Faculty

Message from the Dean (Spring 2014)

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This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2014)

No one would blink an eye if one of our students embarked on a cross-country road trip. But what happens when that ‘road warrior’ is the dean?

During the last year I’ve had the pleasure of traveling across the country to meet many of our bright, successful and very gracious School of Business alumni. From Seattle to Atlanta, all have been exceptionally warm and welcoming.

I’ve noticed that our alumni, whether recent grads or members of a class from the 1930s, have three things in common:

Almost all mentioned a faculty member—sometimes several—who had made a valuable and long-lasting impact on his or her life. That tells me that our professors are more than just great teachers, but that they are caring, involved and respected mentors as well.

Many former students were in awe of how much the School of Business has grown, and how competitive, visible, and prestigious the University of Connecticut has become. They said they feel tremendous pride in their alma mater’s ability to attract high-achieving students.

Pictured: John A. Elliott with Allan Weiss (Founder/CEO Weiss Residential Research LLC) and David Francione '96 MBA at the Real Estate Alumni Networking Reception in Boston, MA.
John A. Elliott with Allan Weiss (Founder/CEO Weiss Residential Research LLC) and David Francione ’96 MBA at the Real Estate Alumni Networking Reception in Boston, MA.

Whether in Chicago, Boston, Houston or New York, I was struck by the pride our alumni exhibited for their university, and their unwavering True Blue Husky spirit.

Many have offered to help our current students as they seek impressive internships, that all-important first job, or a transfer to a new industry. At the School of Business, we hope to continue engaging and expanding our network of successful alumni as they create, shape, and lead businesses, not only in Connecticut, but across the country and throughout the world.

Our spring issue of UConn Business highlights a tremendous program that I certainly wish were in place when I was an undergraduate. The Business Connections Learning Community (BCLC) welcomes freshmen business students to a portion of a dormitory dedicated exclusively to them.

From their inaugural day on campus, our BCLC students are treated like future business executives—with unique opportunities to learn, network and travel. The first students to participate in the BCLC program will graduate this spring.

Four prominent executives—all from vastly different industries—kept the audience enthralled during a “CEO Evolution” roundtable hosted at our Stamford campus in January. Corporate leaders and students alike were able to enjoy the wisdom, advice and honest reflection of some of Connecticut’s sharpest business leaders.

Inspired by what she learned about sustainability during a UConn-organized trip to Australia, Professor Katherine Pancak developed a one-credit Sustainable Real Estate course back home. The “Green Business: Australia” program is hosted by the UConn Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and is open to our faculty, as well as professors from other colleges.

In closing, I want to wish our newest alumni, the Class of 2014, tremendous success and fulfillment as they begin their new journey in life. May your careers be rewarding, your aspirations limitless, and your UConn education a source of confidence, pride and preparation. Keep us apprised of your new endeavors as you enjoy the very best of what life has to offer.

John Elliot Signature

John A. Elliott
Dean

Bill Ross and Co-authors Receive Prestigious Lehmann Award

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Bill Ross, ING Global Professor, and his colleagues, Sanjay Puligadda (Miami University) and Rajdeep Grewal (Penn State University) were awarded the coveted Lehmann Award for their article, “Individual Differences in Brand Schematicity,” Journal of Marketing Research (February 2012). The Lehmann Award (in honor of Donald R. Lehmann, Columbia University) is given annually to the best dissertation-based paper (within the past 2 years) in either of the two premier marketing journals, Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research. The article was Puligadda’s dissertation, which he completed at Penn State with Ross and Grewal as his advisers.

If you had decided to buy a camera, would you focus on which brands the store carried? Or, would you focus on the characteristics of the different cameras the store had in stock?

This paper suggests that if you are high in brand schematicity, you would be more likely to attend to the different brands the store carried, whereas if you were low in brand schematicity you would be more likely to attend to the characteristics of the cameras the store carried.

A schema is a set of expectations a person has about what will happen in a certain situation. Most folks, for example, have a schema for what they will experience in a fast food restaurant. Schematicity is the tendency on the part of consumers to process information using specific schema. People who are high in brand schematicity are likely to process products in terms of brands, not product characteristics, whereas people who are low in brand schematicity are likely to process products in terms of product characteristics not brands.

Don’t confuse brand schematicity with brand loyalty. Someone who is high in brand schematicity does not necessarily have a preference for a certain brand; instead, they have a preference to organize their thinking by brands.

In this article, Ross, Puligadda, and Grewal built a theoretical basis for brand schematicity and report on three studies that develop measures of brand schematicity; three studies that consider brand schematicity in the context of associated constructs and establish its predictive validity; and a final study that reveals that a consumer’s brand schematicity influences brand extension evaluations.

OPIM Research Productivity Ranked Among the Best Worldwide

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UConn’s Operations & Information Management Department was recently ranked among the best business schools internationally—and #1 in the Northeast—for information systems research productivity over the last five years.

“These rankings are a clear indicator that we have one of the top research faculty groups in the country and around the world,” said Ram Gopal, professor and department head of OPIM. “Some of the most cutting-edge research in areas such as intellectual property rights, healthcare IT, auction markets, and advanced analytics is going on right here at UConn.”Continue Reading

Professor Jain, Recipient of 2013 AMA Global Marketing Award, Retires

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Professor JainProfessor Subhash C. Jain received the 2013 Significant Contributions to Global Marketing Award, honored by the Global Marketing Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Marketing Association for his preeminent contributions advancement of global marketing and thought. The award ceremony occurred during the American Marketing Association 2013 Summer Educators’ Conference in Boston.

Professor Jain joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1976,after completing graduate work at the University of Oregon, Stanford University, and the University of Rajasthan, India. He has served, with distinction, as Professor of Marketing and Department Head of the Marketing Department. Since 1995, Dr. Jain was Director of the UConn CIBER(except in 1999),and also served as Director of the GE Capital Global Learning Center, School of Business. His teaching, consulting, and research activities included marketing strategy and multinational marketing. Dr. Jain is the author of more than 100 publications, including articles in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Economic Abstracts, Long Range Planning, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Columbia Journal of World Business. He is the author of several books, including Marketing Planning and Strategy, 9th edition (South-Western), International Marketing Management, 7th edition (South-Western), Export Strategy (Quorum Books), and Market Evolution in Developing Countries (Haworth Press).

Dr. Jain has served on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and a number of other international journals. He is an active member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of International Business. In addition to the American Marketing Association’s Global Marketing Special Interest Group’s 2013 Significant Contributions to Global Marketing Award, he has been honored by the Swiss Management Association for his life-long achievements. Dr. Jain has presented seminars in the United States and abroad, and has frequently served as a consultant to foreign government agencies on their trade problems, as well as to organizations such as Xerox Corporation, General Electric, GATT (now WTO), and United Technologies Corporation.

Dr. Jain has been active in the community as a Treasurer of the Mansfield Democratic Party, and has served on the Boards of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut and Windham Hospital. In 2005, he was appointed as a member of the Connecticut District Export Council by the Secretary of Commerce. In 2006, Dr. Jain was honored by Governor Jodi Rell as a worthy immigrant to the U.S. and a fine representative of the State of Connecticut.

Professor Frank Franzak, Secretary of the Global Marketing SIG, Virginia Commonwealth University; Robin Coulter, Department Head; Subhash Jain, Former Director of CIBER.

School of Business Welcomes 11 New Faculty Members

Posted on by Claire Hall

The University of Connecticut has embarked on an ambitious hiring initiative to expand its faculty and senior academic leadership across disciplines, investing in 500 tenure-track faculty positions over the next four years.

As a result of this initiative, the School of Business is delighted to welcome 11 new faculty members in the 2013-2014 academic year. These new faculty bring a diverse array of expertise and research interests to the school and our students, with specialty areas in accounting, finance, management, marketing, and operations and information management.

Sulin Ba Named Associate Dean of Academic and Research Support

Posted on by Claire Hall

The UConn School of Business is pleased to announce that Professor Sulin Ba has accepted the new position of associate dean of academic and research support in the Dean’s Office of the School of Business, effective September 6, 2013. Ba joined the UConn faculty in 2002 as an associate professor in the Department of Operations and Information Management (OPIM) after beginning her career at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC). She was promoted to full professor in 2011.

Professor Ba holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She has a distinguished research record and works on health IT, various issues around online behavior, and on internal market mechanisms. Several of her papers have been recognized by best paper awards including Best IS Publication of the Year (2010) and MIS Quarterly Best Paper of the Year (2000). She was recently awarded the School of Business Research Excellence Award for her nationally and internationally recognized scholarship and long term impact on UConn research. She is the co-principal investigator (co-PI) on two National Natural Science Foundation of China research grants.

Ba has extensive international experience including associations with Fudan University, Universitat Mannheim, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and City University of Hong Kong. She has been active with the Connecticut Information Technology Institute (CITI) and Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the School of Business and has been involved in experiential learning for the last eight years. Recently, Ba led a team of Management Information Systems (MIS) students in developing a Microsoft SQL Server based Enforcement and Examination Tracking System for the Consumer Credit Division of the Connecticut Department of Banking. Her corporate engagements have included many Connecticut companies, nonprofits, and government organizations.

Business Law Faculty Takes Center Stage at Annual Conference

Posted on by Claire Hall

The Business Law Faculty in the School of Business participated in the 88th annual Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) conference, held in Boston, Massachusetts on August 6-10, 2013. The conference featured presentations, workshops, and panels, and hundreds of legal scholars from around the world gathered to discuss a variety of legal and pedagogical topics. Continue Reading

Message from the Dean (Summer 2013)

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This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3 (Summer 2013)

Dean ElliotWhat a year it has been, and what an exciting year is approaching. In this issue of the UConn Business magazine we celebrate a number of recent events and initiatives, but the big news is certainly Next Generation Connecticut, the transforming decision by the State of Connecticut to invest $1.5 billion in UConn over the next ten years. Key features of this investment are the need to foster economic growth and the desire to ensure that students have access to education that will prepare them for key career opportunities, while also developing them as people, as citizens. These features are at the core of who we are and what we do.

As you will read in this issue, we offer an innovative Master of Science in Business Analytics and Project Management, which prepares its graduates for great careers in a rapidly growing industry. You can hardly open a newspaper today without seeing examples of data analytics at work: whether it is about pushing advertisements to you as you shop online; or analyzing the human genome and drug efficacy; or searching for cyber-terrorists. While not all of our programs are in the news daily, our various programs excel at preparing our students for excellent career opportunities.

Also in this issue you will read about our very successful and over-subscribed Geno Auriemma Leadership Conference held at Mohegan Sun this spring. It brought executives together from across Connecticut and beyond to examine leadership practices, with particular attention to leading a diverse, cross-generational work force. This is one of many examples of active engagement with the business community in mutually beneficial ways. The article in this issue on the Northeast Utilities project is an example of such a partnership. Over several semesters our students worked under the guidance of a faculty member to help NU develop a solution for their need to have more diverse suppliers prepared to bid on projects and deliver services and products to NU. We are pleased not only by the resulting program to train venders, but also by the significant learning opportunity that our students enjoyed as they encountered real world problems and worked with faculty and NU executives to define and solve the problem.

The Next Generation initiative has other significant features that will transform UConn and the School of Business. We will be doubling the size of the student body at the Stamford campus, and many of those students will be business students. We will also add residential facilities and thereby transform the student experience. UConn is moving its West Hartford campus into downtown Hartford, and we will be able to co-locate our undergraduate and graduate business programs to that location. This will be very good for our programs and equally good for the city of Hartford. A more vibrant downtown is in everyone’s interest. Finally, we will be adding some 5,000 new students to the Storrs population and many will want to pursue business.

So this year will be exciting as we begin to implement these initiatives. We will be hiring exceptional new faculty to support our growth. We will be welcoming outstanding students. As these groups come together, I look forward to sharing their stories with our alumni and friends. Thanks, as always for your interest and support.

elliott_john_signature

John A. Elliott

Dean

Marketing Professor, CIBER Director Receives AMA Global Marketing Award

Posted on by Claire Hall

Professor Subhash Jain, Marketing Department, has been selected by the Board of the American Marketing Association Global Marketing Special Interest Group (GlobalSIG) to receive the AMA Global Marketing SIG’s 2013 Significant Contributions to Global Marketing Award. This eminent award recognizes a marketing educator for a lifetime of significant contributions to the field. The key criterion is the achievement of a record that has influenced the advancement of global marketing and thought.

Jain, director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at UConn School of Business, was commended for his research, teaching, and service contributions that have helped disseminate global marketing knowledge across the globe. The award was presented by Secretary of the Global Marketing SIG, Professor Frank Franzak of Virginia Commonwealth University, at the Global Marketing SIG Member Reception. The reception was held on Saturday, August 10, 2013 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of the American Marketing Association 2013 Educators’ Conference.

Pictured: Professor Frank Franzak, Virginia Commonwealth University, Marketing Department Head Robin Coulter, UConn, and Professor Subhash Jain, UConn.

Accounting Professor Receives National Educator Award

Posted on by Claire Hall

Richard Hurley ’94 Ph.D., professor of accounting at the UConn School of Business, received the prestigious National Educator Award from the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) on July 17. The award, which “was formally established to recognize an individual who has made significant contributions to educating and training government financial managers for more than two decades,” was presented to Professor Hurley at the Association’s Annual Professional Development Conference (PDC) training event in Dallas, Texas.

From the Association of Government Accountants (AGA):

“Dr. Hurley received this award in recognition of his vast contributions to the education and training of accountability professionals and students in advancing financial management. His presentations, courses and writings cover a wide range of accountability topics and his expertise as a practitioner and university professor is quite evident. He consistently receives excellent evaluations of his work and is well-respected in the field of government financial management. Dr. Hurley is a member of the AGA New York Capital Chapter.

Dr. Hurley has been a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York for 30 years and has also been a licensed Attorney in the State of New York for over 35 years and is licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Tax Court.

He has written the fraud edge column for Fraud Magazine, which is a column devoted to fraud education for the benefit of academics and practitioners, and he currently co-authors a column entitled Global Fraud Focus.

He is also a member of the New York Society of CPA’s and is a member of the Forensic Litigation Services Committee of the State Society and a member of the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing Committee.

Dr. Hurley has written and presented in the field of accounting and security fraud and auditing issues related to fraud detection and prevention. Dr. Hurley teaches MBA courses in Financial Accounting and Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, Forensic Accounting & Fraud Examination for UConn in Stamford, Connecticut where he has been a professor for 14 years.”

Professor Hurley will be giving several presentations this upcoming fall, speaking to three AGA chapters: Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Lincoln, Nebraska. He will also be speaking at the annual investigator’s conference for MetLife and John Hancock this coming October.