Scholarly Recognition

November 30, 2015

Two OPIM Ph.D. Candidates, One Alumna Achieve Noteworthy Accomplishments

Two UConn OPIM Ph.D. students and a recent program alumna have achieved noteworthy accomplishments in recent weeks.

Alumna Lei (Michelle) Wang ’14 Ph.D., assistant professor at Penn State University, received the 2015 Nunamaker-Chen Dissertation Award at the Conference on Information Systems and Technology–INFORMS Conference 2015 for her research titled, “Three Essays on the Interface of Location-Based Services, Consumers’ Shopping Behavior and Firms’ Marketing Strategy.” The award recognizes and rewards outstanding dissertation research by scholars in the field of information systems.Continue Reading

Research Seminar with Robin Soster, University of Arkansas

November 20, 2015

Recently, the Marketing Department invited Professor Robin Soster from the University of Arkansas to speak about her research. Professor Soster presented a paper titled, “How cost reclassification can reduce rumination on loss and eliminate the sunk cost effect in preliminary choice settings” on Friday, November 13. This research examines the effect of cost reclassification (i.e., reframing sunk costs as instrumental toward a newly-available alternative) on the propensity of Continue Reading

Pink Tax Forces Women to Pay More for Products

WFSB Channel 3 TV- Women are shelling out thousands of dollars more on products that are marketed to women, over the same things that are geared toward men.

Women may want to start looking in the men’s section if they want to save some extra money.

Experts estimate women pay $1,400 more each year on products that are marketed toward them, and over $100,000 in a lifetime.

It is called the ‘Pink Tax.’

Challenging but Worthwhile Role Play Event

November 19, 2015

I attended the Professional Sales Leadership (PSL) Role Play Networking event with Mary Caravella’s Professional Selling course and Bill Ryan’s Sales Leadership course in late October. Employers, faculty, and students from both the Professional Selling and Sales Leadership courses attended this event in order to enhance students’ communication skills. Continue Reading

Four Internships, Three Research Jobs, and Two Majors

Katie Cavanaugh
Katie Cavanaugh (Christine Buckley/UConn CLAS)

Scholarship Allows Student to Stretch Academically

Katie Cavanaugh ’17 only just started her junior year, but she has already done four internships and held three research positions. Oh, and she’s double majoring in political science and management information systems.

Cavanaugh has never held back academically. She is grateful for the scholarships she has gotten from UConn because they have allowed her to stretch.

“What the scholarships say to me is ‘we want you to focus 100 percent on yourself as a student and, really, as a professional,'” she says.

Continue Reading

The $5 Challenge

November 18, 2015

Aspiring Entrepreneurs Use Money to Make Money

In his “Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship” course, management professor Timothy Folta gave student groups $5 and told them to use it as start-up cash for a new business. The project was designed to spur creativity around new business ideas.

Students had one week to brainstorm ideas, but once they received the cash, they had only two hours to make as much money as possible.

Interestingly, the group that made the most money did not even use the start-up funds.Continue Reading

Thanksgiving Food Drive Sets Record

2015 Thanksgiving Food Drive (Olivia Rossetti/UConn School of Business)
2015 Thanksgiving Food Drive (Olivia Rossetti/UConn School of Business)

Jars of peanut butter, boxes of crackers and rice, cans of soup and fruit and more filled a third-floor meeting room last week as the UConn School of Business’ Thanksgiving food drive brought in a record 1,400 donations for the Mansfield Food Bank.Continue Reading

Attention to Detail

November 17, 2015

Medical Sales

UConn Professor Asks: Would Reducing Pharmaceutical Sales Calls to Physicians Help, or Harm, Patients?

When a pharmaceutical company sends a representative to your doctor’s office to promote a new or existing medication, is that a benefit to you as a patient? Would restricting those visits bring greater fairness to the pharmaceutical industry—or prevent your doctor from being well-informed about treatment options?Continue Reading

Meriden Veteran Goes from Military Service to Entrepreneurship

November 16, 2015

Record-Journal- When Gulaid and Davina Ismail’s second child Issaq was born three years ago, the child suffered from acid reflux so badly he threw up often. The couple was going through plenty of infant clothes.

“We were constantly changing clothes and throwing them out when they get stained,” Davina said. “So we asked ourselves ‘why don’t we start making clothes ourselves?'”

Gulaid Ismail, a U.S. Marine who served seven months in Fallujah, Iraq, was able to get some assistance from Veterans Administration programs and the couple soon started Dribblebabies, a baby and toddler web-based store for parents five years after his honorable discharge.