Recently in Faculty Category

Research ideas are sparked in unlikely places, which is why our faculty always have their antennae sharply tuned.

For instance, Frank Selto, an accounting professor at the Leeds School of Business, was traveling in Costa Rica when he met a number of American and European managers who were there to put out fires caused by global outsourcing relationships. This spurred his recent research on the factors that make or break global outsourcing partnerships. Global outsourcing is when an international business contracts another company to provide a service, like human resources or accounting. While it's increasingly popular, its success depends on many factors.



Frank found that corporate culture actually trumps national culture as a predictor for success in these relationships.  While language and tradition are certainly important, it's more important that two companies have compatible goals, visions, and plans for innovation. Thanks to an enterprising attitude during vacation, Frank pinpointed a problem that affected many growing firms. His results? Lessons for navigating a globally integrated economy.
 
Meg Campbell, a marketing professor at the Leeds School, also shows how digging deeper into common observations can yield fascinating research. She recently published an article in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that explores how our society stereotypes materialism. Not only do we judge people who act materialistic, we also dislike them.



This kind of thinking keeps our faculty producing timely, value-added research that impacts the future of business.

Leeds School of Business was ranked 19th for sustainability in BusinessWeek's 2010 Undergraduate Specialty Rankings. And while infusing a greener way of thinking into higher education is growing in popularity across college campuses, the Leeds School has been committed for more than 20 years to the importance of teaching sustainable business practices through our coursework, centers, faculty research, conferences and community involvement.

As an active citizen of what the Sierra Club recognizes as the greenest university campus in the United States, we train future business leaders to emphasize sustainability in all its forms -- economic, environmental, and social.

Our LEED-certified Koelbel Building is located at the heart of the New Energy Economy in Colorado, an exciting renaissance which will impact the business world far beyond the Rocky Mountains. The Leeds School provides a home base to our students as they pursue sustainable business opportunities, social enterprises and startup companies here in the innovative Boulder area and around the globe.

For example, our MBA candidates have interned at the National Research Energy Laboratory, the only federal laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Our students consistently place in national and international competitions in the cleantech sector and real estate. Through student organizations like the Outdoor Industry Club and CU Energy Club, Leeds School students are connecting with like-minded peers interested in eco-friendly business ventures.

As for alumni, we easily devoted recent issues of the alumni magazine Portfolio here and here to the contributions that our alumni and students have made in renewable energy technology, green construction, organic and natural foods, among other sustainability-related industries. For instance, distinguished alumnus and advisory board member Joe Pettus has led initiatives in green energy, carbon footprint reduction, and LEED-certified retail locations for the grocery chain Safeway.

Sustainability is a thread running through our Centers of Excellence. Faculty member Stephen Lawrence, academic director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship's program "Entrepreneurs Pioneering a Sustainable World," is a leading voice on how sustainability is now in the best interests of business success through a triple bottom line-- people, planet, profits-- and that these factors are far from mutually exclusive.

Our Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR) develops and delivers sustainability content across the Leeds School curriculum through its focus on social responsibility to consumers, shareholders and local communities.

Our Real Estate Center offers courses on sustainable real estate development and land use, which was galvanized by the recent hiring of Stephanie Gripne, a scholar with an extensive background research and industry experience in conservation real estate, as the new director of the Initiative for Sustainable Development.

Sustainability is at the center of our integrated curriculum, faculty research, student engagement, and alumni ventures. This culture of sustainability, with the Leeds School as a significant contributor, is shaping the next generation of business leaders with the understanding and values needed to achieve a cleaner planet and a more equitable economy.

Lots of important research that takes place in academia never reaches the public. At the Leeds School, our faculty are attacking critical problems facing business leaders, policymakers and everyday people. And our mission is to disseminate this research to the world, answering today's biggest problems with rigorously tested solutions.  

Recently, we've published video interviews with researchers investigating topical issues like pollution control, overpriced gasoline and maximizing your retirement fund. For example, accounting professor Naomi Soderstrom recently studied how to measure the value of permits used in pollution trading, one federal policy posed to curb carbon emissions. In this interview below she discusses the market value of permits and how managers can reduce carbon cost-effectively.



Energy prices are another defining issue of our time.  Finance Professor Chris Leach asks why retailers are overcharging consumers for mid-octane gasoline after uncovering an arbitrage profit margin that shouldn't exist in a competitive market.  His insights can help drivers save money and protect the market from potential collusion.



Leach also puts himself in investors' shoes to determine whether or not converting your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to ROTH IRAs is a good idea, depending on your tax liability, income volatility and many other factors. These are only a few examples of research from the Leeds School that targets relevant problems and touches the lives of our community.  

There have been several recent studies linking higher education to a higher quality of life for not only individual graduates, but their communities. In a recent New York Times blog post by Harvard economics professor Edward L. Glaeser, research showed that not only does a higher level of education help an individual's career prospects, but that a community of such people multiply the effect for the entire community, educated and not. So a higher degree becomes an engine that drives a community's overall economic resilience and growth. As Glaeser states, "teach your neighbors well" and reap benefits that far outweigh just one individual's success.

Here at the Leeds School, we know that we help drive the success of our community and state through a variety of programs and pathways:

• Our faculty engage in research and research-based teaching to address current relevant issues ranging from green business innovation to the economic meltdown and recovery.
• Our energetic graduates, both undergrad and MBA who contribute their passion and knowledge and dreams to all levels of Colorado and national businesses spanning roles from C-level executives to entrepreneurs to a variety of positions in management, marketing, accounting and finance.
• Our Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and CU Real Estate Center which bring the best of real-world experience and cutting edge academic research to our students and the business community. 
• Our newly named Center for Education on Social Responsibility which rounds out our "whole person" values to deliver critical thinkers who are grounded in business fundamentals as well as in ethics.

And as University of Colorado President Benson has stated repeatedly:

"Higher education is not only good for an individual, it's also a societal good. Colleges and universities, particularly research universities like CU, create jobs, start companies, provide an educated work force and have a significant economic impact on a state (some $7 billion annually in CU's case, including the University of Colorado Hospital)."

I encourage you to share your thoughts on the value of higher education. For in these tough financial times, higher education and the Leeds School are here to help point the Colorado economy in a positive direction

My Development colleagues and I had a busy and productive trip to New York City this past December. We met with alumni and donors, and our message resonated strongly with everyone.

Our message was twofold: 1) we must keep moving forward and can't afford to wait for the appointment of a permanent dean and 2) our fund-raising efforts in the near future will focus on faculty support (for chair positions, professorships and faculty development), and student support (for programs, services and scholarships). I have already outlined the need for scholarship support in my previous blog post, but now I want to underline and explain the value of growing our faculty support.
 
The reputation of an academic unit is due to its faculty and the success of its alumni.  Recruiting and retaining talent is difficult in professional schools (such as business) because, in addition to the competition within academic circles, faculty have attractive employment opportunities outside academia.  The endowment of chairs and professorships is the most effective mechanism by which business schools have been able to attract and retain outstanding faculty. Accomplished full professors (i.e., faculty members with the highest academic rank) are attracted to academic positions that include endowed chairs or professorships that recognize their scholarship and that provide the financial resources to pursue ambitious research and teaching agendas. Also, the availability of endowed chairs and professorships gives large incentives for junior faculty to commit to a long term academic career within the same school. Finally, endowed chairs and professors are more likely to attract additional external resources from industry and government agencies.

While schools comparable to Leeds often have 20 endowed chairs or professorships, we unfortunately have only 6 named professorships. This low number compared to the great opportunities that come from additional endowed chairs and professorships is why we are devoting significant effort to securing additional funds for faculty support.