Jindal School Recognized by AACSB for Innovation
The Naveen Jindal School of Management stands among the elite institutions of higher learning in two new online rankings — and several online specialty rankings — from U.S. News & World Report.
Released Jan. 26, the rankings place the Jindal School’s online graduate programs in the top 10 in the following categories, including all four of the specialties that U.S. News ranked this year:
The Naveen Jindal School of Management’s Professional Online Portfolios project was one of 30 innovations recognized Feb. 1 by AACSB International, the global accrediting body and membership association for business schools.
AACSB unveiled the inaugural Innovations That Inspire initiatives at its 2016 Deans Conference. The innovations represent ways that business schools are modernizing and diversifying the business education environment.
Each Jindal School Professional Online Portfolio — POP — is a student-designed and student-controlled website that features a video introduction, a résumé, professional yet friendly photos of the student, examples of school or work projects others may see, descriptions of the student’s community and leadership experience, and information about personal interests and life goals. Each site is made using one of several free website creation platforms (Wix, Weebly and others) and is 100 percent the result of each student’s choices for design, content and approach.
About 2,000 students have created POPs since the projects were introduced in business communication courses as an undergraduate requirement in 2013. Business communication faculty regularly receive emails from former students reporting that they were called in for an interview because of the strength of their POPs, and several graduates have received internships or job offers as a direct result of the impression of friendly professionalism they made in a POP.
At the start of the POPs project, students think, “It’s just a website,” said Dr. McClain Watson, director of JSOM’s business communication programs and creator of the POPs project. “Then you get buy-in as they work on it and see the potential value. They say, ‘This matters because it’s my name and my future.’ ”
Three Newcomers Join UT Dallas Top 100
The top 10 business schools listed in the UT Dallas Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™ shifted slightly from the 2015 rankings, and three on the list made their first-ever appearance.
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania remained the top research school in the world, as it has for more than a decade, according to the list, an index that tracks faculty research productivity at management schools. Most universities saw little change in their position with the exception of the University of Toronto Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and INSEAD.
The University of Toronto entered the top 10 schools for the first time with a climb to No. 7 from No. 17 in North America and to No. 8 from No. 18 worldwide. The University of North Carolina, meanwhile, made a five-spot jump in both sets of rankings, arriving at No. 9 in North America and No. 10 globally. INSEAD rose to No. 7 from No. 11 in the worldwide standings.
Harvard Business School retained its hold on No. 2 among national and international schools for the fifth consecutive year, the study reveals.
Research rankings released by the Jindal School each year are based on articles published in leading peer-reviewed journals during the previous four-year period. This year’s standings are based on articles published between 2011 and 2015.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management ranked third on both lists, while the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Ross School of Business held steady in their positions of No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. The Columbia University Graduate School of Business came in at No. 8 in North America and No. 9 worldwide.
Jindal School faculty members produced 196 articles during the most recent four-year measurement period, 2011 to 2015, placing the school at No. 11 among North American business schools and No. 12 worldwide. Both rankings remain unchanged from the last reporting period. Since 2005, the school has climbed from No. 36 in North America.
WITS and WISE Speakers Discourse on Big Data, AI and Internet Feedback
The Naveen Jindal School of Management hosted two academic workshops devoted to information systems and information technology in December that drew 385 attendees and featured three top keynote speakers.
John Donovan, senior executive vice president of technology and operations for AT&T, described his company’s big data initiative and the impact big data will have in an increasingly connected world in the industry keynote address at the 25th annual Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS).
“For us, at our scale at AT&T, the use of data is a game changer. It’s nothing short of the biggest thing that we’re doing because it primarily transforms how to make decisions and when we make decisions, how things get done,” Donovan said.
Academic keynoter Dr. Michael P. Wellman, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, headlined the second day of the WITS conference with a speech that surveyed how artificial intelligence and economics interface.
Wellman and Dr. David C. Parkes of Harvard University were co-authors of “Economic Reasoning and Artificial Intelligence,” an article published in Science (Vol. 349, Issue 6245, pages 267-272) last July that explores how to design rules for “an economy of AIs.”
“As AIs become more real,” Wellman he said, “you have to realize that they are not only going to exert force on the economy; they themselves are [going to be] subject to economic forces.”
Dr. Gary Bolton, O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair of Managerial Economics in the Jindal School and co-director of its Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics, delved into research he has done into Internet trading-site feedback in his address to the 26th Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE).
People are usually surprised to learn that as many as 60 to 70 percent of participants on Internet trading sites provide feedback about their experiences, Bolton began.
He said he was drawn into studying feedback by the “brag and moan phenomenon,” the tendency of responses to cluster at extremes, with a large majority of very positive opinions distributed at one end, and a small percentage of very negative opinions at the other — but virtually no ratings in the middle.
Faculty Achievements
Senior Professor a Minority Business Leader Honoree
Dr. David L. Ford Jr. has had his share of accolades; now he is adding the Dallas Business Journal’s 2016 Minority Business Leader Award to the mix.
Ford has had an impact in several organizations working for minority success, but he believes it might have been his efforts to develop and grow The PhD Project that had the most effect when it came to being chosen for this award.
The project got “started in 1994 at the KPMG accounting firm, and the whole idea was to try and increase the numbers of African-American, Hispanic and Native American business school faculty members across the country,” Ford recalled.
In 1994, there were only 297 minority business school faculty in the U.S., he said. Now there are more than quadruple that number — more than 1,250, according to The PhD Project.
And for Ford: “It’s been very gratifying to be able to mentor up-and-coming doctorate students who turn into faculty and who then may get promoted to senior levels of faculty administration. Nothing like this program existed when I received my PhD.”
Ford earned his PhD in organizational analysis from the University of Wisconsin before coming to UT Dallas in 1975.
The JSOM courses he teaches now include Organizational Behavior, both at the master’s and undergraduate level; Interpersonal Dynamics, and a doctoral level seminar on research in group and intergroup processes.
He also helped develop the Executive Development Institute for the National Black MBA Association and was a part of the academic curriculum committee for the National Forum for Black Public Administrators’ Executive Leadership Institute.
MS in Healthcare Program Director Earns Service Award
The American College of Healthcare Executives has honored Dr. Forney Fleming, a Jindal School clinical professor and director of the MS in Healthcare Management program, with a service award.
The award came from the national organization and was presented Nov. 5, 2015, at the annual North Texas ACHE chapter dinner.
“ACHE is the definitive organization for top-level healthcare executives, and I’m honored to be a recipient of this award,” says Fleming, who has served on the board of the local chapter for eight years and is on the editorial review board of ACHE’s national Journal of Healthcare Management.
In 2014 and 2015, he and a professor from UT Arlington served on the committee that set up the case study for the North Texas chapter’s annual graduate student competition. “This involves choosing the case competition, recruiting judges and picking healthcare executives to serve as advisors for each of the teams in the competition,” Fleming says.
The past few years, because of his planning duties, Fleming has had to recuse himself from serving as coach or advisor to the Jindal School’s ACHE case study competition teams. Still, they have done well: A JSOM team won the Nov. 5 competition, and JSOM teams have won the contest four of the last five years.
Fleming’s ACHE efforts lately have included service as a member of the local organization. Additionally, he participates in the local chapter’s mentoring program.
Fleming’s own healthcare career started as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. Then he spent three decades as an orthopedic surgeon before arriving at the Jindal School to start the MS in Healthcare Management program in 2008.
He earned his MD from The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; an MBA from the University of Houston Clear Lake; and a BA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Faculty Member Earns Accounting Educator Award
Ringing endorsements from colleagues and students about Kathy Zolton’s creative teaching, contributions to the accounting curriculum and outstanding volunteer service to low-income taxpayers across Dallas recently helped her secure an Outstanding Accounting Educator of the Year Award from the Texas Society of CPAs.
Zolton, a CPA who began teaching at the Jindal School in 2012, earned the accolade Oct. 30, 2015, in an award ceremony at the society’s annual education conference in Austin. She received $500, a commemorative plaque and complimentary conference registration.
Now a senior lecturer and former associate director of JSOM’s MS in Accounting program, Zolton received numerous TSCPA accolades for excellence in teaching and active service to the accounting profession. The society cited her “engaging and enthusiastic style of teaching” and her efforts to present abstract concepts in a memorable and visual manner in lauding her classroom style.
Extolling her contributions to JSOM’s graduate accounting curriculum, the society noted she “has contributed to significant changes,” including implementing a boot camp for incoming students.
And under her leadership of the campus Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, a society news release about the award said, “UT Dallas supplied more than 70 percent of the volunteer force in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, helping low-income families receive more than $9.9 million in tax refunds in 2015.”
That, Dr. William (Bill) Cready, Accounting Area coordinator and Adolf Enthoven Distinguished Professor in Accounting and Information Management, wrote in a recommendation letter “is simply an amazing accomplishment.”
Cready also called Zolton a key player in instituting recent curriculum changes, including raising the level of prerequisite coursework required of incoming students and requiring comprehensive final exams in core courses.
He also credited her with assembling the graduate accounting program’s advisory board.
Finance Professors Share Second-Place Crowell Prize
Jindal School finance faculty members Dr. Jun Li and Dr. Xiaofei Zhao, both assistant professors, earned second place in the most recent Crowell Prize competition, an annual contest to recognize innovative research contributions connecting theory and practice in the field of optimal investment strategies.
Li and Zhao shared a $3,000 award for their paper, “Complexity and Information Content of Financial Disclosures: Evidence from Evolution of Uncertainty Following 10-K Filings.”
More than 100 papers were submitted by academics and practitioners alike in the contest, which is sponsored by PanAgora Asset Management and named for its late founder, Dr. Richard A. Crowell (1941-1998). Crowell was a pioneer in quantitative investing, the use of analysis, formulas, math, models, processes, programs and more to manage asset portfolios without human emotion.
Li and Zhao studied filings of Form 10-K, a comprehensive annual report on company financial performance required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, looking at both the information the filings contained and the complexity of that information. “Most studies on information disclosures do not jointly consider both aspects in the same context,” they wrote.
Their objective was to understand how both the information content and the complexity of disclosures affect investors’ perception of uncertainty about company fundamentals over time.
“Our findings suggest that information disclosure in general and 10-K disclosure in particular may have two important opposing effects on the evolution of uncertainty,” they wrote. More information in a disclosure — a lengthier, more-detailed 10-K Form — could make it more difficult for investors to digest that information and lead to a higher level of uncertainty in the short run. “This is the complexity aspect of information disclosure,” they wrote.
But once digested, that information could eventually result in more resolution of uncertainty, they found. “Overall, we contribute to this literature by demonstrating the novel impact of learning on volatility dynamics,” they wrote.
Their study also has practical implications because they documented a profitable option investment strategy based on this volatility pattern.
Student News
A Roundup of Recent JSOM Competition Success
Naveen Jindal School of Management students chalked up noteworthy successes in the fall 2015 collegiate competition season. Teams and individuals, undergraduate and graduate students alike, did well in challenges that tested skills in accounting, entrepreneurship, healthcare management, information technology, real estate, professional sales, sustainability and other disciplines.
Most winners brought home trophies, prize money, enhanced résumés and bragging rights. Many also caught the eye of corporate executives and recruiters, who encouraged them to keep in touch.
“I regularly urge students to compete, and I applaud their efforts,” Jindal School Dean Hasan Pirkul says. “Increasingly, these competitions address business issues confronting the work world that students will soon enter. They not only get to use knowledge and skills they have learned in the classroom, they also get to test their performance and see how it stacks up against others who will soon be their fellow professionals.”
The following list recaps the top 10 highlights of JSOM’s fall competition efforts:
- In UT Dallas’ first foray into the annual Hult Prize Challenge, two Jindal School teams — eight students in all — are advancing to March regionals.
The 2016 competition focuses on urban crowding, and competitors have been challenged to conceive of ways to double the income of the urban poor by better connecting them to capital, people, products and services. - A team of five MBA students surged ahead of 27 teams from 18 other universities in the second Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA Sustainability Case Competition.
The competition focused on helping IBM’s Corporate Environmental Affairs staff manage growing global responsibilities. The team earned $10,000. - An Executive MBA student placed second in an international online challenge.
CAPSIM Challenges pit students against one another in biannual online competitions to crown the world’s best at running a multimillion-dollar simulated company. - A “dynamic duo” had the top sales management case at the International Collegiate Sales Competition.
Dr. Howard Dover, director of JSOM’s Professional Sales Concentration, said that to win, the two senior marketing majors “worked on the cases overnight two days in a row! It is a grueling competition, given the fatigue factor.” - A trio of MS in Information Technology and Management students earned second place in the Fusion 15: IT Service Management Forum Conference business case competition.
“We weren’t all in Dallas in October ’15, and so we had the further challenge of not all being in a room together face to face,” JSOM team member Mehul Doshi says. “But even that prepares you for the real world, where this situation becomes more common.” - A team of upperclassmen earned third place in the Texas International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Undergraduate Case Study Competition.
Dr. Randy Guttery, director of JSOM’s Real Estate Concentrations, picked the team members and said of them: “A tremendous amount of effort was expended by these students, including some 3 a.m. nights. … [T]he real-world exposure to hundreds of real estate professionals is invaluable.” - Full-time MBA student Hazem Elshorbagy was Jindal School’s recipient of a $15,000 Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation Scholarship.
The competitive awards go to graduate business students across Texas who have demonstrated leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Holder of a U.S. patent for a foot-controlled car, Elshorbagy has refined biodiesel from algae, designed an environmentally friendly method for heavy crude oil extraction and is using the UT Dallas campus to test his ideas to improve trash-hauling efficiency. - For the fourth time in five years, a JSOM team placed first in the annual North Texas American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) competition.
This year the winning team of four graduate students offered solutions to the struggles of a 290-bed hospital that was losing revenue to outpatient services and facing growing internal friction among its medical staff. - A team of Jindal School accounting students won the inaugural Grant Thornton Metroplex Case Competition.
Pat McCown, a partner and practice leader at prominent national accounting firm Grant Thornton, joined forces with BS in Accounting Program Director John Barden to launch this new competition. - Four of the six top teams in the 2015 UT Dallas Business Idea Competition were made up of Jindal School students.
More than 100 teams entered the annual contest, which gives undergraduate and graduate students from every school on campus the opportunity to develop and present their business ideas while competing for $20,000 in cash and scholarship prizes. A panel of celebrity judges that included Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban named three JSOM teams winners in the Graduate Division. A Jindal School team took second place in the Undergraduate Division.
