The Colt Bankruptcy

June 16, 2015

Demise of a Connecticut Icon

UConn Today – Gun manufacturer Colt Defense LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a process that will allow for an accelerated sale of Colt’s business operations in the U.S. and Canada. The Hartford, Conn.-based manufacturer, which created the iconic revolver whose bullets were loaded into a revolving cylinder that became known as “the gun that won the West,” has been a major producer of firearms since the early 1800s. How did Colt get to this point and what does the future hold? UConn Today asked economic historian Fred Carstensen, a professor of finance and economics in the School of Business, and director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.

Educator of Excellence

UConn at the Eddys

CPA Society Presents University of Connecticut Adjunct Faculty Member Leanne Adams with ‘Educator of Excellence’ Award

The Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants (CTCPA) recently presented University of Connecticut adjunct faculty member Leanne Adams, CPA of Storrs with an “Educator of Excellence” award in the Adjunct Professor category at the organization’s third annual Educator Appreciation Night. The event was held at Cascade in Hamden with John Turgeon, CPA of CohnReznick LLP serving as master of ceremonies.Continue Reading

Diabetes App Wins First Place

phone

Two graduate students who designed an app to predict future trends in diabetes within the United States were the winners of the MSBAPM & Alteryx Data Challenge earlier this year.

In addition to the $1,000 grand prize for their work, graduate students Hao Zhu and Yingqi Yang were special guests at the company’s annual conference and gala, Inspire 2015, which was held May 17-20 in Boston. They were able to share their work with experts in the field.Continue Reading

Meg Warren Named UConn MBA Director

Meg Warren, of South Windsor, has been appointed director of the Full-time MBA Program at UConn’s School of Business.

Warren has been an integral part of the success of the program, which is now ranked among the Top 25 public MBA programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The typical graduate of the program begins work with a base salary of more than $101,000. The program, which has approximately 100 students from Connecticut and across the world, is located in downtown Hartford at 100 Constitution Plaza.Continue Reading

On the Brink: Predicting Business Failure with Mobile Location-based Checkins.

June 15, 2015

Decision Support Systems, 2015.

Joseph Pancras (Marketing). Co-authors: Ram Gopal (OPIM), Ramesh Shankar (OPIM), Lei Wang (Penn State University)

Consumers are increasingly using mobile services for engaging with firms in the offline world both directly through purchases and loyalty points redemptions, and indirectly through mobile gamification portals related to the retail outlet. One major such portal is Foursquare, the location-based service provider, which has been gaining popularity in the last few years. Continue Reading

‘Coaching to Overcome Fear’

Assaiante

Paul Assaiante, the Trinity College men’s squash coach, spoke to 150 business leaders about ‘coaching to overcome fear’ at a luncheon May 7 at The Hartford Club in Hartford. The event was sponsored by the financial planning firm of Bradley, Foster & Sargent Inc. in association with Trinity College and the UConn School of Business. Assaiante led the men’s squash team to its 19th consecutive championship this year. The team holds the longest winning streak of any college team in any sport in history under Coach Assaiante’s leadership.

Ackerman Faculty Scholars Announced

Five faculty members from the School of Business have been named Ackerman Scholars for academic years 2015-2017. They are: John Phillips of Accounting, Rex Santerre of Finance, Greg Reilly of Management, Girish Punj of Marketing and Bob Day of Operations and Information Management (OPIM).

Continuing from last year, for academic year 2015-2016, are: Qing Cao and Gary Powell of Management and Xue Bai, Jose Cruz and Suresh Nair of OPIM.

The Ackerman Scholar award recognizes significant and continuing all-round academic productivity among the faculty of the School, said Sulin Ba, associate dean of academic and research support. It is awarded to faculty who are not already supported by endowed chair, professorship, scholarship or fellowship appointments. The award is supported by the Ackerman Fund, the School of Business and the departments.

 

Managing Customer Acquisition Risk Using Co-operative Databases.

Journal of Interactive Marketing, Volume 29, February 2015, Pages 39-56.

Authors: Hongju Liu and Joseph Pancras (Marketing). Co-author: Malcolm Houtz (Alliant Inc)

Firms typically have detailed information only about their own customers. In order to gain a broader view of customers across firms, several firms may pool their data together and engage an intermediary called a co-operative database firm to manage and analyze the pooled data to provide better targeting solutions for the firms. In this paper Professors Liu and Pancras study these interesting intermediaries by developing a framework for firms to manage customer acquisition risk using co-operative databases.Continue Reading

Investigating the Impact of Customer Stochasticity on Firm Price Discrimination Strategies using a New Bayesian Mixture Scale Heterogeneity Model

June 12, 2015

Marketing Letters, 2015, 1-16.

Joseph Pancras (Marketing) and Dipak K. Dey (Statistics) Co-author: Xia Wang (University of Cincinnati)

Targeted marketing is increasingly popular among new media firms and accurate targeting requires well-calibrated statistical models which will identify customer preferences from their previous historical transactions so as to customize an offering to their needs. A typical example of such targeted marketing is customized pricing, where a price sensitive customer is given a coupon with a higher face value, while a less price sensitive or brand loyal customer may be given a lower face value or no coupon at all. Continue Reading

New MBA Case Study Tackles Trillion Dollar Changes in Mutual Fund Distribution Channels

June 11, 2015

cash flow

Mutual funds are a core element of retirement and investment plans, representing roughly $1 of every $5 held in the bank or financial accounts of US households. In April, MBA students in Professor Mary Caravella’s MBA Marketing classes analyzed how mutual fund products from the roughly 800 fund companies in the industry currently reach the roughly 57 million households who own them, and then debated how one market leader, Capital Group/American Funds, should address some potential profound market forces affecting their retail go-to-market strategy. Continue Reading