Six Faculty Members Win Business Research Awards

Jefferson’s School of Business announced the recipients of the 2020 Faculty Business Research Awards. The purpose of these awards is to spur innovation and recognize impactful research presented at international academic conferences and/or published in scholarly peer-reviewed journals.

The six winners include:

* Anu Datta, PhD, associate professor of economics. She investigated the role of comparative advantage and market size on the sourcing of U.S. apparel imports once the textile and apparel quotas expired in 2005.

* D.K. Malhotra, PhD, professor of finance. He evaluated the performance of health care mutual funds to determine whether they add value to investors’ portfolios by providing a superior risk-adjusted rate of return.

* Tim Mooney, PhD, assistant professor of finance. He found evidence consistent with advance knowledge of takeovers being shared between investment banks and their mutual fund affiliates, resulting in highly positive returns for these mutual funds on the day of the merger announcement.

* Ray Poteau, MBA, CPA, professor of accounting. His co-authored work, “Cost Efficiencies in the Management of Commodity Mutual Funds,” showed that as a fund moves toward economies of scale with asset increases, fund costs increased proportionately less.

* Les Sztandera, PhD, professor of information systems. He proposed computational intelligence methodology to automatically generate regulatory/health/environmental guidance rules for textile and apparel companies; augmented, it could be used as a much-needed health-care disruptor tool in personalized medicine for patients and clinicians.

* Nioka Wyatt, MBA, director and associate professor of fashion merchandising and management. She examined how the U.S. manufacturing sector will remain competitive and sustainable in the global fashion industry.

This year’s awards were sponsored by School of Business alumni Jim Cass ’90, Bryant Greene M’96, Phil Kodroff ’82, Michael Nissman ’63, Ginny Palmieri M’95 and Matt Sullivan M’97.

“Scholarship is critical to our mission, and I’m very thankful to our engaged alumni for their generous support to promote research,” says Philip Russel, PhD, dean of the School of Business. “These awards celebrate the scholarship of our faculty and elevate the research profile of our school.”

The School of Business Celebration of Research reception to honor donors and recipients will be held this fall.

“I’m so proud of these faculty members. Their accomplishments elevate Kanbar College's reputation and enhance their own recognition as scholars,” says Ron Kander, PhD, dean of Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce and associate vice provost of applied research. “More importantly, though, their research enhances their teaching and elevates the student experience as their scholarly work informs their classroom teaching."