The Full-Day Interview: What to Expect

December 9, 2016

(Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Today is interview day. The time is 7:20 am and I’ve just arrived in the hotel lobby. The company’s representative will meet me there at 7:30 am.

As I wait, nervously fidgeting with my leather portfolio, I notice other professionally dressed people also waiting. Could there be more than one MBA candidate attending the interview?Continue Reading