BERTOLON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS NEWSLETTER Fall 2022
INDEX Dean’s Message Excitement filled the air as we welcomed more than 225 new students to the Bertolon School of Business adding diversity to the more than 800 business students attending classes in person or online. With more than 60% classes in person, Fall 2022 witnessed hallways filled with people chatting, high fiving, Raminder Luther, Dean, commenting on how nice it feels Bertolon School of Business to be back, or lost and looking for where their class might be. There was a bounce in the step of many faculty as they got into the business of changing lives of our students, providing them the skills and knowledge to compete, exposing them to experiences they may not be afforded otherwise and researching various topics that impact our society and success of our students. When Assistant Dean Don White and I visited our ‘Intro to Business’ classes, I saw the students’ eyes brighten, posture straightened, and confidence exhibited when we mentioned that they were enrolled in one of the best 5% of Business Schools that are accredited by AACSB, and that they have access to the highly qualified faculty and resources like Bloomberg terminals that is afforded in less than 5% of business schools. Our emphasis on student success and recognition of their achievements continues through our peer mentoring and peer tutoring, award night and BGS induction ceremonies. As the only AACSB accredited school on North Shore focused on experiential education of our students, we are uniquely positioned to spearhead change in our community-based organization through outreach, in-class projects, and research. More than hundred students this year have completed projects for organizations in the region ranging from developing social media marketing to budgeting to information management through their internships and/or in-class projects. The VITA team helped almost 80 low-income families file their taxes in Spring ’22, and the Center for Entrepreneurship provided an opportunity to more than 20 teams to pitch their business ideas and compete for $5,000 in cash prizes.
Dean’s Message
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Faculty News
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Advisory Board News
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Center for Student Success News 3 In pursuit of excellence Center for Entrepreneurship News 3 and enhancing the Student News 4 quality of education we provide, our faculty continue to expand their scholarly activities to include Fulbright grants, publications, leadership in national and international organizations and collaboration with international partners through COIL. Two of our faculty will teach a course at Nanfang University, China with whom we just signed a 1+2+1 dual degree program articulation. Under this program, students from Nanfang University will complete their business education in two years at SSU after completing one year at Nanfang and will go back to Nanfang to complete their last year and receive a degree from both institutions. We continue to be supported by our advisory board which formalized its charter this year and welcomed Tom French as chair, Dino Di Palma as vice chair and Karen Andreas as membership director. Three new members joined our board bringing more diversity of industries represented on the board. On behalf of the BSB family, I’d like to thank all the alumni and friends of the Bertolon School of Business who have invested in the future of our students and the growth of our school. With state funding not keeping up with the costs of education, it is only with their help that we can provide top-notch business education and prepare global minded business graduates who contribute responsibly to the growth of their communities. This support allows us to expand our internship program, offer state of the art lab with 12 Bloomberg terminals, provide cash prizes in our business pitch competition, and afford our faculty the much-needed time to research issues currently impacting our society and/or our students. All these activities contribute to building the confidence of our students to forge paths of greater success. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!
For more information about the Bertolon School of Business, please visit salemstate.edu/bertolon or contact us at bsbstaff@salemstate.edu or 978.542.6608. We look forward to speaking with you! Bertolon School of Business 1
FACULTY NEWS BERTOLON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Department Chair Changes
Dean’s Faculty Fellows
Prof. Sanjay Jain took over as chair of accounting and finance, Prof. Mayuresh Kelkar took over as chair of marketing and decision sciences and Prof. Leah Ritchie will continue to serve as chair of the management department.
Dean’s Faculty Fellowships which provide additional time for faculty to devote to research were awarded to four faculty members for AY 2022-23.
Visiting Scholar
Prof. Hongtao Guo (accounting and finance) will use this time to examine the relationship between charitable donations, CEO traits and enterprise investment efficiency from China’s A-share listed companies over the past ten years.
We hosted Prof. Jiehui Yang, a visiting scholar from China, and she interacted with students and faculty during her stay.
Prof. Sanjay Kudrimoti (accounting and finance) will research, present, and publish pedagogy incorporating Bloomberg terminals into various finance classes.
Fulbright Specialist Award
Prof. Gavriel Meirovich (management) plans to research and publish his findings on cross-cultural differences in followers’ belief system regarding their roles and their impact on leader’s effectiveness and follower’s satisfaction.
Prof. John McArdle was awarded the Fulbright Specialist Award to work with University Isa Boletini Mitrovica in Kosovo. He will conduct a thorough analysis of Kosovo’s higher education market, benchmark Isa Boletini’s existing undergraduate programs against national, industry, and competitor standards, and develop a new graduate program curriculum for submission to the Kosovo national accreditation agency.
McNamara Awards The McNamara Awards are made possible by alumnus Brian McNamara ‘77, enabling faculty to not only be recognized by peers but also provide opportunities to continue their teaching, research, advising and service with a financial award. Distinguished Teaching Myunghee (Mindy) Jeon (management) Distinguished Research Miranda Lam (accounting and finance) Distinguished Service Guorong Zhu (management)
Prof. Youqin Pan (marketing and decision sciences) will investigate the relationship between logistics performance and environmental quality and present her findings at a national/international conference before publication.
Articles, Cases, and Book Chapters Published James, J.P. (2022). Roundtable on Equity and Inclusion in Advertising Since the Racial Reckoning of 2020. Advertising and Society Quarterly. Jeon, M. (2023). CSR and Employee Attachment in Tourism Firms: Perceived Ethical Leadership, Responsible Management, and the Mediating Role of Community Engagement. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism, 22(1).
Conference Presentations and Professional Service Profs. Zlatinka Blaber, Linda Coleman, Fernando Colina, Ripp Daniell, David Goodof, Anne-Marie Hakstian, Leah Ritchie, Mindy Jeon, Ken Mullane, and Chaerin Yun presented their research at various national and/or international conferences. Profs. Norbert Tschakert, Kathleen Barnes, Anne-Marie Hakstian, Mindy Jeon, Leah Ritchie, Linda Coleman, Youqin Pan, and Zaiyong Tang continued to serve on the editorial boards of various journals
ADVISORY BOARD NEWS
Charter and Appointment of Chair and Vice Chair
Charter for the BSB Advisory Board was ratified in spring 2022. Tom French was elected as the chair, Dino Di Palma as vice-chair, and Karen Andreas as the membership director. During this academic year, BSB advisory board has decided to focus on providing mentorship to our students and helping enhance the Center for Entrepreneurship activities.
New Board Members
We expanded our advisory board membership to include: BG (RET.) JOSEPH C. CARTER, DABCHS Senior Strategic Advisor to Windwalker Group, LLC (windwalker.com), General Carter has forty years of senior law enforcement administration and military command experience. He provides executive leadership and guidance as the senior strategic advisor for Windwalker’s security, emergency and risk management, and professional services offerings. BRENNA M. MURPHY, MBA Brenna Murphy is the Senior Director of Digital Health Services and Experience at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). In this role, Brenna 2 Bertolon School of Business
has a dual report into the VP of Digital Health and the Deputy Chief Information Officer, and provides strategic direction, program leadership, and technical operations management in advancement of digital health strategy and initiatives. She leads the operations and consumer experience for all digital health products at scale and oversees the product management of the My Children’s patient portal and related technologies. LINDA SARIS – Member since 2022 Linda E. Saris is the Executive Director and Founder of LEAP for Education, Inc. which started in Salem in 2002 as part of North Shore Community Action Programs (called Salem CyberSpace from 2002 2014). In 2015, LEAP separated from NSCAP, and since that time, Ms. Saris and her talented staff have tripled LEAP’s revenues and quintupled the number of students served. 2022 is LEAP’s milestone anniversary of 20 years. DAVID ZELLER David Zeller is the owner of David E. Zeller Insurance Agency, Inc. The agency began with three brokers including the Zellers, but has now grown to a staff of 11, with employees fluent in Spanish and Russian to adapt to the changing demographics of the agency’s client base.
CENTER FOR STUDENT SUCCESS NEWS Spring and Summer Internships
External Event Engagement We continue to bring students to external events to hear guest speakers, make new connections, and practice their networking skills. Thanks to the generosity of several North Shore Chamber of Commerce members, 34 students had an opportunity to attend NSCC sponsored events during the spring and summer.
Peer Tutors Our peer tutor program continues to support students who need help with their accounting, finance and operations and decision sciences courses. This spring we had four peer tutors who provided in person and virtual tutoring to students who needed help. The four tutors average 25-30 tutoring appointments per week.
Peer Mentors More than 54 students completed internships for credit in Spring and Summer 2022. Thanks to our generous benefactors more than half of these students received financial support to help defray the additional tuition and compensation costs they incur when they are interning. Students are engaged in internship programs with major corporations like Price Waterhouse Coopers, GE, JP Morgan Chase, Marriott and Disney Corp. as well as many small and medium size companies and nonprofits in the communities we serve.
This academic year we have nine peer mentors who help students utilize their Navigator and Navigate accounts and choose their courses for the upcoming semester. Our peer mentors also work with first-year students to help them make the adjustment to college and overcome any academic and social adjustment challenges that are impeding their success. The peer mentor office is staffed every day from 10-4:30 pm. Students can also schedule virtual appointments to meet with a peer mentor.
CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP NEWS Viking Business Pitch Competition
3rd Place – Abigail Hurley Abigail’s pitch was for Alleviate, a peer-to-peer mental illness support app as a lower cost and easy access alternative to therapy sessions. Alleviate will allow individuals to have an easy access to an environment where people can talk to peers who feel more like friends than workers.
Entrepreneurship Panel The second annual Viking Business Pitch Competition took place in spring 2022. Three winners were awarded $5,000 in cash prizes. 1st Place – Lorimer Mateo Lorimer pitched the idea for a store (Local Spot) that rents shelf space to small businesses. Business owners pay a monthly rate to have their products on shelves and they own it until it is sold, and Local Spot manages the sales. Lorimer stated “It was a great learning experience to work on my business pitch and putting my ideas together with the assistance of Professor Parvathi Jayamohan. She helped me to structure the presentation, always gave me honest feedback, and helped with practice and techniques to present in under four minutes.” 2nd Place – Patrick Tannian Patrick pitched the idea for Jersey Express. Individuals would have a yearly subscription to access any jersey of a professional sports club of the members choosing. The different tiers of subscription would allow members to hold more jerseys at a time and access to special editions.
The Center for Entrepreneurship at Bertolon School of Business will be hosting an entrepreneurship panel on November 15, 2022, during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Our panelists are Salem State alumni, who have diverse backgrounds and varied experience in different industries. They will share the ups and downs of their entrepreneurial journey, and provide their thoughts on acquiring the knowledge, skills, and personality traits to be a successful entrepreneur.
Third Annual Viking Business Pitch Competition The third annual business pitch competition is tentatively set to happen on Wednesday, April 12, 2023. All current Salem State University students will be invited to submit their business ideas to a panel of judges chosen from the local entrepreneurial community. Once again, cash awards of at least five thousand dollars will be given to the winning teams/individuals.
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STUDENT NEWS Experiential Education
Resume and Interview Preparation
In partnership with SSU Career Services we have implemented Quinncia, quinncia.io/ a robust AI software solution that helps students create and improve their resumes and interviewing skills. Many other colleges and universities have seen success and improved job search outcomes. Students will participate in Quinncia in three courses: Intro to Business, Business Policy and Strategy and in Career Management and Professional Development for Business Students.
BMC & SMIF
Students enrolled in Advance Financial Analysis class have the responsibility of managing the Student Managed Investment Fund. Prof. Sanjay Kudrimoti is the faculty champion for the fund and the Bloomberg terminals, and he ensures that students are trained in the use of the terminals to analyze financial and non-financial information before making recommendations for the fund. Thanks to our donors, this fund has grown from an initial investment of $25,000 to more than $350,000 today. Earnings from this fund are to be used for scholarship for students and we are happy to report that the first scholarship was given out of the earnings of this fund this year.
VITA
The VITA Program completed its mission successfully in spring 2022, during third year of the pandemic. Our partner North Shore Coalition for Community Development (NSCDC) in Salem provided additional volunteers, and the VITA program went live mid-February with eight very active student volunteers and seven NSCDC volunteers. These volunteers successfully completed 74 taxpayers’ returns and had many return customers. Vita program director Prof. George Gray plans to recruit and train more students next year, bring back walk-in hours for on campus support, and have permanent signage for location and parking.
COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning)
Through COIL collaborations, students practice their inter-cultural communication skills, develop international competencies, much needed in today’s job market, make new friendships, and work on their critical thinking skills, teamwork skills, and time management skills. Many students from Prof. Zlatinka Blaber’s and Prof. Hartling’s classes are involved in COIL projects. Current collaborations include: Kansai University, Japan – Prof. Eko Heru Prasetyo’s class, Japanese Industry and Global Competition University of Johannesburg, South Africa – Prof. Tankiso Moloi’s graduate class, Accounting Research Poltava State Agrarian University, Ukraine - Prof. Iuliia Samoylik’s class, Economy of Enterprise Panyapiwat Institute of Management, Thailand – Prof. Sunida Piriyapada’s class, Digital Marketing and Consumer Behavior Prof. Hartling and Prof. Jeon are also working with CIE to use a recently received grant to develop a faculty-led study abroad course and take students to China and South Korea. 4 Bertolon School of Business
In-Class Hands on Projects
Students in Professor Zlatinka Blaber’s ACC 800 class in Fall 2022 are working on experiential learning project for a tech startup company, Exempler from Kansas through Riipen.com.
Awards Night
The twenty-eighth annual Awards Night ceremony took place on Thursday, April 21, 2022. Dean Luther stated “This event provides us an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our hardworking, caring, engaged and dedicated students and faculty. After celebrating two awards nights virtually, I am so glad that we can celebrate this year in person. Despite various challenges, our students continued to persevere, manage their course load, while tackling their financial and personal responsibilities; and our faculty pivoted to meet needs of the moment, supported students, and each other while continuing their own professional development and scholarly activities. All those being honored tonight represent the best of our BSB family. They have shown incredible dedication, perseverance, and commitment to achieving great things, and their drive and passion inspire all of us to be our best.” The following awards were presented: Dean’s Award Ryan Belanger MBA Steven Clemens MBA Leonora Ivers MSA Riley LeBlanc accounting and finance Thomas Skiendzielewski management Abigail Hurley marketing and decision sciences David F. Barry Book Award Amanda Budrow
human resource management
Departmental Book Awards Accounting and Finance Cameron DeCroteau Steven Gaber Bruno Silveria
accounting corporate finance and accounting finance
Management Willow Ricketson Sharon Cadavid Simone McCreary Lin Yan
hospitality management human resource management international business management
Marketing and Decision Sciences David Gargan management information systems Jonathan Pellerin marketing Handi Henriquez operations and decision sciences
Beta Gamma Sigma Induction
The First Annual Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) Induction Ceremony took place on Thursday, April 14, 2021 in the Recital Hall. BGS is the international business honor society for AACSB-accredited schools, so only students from the 5% of world’s business schools get an opportunity to be inducted into BGS. The society’s goals are to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business, to cultivate and celebrate leadership and professional excellence, to advance the values of the society, and to serve its lifelong members. Nearly 100 attendees comprised of over 30 BGS inductees along with their family and friends, President Keenan, Provost Silva, BSB Dean Luther, and BSB faculty (including BGS Faculty Advisor Ken Mullane), enjoyed a wonderful evening recognizing the hard work and accomplishments of Bertolon’s brightest students. Congratulations to our first-ever BGS inductees!