Price Newsletter - April 2023

Transitioning from the University of Oklahoma’s Peggy Dow Helmerich School of Drama to the Price College of Business came with plenty of challenges, but MBA and M.S. in Management Information Technology candidate Norma Lilia Ruiz Cruz has found joy in the path she didn’t expect to be on three years ago.
 

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Phil Grenier, a program management lead and senior program management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, knew an Executive MBA in Aerospace & Defense would present challenges as a full-time professional and raising a family. It's been all worth it, however, to see his career take off since completing the program.

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Price College and its programs continue to earn recognition. The college’s online M.S. in Finance  ranked No. 8 and the online Master of Accountancy ranked No. 23 in Online Master’s Degrees’ rankings in each discipline. The online M.S. in Finance also ranked No. 25 on University HQ’s list of Best Online Master’s Degree in Finance.  That list was topped by two Ivy Leagues and included private and public schools. OU was the only Oklahoma school and Big 12 school on the list. Finally, Price College ranked No. 35 in Best Accredited Colleges’ list of  Best Online Master’s Degree Programs in Business.

The MIS Division  garnered several accolades recently with Top 25 rankings in undergraduate and graduate programs and research productivity. The in-person graduate program ranked once again as a  Top 25 (No. 23) Business Analytics program in TFE Times’ 2023 national ranking. The program has maintained its top ranking for the past five years. The undergraduate MIS program moved up three spots to a No. 15 ranking in College Factual’s  Top Schools for MIS  in the nation. The MIS Division’s faculty research productivity ranked in the Top 25 (No. 23) in the nation and in the Top 30 (No. 30) globally in the A journals, according to a  recent ranking  by the Association of Information Systems, the discipline’s professional society. 

The Glen McLaughlin Prize for Research in Accounting and Ethics celebrated its 25th anniversary in March by honoring not just one winning paper but two. Glen McLaughlin believed accounting research should consider, when appropriate, the ethical implications of accounting and accounting numbers. This belief, along with the guidance of accounting professor Frances Ayres, led him to endow the McLaughlin Prize. Learn about the winners. 

A team of Price College students earned second place in March’s CUIBE International Strategy Case Competition. Gracie Silver, Taylor Smail, Jules Fisher and Alan Tran analyzed an international strategy business case focused on renewable energy, sustainability and ESG. This is the college’s highest placement since Price began competing in the event in 2012. Teams had 36 hours to analyze the case, plan a solution and give a professional presentation to the judging panel. Judges praised them for formulating a sound strategy, developing a realistic implementation plan, and presenting their analysis in a compelling way. Fisher received the award for the competition’s Best Individual Presenter. Ana Bolino, faculty advisor and case competition coach, commended the students for their presentation, poise and hard work. 

More about the win

For the second consecutive year, a University of Oklahoma team won the Oklahoma local competition of the CFA Institute Research Challenge. Team Crimson (OU Team 2) won the Feb. 25 competition, after placing first in the presentation phase and second in the written report. OU also placed third in the competition. 

OU supply chain students Jessica Halderman, Christian Lui, David Sandro and Graziella Pensabene reached the final round of the Rams Operation Stimulus Supply Chain Case Competition in March in Fort Collins, Colorado. This marked OU's inaugural participation in North America's longest-running supply chain and logistics student case competition, which is now in its 40th year. The students competed against 15 other university teams across the United States.

The Verge OKC launched in Bricktown in February. The space will serve as an entrepreneurial hub, including the Oklahoma Biotech Startup Programs led by Tom Love Innovation Hub. Price College alum and entrepreneur-in-residence Kristin Garcia will oversee the strategic development and operations of the facility.

MIS students, faculty and the business community learned from each other during February’s Center of MIS Studies Spring Retreat. The event, which was attended by MIS Division business partners and friends, showcased the strength of the center’s purpose, which is to function as a partnership between academia and business for the sharing of knowledge, skills and efforts to enhance student educational experiences and research collaborations. 

Read more on Price College’s Medium blog

More than 100 students thought through challenges and solutions related to remote work during this year’s Parker Leadership Conference, presented by the JCPenney Leadership Program March 3 on the Norman campus. The theme was “Finding Balance in Remote Work.” Mark Bolino presented his case study (co-authored with Dean Corey Phelps), "Should Some Employees Be Allowed to Work Remotely Even If Others Can’t?" Students discussed the study in breakout sessions with HR leaders from different industries. Brad Scoggin, a Price College alum and founder and CEO of ArborXR, a software startup with an enterprise SaaS platform for augmented and virtual reality, delivered the keynote address. Conference namesake Ken Parker provided opening remarks. The goal of the conference is for attendees to look at real-world business problems and come up with solutions from different perspectives. 

Wayne Thomas, senior associate dean for faculty and research innovation, is among five distinguished alumni who will be inducted into Oklahoma State University’s School of Accounting Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame on April 30. Thomas earned master's and doctorate degrees in accounting from OSU.

Breea Clark spoke about the challenges of being a leader in Oklahoma and the power of a network at Women’s Forum USA on March 29 in Washington, D.C. Clark, who is director of the JCPenney Leadership Program and was Norman’s mayor from 2019-2022, was one of four women leaders speaking with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. The event, jointly presented with Vital Voices Global Partnership, involved a gathering of 250 leaders to promote the work of women who are driving sustainable progress. The aim was to foster international cooperation, inclusive health systems, a gender-responsive climate action and a more just and equal world. 

Rachel Lane, executive director of Canopy Healthtech and OU Price College senior staff member, sat on a #SXSW panel in March to discuss the thriving tech and innovation scene in Oklahoma. A collaboration among the University of Oklahoma, OU Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa, Canopy Healthtech is designed to accelerate the commercialization of virtual health innovations from Oklahoma universities. The program aims to catalyze startup growth and improve health care outcomes.

Stephanie Newell joined the Price College marketing and communications team as program marketing manager. In this new position, she will oversee the development and execution of marketing and public relations campaigns related to recruiting prospective students for Price College’s undergraduate and graduate academic programs. 

Colleen Baker was quoted in the article “FSB urges authorities to firm up CCP ‘living wills’”in the Global Risk Regulator, a specialist service from Financial Times.

Aaron Burt’s co-authored paper,  “Time Series Variation in the Factor Zoo,” was named Best Overall Paper at the 2023 Finance Down Under Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Devin Williams’ co-authored article, “The ICFR process: Perspectives of accounting executives at large public companies,” was accepted by Contemporary Accounting Research.

Lowell Busenitz’s book "Soul Work: Finding God in your Entrepreneurial Pursuits" was recently published. Busenitz is an Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurship. 

Lubo Litov, associate professor of finance and law, and his co-author shared about their research and how it adds to many areas of scholarship in their Columbia Law School Blue Skies Blog post, “How a Supreme Court Anti-Bribery Decision Helped Create a Corporate Protection Racket” The blog post is based on their paper, “Corruption and Cash Policy: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” In addition, Litov’s paper on  “Poison Pills in the Shadow of the Law” was discussed in the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog and The FinReg Blog, which is sponsored by the Duke Financial Economics Center. He and his co-authors’ study shows that poison pill laws can have a positive impact on the value of firms.

Associate professor of management Sean Daly’s article about bringing fun into the workplace was published in Venue Professional magazine (page 12).

Tom Lumpkin, Professor emeritus of entrepreneurship, received the 2023 FERC Lifetime Influence and Impact Award. This award is presented by the Family Enterprise Research Conference and honors those whose body of work, leadership and contribution to the field of family business will leave a lasting legacy. Lumpkin will be recognized at the organization’s 2023 or 2024 conference. In the letter informing Lumpkin of the honor, the three professors who nominated him said he was “one of our most impactful influences. Meeting Tom was pivotal in our respective careers, and we know that none of what we describe above is unique to our experience with Tom.” 

Assistant professor of marketing Pankhuri Malhotra spoke about “Finding Brand Alliances Among Seemingly Unrelated Partners” on a February episode of “The Academic Minute,” presented by WAMC NPR. That same month, she presented her work on influencer marketing at the Artificial Intelligence & Business Analytics workshop presented by Temple University’s Fox School of Business. 

Assistant professor of marketing Pankhuri Malhotra and management professor Mark Bolino’s article about their research on the use of social media for identifying high-potential brand partners was published in the Harvard Business Review.

Michael Matthews—a Ph.D. student in management and international business—recently co-authored a paper on instrumental variables in the journal  Leadership Quarterly. One of his co-authors is Tyler Ransom, a tenured faculty in OU’s economics department.

Shawn McClean, assistant professor of management, was interviewed for an article about toxic bosses and how employees can respond to them. The article, which was published on author and independent journalist Robert Roy Britt’s Medium blog, linked to McClean’s research, which appeared in Personnel Psychology, about supervisors’ responses to their abusive behavior.

Marketing and supply chain management professor Krish Muralidhar’s paper, “Database Reconstruction Is Not So Easy and Is Different from Reidentification,” is listed on SSRN's Top 10 download list in nine categories and No. 1 in five of those, as of April 5. Rankings for Recent Top Papers cover the past 60 days, and his paper has 130 downloads in that period. 

Assistant professor of entrepreneurship Stella Seyb’s co-authored paper, “Empathy-driven entrepreneurial action: Well-being outcomes for entrepreneurs and target beneficiaries,” was accepted to the A-level  Journal of Business Venturing.

Jared Stanfield, associate professor of finance, and Aaron P. Burt, assistant professor of finance, were recognized with The Wharton School’s Wharton Research Data Services Outstanding Paper in Corporate Finance at the Eastern Finance Association’s annual meeting.

Their paper is titled “Does a VC’s commitment lead to improved investment outcomes? Evidence from climate startups.” Additional co-authors include Jarrad Harford (University of Washington) and Jason Zein (University of New South Whales). 

Assistant professor of finance Tong Wang had a sole-authored paper, “Bear Beta or Speculative Beta? – Reconciling the Evidence on Downside Risk Premium,” published in the latest issue of the A-level journal, Review of Finance.

Trevor Watkins, assistant professor of management, wrote an article for Psychology Today  about the consequences of unfair pay practices and large executive-to-worker pay ratios.

Professor of finance Pradeep Yadav had two A-level acceptances. His paper, “The Mistaken Reliance on Treasuries in Financial Regulation,” co-authored with Yesha Yadav, is forthcoming in the Southern California Law Review. His paper “Non-Standard Errors,” co-authored with Albert Menkveld and others is forthcoming in the Journal of Finance. The research for the former has been discussed in the Financial Times along with several podcasts – Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots, “Clauses and Controversies” and “Macro Musings with David Beckworth.” 

Professors Mark Bolino, Mike Buckley, Lowell Busenitz, Jayanth Jayaram, Tom Lumpkin, Bill Megginson, Wayne Thomas, Bob Zmud and the late Rajiv Dant and Louis Ederington were included in Research.com’s 2023 Edition of Best Scientists in the fields of Business and Management and Economics and Finance. The ranking is based on D-index (Discipline H-index) metric, which only includes papers and citation values for an examined discipline. The ranking includes only leading scientists with a D-index of at least 30 for academic publications made in the specified field.