Review highlights of recent news coverage of Georgia Tech College of Management's people and programs.

December 2005-February 2006

• Offshoring R&D: The New York Times reported the results of a study by Georgia Tech's Marie Thursby identifying the factors that are driving companies to locate their research-and-development operations in foreign countries like China and India. Lower cost isn't the main incentive, she found. Companies are more often drawn by the high caliber of R&D personnel available and opportunities for university collaboration. Fostering such an environment is crucial "if America wants to maintain a competitive advantage in research and development," said Thursby, professor of strategic management. Coverage of this research also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Indian Express, Kansas City Star, Sacramento Business Journal, Raleigh Triangle Business Journal, and CIO magazine, among many other media outlets. More info

• Slippery slope: As the trial of former Enron leaders Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling got underway, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution prominently featured the College of Management in a story on how business students feel about ethical dilemmas. Associate professor Deborah Turner's accounting class was interviewed and photographed after watching the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. "You can really hear how much they don't care, and that the money is what comes first," said management senior Jodi Feeley of the Enron corporate culture. Another senior, Stephanie Henderson, pondered how much of a jump it is from dishonest actions like padding your hours to major crimes. "You wonder if you would let yourself slip into bigger things," she said.

• Eyes play tricks: People � even professional bartenders � inadvertently pour 20 to 30 percent more alcohol into short, wide glasses than tall, slender ones of the same volume because of perceptual bias, according to a study by Koert van Ittersum, assistant professor of marketing. After appearing in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), the study won widespread coverage from media outlets around the world, including ABC News, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Times of London,Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the The Telegraph of Calcutta. More info

• Buy back now, pay later: Accounting professor Charles Mulford commented on questionable stock-buyback practices in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Journal article focused on "accelerated share repurchases" (ASR), a loophole in which a company executes its entire buyback before the final cost is known in order to boost earnings per share. Sometimes the cost of the buyback winds up being much more than the value of the stock at the time of the ASR. Mulford also appeared in Investor's Business Daily, discussing companies' expensing of stock options.

• Presidential pattern: The U.S. stock market might remain sluggish throughout 2006 if it follows a long-standing pattern of slowing in the two years following a presidential election, according to a Georgia Tech study covered by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Our results show that stock prices tend to rise substantially over the two years prior to a presidential election, and show limited improvement or even decline over the two years following an election," said marketing professor emeritus Fred Allvine, who conducted the study with Rajesh Chakrabarti, assistant professor of finance. More info

• Breakdown blues: Recent articles in CFO, Electronic Business, and Canadian Transportation and Logistics magazines cited the research of Vinod Singhal, professor of operations management, who found that sudden breakdowns in the supply chain result in long-lasting damage to companies' stock prices and profitability. They suffer 33 to 40 percent lower stock returns (relative to their industry benchmarks) over a three-year period, starting one year before and ending two years after the announcement of the disruption. More info

• Elite company: The Atlanta Business Chronicle highlighted the selection of Frank Rothaermel, assistant professor of marketing, as one of only four young scholars in the United States or Canada to win a 2006 Sloan Industry Studies Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The article noted that Rothaermel was recognized for his work in the biotechnology industry, receiving a $45,000 grant for a two-year period. More info

• Real-time trouble: While technological advances are enabling companies to track the flow of goods in the supply chain minute by minute, such close monitoring might not help business managers make better business decisions, according to a study by Nicholas Lurie, assistant professor of marketing, which was covered in Manufacturing Business Technology magazine. In the article, Lurie said that "when a manager is given more frequent information on product demand, decision-making performance actually decreases, particularly in environments characterized by a high degree of variability." More info

• Unnaturally high: The Atlanta Business Chronicle turned to marketing professor emeritus Fred Allvine for insight into the high price of natural gas. "The restrictions on drilling, and the fixed amount of gas available from the existing wells, eventually means you're on a collision course where demand is exceeding supply," Allvine said.

• Cultivating the economy: The Jerusalem Post covered research co-authored by Matt Higgins, assistant professor of strategic management, showing that economic growth in Israel would be stimulated by decreasing the size of the public sector and increasing education levels to counter rising social gaps.

• Selection process: Maria Saporta reported on the finalists for the dean position at the College of Management in her business column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, noting that the search committee expects to fill the job by July when Dean Terry C. Blum transitions from her current role to head Tech's new interdisciplinary Institute for Entrepreneurship and Leadership.

• High standards: Georgia Tech's MBA program was profiled by Diversity/Careers in Engineering and Information Technology magazine. The article quoted Paula Wilson, director of MBA admissions, who discussed the school's efforts to attract more women to the program as well as general admission standards. "Overall we look for a level of maturity, level of focus and level of experience; quality, not quantity," she said.