Faculty


John A. Elliott Named Dean of UConn’s School of Business

John A. Elliott has been named the new dean of the University of Connecticut’s School of Business. Elliott has been the Vice President and Dean of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College since 2002, where he also holds the Irwin and Arlene Ettinger Chair in Accountancy.  Baruch is home to the largest business school in the United States with 80% of its 18,300 undergraduate and graduate students majoring in business.

“John is a highly successful sitting dean who has had a distinguished scholarly career and clearly understands academic and educational excellence at the highest levels,” said UConn President Susan Herbst. “His experience and background at these prestigious institutions are exactly what we look for in our senior leadership.”

Elliott brings with him substantial experience as a faculty member and administrator. Prior to his arrival at Baruch College, he served as a professor of accounting at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business beginning in 1982 and later served as Associate Dean of the school from 1996 to 2002. While at Cornell, he chaired the Johnson School’s Global Task Force as well as task forces on strategy and marketing and also directed its doctoral program.

He has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and, before earning his doctorate, held faculty appointments at Central Washington State College, Saint Lawrence University and the University of Maryland.  He also worked in the private sector at Arthur Andersen and Westinghouse.

“We are delighted that someone of John’s caliber will be leading UConn’s School of Business,” said UConn Provost Peter Nicholls. “His charge is to ensure that the upward trend of the school continues nationally and, as importantly, globally, through strategic growth and achievement. Our School of Business, its faculty and our students must be on the cutting edge of this ever-evolving field.”

“The UConn Business School’s trajectory is compelling and the future offers many opportunities,” said Elliott. “I am delighted to join a vigorous, ambitious group of faculty, staff, students and alumni as we embrace that future. President Herbst and Governor Malloy have put education in the forefront of the economic development of Connecticut and the Business School will play a key role in realizing that vision.”

Elliott has authored numerous publications in his field as well as serving at the editorial boards of several distinguished journals including The Journal of Financial Statement Analysis (1995 – 1999), The Accounting Review (1984 – 1987, 1989 – 1995), Accounting Horizons (1994 – 1995) and The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (1983 – 1985).

He earned his B.S. in Economics from the University of Maryland in 1967, an MBA from Maryland in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Accounting from Cornell University in 1982.

He will begin at UConn in August.  His salary will be $390,000. His immediate family includes: his wife, Laura Philips; son, Jesse Elliott; daughter, Dawn Elliott; her husband Marc Guerissi and grandsons Jack and Nick.


Dr. Kramer Receives Award by the CT Chapter of American College of Health Care Administrators

Dr. Kramer Awarded Chapter Award by the CT Chapter of American College of Health Care Administrators

Dr. Jeffrey Kramer, Director of Programs in Healthcare and Insurance Studies, was honored by the Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators at their Annual Holiday Luncheon held on Friday, December 2, 2011.  Professor Kramer received a Chapter Award for his many years of service in promoting the profession of long-term care administration, and especially for mentoring the numerous individuals who currently serve as Administrators in Connecticut’s nursing homes.

Professor Kramer received his BA, MBA, and Ph.D all from UConn.  He specializes in the study of managed care and long term-term health care organizations. He also has served as a key investigator for utilization review programs, a study evaluating the performance of managed care organizations, and a study examining the effects of deregulation of private pay rates in long-term health care facilities.

Photo: Dr. Jeffrey Kramer


Paper Received Best IS Publication of the Year Award 2010

A paper co-written by faculty members of the University of Connecticut School of Business Department of Operations and Information Management has been nominated as the best ACM TMIS paper of 2010 and is also one out of five recipients of the Best IS Publications of the Year Awards 2010.  The paper, titled “Why Give Away Something for Nothing? Investigating Virtual Goods Pricing and Permission Strategies,” was co-written in December 2010 by Dr. Sulin Ba, Professor; Dr. Dan Ke; Dr. Jan Stallaert, Associate Professor; and Zhongju Zhang, Associate Professor.

The Best Publications Awards were established to recognize the breadth of high quality work that is being published in the Information Systems discipline. This award was designed to bring outstanding papers across a range of journals to the attention of the IS community, and to give due credit to the journals in which they are published. Each year journal editors nominate the best paper published in their journal in the preceding year. A committee composed of Senior Scholars reviews the nominations from journal editors and selects five papers as the recipients of this prestigious award.

“Why Give Away Something for Nothing? Investigating Virtual Goods Pricing and Permission Strategies” is about the world of virtual goods.  The question of how a creator sets prices for a virtual good, as to maximize their profit, is discussed.  The major difference with virtual goods is that many times consumers will want to use multiple copies of the same good, which results in an increase in the consumer’s utility.  The focus of the research is on the copy permission of virtual goods.  An economic model is developed and examined under different conditions, to find which setting is best for the copy permission that leads to the highest profit, as well as how subsequent pricing strategies are affected.  Both theoretical and practical implications of researched are discussed within the paper.


2011 ACFE Educator of the Year Award Recipient

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (AFCE) is proud to recognize Dr. Richard Hurley with the 2011 ACFE Educator of the Year Award for his outstanding contributions in fraud examination and curriculum development.

Dr. Hurley developed and teaches an MBA course in “Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination” at the University of Connecticut at Stamford. He is currently developing a course in “Accounting and Securities Fraud.” He authored the “FraudEDge” column from 2008–2010 and is currently the co-author of the “Global Fraud Focus” column.


A Special Message from Dean Earley

Dear UConn Community,

A number of you may have heard that I was interviewed for the Dean’s position at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University this spring. After the conclusion of their search process, I was informed that they wished to offer me this wonderful opportunity. It is with this background that I wish to let you know that after long and careful consideration, as well as extensive discussions with the President and Provost, I’ve decided to accept their offer and I will be leaving the UConn School of Business. At the request of the Provost, and to ensure we can complete several ongoing efforts, I will stay in my role until December 1, 2011 so that we can ensure a smooth transition as the search for a new Dean is undertaken.

During the coming weeks, we will be implementing a transition team appointed by the Provost in conjunction to our ongoing Associate Deans and senior staff so you shouldn’t experience any hiccups or bumps. I also believe that the President and Provost will be very proactive in moving forward a search for a new Dean and I hope you’ll provide them with all of your support.

In the nearly four years I’ve served as the Dean, I’ve been given a number of wonderful opportunities to meet with a tremendous faculty, staff, students and alumni. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a number of people engage at a level that they had not done so previously and to see our staff step up to numerous challenges during the economy’s worst downturn since the early 20th century. Many of you have stepped up selflessly and taken on new duties and challenges that have enabled us to experience important successes as a school. In just these few years, and after a tremendous effort on everyone’s part, we’ve introduced two new MS programs, a revolutionary redesign of our MBA, a living-learning community for our undergraduate program, a new BSBA for the regional campuses, developed over a dozen new international partnerships and will sponsor the first business school U21 international conference, integrated experiential learning throughout the learning experience for our students and pioneered an experiential accelerator for social innovation including our membership in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities national consortium as well as Special Olympics International, just to name a few highlights. These initiatives are attributable to our faculty, students and staff as well as external supporters.

I’ve also been blessed with an opportunity to work with a cadre of fellow Deans at the university who are second to no one at any institution. The Provost has provided critical support and guidance to us at the school and, while my acquaintance has been brief, I believe that UConn is very fortunate indeed in the arrival of its new President. Under her leadership I believe that UConn will continue it’s quick ascension in the academic ranks and to provide continuing leadership for the State of Connecticut.

UConn is truly a world-class university and there are many aspects of the job that I will miss dearly. I have felt welcomed by many different people throughout the UConn community and I’ve very much appreciated this support, in particular, given the extensive changes that have taken place at the school. I believe very much that UConn is headed on a very strong upward trajectory and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to contribute towards this mission.

Thank you for providing me with this unique and rewarding experience and it’s been my honor to get to work with such a talented group of people.

Chris Earley


Three Management Professors and a Ph.D. Student Receive a Scholarly Impact Award for their research

The Journal of Management (JOM) reviews all articles published in JOM five years prior and awards the top five highest impact papers . All JOM papers published in 2006 were considered for the 2011 Scholarly Impact Awards. A committee of four Associate Editors considered each paper according to the following criteria:

  • Number of citations (both with and without self-citations)
  • The breadth and quality of the papers/journals citing each paper
  • Total downloads
  • Perceived quality and potential for continued impact

The committee explored who cited each paper–whether the papers are being cited by top journals, as well as whether the papers are having wide penetration. Then the committee considered the strength of each paper and its potential for continued contribution.

The University of Connecticut School of Business is honored to have a paper written by three of its professors and a Ph.D. graduate recognized by the JOM. The paper, titled “Ambidexterity and performance in small- to medium-sized firms: The pivotal role of top management team behavioral integration” was written by: Michael Lubatkin, Thomas John & Bette Wolff Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship and Professor, Management Department; Zeki Simsek, Associate Professor and Ackerman Scholar, Management Department; Yan Ling, UConn Ph.D. graduate; John Veiga, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Northeast Utilities Chair in Business Ethics, Management Department.

Sage, SMA, and JOM will be recognizing this achievement at their annual board meeting at the Academy of Management conference. At this event, a Best Paper Prize will be awarded. The Best Paper Prize comes with a cash honorarium.


School of Business Faculty Receive Fulbright Awards

Nora Madjar-Nanovska, Assistant Professor, Management Department; Han Srinivasan, Associate Professor and Fulbright Senior Specialist, Marketing Department; and Tim Dowding, Professor In-Residence Operations and Information Management Department, received Fulbright Awards this year.  Nora received a full research award that she will be pursuing this fall and Profs. Srinivasan and Dowding have been selected for Fulbright Specialist Awards for intensive visits abroad. Having three Fulbright Awards for the business school in the same year is a great sign of our recognition of being a globally-focused school.



Prof. Hussein Elected to University Senate

The University Senate has announced that Mohamed Hussein, Professor and Department Head, Accounting, UConn School of Business, has been elected to the University Senate for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2014. The University Senate is a legislative body responsible for establishing minimum rules and general regulations pertaining to all undergraduate schools and colleges. The Senate also is responsible for establishing general educational policy in areas not reserved to the Board of Trustees, to the administration, or to the several faculties.


Faculty Awards 2011

The Teaching and Research Committee at the University of Connecticut School of Business has met and evaluated the nominations for annual Faculty Awards.   The following winners were selected:

Best Paper:  (3-way tie)

Xue Bai and Manuel Nunez: “Managing Data Quality Risk in Accounting Information Systems” 
(with Jayant Kalagnanam), Information Systems Research

Xinxin Li: “Price Effects in Online Product Reviews: An Analytical Model and Empirical Analysis”   
(with Lorin M. Hitt), MIS Quarterly

David Souder and Zeki Simsek: “The Differing Effects of Agent and Founder CEOs on the Firm’s Market Expansion” (with Scott G. Johnson), Strategic Management Journal

Research Excellence:  John Zhang

Undergraduate Teaching:  Dave Papandria

Graduate Teaching:  Amy Dunbar

Teaching Innovation:  Andy Rosman (with Roger Travis, Modern and Classical Languages)

Service Award:  Tim Dowding