People and Places: March 2, 2021

Honors and Awards

At its February Winter Academic Conference, the American Marketing Association announced the selection of six new AMA Fellows. They include Christian Homburg of the University of Mannheim and University of Manchester; Deborah MacInnis of the University of Southern California; J.B. Steenkamp, also of the University of Southern California; David W. Stewart of Loyola Marymount University; Beth Walker of Colorado State University; and Jerome Williams of Rutgers University–Newark. AMA Fellows are members in good standing who have made significant contributions to the research, theory, and practice of marketing, and/or to the service and activities of the AMA over a prolonged period of time. Other scholars were also honored at the event. Madhu Viswanathan of Loyola Marymount University won the William L. Wilkie Marketing for a Better World Award, while Hema Yoganarasimhan of the University of Washington took home the Erin Anderson Award for an Emerging Female Marketing Scholar and Mentor.

New Programs

In fall 2021, the first cohort will begin a new master of management in marketing analytics at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management in Raleigh. The degree program will be delivered fully online to better suit the needs of working professionals. It will be taught by the same faculty who teach marketing and analytics courses in the school’s MBA program.

In February, NEOMA Business School in France launched a coding school where students can self-train in the fundamentals of web coding so that they will be at ease working in digital environments. The course includes a database of tutorials and web resources; thematic conferences; and coaching from professors, professionals, and students. Modules will cover topics such as Python, HTML, CSS, PHP, JQuery, Ajax, and MySQL. Students will learn how to create websites, applications, and calculation tools. Those who participate in the school’s startup incubators also will be able to create digital models of their projects.

Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics in Washington has announced a new master of science degree in accounting and analytics (MSAA). Five of the MSAA’s 15 courses will be in analytics, and eight will be STEM-related. The new STEM-designated program is designed to prepare students to work in an accounting industry that increasingly requires workers to have skills in analytics, visualization, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other technologies.–

Collaborations

The Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC), part of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Germany, has co-founded the DLT Education Consortium (DEC) and the DEC Institute to promote education and transparency in applications of distributed ledger technology, which makes blockchain applications possible. In addition to the FSBC, the consortium includes three other institutions: the Lucerne School of Information Technology in Switzerland, the University College London, and the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad in India. Based in Switzerland’s “Crypto Valley” in Zug, the DEC will design a standardized curriculum for professionals who use and apply blockchain. The co-founding institutions plan to expand the DEC’s membership, as well as create certification standards for employers, job seekers, and universities. The DEC Institute will foster engagement among stakeholders in blockchain technology, including educators, research and development centers, and academic institutions.

University of the People (UoPeople), a nonprofit, tuition-free online university, has announced an agreement with Effat University in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, a private institution of higher learning for women. Under the agreement, female undergraduates at UoPeople will be able to transfer to Effat University to complete their bachelor’s degree programs in business administration, computer science, or psychology. Male and female bachelor’s degree holders from both schools will be able to pursue an MBA, a master’s in finance, or a master’s in education at either institution.

Imperial College Business School in the United Kingdom has partnered with the Bright Network to create a scholarship available to students in all 13 master’s programs at the school. The Bright Network is a dedicated network for connecting students and graduates with opportunities and advice to succeed in the workforce of tomorrow. The Bright Network scholarship will be available to multiple applicants and be worth up to 10,000 GBP (approximately 14,000 USD) per student.

Grants and Donations

Morgan State University in Baltimore has received a 20 million USD commitment from alumnus Calvin E. Tyler Jr. and his wife, Tina. The gift, which will be added to an endowed scholarship fund previously established in the Tylers’ name, is the largest private donation from an alumnus in the university’s history. In 2016, the Tylers made a 5 million USD commitment to the university to bolster the Tyler Endowed Scholarship Fund that had been established in 2002 to provide full tuition scholarships for need-based students from Baltimore. The endowed scholarship is now national in scope. Scholarships are of special interest to Calvin Tyler, who studied business administration at the school, because he had to interrupt his own studies and work as a UPS driver due to financial need. He later worked his way up in the company’s ranks to become senior vice president of operations.

New Research

How can policy makers increase vaccine adoption? That question is addressed in two research studies released last month by the Behavior Change for Good Initiative (BCFG) at the Wharton School and the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The two schools worked in collaboration with the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit (PMNU), Walmart, and two regional health systems (Penn Medicine and Geisinger). The research revealed that when healthcare providers reminded individuals that a flu shot was “waiting” or “reserved” for them, vaccination rates rose by up to 11 percent. Similar methods could be adapted to encourage individuals to get their COVID-19 vaccinations, according to Katy Milkman, Wharton professor, BCFG co-director, and lead author on both studies.

Improving entrepreneurship education is the subject of a new white paper released by The Common Mission Project, an international platform for mission-driven entrepreneurs. “Build Back Better: Entrepreneurship Education and the Lean LaunchPad Methodology in a Post COVID-19 Economy” looks at how the role of the university is changing, how COVID-19 has changed the investing climate, and how entrepreneurship educators can be drivers of long-term economic health.

The pandemic underscored the importance of supporting people’s mental health—but how did providers of mental health services weather the crisis? Samia Chreim, a professor of organizational behavior, has received a grant to explore that question. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant is funded by Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa, a nonprofit that offers free peer support services to people with mental health or addiction issues and their families. Chreim and her doctoral student Elmira Mirbahaeddin—both from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management in Ontario, Canada—will study the experiences and strategies of peer support service providers, service users, and peer support managers who switched to communicating virtually during the pandemic.

Other News

FLEXA, a “digital mentor” created as a collaboration between MIP Politecnico di Milano in Italy and tech giant Microsoft, is now accessible to anyone free of charge. The personalized training platform uses artificial intelligence to suggest customized training for each user. The digital mentoring process begins with an assessment phase that evaluates participants’ skills gaps, then points them to training that will help them achieve their goals. Participants have access to about 800,000 pieces of material, including self-paced digital courses, webinars, podcasts, articles, and case studies.

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