Whitman’s Commitment to Building and Supporting the Faculty of the Future

Syracuse University‘s Martin J. Whitman School of Management recently committed nearly one million dollars to an intramural grant initiative, providing seed funding for one-and two-year research programs in core areas that will enhance the school’s scholarly impact and reputation. Those areas include the business aspects of diversity and inclusion, future of work and organization, international and global business, social enterprise, sustainability, business analytics and business innovation.

Among the projects funded is a Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Mental Health. This project develops the foundations for a new venture that will explore how those with learning differences may excel in entrepreneurship. It also conducts research on the development of pedagogical materials and delivers teaching content to those who are focused on entrepreneurship and learning differences, first exploring ADHD but then also dyslexia, autism and others.

Also funded is a workshop on the changing nature of work and non-compete clauses in contracts. Planned for June, this workshop brings together a set of scholars from multiple disciplines, including business, economics and law, to discuss some of the most pressing issues related to changes in work and workplaces, such as employee mobility. The workshop will focus on non-competes in employment contracts and the gig economy.

Several other research projects were also funded:

• Being alone: How the changing nature of society and work has affected perceptions of loneliness (Brandes, P., Carnevale, J., Dharwadkar, R. and Vincent, L.)
• Gender differences in earnings conference calls (Comprix, J.)
• Resilience and transition among new Americans (Moss, T., Minniti, M., and Williams, T.)
• Vertical integration as an enabler for social entrepreneurship (Moss, T. with a SUNY ESF co-PI)
• Stakeholder orientation, financing, and supply chain sustainability: Evidence from state adoptions of constituency statutes (Giambona, E. and Aral, K.)
• Founder-CEO effects on innovation in different life cycle: Examination of startup, growth, and established stages (Park, D. and McKelvie, A.)
• Resource reconfiguration and redeployment in firm bankruptcy and exit (Balasubramanian, N. and Ye, Y. ’18 Ph.D.)
• Virtual reality in retailing: Effects of virtual fitting rooms (Xiong, G., Benaroch, M. et al.)
• Inventory pooling of large, expensive spare parts inventory used in the electric street car industry based on big data collected by built-in sensors (La Point, G.)