Category: Faculty Spotlight

Savvy Entrepreneur Workshop: Find Your First Customer

Learn how to close the deal with your first customer at this season’s kickoff of the Savvy Entrepreneur Series, which features interactive web conferencing. This event will start with social networking and refreshments at 5:30 p.m., and then a panel discussion from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 11, in the conference room of the ATDC.

KTM Industries and Jeff Smith, codirector of the New Economy Division for the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, will lead the discussion.

Learn simple steps and best practices to help gain market traction for your intellectual property or collaborative university intellectual property.

The goal is to share rapid commercialization ideas as entrepreneurs work with a university research partner and learn about research intellectual property and the great base of strategic customers in Michigan.

For more information, contact Assistant Director John Diebel (IIE) at 487-1082 or jfdiebel@mtu.edu .

The event is sponsored by Innovation and Industry Engagement, the School of Business and Economics, SmartZone and the Keweenaw Alliance For Economic Development.

Lunch Research Presentation: Josh Filzen

Dr. Josh Filzen presenting "Financial reporting complexity and the comovement of stock returns."

Please join the School of Business and Economics and Assistant Professor Josh Filzen for a brown bag lunch presentation on September 10 at Noon in Academic Office Building 101. His presentation is titled: “Financial reporting complexity and the comovement of stock returns.” Dr. Filzen added, “We study whether financial reporting complexity induces synchronicity in stock prices by way of the theory of complementarity.  Preliminary results will be discussed.”

Upcoming Research Presentations

  • Liang Song – September 24, 1-2 pm, Do Islamic Banks Employ Less Earnings Management?
  • Andre LaPlume – October 8, 12-1 pm,  Outstreaming for Ambidexterity

Paper Takes Top Honors at Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy

(Left to right: Saurav Pathak, Emanuel Xavier de Oliveira, and Andre Laplume)

A paper that focuses on entrepreneurs in emerging economies was awarded “best paper” honors at the Second Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy in Spain. Its authors, Saurav Pathak, Andre Laplume and Emanuel Oliveira of the School of Business and Economics, were competing against 80 other papers at the academy, and eight received top honors.

In the paper, Pathak, Laplume and Oliveira argue that regimes that protect intellectual property rights, combined with high levels of foreign investment, negatively affect individuals’ entry into technological entrepreneurship.

“Neo-classical growth theory argues that technological progress is the main engine of economic growth, given that other factors have diminishing returns,” said Pathak. “Our key finding is that emerging economies with higher foreign investment per capita tend to have relatively lower techno-entrepreneurship rates.”

Saurav Pathak is the Rick and Jo Berquist assistant professor of entrepreneurship and innovation, Andre Laplume is an assistant professor of management, and Emanuel Xavier de Oliveira is a senior lecturer of economics.

Written by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor in University Marketing and Communications.

Par-Tee Time Golf Outing: Success!

The third annual Alumni Reunion ‘Par-Tee Time Golf Outing’ was a big hit among the alumni, students, staff, and faculty of Michigan Technological University as well as with local community members. The scramble was hosted by the student volunteers of the MBA Association and the American Marketing Association as well as the staff of the School of Business and Economics.  Ten four-person teams competed for a variety of cash and sponsored prizes in a fun-filled atmosphere on the greens of the Portage Lake Golf Course. The winners of the tournament were Michigan Tech School of Business and Economics faculty members Josh Filzen, Soonkwan Hong, Dean Johnson, and Joel Tuoriniemi.

Held on a beautiful summer afternoon, the event provided participants a great opportunity to network, golf, and enjoy delicious food and beverages provided by the golf course restaurant, Par and Grill. In addition to cash prizes and a 50/50 raffle, local businesses sponsored over  40 prizes for the post-tournament raffle.  Throughout the day, participants also had the opportunity to meet and interact with the School of Business and Economic’s new dean, Gene Klippel.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the School of Business and Economics, the MBAA and AMA student organizations, the support of the Michigan Tech community and the local businesses the event continues to be successful.  Plans for next year are already underway, and participants can look forward to another weekend of fun, friendly competition, and a valuable opportunity to expand their business network.

Goltz and Tuoriniemi published in Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy

Joel Tuoriniemi
Sonia Goltz

Professor Sonia Goltz and Assistant Professor Joel Tuoriniemi, both of the School of Business and Economics, were coauthors, with colleagues, of a paper, “Applying Indices Post-Grutter to Monitor Progress Toward Attaining a Diverse Student Body,” published in Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy.

To read the paper, please visit the following link: http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njlsp/vol7/iss2/5/