School of Business in the news 2017-18 academic year

Our faculty members were expert sources for national, special interest, regional, and local during the 2017-18 academic year. Each story below links to the online version of the story, where available.

NATIONAL

Tax break or kickback? Energy benefit becomes a lightning rod
New York Times
Jonathan Duchac, a professor of accounting at Wake Forest University, goes a step further. In a paper on the subject in The ATA Journal of Legal Tax Research, he and his co-authors argue that simply giving away the deductions violates most state constitutions, which have anti-gift provisions. “Government can’t give away things of value without being compensated,” Mr. Duchac said.

Why you should buy the stocks that lobby the most
Forbes
“Portfolios of firms with the highest lobbying intensities significantly outperform their benchmarks in the three years following portfolio formation,” states a 2014 paper titled “Corporate Lobbying and Firm Performance” by Hui Chen, David Parsley, and Ya-Wen Yang, of the University of Zurich, Vanderbilt University, and Wake Forest University.

Take these steps to become comfortable with change
Fast Company
Even when you anticipate that the outcome of change will be positive, there is still a tendency to experience anxiety when you’re asked to replace familiar practices with new ones, adds Amy Wallis, professor of organizational behavior at Wake Forest University School of Business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

How strong values sustain a team’s performance
Psychology Today
Retired Army Colonel Patrick Sweeney, director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Leadership and Character, introduced a conceptual model that captures how high-performing organizations maintain excellence in the face of personnel turbulence. The Individual-Relationship-Organization-Context, or IROC model, describes the complex relationship between organizations, individuals, and context and explains how these relationships influence trust and performance.

What Trump’s tariffs could mean for consumers
U.S. News & World Report
“For instance, Canada has a thriving auto plant base and vehicles assembled there need supply of raw material and subassembly input that constantly goes across the border between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico. In some cases, the back-and-forth may occur even up to a dozen times [with one car] and any increase in costs due to cross border flow tariffs would destroy the current state of the industry,” says Haresh Gurnani, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

On guns, companies are getting out ahead of the politicians
Associated Press
Roger Beahm, a professor of marketing at Wake Forest University School of Business, said smaller retailers will probably capitalize on the situation by selling the weapons the major chains will no longer handle.

This Associated Press story ran in some 600 news outlets.

You’re getting a Master’s in what?
Wall Street Journal
“Students want a deeper expertise in specific business disciplines if they’re pursuing a graduate degree,” said Charles Iacovou, dean of the business school at Wake Forest University, which discontinued its traditional two-year M.B.A. program in 2014 and concentrated its resources around the school’s part-time M.B.A. offerings and its three specialized master’s programs.

The Wall Street Journal also featured this story on Snapchat on June 21.

Facebook controversy: Love it or hate it, big data is here to stay
Fox News
In an opinion piece, Jeff Camm writes: News this week that a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, improperly obtained data of more than 50 million users is troubling, but it’s nothing more than a bad apple. Now there are calls to delete Facebook profiles and turn away from authorizing the respected outlets with our data. To that I say, resist.

The hardest thing about working in the gig economy? Forging a cohesive sense of self
Harvard Business Review
Professor Sherry Moss and her co-authors discuss research regarding workers who hold more than one job: “The most prominent set of struggles our informants faced was centered on how to feel and be seen as authentic when they wear more than one occupational hat. Because one’s occupation is such a core part of one’s identity, those engaged in multiple jobs may find themselves plagued with issues of authenticity: who am ‘I’ really, if I’m all these things at once?”

How the bot stole Christmas: Toys like Fingerlings are snapped up and resold
New York Times
“When an advertised item is unavailable because of out-of-stocks, customers don’t blame bots, they blame the retailer,” Roger Beahm, a professor of marketing at the Wake Forest University School of Business, said in an email.

Amazon and Whole Foods could revolutionize grocery delivery. But do shoppers want it?
L.A. Times
“Consumers are becoming accustomed to getting pretty much anything they want delivered right to their door today, just by clicking ‘Confirm and Pay,’ ” said Roger Beahm, the WestRock executive director of the Wake Forest School of Business Center for Retail Innovation.

“Having perfected this buying behavior in categories such as books and apparel, it’s not hard to visualize consumers getting to a similar tipping point in retail grocery once the logistics are there.”

This story also appeared in media outlets like the Chicago Tribune.

Allegations of ‘fake news’ stretch beyond politics
Washington Post
The problem is potentially more dangerous for retail investors who are attempting to make investment decisions on their own, said Ajay Patel, a finance professor at the Wake Forest University School of Business.

The story also appeared in outlets like the Denver Post,  the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Worcester Telegram.

Trump is doing what workplace experts say a boss should never do
The Washington Post
In writing for the Harvard Business Review, Sherry Moss, a professor of organizational studies at Wake Forest University’s School of Business, said bully bosses can cause “psychological distress, job dissatisfaction, and emotional exhaustion. It’s also been linked to counterproductive behaviors, from the organizational to the interpersonal.”

Wake Forest Master of Arts in Management ranks #4 in the U.S. and Top 25 Worldwide (Link no longer available)
Marketwatch
The Economist has ranked the Wake Forest University School of Business Master of Arts in Management program #4 in the U.S. and #21 globally. In this global ranking, The Economist placed the School #8 for the diversity of recruiters, a measure reflecting the breadth of industries that seek Wake Forest MA in Management talent. The School placed #10 for salary and #11 for its rating of faculty by students and graduates. This is the publication’s inaugural ranking of pre-experience Master’s in Management programs.

This story appeared in 265 news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Ask.com, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune.

Black Friday: 5 reasons we’re heading for a record holiday shopping season
Fox News
“Although leading retail forecasters can’t settle on an exact dollar amount, the consensus is already set: we’re going for a record holiday shopping season,” writes Roger Beahm, in his essay for Fox News.

SPECIAL INTEREST

International differences in procurement’s use of digital purchasing tools
BlogTalkRadio
Today Buyers Meeting Point welcomes back Wake Forest researchers Jim Narus and Michelle Steward. They have been leading research into a number of different procurement behaviors and how they affect each company’s relationship with suppliers as well as individual industry peers.

How to encourage candor in your office
Journal of Accountancy
John Sumanth is an assistant professor of management and organizational behavior at the Wake Forest University School of Business. He puts it in terms of creating an “environment of voice,” where people feel free to speak up about issues and problems, whether between co-workers or organizational leaders.

Building diversity: The people that analytics often leaves behind
Wharton Knowledge blog
Derek Avery at Wake Forest University School of Business, agreed that people analytics has a “garbage in, garbage out” problem. He observed that professionals need to be careful when trying to build algorithms that encourage diversity, because currently there isn’t even agreement in the field about exactly what diversity is.

Wake Forest taps Noodle Partners to expand analytics degree online
Campus Technology
Wake Forest University’s School of Business is expanding its Master of Science in Business Analytics program through a partnership with online higher education provider Noodle Partners. The new offering will cater to working professionals who want to hone their big data skills in an online format.

Visual and text analytics: The next step in forensic auditing and accounting
The CPA Journal
George Aldhizer, PwC associate professor of accountancy, penned this article, featured in the June 2017 issue. He details the benefits of visualizing structured data in more creative ways and how unstructured data can locate previously hidden red flags for material misstatements and fraud.

Can B-School rankings be reformed?
Inside Higher Ed
Jeremiah Nelson, director of enrollment management for the Charlotte Wake Forest University MBA program comments, “I’ve had the unique opportunity to work for several very different business schools. Some, like Wake Forest, are highly ranked and enjoy attention from prospective students due to the strong endorsement these rankings offer during the exploration process.”

A fundamental change
Manufacturing Today
Denis Maier, professor of the practice in operations, wrote in a column: “Industry 4.0 is not another buzzword that can be waited out like some other management trends in the past. It is real and will fundamentally change the way we produce goods and provide services, just like the other three industrial revolutions did before. A closer look at the state of American manufacturing reveals that the current course of many companies needs to be corrected to leverage the opportunities and to remain a key competitive player in the global marketplace.”

Wegmans, Sprouts, Lidl: New grocers spark store wars
News & Observer
“A lot of the retailers are looking at ways to expand their geography,” said Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University’s School of Business. He noted that most grocery store chains are regional.

Art Pope’s Variety Wholesalers comes up roses amid recent retail tumult
Business North Carolina
“There’s always going to be that segment of the market,” says Roger Beahm, a Wake Forest University marketing professor. The Popes “have always been very singular in their pursuit of value. And cost savings is the key.”

How having multiple jobs impacts your identity
Quartz
Professor Sherry Moss writes, “When my colleagues and I started research on what challenges this population faces, we expected individuals to struggle with the logistics of handling multiple responsibilities, especially juggling calendars and conflicting demands from employers. Less expected was a challenge that plural careerists we interviewed said was particularly difficult: fitting their multiple jobs into their identities.”

REGIONAL

The price is wrong: Why merger activity is slowing in the U.S. and, well, everywhere
Tampa Business News
Wake Forest finance professor Ajay Patel said that if past repatriation tax holidays are any guide, public companies will use the bulk of that money to issue dividends to shareholders and buy back stock. “Even though a lot of companies had cash parked overseas, they still had access to plenty of financing at low interest rates,” Patel said. “Now that the cash is coming back to the U.S., you might see M&A go up a little. But most of that is going to go toward benefitting shareholders.”

How Des Moines gave away the same tax deductions twice
Des Moines Register
Jon Duchac, an accounting professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina who is researching the use of 179D among the nation’s 100 largest public school districts, said shoddy records and confusion about the tax break make it “entirely possible” that duplicated breaks happen frequently.

Corporate America is sitting on trillions in cash. Here’s who has the most dry powder in Portland.
Portland Business Journal
Ajay Patel, a finance professor at Wake Forest University, said a jump in M&A deal-making among those tech and life sciences giants is unlikely since so much of that cash is parked overseas. If companies were to repatriate those holdings, they’d take a huge tax hit, he said.

The story also ran in the Houston Business Journal, Denver Business News, the Boston Business Journal, and other news outlets.

Actress used fake news to move market for clients, SEC alleges
Toronto Star Online
The problem is potentially more dangerous for retail investors who are attempting to make investment decisions on their own, said Ajay Patel, a finance professor at the Wake Forest University School of Business.

The story also appeared in The Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets.

How Dick’s weapons-sale decision is defining it as a company
Pittsburgh Business Times
Roger Beahm, a professor of marketing at the Wake Forest University School of Business, believes for a company to take a stand on social issues, it’s a reflection of the personality and character of its leadership. “Those are decisions that are made by a corporate conscience,” Beahm said.

How the Charlotte icon Belk has changed under new ownership
The Charlotte Observer
Private label expansion is happening all over retail, not just in department stores, said Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University. “Continuation of the growth in those (is) going to mean a reduction in inventory of national brands, and maybe dropping some national brands,” Beahm said.

LOCAL

Triad university launches online business analytics program
Triad Business Journal
Wake Forest University School of Business is expanding its Master of Science in Business Analytics program online, the university said Thursday. The program is designed for professionals with more than two years of work experience and will allow them to pursue a degree while working. The first class will begin in May, the university said.

UNCSA, Wake Forest business school form master’s level partnership
Winston-Salem Journal
Helping “artpreneurs” acquire the skills and savviness to succeed in business is the impetus behind a master’s degree partnership between Wake Forest University School of Business and UNC School of the Arts.

Studies find half of N.C. employees leave at least one vacation day unused
Winston-Salem Journal
Julie Wayne, an associate business professor at Wake Forest University, said anxiety or fear can be powerful motivators in keeping employees from getting away from work. “They can fear they are going to get too far behind, that their bosses will discover that someone else can do their job, that taking time off could be held against them when it comes to promotions, or they think never getting away means better job security,” Wayne said.

Just point and click: Cyber Monday overtakes Black Friday as top shopping day
Greensboro News & Record
According to an estimate from Adobe Analytics, online purchases on Cyber Monday will climb from last year’s $3.4 billion to $6.6 billion.

“That’s a pretty amazing statistic when you think about it,” said Roger Beahm, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University. “Just in the last few years, the double-digit growth we have been seeing with online shopping suggests that we’re now at that tipping point where people are going to be shopping online more than there are people buying inside brick-and-mortar.”

Pay college coaches like CEOs (Link no longer available)
Winston-Salem Journal
Professor Ben King penned a guest column in the Winston-Salem Journal. He writes: “The recent athletic scandals at universities demonstrate the importance of changing the compensation models for college coaches. The current, myopic model rewards coaches for short-term results and fails to account for the long-term reputational and financial impact of scandal and rule bending. While corporate America is not immune to malfeasance, corporate boards endeavor to align the behaviors of managers, both short term and long term, with compensation models that merit adoption by athletic departments.”

Positive job prospects expected for 2017 college graduates
Winston-Salem Journal
Kyle Johnson, a sociology major with a focus in business and society at Wake Forest, has been looking for jobs in Winston-Salem and his hometown of Atlanta. “I’m interested in the media and entertainment industry,” Johnson said.

Lowes Foods embraces disruptive nature of retail rather than be its victim
Winston-Salem Journal
Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University, said Lowes Foods has recognized that it must use disruption to sustain growth today.

Krispy Kreme changes Panthers’ campaign: dozen doughnuts for $5.99 on Sundays
Winston-Salem Journal
The shift to a digital app and reward points system “reflects an important strategic shift for the company,” Roger Beahm, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business, said when the points campaign began in September.

Winston-Salem med management firm raises $300K, targets $1.5 million
Triad Business Journal
And ahead of that in 2013 as it was ramping up, the startup had taken the top honors out of 21 teams from universities across the country at the 2013 Retail Innovation Challenge hosted by the Wake Forest University School of Business. The company at that time was comprised of Bowline and Oakman, along with Scott Coldagelli and Tripp Evans, with all four being full-time MBA students.

Toys R Us claims business as usual in bankruptcy; analysts not so sure
Winston-Salem Journal
“Toys R Us’ bankruptcy is a reminder that what we are going through right now in retail is not an evolution, but a real revolution,” said Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business. “Shopper behavior is shifting more rapidly — from brick-and-mortar to online — than many retailers, including big-box, are able to adjust.

Triad motorists can play lottery while filling up at the gas pump
Winston-Salem Journal
Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business, said Play at the Pump is another way to encourage an impulse purchase from consumers.

This story also appeared in the Greensboro News & Record.

Lowes Food spices up advertising with fresh edge
Winston-Salem Journal
Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business, said companies or brands that imply expletives in advertising “often walk a fine line between increased awareness and decreased appeal of their ads.”