Management and Applied Social Sciences
Emory University Powerpoint Presentation
Washington University Powerpoint Presentation

Leaders: Gary Hochberg, Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Program at the John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis
Andrea Hershatter, Assistant Dean and Director of the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Program, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

Recorder: Sergey Chernenko, Undergraduate, John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis

This session focused on undergraduate research opportunities and related scholarly activities in the applied social science disciplines that form the underpinnings of contemporary management education. The session leaders presented examples from their own institutions of three types of research: traditional independent scholarly activities undertaken by students based largely on their own professional or intellectual curiosity, research opportunities that occur as the result of independent or group work with faculty members, and, finally, empirical activity deriving from field work that occurs either through classes or internships. The session also addressed creative interdisciplinary efforts that link applied fields together and connect applied and theoretical fields. The session leaders provided examples of projects that brought together students from different institutions and in some cases different countries. The discussion focused on such questions as:

• What are the best sources of research opportunities for students in management and applied sciences?
• What are some of the existing best practices, and how can we bring these to our own universities?
• What criteria should be used to measure the success of applied or empirical research projects?
• What are the methodological approaches, skills and resources we need to make available to students in order to maximize their success as researchers?

Main Points

What should be considered to be "research" in business? Is writing a business plan, for example, or working on a field project a research project? Both can be, in particular if the students' intent is to answer a question in terms of what is occurring in the field. The issue is whether or not we give students sufficient tools to make meaning of the research in the field and whether or not students are equipped to ask the right questions. The group's opinions were generally mixed on the criteria that projects should meet in order to be considered "research." One suggestion was to define "research" rather narrowly, but to define the opportunities for research broadly.

The reality seems to be that few business students are interested in research in the same way that students in other areas are. Business students will usually pursue research if they perceive it benefiting their careers outside of academia.

Although we want to offer a broad range of research opportunities for students, we do not want to be deceptive in terms of biasing students' perceptions of research in Ph.D. programs. For example, if we consider writing a business plan to be research, then we might present students with a biased picture of what constitutes academic research in business.

Several important questions were raised: Is doing research imperative for all students, or only for a few of the most capable and motivated? How many students are really equipped to do research? How can research opportunities be made available to students who cannot get into honors programs? Students with high GPAs might not necessarily be the best ones to do research, while students with lower grades might be extremely interested in a particular area and could become excellent researchers in that area. How do we identify appropriate candidates?

Challenges and Opportunities

• Faculty receive no compensation for supervising undergraduate research.
• Without appropriate guidance and support, students give up and leave.
• Librarians are usually underutilized. Many, however, would be interested in organizing seminars on using various library resources for research. Emory issues a business research certificate (non-credit bearing) to students who complete five sessions in research taught by the Emory Business Librarians.

Examples of Effective Programs

The session leaders provided examples of three forms of undergraduate research at the Olin School of Business at Washington University and at the Goizueta School at Emory University: independent study, work done in support of faculty research, and field work or internships.

Traditional academic independent study:

• An Olin student interested in risk management but unable to find any courses to take on the subject initiated an independent study in "Advanced Topics in Risk Management. The student used original papers published in academic journals, thus going far beyond simple reliance on textbooks. ." Similar initiatives could be cited by other Olin faculty
• An Emory student interested in disintermediation (the trend towards removing the middleman and selling products directly to consumers instead of going though traditional retail channels) did an independent study research project that formed the basis for the subsequent development of an actual business plan and resulted in the creation of a commercial music label.

Opportunities that arise from work done in support of faculty research:

• An experimental economist at Olin in the late 1980s was starting up an Economics Research Laboratory and found a student assistant with a background in both computer science and business who wrote the first computer programs for the experiments.
• At Emory, students worked with a faculty member on a paper regarding IPO pricing for dot-coms versus traditional companies. A paper "What's in a Name.com" based on the research, was published in the Strategic Management Journal with a student as one of the co-authors.

Field work related to courses or internship experiences:

• An Olin student who had a summer internship at a movie studio came back with an idea for marketing a new movie. The student worked with Olin faculty to do market research and create a marketing plan for the launch of an actual new movie.
• An Olin student who had an internship at DaimlerChrysler headquarters in Germany wrote an original research paper on knowledge management in large corporations. The student took a Harvard Business Review article as the basic model and expanded on it by drawing upon various literatures in organizational behavior.
• At Emory, 10% of core classes and 30% of electives require students to work on field projects. The projects are usually student initiated and can be in a variety of settings. Emory students developed an idea for an alliance between Home Depot and the Discovery Channel. They presented the idea to a faculty member who forwarded it to Home Depot. Students in the Operations Management class examined a process bottleneck in Delta's handling of the US Mail that was costing the company $2,000,000 in fines for failing to meet delivery terms. By re-routing the mail through multiple hubs, the students were able to eliminate the bottleneck and save the airline money. Emory accounting class students performed an audit at an inner city day care center, which revealed that one of the employees was skimming funds.

Participants cited two examples of formal honors thesis programs:

• The University of Maryland has an honors program that starts in the junior year. It includes small group seminars, a class on research methodology, and case discussions. The program often, but not always, culminates in a thesis or collaborative research project.
• The Research Scholars program at another university starts in the freshman year. Students are paired with faculty based on areas of interest. The program requires significant commitment from both students and faculty. Students interact with their faculty advisors, take a research methodology class, and receive a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. By their junior year, they identify their areas of research and determine whether they want to work on their own independent study projects or support faculty research.

The field of management provides opportunities for a range of interdisciplinary, inter-campus, and international opportunities and alliances. Often undergraduate students can contribute to these projects.

Links between theoretical and applied research:

• At Emory, theoretical research on creativity and knowledge management led to a student generating a computer model that allows a company to structure virtual brainstorming and ideation sessions.
• At Washington University, the Chemical Engineering department and the entrepreneurship program are building an alliance. Chemical engineering students working on their senior year projects will pair up with business school students whose role will be to build a business case for the technologies and products being studied by the engineering students.
  Links across Campus:
• At Emory, a link between the Sociology and Organizational Management departments helped a student to use organizational theory to write an award-winning thesis comparing school systems in France and the United States.
• At Olin, School of Art undergraduates work on the visual communications component of entrepreneurial projects being done by Olin MBA students for Boeing.

Links across the Globe:

• Emory students worked with students from partner universities in other countries to develop a multicultural simulation game that was published in the Management Communications journal.
• An Olin student working at Dresdner Bank in Germany helped to develop a risk management strategy for Dresdner Bank's clients by studying the risk characteristics of the NASDAQ.

Recommendations

• Raise awareness of the opportunities, for instance, through an honors banquet to showcase current student researchers, promote existing opportunities and attract new students.
• Utilize resources such as the library. Librarians are typically extraordinarily helpful in providing the students with the tools they need to engage in research.