Congratulations to Suraj Commuri and Jim Wall for being the winter 2003 recipients of the college's Research Support Fund (RSF) grants. Suraj received his grant for research on household consumption behavior. Jim's grant is to support research on determinants and effects of mediation techniques. The RSF Grant Program is designed to support out-of-pocket expenses for faculty research projects. Another request for proposals will occur in the fall 2003 semester.

The Excellence in Education Award recognizes MU educators who contribute to student learning and personal development through out-of-the-classroom experiences. A critical component of student learning and success is quality interaction by students with faculty and staff. This year, Barbara Downey was one of the nominees for this honor in recognition of her hard work for the students of the University of Missouri-Columbia and especially for the College of Business.

Chuck Franz conducted a one-hour pre-departure course during winter semester for 37 College of Business undergraduate students who will be studying in Bergamo, Italy this summer. This course was part of a new COB Summer Business Program in Italy initiative to further internationalize its undergraduate students and the curriculum. These students will study business courses at the University of Bergamo with Italian students from May 19 to June 13. Chuck Franz will teach project management and Chris Robert will teach organizational behavior, along with an Italian professor offering a third course in international marketing. The entire program will be conducted in English.

Allen Bluedorn has accepted an offer to serve as chair of the Department of Management effective September 1. Al was recommended by his departmental colleagues for this role with his appointment being approved by the dean and the provost. He will succeed Tom Dougherty as department chair. After four years as chair, Tom will return to full-time faculty status when Al becomes department chair.

John Stowe has accepted a position as vice president in the Curriculum and Examinations Department at the Association for Investment Management and Research in Charlottesville, Virginia, beginning June 1, 2003. With John’s departure, the College of Business loses one of its talented, experienced faculty members. Over the last 23 years, John has served the college in many ways, as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. He provided leadership for seven years as chair of the Department of Finance and, most recently, three years as associate dean for undergraduate programs.

Stephen Ferris received a Research Board grant for his project titled “Online Trading.” This funding program involves a system-wide competition.

One of the “most inspiring professors” is Joel Poor, according to MU student athletes. Joel was selected as one of 3 MU professors to receive this award. The Student-Athlete Advisory Council recognized student-athletes and a few of their instructors and advisors at a breakfast in April.

MBA Stipend Grants were awarded to:

• Mark Houston for substantive redesign of BA 346, Managerial Marketing.
• Antonie Stam for substantive redesign of Management 442, Management Information Systems.
• Jim Wall for substantive redesign of Management 440, Negotiations.

MBA Project Grants were awarded to:

• John Howe for graduate student assistance in Finance 463, Management of Financial Institutions, to integrate technology to the classroom and build a course web site.
• Dan Turban for fees associated with the application of standardized personality tests, such as the MBTI, for all students in Management 438, Organizational Behavior and Management.
• Jim Wall for costs associated with enhancing Management 440, Negotiations.

Student Recognition

National Association of Black Accountants member, Melissa Hamilton, received the “Distinguished Collegian” honor from NABA. She is one of 10 to receive this award from more than 3,000 NABA student members. Melissa’s honor includes a free trip to attend the National Convention in Boston in July.

Redefining Investment Strategy Education - 2003
Teams of MU students representing the Crosby MBA and undergraduate programs participated in two case competitions, the third annual Global Student Investment Strategy Symposium and Portfolio Competition in March and the L’Oreal e-Strat Challenge, a global simulation game run on the Internet in real time.

At the portfolio competition, the MU team placed second among blend style portfolios and 4th overall among all student-managed portfolios. Last year the Mizzou team placed 4th. Students competing were Magdalena Kalinowska (MBA), Damian Kalinowski (MBA), Vishal Sharma (MBA), Jared Baucom (Senior) and Andrew R. Norton (Senior). Cynthia McDonald, assistant professor of finance, served as the team advisor. The bear/bull trophy and the team’s competition materials are in the finance department office.

For the L’Oreal competition, the team was responsible for decisions on production capacity, R&D, finance, marketing, distribution channels, pricing, advertising, brand positioning and web strategies for existing products and new brands. In a competitive pool of 800 entries, the team of Crosby MBA students, Rajat Bhattacharya, Magdalena Kalinowski and Damien Kalinowski finished 9th in the USA and 61st in the world.

Jenice Prather-Kinsey served as mentor for Ronald E. McNair Intern and MU junior, Danielle Milton. Their study, “The Quality of Financial Reporting on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange,” was accepted for presentation at the AAA meeting in Hawaii during August.

David Dicks, College of Business senior, presented "Determinants of Bias in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts" in the MU Undergraduate Research Conference on April 22, 2003. John Stowe collaborated with David through the college's undergraduate research program. David is entering the PhD program in finance at Northwestern University in the fall.

Doctoral students Rob Palmatier and David Hunt and faculty member Mark Houston represented the Department of Marketing at the 33rd annual Albert Haring Symposium, hosted by Indiana University in April. Rob presented a project titled “The ROI of Relationship Marketing Programs” and David was invited as a discussant for another paper. This symposium brings together top doctoral students and faculty advisors for an event that features research presentations, discussion and debate, and practical career advice. Further, the students have the invaluable opportunity to network and forge ties with future employers and colleagues. The Haring Symposium traditionally has been open only to doctoral students from Big 10 universities, but in recent years the organizers have invited strong students from a few select doctoral programs outside the Big 10. This was the first year that MU has been selected for participation. Other non-Big 10 participants this year included such schools as Chicago, USC, and Pittsburgh. The Department of Marketing has a growing research reputation, and the marketing department faculty have been invited to join the rotation of programs that receive regular invitations to this prestigious event.

Staff Recognition

Lisa Eimers, development officer for the college, applied for and was awarded Staff Advisory Council monies to fully fund her attendance at the Institute for Charitable Giving in Washington, DC. This seminar will bring Lisa closer to her long-term goal of earning her CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) designation.

Ann Merrifield, assistant director of the Missouri Training Institute, has been re-elected to serve a second year as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals. Her second term began February, 2003. Founded in 1989, NAWDP is a national association for individual practitioners in workforce development programs. Its mission is to be the national voice for the profession and to meet the individual professional development needs of its membership.

Mary Meyer was selected as a finalist for the 2003 Mick Deaver Memorial Award. The award is a highly competitive, campus-wide award to recognize exceptional staff service, particularly with regard to students and alumni. Although Mary was not the eventual winner of this award, she did very well in being selected as one of the few finalists for this honor.

Phyllis Moore was a nominee for MU’s Excellence in Advising Award. The award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated the qualities associated with outstanding student advising. Though Phyllis did not win this award, her nomination is a testament to her commitment to advising excellence.

New Faces at the College of Business

Adam Fallert joined Technology Services on March 3 as the college’s webmaster. Adam has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from MU and comes to the college from the UM MOBIUS Consortium Office where he worked for the past two years on various web projects, including the design and development of the extensive MOBIUS Consortium website. Adam has been busy redesigning the college’s website and meeting with all units to incorporate their material into the new website.

Jeffrey Wiese joined the Undergraduate Programs Office in April. Jeff serves the College of Business as Coordinator of Student Services/Academic Advisor. Jeff had to jump right in because one of his main responsibilities is coordinating Summer Welcome. Jeff comes to Mizzou from Georgia Tech where he was a Residence Life Coordinator with the Freshman Experience. Jeff has a Masters degree in College Student Affairs from the University of Georgia and a Bachelors of Arts in Communication from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Lois Banning also joined the Undergraduate Programs Office in April as the receptionist. Students already have warmed up to Lois and nicknamed her the M&M Lady. Lois moved to Columbia two years ago from Austin, Texas. In Texas she was the Administrative Assistant to the Vice President/Provost of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.

Phi Beta Lambda

Members of the Mizzou Phi Beta Lambda chapter participated in their State Leadership Conference on March 28-29 in Jefferson City. The conference featured competitive events for individuals and teams, leadership training, and election of state officers. Sophomore Rachel Parker was elected Vice President and Junior Zac Maggi was elected Parliamentarian on Missouri’s State PBL Board.

PBL members placed in the Top 5 in 24 of the 44 contests including 13 1st place finishes. In Economics, Marketing and Management contests, PBL members finished both 1st and 2nd in the state. Out of the 17 students that participated, 16

are eligible to attend the National Conference, which will be held in Dallas, TX in June, and 8 students will attend.

The outstanding achievements of the PBL membership also include a 1st place award for the American Enterprise Project, which teaches business skills in local schools. Bryan Black received the highest honor in the state conference -- the Who’s Who in PBL award. Laura Knoll received a first place award for her presentation of the annual business report. This conference was highly successful for all of the participants involved as they applied their skills and gathered new ideas for the upcoming year.

AACSB Response

The best news may be that AACSB’s original request for another interim report from the college due March 1, 2004 has been cancelled. An interim report is now due in 2007.

Dean Walker expressed his gratitude for the excellent work of faculty, staff, and students that sustains the college’s accreditation.

Publications and Presentations

Mark Houston had two publications recently. First, “Barriers to Matching New Technologies and Market Opportunities In Established Firms,” (with Ed Bond, Bradley University) appeared in the March 2003 issue of Journal of Product Innovation Management. Second, a sole-authored paper, “Alliance Partner Reputation as a Signal to the Market: Evidence from Bank Loan Alliances,” was published in the March (winter) 2003 issue of Corporate Reputation Review.

Billie Cunningham, Loren Nikolai, and John Bazley (University of Denver) co-authored the second edition of their Accounting Information for Business Decisions textbook, which was published by South-Western Publishing Company in March 2003.

John Stowe published the second edition of Corporate Financial Management with Douglas Emery and John Finnerty in April. The publisher is Prentice Hall.

Loren Nikolai and John Bazley (University of Denver) co-authored the 9th edition of their Intermediate Accounting textbook, which was published by South-Western Publishing Company in January 2003.

Ken Shaw presented two papers on the relation between accounting information and analysts’ earnings forecasts at the American Accounting Association Midwest Regional meeting.

Jere Francis published a paper titled “The Effects of Firm-Wide and Office-Level Industry Expertise on Audit Pricing” in theAccounting Review in April. Jere also made research presentations at Temple University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He presented research papers in January at the mid-year meeting of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association, and at the Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics Research Conference in Shanghai.

News from Accountancy

Donald R. Deis has accepted an offer to serve as the Joseph A. Silvoso Distinguished Director of the School of Accountancy, effective August 18. Don's acceptance follows a nationwide search that began at the start of this academic year.

By way of background, Don is now the Ernst & Young Endowed Professor at Louisiana State University. His PhD in accounting is from Texas A&M University; he is also a CPA and a CGFM (Certified Government Financial Manager).

Don's teaching interests include cost/managerial accounting, government and nonprofit accounting, and research methodologies. Don’s research is concerned with professional service quality and outsourcing. He has more than 40 published works, including four monographs and numerous articles in various scholarly journals, including The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, and Research in Government and Nonprofit Accounting. He is accounting section editor for the Journal of Public

Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, a contributing editor to Municipal Finance Journal, and a member of the editorial board of Research in Healthcare Financial Management.

Don has been accountancy doctoral program advisor at LSU since 1994. At the campus level, he has served on the Faculty Senate, University Planning Council, and Council on Research. Nationally, Don has been active in the American Accounting Association, serving as president of the Government and Nonprofit Section of the AAA in 2001-02.

In recent years, Don has worked on interdisciplinary grant projects, totaling $400,000, to evaluate outsourcing and privatization efforts by the State of Louisiana. These projects have been mentioned in several leading newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Don will succeed Vairam Arunachalam, who is serving as interim school director. In the fall, Vairam will return to full-time faculty status.

News From Department of Marketing

S. (Ratti) Ratneshwar has accepted an offer to serve as chair of the Department of Marketing. He will join the college as a tenured professor of marketing and will also hold the Bailey K. Howard World Book Chair of Marketing, which has been vacant since Al Wildt retired in 2000. This successful outcome follows a national search that has spanned at least nine months.

Currently, Ratti (as he prefers to be called) is professor of marketing and Ackerman Scholar at the School of Business, University of Connecticut. Before joining UConn, he was a faculty member at the University of Florida.

Ratti received his MA and PhD from Vanderbilt University, with previous degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) and Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad). Before enrolling at Vanderbilt, Ratti had ten years of managerial experience in sales and marketing with leading Indian companies.

Ratti has taught marketing management and strategy, relationship marketing, and consumer behavior at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has also served as a consultant and executive trainer to several organizations, including GE Capital and HealthIS.

Ratti’s research interests include consumer behavior, brand positioning and advertising, relationship and interactive marketing, and marketing strategy. His articles have appeared in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, and numerous other journals. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Ratti will succeed Lisa Scheer, who has served very well as department chair for four years. In the fall, Lisa will return to full-time faculty status and resume her progress toward full professor.

News from the Department of Finance

Dan W. French has agreed to serve as chair of the Department of Finance. Dan will join the College of Business as a tenured full professor of finance and department chair in mid-August.

Dan comes to MU from New Mexico State University where he is professor of finance. Previously he served on the business school faculties at Texas Christian University and Texas A&M University. Dan earned his PhD degree from Louisiana Tech University, after having received a BA in economics and Spanish from Lamar University.

Dan’s teaching interests include investments, portfolio analysis, financial management, financial statement analysis, and management of financial institutions. His international experience includes teaching for the Instituto de Posgrado de Administración de Negocios in Guayaquil, Ecuador; the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez; and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Dan’s research interests are in the areas of investments and financial management. His published research has covered the topics of investment valuation, options pricing, stock splits, corporate governance, risk measurement, and the Mexican stock market. Dan’s papers have appeared in various academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Journal of Banking and Finance. He has published two textbooks in the investments area.

Dan also has substantial administrative experience. Specifically, he served three years apiece as department chair at TCU and NMSU.

Dan will succeed Steve Ferris, who has served long (10 years) and well as department chair. Steve will remain on the finance faculty and is already serving as director of the college’s Financial Research Institute.

News from Grad Studies

PHD Students Receive Awards
College of Business Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: Alex Nikitkov (accountancy), Ravi Jain (finance), Charles Wolfe (management), and Omar Shehrayar (marketing) College of Business Outstanding Research Assistant Award: Dechun Wang (accountancy), Smart Saensuk (finance), Larry Summers (management) and Jason Garrett (marketing)

MBA Association
Stacia Deming served as president of the MBA Association for the Winter 2003 semester. The association focuses on helping new MBA students become acquainted with their classmates and professors through social and professional programs. In addition, the group coordinates events to enhance professional development.

To celebrate the start of the new semester the MBA Association hosted a luau where new and current students had the chance to become acquainted. Other activities throughout the semester included a faculty, staff, & MBAA bowling social, mock interviews, wine tasting, Women’s Network events, intramural sports, international day, consulting day, golf tournament, and adopt-a-highway.

Anca Geana organized a committee of students who coordinated the MBA Association’s international day held on March 8. Guest speakers were Drs. James Scott and Kelly B. Shaw of the European Union Center. Both explored the concepts supporting the European Union and the relationships among the 15 countries that are member nations. One very interesting fact that was highlighted is that Missouri exported $1.5 billion in products to Europe in 2002. Consulting Day this semester was organized by Trent Welsh, and held on April 11. Deloitte & Touché Consulting provided a business case, “The Bank of the Nations (BON)”. Grant Bourzikas and six other consultants from Deloitte were present to facilitate the morning event. Student teams were formed and representatives from each group interviewed BON’s corporate officers role-played by the consultants. The students received a valuable opportunity in learning how consultants approach clients and problems.

MBA Entering Class of 2003
The growth of the Gordon E. Crosby, Jr., MBA Program continues with 27 students entering the program in Winter 2003. Academically, the entering class is very well qualified with an average GMAT score of 630 and average GPA of 3.35. The students come with various backgrounds in business, film studies, geographical sciences, and engineering.

MBA Students Support the College Mission
Crosby MBA students contribute significantly to the teaching, research and service missions of the College of Business. During the Winter 2003 semester, 55 MBA students served as graduate teaching and research assistants in a wide variety of positions throughout the college.

Six students were responsible for introducing the finer points of business and consumer finance to non-business undergraduate students in the Finance 123, Personal Finance course. Many students, serving as TA’s, guided beginning level business students as they encountered management, marketing and finance for the first time or as they worked to improve their writing skills in Writing Intensive classes. MBA students with a computer science background contributed to the success of Technology Services in maintaining the college website, databases and network administration. Others worked together with staff in Career Services, Graduate Studies, Academic Advising and Development Offices to provide the resources necessary to make our student, alumni and public services exemplary. Finally, in support of the collaboration mission of the college, MBA students also work with the Small Business Development Center and the Missouri Innovation Center to assist in the development of entrepreneurial business ventures.

Graduate assistantship positions offer great financial advantages and varied work opportunities for MBA students and the students provide valuable services which enable the College of Business to be successful in its many diverse educational endeavors. It is a true win-win program for all parties.

MBA Recruiting
With the goal of enrolling a high-quality entering class for summer and fall 2003, recruiting efforts this winter for the Crosby MBA Program included: visits to Truman State University, Westminster College and St. Louis University; recruitment at the Gateway and Heart of America Career Fairs in St. Louis and Kansas City; contacts with campus and community groups such as the Legion of Black Collegians, the Life Sciences Career Fair and the Columbia Business Expo; personal contacts such as extensive e-mail communication with potential students; hosting prospective students and offering tours of Cornell Hall and of the MU campus; and producing a large regional mailing to students interested in earning an MBA degree. The Graduate Studies staff and RA’s consider all contacts with the public to be potential recruiting efforts, and the success of that effort is evident in the outstanding group of students currently enrolled in the Crosby MBA Program.