Archive for November 2009

Dr. Manish Srivastava, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management in the School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech, has published his dissertation as a reference book.  The book, Networks, Clusters and Technological Innovation, can be found on Amazon.com and Libri.de (description provided below).

“Seeing my research published in the form of a book is a great feeling. The book-form and powerful distribution channels such as Amazon.com provide it [my research] multiple legs to travel far and wide around the world to multiple constituencies,” stated Dr. Srivastava about the book’s publication.

About Networks,Clusters and Technological Innovation from Amazon.com

Firms often struggle and falter in their innovation efforts. However, past research has paid little systematic attention on why firms struggle in their innovation efforts. In this book, using a longitudinal research design the author examines how the characteristics of a firm’s ego network and of its cluster independently and jointly impact its technological innovation. This research provides a framework showing how networks and clusters may work in tandem in helping a firm overcome innovation barriers. The empirical evidence indicates that the efficacy of cluster resources increases in the presence of network ties within the cluster. It also shows that firms can mobilize resources of distant clusters using their network ties. The study further demonstrates that resource-rich firms leverage networks resources more effectively than the resource-deficient firms do while resource-deficient firms leverage cluster resources more effectively than the resource-rich firms do. The book makes important theoretical and empirical contributions to alliance, network,cluster, and innovation literatures. The research findings also have important managerial implications.

Poppy King comes to Michigan Tech

Entrepreneur and Author Poppy King will be on campus speaking today. At the age of 18 Poppy started her own brand of lipstick that has grown it into a multi-million dollar company. She has authored a book called “Lessons of a Lipstick Queen” that takes you through her journey.

Check out Poppy on campus at the following Times:

• 10am, EERC B45, Presentation and questions

• 12:30pm, Library, Book reading and signing

• 3:30pm, DOW 641, Presentation and questions

At 5am on Thursday, October 29th, thirteen accounting and finance undergraduate students from the Kappa Sigma Iota Accounting Club of Michigan Tech traveled to Chicago, Illinois for their annual fall trip. While there, the group networked with accounting professionals from Kimberly Clark, Crowe Horwath, the IRS, and Barclays Capital.

Kimberly Clark, a manufacturing company; Crowe Horwath, a public accounting firm; the IRS, a governmental entity; and Barclays Capital, a financial bank; each showed the group a wide array of career opportunities that require an accounting or finance degree.

While in Chicago Kappa Sigma Iota also had the chance to network with recruiters, discuss job prospects, and show the companies the terrific business talent that exists at Michigan Tech.

“Kappa Sigma Iota’s trip to Chicago has opened my eyes to the variety of opportunities that come with an accounting degree! I had a blast and I’m glad I went,” said KSI member, Alyson Dreher.

Learn more about Kappa Sigma Iota, Michigan Tech’s accounting organization.

Guest post from William Thiele, president of the Kappa Sigma Iota chapter at Michigan Tech.

Eric Kinonen

Eric Kinonen, a 5th year Management major within the School of Business and Economics and a member of the Efficiency Through Engineering and Construction (ETEC) group, discussed a project that he worked on with Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I), helping to make their iron ore train operations more efficient. The 120-car trains currently need to slow down to get weighed, and one of the team’s solutions was to move them off the main track to get weighed on a side track.

“There’s some abandoned track here from Canadian National,” the business management major said, pointing to his poster. “This is near the Dead River Bridge, and they could pull off to the side to let the empty trains pass.”

Read the article, “But Can You Use It? Usability Day Involves Students Across Campus.”

The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (brought to campus by the Entrepreneurs Club) will bring three young entrepreneurs who made it big by the age of 25. A sneak preview about each speaker is below! Stop by the MUB Ballroom A on Monday, November 16 to hear and meet these successful entrepreneurs!

Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons is a young, serial, award-winning entrepreneur, bestselling author of The Student Success Manifesto, and national keynote speaker to over 30,000 individuals.

Michael’s company, Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, brings the country’s top young entrepreneurs to college campuses to spread the entrepreneurial mindset. Started in fall 2006, the tour has visited over 100 schools nation-wide and has received the Innovation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations and the Program of the Year award from Northern Michigan University. More can be learned at http://www.extremetour.org.

Michael co-founded his first business, Princeton WebSolutions (PWS), when he was sixteen years old. PWS was later rated the #1 youth-run web development company in the nation by Youngbiz Magazine. In addition, Michael has been the winner of three entrepreneur of the year awards from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Fleet, and the National Coalition for Empowering Youth Entrepreneurship. He and his company have been featured in five books and on the AOL Home Page, USA Today, Inc. Magazine, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Finally, in 2006, Michael was named by Business Week as one of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.

Anthony Adams

Anthony Adams

Anthony David Adams, 28, is an award winning American inventor and entrepreneur. Most recently, Anthony made headlines for his salacious education blog, DetentionSlip.org, which at just one year old was named one of the Top 25 Blogs of 2009 by Time Magazine.

In addition to DetentionSlip, Anthony serves as CEO of CreditCovers: skins for credit cards — an angel funded company based on a product he invented, patented, and developed.

You may have seen him and his companies on FoxNews, Time Magazine, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Daily Candy, Glamour, Readers Digest, ABC, NBC, Cool Hunting, or 500+ other media outlets.

Anthony has consulted on innovation, creativity, branding and marketing for The United Nations, BMW, SC Johnson Wax, Inventibles, The Salvation Army, Bisnow Media Group, The Summit Series and others.

Previous to his work in the private sector, Anthony was executive director and lead lobbyist at United Council, a 120,000 member student organizing non-profit. He holds a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2005), and a Bachelors in Psychology from Edinboro University (2003).

Anthony lives in lower Manhattan and enjoys ultimate frisbee, chess, skydiving, vegan food, computer programming, rubiks cubes, running and working out with his Broadway star brother, Nick Adams.

Brendan Ciecko

Brendan Ciecko

Brendan Ciecko, 21, is the founder and CEO of Ten Minute Media, a company that specializes in digital media and creative services for the music entertainment industry. Ciecko started producing websites for emerging rock bands at the early age of 12 and quickly transformed his talents into a thriving business. Since its official establishment in 2003, Ten Minute Media has acquired an impressive and flourishing list of major clients including, Warner, Universal, Sony Music, Capitol Records and some of the biggest names in entertainment.

With such a striking repertoire, Ciecko has gained the attention of the national press. In October of 2008, Ciecko appeared on the cover of Inc. Magazine in the feature article, “Cool, Determined, Under 30.” He has also appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine, Boston Globe, PC Magazine, FastCompany, NPR and was a national finalist of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

Behind Ciecko’s business persona there exists an artistic and musical essence, a part of Ciecko that takes most pride in having worked with music icons, Mick Jagger, Natalie Cole, Katy Perry, and Lenny Kravitz.

Ciecko is an advocate in the efforts to revitalize historic downtown Holyoke, a post-industrial city in MA. He also sits on the Massachusetts “It’s All Here” Advisory Board.

Outside the office, Ciecko is an avid traveler, architecture geek, and lover of music and art.