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
Faculty
Message from the Dean (Summer 2013)
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 3 (Summer 2013)
What 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.
John A. Elliott
Dean
Marketing Professor, CIBER Director Receives AMA Global Marketing Award
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
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.
Finance Department Professor Awarded GARP Grant
Assistant Professor Chanatip Kitwiwattanachai, Finance Department, UConn School of Business, has received funding from the 2013 GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals) Risk Management Research Program for the project, “Learning Network Structure of Financial Institutions from CDS Data.” Grants are given under the condition that the paper contains new and original work. The project is one of six selected out of 56 proposals for an award of $15,000.
Projects were selected for funding in 2013 by a research committee of risk management practitioners, academicians, and researchers chaired by Professor René Stulz of The Ohio State University. According to GARP, the research committee seeks to provide funding for:
- projects offering unique approaches and insights into problems of significance to risk management professionals;
- projects of particular relevance to current global financial risk management issues and needs; and
- projects with significant potential for bridging the gap between theory and practice.
Kitwiwattanachai’s project attempts to use techniques from artificial intelligence to extract network structure from credit derivatives such as CDS (credit default swaps). The project will shed light on how banks are connected in the system which will have implications on policy making such as the “too-interconnected-to-fail” problem.
Marketing Department Professors Awarded MSI Research Grants
Professors Hongju Liu, Nicholas Lurie and Joseph Pancras, Marketing Department, UConn School of Business, have received research awards from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) competition, “Mobile Platforms, Location-Based Services, and their Impact on Customers.” MSI received 35 proposals and funded only six, including two featuring UConn faculty. Please join us in congratulating the following scholars who have earned this honor:
- Nicholas H. Lurie, Sam Ransbotham, and Hongju Liu: “Going Mobile: The Characteristics and Influence of Mobile Word of Mouth” received an $11,800 award.
- Joseph Pancras, Rajukumar Venkatesan, and Bin Li: “Returns from Customizing Mobile Loyalty Programs: Spatial and Temporal Aspects” received a $13,000 award.
The competition was sponsored by MSI to stimulate research that contributes new insights to marketing practice. According to MSI, “There is widespread expectation that while mobile devices currently absorb a small part of marketing spending, they have game-changing implications for marketing in the future. This research competition [was] intended to provoke exploration of these implications.”
Pictured left to right: Hongju Liu, Nicholas Lurie and Joseph Pancras
Rajendra S. Shirolé Appointed New Director for the UConn Full-time MBA Program
After a global search we are pleased to announce that Rajendra Shirolé will be joining UConn on July 1, 2013 as the Director of the Full-time MBA Program. Rajendra has most recently been Director of the Kent MBA Program at the Kent Business School in Canterbury, UK.
In his Kent MBA Director role, which he has held since 2008, Rajendra has instituted innovative opportunities in cross-cultural research, teaching and learning, including ‘live’ case studies and engagement in corporate consulting for MBA students. He designed a policy and practice focused study program supported by EU based policy makers and global corporations including HSBC, Delphi, Cummins and Schlumberger. He passionately believes that MBA program content should facilitate learning in a creative environment focused on a global perspective, grounded in practical application, embedded with an approach to management decision making which incorporates issues such as managing resource scarcity and sustainability.
Rajendra’s career has spanned academia and industry in multiple disciplines, including management, software development, infrastructure design and international service delivery. His research interests are in IT outsourcing and he is currently working on a research project entitled, “The emerging role of hinterland networks in IT outsourcing service delivery – a vendor perspective.” Recently he has completed a highly commended project for the Kent County Council exploring the effective use of mobile technologies in remote working. As a consultant he has worked with global organizations in facilitating partner relationships and post-merger integration support. He has also directed substantial infrastructure projects in Eastern Europe, financed by the European Union. He has also been a visiting professor in corporate strategy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Rajendra is looking forward to leading the UConn MBA Program and working with colleagues to engage students to be dynamic, creative problem solvers and supporting them to find efficient ways of turning complex challenges into robust opportunities for sustainable competitive advantage. His experience and perspective will be a substantial asset to us as we evaluate and move forward on changes to our MBA Program.
Message from the Dean (Spring 2013)
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2013)
The UConn School of Business is continuing to grow and improve. The changes are pervasive. In this issue of UConn Business we feature only a sample of the many wonderful and exciting things taking place within the School.
Our Ph.D. program just celebrated its 25th year and our EMBA program just celebrated 20 years. The Ph.D. program is experiencing high graduation rates and students are earning employment at very reputable institutions. Our EMBA program was recently reviewed by a distinguished task force and input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and employers has justified new initiatives to make a strong program even better. Our MS in Accounting program was recently ranked 8th nationally among online graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report.
New programs are filling important needs as students join our new MS in Financial Risk Management and our new MS in Business Analytics and Project Management. Both programs have attracted strong students who face myriad career opportunities in these important growth areas. Both programs are distinctive and innovative and have grown from promising ideas to thriving programs in just a few short years.
In November we hosted our first annual Risk Management conference in Stamford where more than 165 risk management and regulation professionals, faculty members, and graduate students gathered to discuss new challenges and opportunities in this ever evolving field. Our campus in downtown Hartford, under new leadership, is on the cusp of significant program expansion in the coming months.
As we move forward the one constant will be ongoing change. We are launching a new BS in Financial Management linked to security analysis and the CFA exam in Stamford this fall. Additional undergraduate initiatives are underway in global business and digital media. A task force is presently reviewing the entire undergraduate program for the first time in decades and will examine not only the curriculum but co-curricular and extracurricular aspects of student life as well. Another task force is conducting a similar review of the full-time MBA program. This focus on innovation and continuous improvement is ultimately what drives and supports our success.
At a time when many public institutions are reducing their faculty we are in the enviable position of being able to hire. We are attracting strong candidates across all areas at both the novice and more senior levels. I am delighted that so many talented teachers and scholars are choosing to join us.
While the freshman applicants have not all chosen their ultimate destination, the news to date is very good. In the School of Business, our offers of admission to highly qualified candidates are running about 16% above last year at this time. Hang on, it promises to be an exciting year.
John A. Elliott
Dean
UConn Faculty Explore Sustainability Initiatives through CIBER “Green Business: Australia” Program
The University of Connecticut Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) hosted the inaugural “Green Business: Australia” Faculty Development in International Business (FDIB) program January 7-19, 2013.
Objectives of this development program focused on how Australian businesses are incorporating sustainable development strategies for environmental, social, and economic benefit.Continue Reading
Katherine Pancak named among Inman News’ Top 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders
Inman News, a national real estate news service, has named Katherine Pancak, professor in residence of finance and real estate at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, among its 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders for 2013. The ‘Top 100’ list “recognizes those who embody leadership, ingenuity, strength, conviction, power, persistence, perseverance and progress—their voices and actions can move the industry toward change.”
Professor Pancak conducts research on real estate brokerage, real estate agency, and consumer protection and public policy. Her research on real estate law topics has been published in the Journal of Real Estate Research, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Real Estate Law Journal, and the Boston College Environmental Law Review. Pancak has also developed pre-licensing and continuing education course materials for real estate licensees.
Other influential real estate leaders named among the Inman 100 include the Vice President and Chief Economist of Fannie Mae, the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, the Chief Economist of Zillow and the newly appointed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
» Read more about Dr. Katherine Pancak
» Read the full Inman 100 report, “100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders”