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News Briefs
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Professor
Dilip Madan Wins Prestigious Von Humboldt
Award
 This
week
the Smith School of Business announced that
Dilip Madan, professor of finance,
has been selected to receive a 2006
Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in
mathematics. Humboldt awards are considered
among the highest honors given to
internationally recognized scholars. Forty
past recipients have received the Nobel
Prize in their fields, including five of the
2005 Nobel Laureates. Madan will receive his
award from the President of the Humboldt
Foundation this July in Berlin, Germany. He
will also attend a reception given by the
President of the Federal Republic of
Germany. The award carries a cash prize of
50,000 Euro, or about US$60,000 at current
exchange rates.
The Humboldt award recognizes Madan’s
impressive body of work in the field of
mathematical finance. His research focuses
on improving the quality of pricing models,
enhancing the performance of investment
strategies, and advancing the understanding
and operation of efficient risk allocation
in modern economies.
Auto Dealerships Using
Customer Management Systems Perform 15
Percent Better Than Competitors, According
to Smith School Research
Auto dealerships using customer management
systems are performing 15 percent better
than competitors, according to new research
from the Smith School of Business. The
finding is part of initial results from a
comprehensive third-party research study
conducted by the Smith School. The research
is based on a survey issued by researchers
in the Department of Decision and
Information Technologies and distributed
through Autobytel Inc. to customer
dealerships, including those that use
Autobytel’s Web Control® system and
Retention Performance Marketing (RPM®)
program. The research, which is among the
first of its kind from a major academic
research institution, also shows 91 percent
of survey respondents reported customer
management systems have created value in the
vehicle sales process.
►Read More
Symposium
in Honor of Saul Gass' 80th Birthday on Feb
25
This Saturday, Feb. 25, the Smith School
will host a symposium in honor of Saul Gass'
80th Birthday: "Operations Research in the
21st Century." Saul Gass is the Dean’s
Lifetime Achievement Professor in the Smith
Business School, past president of the
Operations Research Society of America,
recipient of ORSA’s Kimball Medal, INFORMS’s
Expository Writing Award and the Military
Operations Research Society’s Jacinto
Steinhardt Award, a Fellow of INFORMS, and
author of the texts Linear Programming
(fifth edition), An Illustrated Guide to
Linear Programming and Decision Making,
Models and Algorithms.
The symposium is free and
open to the public. Please e-mail
rzuba@rhsmith.umd.edu if you plan to
attend.
►Read
More (List of Distinguished Speakers)
Celebrating Smith’s
Multi-cultural Community
 The
China Business Association hosted a
Lantern Festival for the Smith community
on February 21, 2006. The Lantern
Festival or Yuanxiao Jie is a
traditional
Chinese
festival, which falls
on the 15th
of the first month
of the
Chinese New Year.
In his welcome speech, Dean Howard Frank
shared his insights on China from his
frequent trips there. “For most
companies, there is no question of
whether or not to enter China,” said
Frank. “This is what makes events like
this where students are exposed to
Chinese culture so important.” Remarking
on the two Smith EMBA programs in
Beijing and Shanghai, the dean declared
that Smith is determined to develop the
best MBA programs in China.
 The
event, which was attended by a large
cross-section of full-time MBAs, was
marked by music and an array of Chinese
traditional dishes. The dishes included
small dumpling balls made of glutinous
rice flour, a festival staple.
The highlight of the event was the “Deal
or No Deal” game. The game which is a
test of deal-making skills received
enthusiastic participation from the
party-goers. The rules of the game are
simple: The player chooses a briefcase.
Then as each round progresses, the
player must either stay with his or her
original briefcase choice or make a
"deal" with the bank to accept its cash
offer in exchange for whatever dollar
amount is in case.
Romeo Zhao the president of the China
Business Association declared the
evening a success: “I was really happy
that many of our classmates joined us
and that they enjoyed themselves.”
Experience the
Excitement of the Week of Asia 2006,
March 7-9
Have an “up close and
personal” view of Asian heritage and
culture the easy way without leaving
home – during Week of Asia 2006! The
Week of Asia, Asian MBA Association’s
signature event,
aims to raise the profile of Asian
cultures in the Smith School and to
encourage greater interaction among
students hailing from different parts of
the world is back for the third time and
promises to be even bigger than the
previous two events.
Smith students and faculty will have a
great chance to listen to keynote
speakers on Asia-related topics, watch
Asian movies, learn greetings in local
Asian languages, purchase exotic crafts,
and, of course, sample a delectable
spread of Asian cuisine. Unique to this
year’s Week of Asia will be an Asian
Fashion Show. Packed with so many
exciting events, the upcoming Week of
Asia 2006 is definitely not to be
missed!
Week of Asia Program Details:
• Tuesday 3/7: Seminar Day
• Wednesday 3/8: Cultural Day
• Thursday 3/9: Asian Night
Full details of the event will be found
in upcoming e-mails and flyers.
Part-time MBA
Case Competition Underway!
Thirty-nine teams of four-to-five part-time
MBA students are participating in this
year's 2006 Part-time MBA Case Competition.
The Grand Prize is $1,000 for each team
member. The 16 teams in the semi-finals will
present on Friday, February 24. Four panels
of alumni and faculty judges will decide
which four teams will advance to the finals.
Don’t miss the Final Four Competition on
Friday, March 3 at 6:00 p.m. in Van Munching
Hall.
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Smith School in the News
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Washington Times – February 17, 2006 –
Logo clothing feels the thrill of victory,
too, when an Olympic medalist scores in
their togs. Roland Rust, holder of
the David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing,
comments on the value in outfitting Olympic
athletes in branded sportswear.
►Read More
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Chronicle of Higher Education – February
17, 2006 – A story about foreign
institutions operating in China includes
extensive mention of the Smith School’s
Executive MBA programs in Beijing and
Shanghai as well as quotes from Walter
Hutchens, assistant professor, on the
educational and business environment.
►Read More
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The (Baltimore) Sun – February 16, 2006
– Asher Epstein, managing director of
the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship,
offers expert quotes in a story about search
engine Google’s stock price plunge.
►Read More
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The Globe and Mail – February 16, 2006 –
A story about resources to help consumers
compare auto information highlights
compelling new research from the Smith
School’s department of decision and
information technologies.
►Read More
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USA Today – February 15, 2005 –
Roland Rust, holder of the David Bruce
Smith Chair in Marketing, comments that
there’s a great deal at stake in the Winter
Olympics in a columnist’s article pointing
out that the Winter Games have “gone
Hollywood.”
►Read More
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IT World – February 14, 2006 – A book
that gives senior IT executives an economic
approach to allocating security funds,
“Managing Cybersecurity Resources: A
Cost-Benefit Analysis,” by professors
Lawrence A. Gordon and Martin P. Loeb,
is favorably reviewed as providing a
“framework for building compelling business
cases that will warm the cockles of the
CFO's heart.”
►Read More
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CNN/Lou Dobbs Report – February 10, 2006
– Peter Morici, business professor,
is interviewed on national television about
the U.S. trade deficit and economy.
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Nightly Business Report (PBS) – February
9, 2006 – Research by Roland Rust,
director of the Center for Excellence in
Service, and Rebecca Hamilton,
assistant professor, on “feature fatigue” is
featured in national television commentary
about research of note from this month’s
Harvard Business Review.
►Read More
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Harvard
Business Review – February 2006 – Research
on “feature fatigue” from Roland Rust,
holder of the Bruce David Smith Chair of
Marketing and the director of the Center for
Excellence in Service, Rebecca Hamilton,
assistant professor, and Debora Viana
Thompson, PhD student, is featured based
on a series of studies that were conducted
in the marketing department’s Center for
Excellence in Service.
►Read More
►
Fortune
China – January 2006 – Howard Frank, dean
was featured in a page-and-a-half profile
and Q&A in China’s Fortune Magazine. During
the interview Frank discusses trends among
top business schools including the need for
a focus on technology. Frank also stresses
quality being a key factor for success and
highlighted his vision for Smith to expand
internationally and compete on a global
scale.
►Read More from
Smith School in the News
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Faculty Up Front
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 Debra
L. Shapiro, PhD, a renowned scholar in
organizational behavior, has been appointed
Clarice Smith Professor of Management and
Organization. Her research generally
focuses on the various ways to effectively
manage conflict or disputes in
organizations, including perceptions of
organizational injustice, misunderstandings
and frustrations that are inevitable in
internationally-diverse and crossfunctional
teams, and resistance to organizational
change in general or the transition to
self-managing workteams in particular.
Shapiro has served on the
editorial board of the Academy of
Management Review (1998-2002), the
International Journal of Conflict Management
(1988-2005); and currently, is an associate
editor of the Academy of Management
Journal and editorial board member of
Journal of Management, Journal of
Organizational Behavior, and Journal
of International Business Studies. She
has published over 60 journal articles and
book chapters on the topics of managing
conflict, negotiations, and cross-cultural
challenges associated with
conflict-management issues. Her work appears
in many of the premier scholarly journals
including Administrative Science
Quarterly, the Academy of Management
Journal, the Academy of Management
Review, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, the Journal of
Applied Psychology, and Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, among
others. She is also senior editor of
Managing Multinational Teams: Global
Perspectives (Elsevier/JAI Press, 2005).
Shapiro received her
master’s and PhD degrees in organization
behavior from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at Northwestern
University.
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Smith Business
Close-Up on MPT
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Thursday,
March 2, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 3, 6:00 a.m.
Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m.
How is political
advertising influencing the way businesses
market consumer products?
 Political
advertising has changed the way many
businesses market their products. What do
consumers think of "bashing" the competition
and what types of products will be most
impacted by this relatively new practice?
In next week's edition of
Smith Business Close-Up, Mark
Walsh, a recognized media expert and a
Senior Fellow at the Smith School will
discuss what business leaders need to know
in order to prepare for this new type of
marketing strategy.
Smith Business Close-Up
can be seen bi-weekly on Maryland Public
Television's Business Connection. Watch Mark
Walsh Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m.,
Friday, March 3 at 6:00 a.m. and Sunday,
March 5 at 11:30 a.m. on public television
stations throughout Maryland and the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan region,
including:
- WMPB-TV (Ch. 67), Baltimore
- WMPT-TV (Ch. 22), DC
metro/Annapolis
- WCPB-TV (Ch. 28), Salisbury
- WFPT-TV (Ch. 62), Frederick
- WWPB-TV (Ch. 31), Hagerstown
- WGPT-TV (Ch. 36), Oakland
Have an idea for
Smith Business Close-Up? Contact Kathy Marmon at
kmarmon@rhsmith.umd.edu
(or at ext. 59568) to
discuss appearing in an
upcoming edition of Smith
Business Close-Up and to
make suggestions for a
future segment.
►Watch previous
episodes online.
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Spotlight
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Smith Hosts
Annual Diversity Roundtable
 Sensitivity
to others is more important than ever in a
globally networked economy where every day
you may work with people whose culture and
backgrounds differ from your own. Jack
Jetmund, the vice chair of Booz Allen
Hamilton’s GLOBE (a forum for gay, lesbian
and bisexual employees), found that out for
himself when he wore a pink shirt to a
client meeting, only to be greeted with a
disparaging remark about his sexual
orientation.
This was just
one of the many issues discussed during the
Annual Diversity Roundtable hosted by the
Black MBA Association, the undergraduate
Black Business Association, the Smith Pride
Alliance, and the Smith Association of Women
MBAs last Thursday, February 16th. More than
40 students, faculty and staff came together
to have honest discussions about how they
value all manner of diversity -- age,
culture, education, gender, national origin,
physical appearance, religion, sexual
orientation, and physical abilities – both
in their workplaces and lives.
Among the many
attendees was Julie Inlow, a second-year MBA
student, who had participated in a program
focused on helping young people with
disabilities enter the workforce, prior to
embarking on her MBA program. Without much
knowledge about "hidden disabilities" such
as learning disabilities until she became
involved with the program, Inlow felt that
the diversity roundtable was an excellent
platform for her to raise unique issues with
respect to disabilities in the workplace,
including discrimination, Web accessibility
and relevant federal legislation.
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Bulletin Board
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VMH Plasma Announcements
Notice
Do you have a message you would like
displayed on the plasma screens in Van
Munching Hall? Please make note to send your
announcement requests to
Anitha Sharma at
asharma@rhsmith.umd.edu starting February
27. We need at least one day advanced
notice to put an announcement into rotation
on the plasmas; more if you are requesting
graphic design elements.
Photos from our first major
snow storm of the year!
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March 3
SAWMBA Women's Leadership Conference
March 3
Part-Time MBA Case Competition Finals,
VMH
March 16
Frederick Alumni Networking Event
featuring Larry Gordon & Marty Loeb
April 5
Dingman Center 20th Anniversary Event,
VMH
April 8
UM Alumni Association Awards Gala,
College Park
April 11
CFO Alumni Networking Event, VMH
April 13
Minority Awards Banquet
April 18
Northern Virginia Alumni Networking
Event
April 27
Wikler Finance Case Competition
April 29
Maryland Day
May 4
Smith Undergraduate Awards Banquet
May 6
Alumni Mentor Program & Awards Picnic
May 22
Smith School Commencement
►Holiday
Calendar
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Smith School
History
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1942 J.
Freeman Pyle is appointed dean. Pyle substantially
broadens the school's focus to include coursework in
public administration, and the school is renamed the
College of Business and Public Administration (BPA)
►Interactive
Smith School Timeline |
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Smith Newslink MBA
is a production of the Office of Marketing Communications in
cooperation with the Masters Programs Office.
Smith Media
Group
Editor
Priscilla Mwangi
MBA Candidate 2006
Webmaster
Mark Mulvanny
MBA Candidate 2007
Kenneth Ng
MBA Candidate 2006
Sachin Agarwal
MBA Candidate 2007
Aric Morrison
MBA Candidate 2006
Other Contributors:
Office of Marketing Communications
Office of Smith IT
Send comments or submissions to:
newslink@rhsmith.umd.edu
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