Integrating Economic Theory, Management Theory/MIS and Business Intelligence

Stephan Kudyba, Ph.D. is an associate professor that focuses on market research.

He incorporates both established management and economic theory along with information management/MIS applications in his research and teaching activities.  His research includes strategic management and operational productivity and efficiency, which incorporates information systems, quantitative methods such as data mining, information and knowledge management and Business Intelligence.  He teaches at the undergraduate, graduate and executive MBA levels  and his courses include Data Mining, Knowledge Management, Internet Marketing and Marketing Research.  He holds an MBA and a Ph.D. degree in economics and has over 15 years of private sector experience in both the United States and Europe.

IT Strategy and Knowledge Management

Katia Passerini is an Assistant Professor and the Hurlburt Chair of Management Information Systems. She teaches courses in MIS, Knowledge Management and IT Strategy.

She has published in refereed journals and proceedings (Communications of the ACM, CAIS, Society and Business Review, Journal of Knowledge Management, Computers & Education, Journal of Educational Hypermedia and Multimedia, IEEE Internet Computing) and professional journals (Project Management Network, Cutter IT Journal, Cutter Benchmark Review), particularly in the areas of computer-mediated learning, IT productivity and knowledge management.

Her professional experience includes multi-industry projects at Booz Allen Hamilton and the World Bank where she worked on information technology projects in Europe, North America and the South Pacific. Dr. Passerini earned both an MBA and a Ph.D. degree in Information & Decision Systems from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Dr. Passerini conducts research on Information Technology Management, especially on wireless telecommunications trends, knowledge management, and IT strategy.

Research in Marketing

Dr. Rajiv Mehta, Ph.D., (Drexel University) is an Associate Professor of Marketing. Previously, he served on the faculty of Loyola University in New Orleans.

Dr. Mehta’s research has been widely published in major academic journals and presented at national and international academic conferences.  His research, which focuses on the areas of selling and sales management, marketing channels, and global marketing, has appeared in the several Journals including the Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Business Horizons, European Journal of Marketing, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business to Business Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Marketing Channels, Journal of Global Marketing, and others.

Published by Houghton-Mifflin, Dr.Mehta has co-authored two textbooks entitled Sales Management: Building Customer Relationships and Partnerships, as well as Personal Selling: Building Customer Relationships and Partnerships. In addition to winning the 2001 award for an outstanding paper in International Marketing Review, Dr. Mehta’s contributions to teaching were recognized by the alumni when he was awarded the university-wide Robert W. Van Houten award for Teaching Excellence in 2005.  He received the University Award for Excellence in the Category of Teaching in Upper Division Undergraduate Instruction and was also appointed Master Teacher. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Mehta worked in sales and marketing for a major international manufacturer of steel wire ropes and cables.

A Feminist Approach to Management

One strand of Hindy Lauer Schachter’s research deals with how relationship-based feminist models of “woman-centered reality” affect our understanding of organizations.  Dr. Schachter is a Professor of Management.

In its January/February  2008 issue, Public Administration Review published her case study of how Lillian Borrone, the first woman to head a Port Authority of New York/New Jersey line division, used a relationship-based leadership approach to regenerate a faltering Port of New York and re-establish it as the leading East Coast Port.

Currently, Professor Schachter is working on two papers relating feminist organization theories to public-sector performance measurement. Her research centers on a feminist model’s approach to issues of expertise versus community input in variable selection.

The Changing Face of Innovation Management

Shanthi Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D. is an associate professor of management.

A key area of Dr. Gopalakrishnan's research is managing the information process.  As businesses face an increasingly competitive environment, there is more pressure to gain competitive advantage through knowledge based innovations which result in new technologies and new products. Meeting this challenge is an even more important issue for senior managers.  One strategy for leveraging knowledge and reducing research and development expenses is for companies to partner with universities.  Dr. Gopalakrishnan's research in this area indicates that trust between partners, geographic proximity, and flexible corporate policies with respect to intellectual rights facilitates greater knowledge and technology exchange between corporations and universities.Once discovered, getting innovations to market is critical to gaining competitive advantage.  As might be expected, there are many important questions associated with time to market.  For example, are large organizations more innovative than smaller firms?  Are narrowly focused niche organizations more innovative than broader focused generalist companies?  Is being innovative synonymous with being a first mover? What is the impact of innovation on firm performance?

Dr. Gopalakrishnan's research has demonstrated that while organization size facilitates the adoption  of many innovations, niche organizations adopt innovations more quickly.  Innovations that are more tacit and integrated into a firm's activities are more likely to make a competitive difference to the organization.  Her research has also explored the performance implications of innovation.  While some innovation dimensions (innovation speed) more strongly affect objective measures of performance such as ROA and ROE, other dimensions (magnitude of adoption) affect perceived effectiveness of the firm rather than objective financial measures.

Effective innovation management also varies by industry and by firm.  Dr. Gopalakrishnan has studied innovation in the banking, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.  Her research indicates that firms in the biopharmaceutical industry need to innovate frequently, and enforcement and finite life of patents create different management issues when compared to service industries like commercial banking where knowledge about innovations in more transparent.

This research augments Dr. Gopalakrishnan's courses in the management of technology and corporate strategy while keeping SOM's curriculum current and innovative.