STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Fall Bartley briefCASE Challenge

The bi-annual Bartley briefCASE challenge tasks teams of VSB juniors with creating and presenting a solution to real-life business problems, which are judged and evaluated by a panel of VSB faculty and business executives. With just three days to analyze the task and formulate a solution, the case challenge allows students to showcase their communication, presentation and leadership skills. Students studied Café Kenya, an African fast food company branded as a healthy fast food option. The teams had to choose between accepting an offer from a private equity firm, a full buyout deal or maintaining ownership of the company. The winning team conducted a market analysis and qualitative analysis, which ultimately led to them choosing the private investment offer. Through their analyses, they found that it would make the most sense quantitatively, but also would allow the company to expand into new markets. The BriefCASE challenge is part of the Backpack to Briefcase professional development program for VSB students. As with many engagements this past year, the case competition was presented virtually, which allowed students to improve their virtual communication and presentation skills.

VSB '22 Winners (from left to right) Kirk Bell Gabriella Egidio Olivia Moyer Julia Rasweiler Rachel Witherite

Father Farrell Undergraduate Research Award

Olivia Pfieffer '22 CLAS conducted a research project titled “An Empirical Analysis of the Glass Cliff,” which analyzed the phenomenon of placing women into leadership positions during a period of crisis where the chance of failure is higher. Using Stata software to perform quantitative analysis, Olivia’s project utilizes financial and executive data from Compustat for over 24,000 companies between the years of 1992 and 2018 to examine whether the glass cliff is present in the United States. Named in honor of the late Fr. John Farrell, who taught economics at Villanova for two decades, and initiated by a donation from Scott Steel ’01 VSB and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, the Farrell Undergraduate Research Fund is a program dedicated to supporting undergraduate research projects in economics. Olivia Pfieffer ’22 CLAS is the recipient of the fall 2020 Fr. Farrell Undergraduate Research Award.