Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth annual conference was moved online.

“Hosting this conference virtually allowed us to continue our tradition of celebrating women entrepreneurs,” said Alyssa Martina, director of the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “The conference met an important need to focus a spotlight on the role that women – including our female students – play in the world of innovation.”

“Women entrepreneurs have never backed down from a challenge,” added Lilly Rothschild ’22, student chair for the W.E. Do! conference. “When things don’t go as planned, you move to plan B. I rallied the Doherty Center Scholar Interns to help with marketing materials and recruitment, and pulled together a student committee of Meghan Murray ’21, Elizabeth Vitulli ’21, Haley Brengartner ’20, Mallory Trapani ’23, Zoe Kurtz ’22 and Claire Morrissey ’23, who each helped in recruitment and planning every breakout session question so that our event would run smoothly.”

More than 80 participants heard stories of resiliency and advice from Anne Morrissey P’23, CEO and president of Alydia Health, Anna Podvalkova, product marketing manager at A3Ventures, and Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint Water.

Morrissey discussed how she views entrepreneurship, noting an entrepreneur is someone who brings a product or service into existence to solve a current problem.

“The spirit of entrepreneurship is about solving big problems and I think that is a new skillset we are all going to need in this new world and reality that we are living in,” Morrissey said.

She also discussed failure and how she thinks “failure is such an incredible learning and rich ground if you accept it as such.”

Morrissey’s tips for success included remaining focused and resilient, being able to pivot one’s focus when necessary, keeping persistent, and finding mentors.

Podvalkova shared how she has been able to remain resilient and maintain focus through challenges. Her first piece of advice was to build a network. She explained, “Jobs come and go, but your network will always be with you.”

In order to build one’s network, it is more than just connecting on LinkedIn, she elaborated. It is important to invest in the relationships.

Podvalkova also encouraged participants to choose change and to get out of one’s comfort zone. She advised doing regular check-ups on one’s mind in order to manage stress and remain mindful, and noted that happiness takes discipline. You can be happy if you stay focused and choose to be, she said.

Goldin reviewed what it takes to be an entrepreneur, relating it to the pandemic. She said beginning a start-up “takes a lot of resilience and episodes like the one we are in right now. You just have to be able to continue moving forward and pivot when things are not necessarily going in the direction you anticipated and figure out what you can do to ultimately make the business grow.”

She also pointed out that most of the time people get in their own way. “We often have the answers but we believe that we can’t do something, so we don’t try,” Goldin said.

She urged participants to try and see what happens because one never knows what the outcome could be. “The most exciting thing is when you can actually run a product or service or be a part of something that helps people,” Goldin explained.

The conference also included breakout sessions, which allowed for participants to discuss in smaller groups resiliency and maintaining focus through times of challenge as well as the power of mentorship. The discussions were facilitated by Sarah Keach Baucom, Girl Tribe Co.; Kya Jognson, RainbowMe; Jordan Lacenski, SheWolf Collaborative; Zitty Nxumalo, Deftable; and Jennifer Trapani P’23, The Redwoods Group.

The Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship focuses on experiential education that encourages creative and design thinking, opportunity recognition, and plan formulation and implementation. Throughout the year, the center sponsors entrepreneurship-themed co-curricular activities for those interested in developing their entrepreneurial mindset and skillset.

During their senior year, Business Fellows split into two groups for capstone seminars. One group learned about portfolio management with Assistant Professor of Finance Adam Aiken, while the other group gained consulting experience in a course led by Assistant Professor of Management Scott Hayward. This semester, the consulting group worked on projects relating to brand and social media management practices, marketing research, and business expansion operations.

The Feather team helped the company gain insight into the buying behavior of Generation Z, specifically related to subscription services. Feather is a furniture rental subscription service, founded by Jay Reno ’10, an Elon Business Fellow alumnus. The students used their marketing research skills to perform secondary research and surveyed ����app�ٷ���վ�� students as well as students at other universities to gain consumer insights.

“I am excited to see how our research and work that we will provide to Feather at the end of the semester will allow Feather to grow and expand their business,” Lauren Ramos ’20, an accounting major, said. “Each of my group members sees the need and opportunity for Feather to grow throughout the country, especially as we will each be needing to furnish our own apartments post-grad.”

Impact Fulfillment Services (IFS), a company providing outsourced contract packaging and distribution services, tasked the fellows with creating B2B marketing ideas. Working closely with Irene Scharmack, president of Supply Chain Services at IFS, the Business Fellows offered a comprehensive review of all materials, from IFS’ pitch deck templates to its social media posts and website.

For Grayson Albers ’20, “This was an incredible opportunity to take what we learned in the classroom and apply it to a project for a client. I am excited to see how our work can be valuable for IFS. Hopefully we will even see them utilize some of our materials on their website and on social media!”

The team working with Smitty’s Homemade Ice Cream, located in downtown Elon and Burlington, N.C., helped the client by developing a social media user manual to act as a resource on how the brand should appear on social media and engage with new and recurring customers.

“We hope that the end product will shape what people think of when they hear the Smitty’s brand name and will affect what customers are saying about the brand,” Kaleigh Studdert ’20, a finance and marketing double major, said. “We included mock social media posts, general tips and tricks, and step-by-step instructions on how to create and upload certain types of content.”

At the end of the spring semester, each consulting team created executive summaries and virtual presentations with their findings and recommendations for their clients.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and location of the clients, most of the work was completed in remote team settings. Given that the clients ranged from New York to California, the mix of on-site and virtual experiences reflect the future of business, Hayward noted.

“I’m extremely impressed with the Business Fellows this semester,” Hayward said. “They showed tremendous initiative, perseverance and professionalism under difficult circumstances. That’s not just my opinion. Each client reached out to complement the students for their ideas. And each client wants to work with the Business Fellows program on future projects. This class is a testimony to our student’s ability to partner with the business community.”

In addition to this semester’s consulting work, the fellows completed projects last fall for Feather, ����app�ٷ���վ�� Office of Admissions and Benevolence Farm. For Feather, the fellows researched cities they believed would be best for the company to expand to based on surrounding universities and the need for people to furnish their apartments. To help ����app�ٷ���վ�� student admissions process, the fellows presented recommendations on whether the Office of Admissions should change its process to recruit higher achieving students. For Benevolence Farm, the fellows strategized how the farm could best use its products to provide a more stable revenue stream.

The Business Fellows program, directed by Tina Das, the Lincoln Financial Professor of Economics, prepares students to be innovative leaders in the competitive and dynamic world of business by blending classroom learning and real-world experience. The program’s signature experiences include a strategically designed four-year career development plan, company visits in New York to engage with executives and gain insight into specific industries and organizations, two weeks abroad as part of a Business Fellows global business course, and managing a $300,000 portfolio or consulting for a company as part of the Senior Capstone Seminar.

The paper, co-authored with Charles E. Drehmer, DePaul University, and Kesha K. Coker, Ball State University, highlights eight peer-reviewed “Teaching Moments” presented during the 2019 Society of Marketing Advances (SMA) Annual Conference. The teaching techniques shared centered on branding, confirmation bias, student engagement, creativity, ethics, public relations, and interviewing skills.

Some of the Teaching Moments from the conference:

1.     The Illusion of Immunity to Confirmation Bias

This is a brief in-class exercise to inform students of the presence and perils of confirmation bias. Students are shown one of the two prime images followed by an optical illusion that can be interpreted in two ways. Students’ initial interpretations of the optical illusion serve as a demonstration that people are biased to see what they expect to see.

2.     Phone Friday

Phone Fridays flip the classroom, allowing students to be the instructor by showing off the latest app or marketing campaign on their smartphone.

3.     #EthicsMatter: Reduce, Recognize, & Report

Instructors are tasked with implementing academic honesty and integrity policies that are created by the institution. Using a multi-method solution to discourage unethical behavior can help instructors keep up with the innovative ways students cheat.

4.     Taking Role-Plays to the Next Level: Superhero Personas

This is a two to three-week assignment where student groups are asked to pick a “superhero” persona from a list and represent one of these characters utilizing a good argument and research. Students create a PR piece and role-play that shows the “superhero” in a positive light.

5.     Teaching Students How to Nail the Interview

This teaching innovation is designed to cultivate a student’s ability to be proactive when they interview and effectively answer “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” before it is even asked.

For all of the Teaching Moments, view the article

Marketing Education Review is a resource to find innovative, evidence-based tools and techniques to improve classroom instruction and the student learning experience. Its focus is to promote innovative approaches to curriculum design, student learning and faculty development through pedagogical research that advanced the understanding of marketing education.

Gala joined ����app�ٷ���վ�� faculty in 2018 after earning her doctorate in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the University of Mississippi. Her research interests lie in marketing strategy and marketing-finance interface. Prior to her academic career, Gala worked as a business technology analyst and as a marketing strategist.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the inductions were conducted online via WebEx.

 is the international honor society recognizing top-performing students at schools accredited by AACSB International. The organization’s mission is to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business, foster personal and professional experience to advance the values of the society, and to serve its lifelong members.

The inductees represent the top 10 percent of the junior and senior classes in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, as well as the top 20 percent of the graduating class in the MBA, M.S. in Management and M.S. in Accounting programs.

Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and BGS chapter president, led the ceremony.

Chapter honoree Kevin Trapani, CEO and co-founder of The Redwoods Group, spoke to the inductees about the purpose of business, sharing his view that business must be a powerful force for positive social change. Believing that the sole purpose of business is to enrich shareholders and make a profit is incorrect, he explained.

“Great business leaders create great products and services – and great communities,” Trapani said.

Trapani discussed that when profit is the only goal, or the most important goal, unethical behavior happens. He advised students to be responsible leaders, who act ethically and do the right thing, and to lead from both the mind and the heart.

“Great leaders do the right thing because they have good values and, crucially, because they also did the hard work needed way in advance to be able to treat their people and their customers well,” Trapani said.

Trapani co-founded The Redwoods Group in 1997. Today, Redwoods, a certified B-corporation, is a social enterprise dedicated to insuring and protecting YMCAs, resident camps, Jewish Community Centers and Boys & Girls Clubs all over North America.

Trapani is the immediate past chair of United Way of the Greater Triangle (N.C.) and the board of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University. He is currently a member of the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.

During the ceremony, the chapter honored Adam Aiken, assistant professor of finance, and Brian Lyons, associate professor of management, with the 2020 Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year award. Members selected the professors because they encourage and honor high academic achievement by students of business; foster in students an enduring commitment to the founding principles and values of the society—honor and integrity, pursuit of wisdom, and earnestness; and support the advancement of business thought and practice to encourage lifelong learning.

Aiken received a doctorate in finance from Arizona State University. His research interests include financial institutions and performance measurement, with a particular focus on hedge funds. Before joining ����app�ٷ���վ�� in 2015, he taught at Quinnipiac University and worked for the UNC Management Company, the endowment arm of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lyons, advisor of ����app�ٷ���վ�� chapter of SHRM, has a doctorate in organizational studies from the University at Albany – State University of New York. His research interests involve recruitment, selection, counterproductive work and off-duty behavior, and leadership effectiveness. Before joining ����app�ٷ���վ�� in 2014, he taught at Wright State University and Fresno State University. Prior to entering academia, Lyons conducted HR-related research for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the American Institutes for Research.

2020 Inductees

Juniors

·      Jessica Anderson

·      Sara Armstrong

·      Jackie Baumann

·      Erin Cassidy

·      Nikki Cronin

·      Adam Dubowy

·      Brandon Goodman

·      Charlotte Greenspan

·      Andrew Harper

·      Stephen Hawthorne

·      Kylee Hebert

·      Jaqueline James

·      Kelly Leang

·      Meredith Mackenzie

·      Sophia Mancuso

·      Daria Marini

·      Lauren Maroney

·      Janie McCarthy

·      Stephen McCormack

·      Maura McNeil

·      Dana Miller

·      Olivia Mubarek

·      Erin Perkinson

·      Sophie Pollard

·      Brogan Quick

·      JW Simmons

·      Camden Spencer

·      Leah Traumuller

·      Alex Tudor

·      Anna Van Jura

·      Marley Vidmar

·      William Waggoner

Seniors

·      Victoria Baumgarten

·      Christina Beck

·      Kyle Bonner

·      Molly Chapin

·      Peyton Chur

·      Natalie Daniels

·      Becca Ellrich

·      Thomas Garcia-Meitin

·      Sydney Gruchot

·      Natalie Ivanov

·      Rob Lucas

·      Brandon Mack

·      Maris Mapp

·      Liz O’Brien

·      Carsten Johannes Raum

MBA

·      Leslie Baynes

·      Evan Dimke

·      Nina Guzman

·      Hayley Johnson

·      Jessica Kelly

·      Tyler Poole

·      Kate Scott

·      Ronald J. Smith

MSA

·      Ben Cook

Faculty

·      Adam Aiken

·      Susan Anderson

·      Shuji “Rosey” Bao

·      Carri Tolmie

·      Kate Upton

Beta Gamma Sigma vice president

·      Meghan Murray ’21

Outgoing Beta Gamma Sigma vice president

·      Noor Irshaidat ’20

Incoming Beta Gamma Sigma vice president

·      Meredith Mackenzie ’22

Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year recipients

·      2019 – Hani Tadros

·      2018 – Steven Bednar

·      2017 – Patty Cox

·      2016 – Steve DeLoach

·      2015 – Jen Platania

·      2014 – Irana Scott

·      2013 – Raj Gupta

·      2012 – Linda Poulson

AKPsi, the oldest and largest co-ed professional business fraternity, challenged its members to name its new series of virtual programs designed for brothers to support each other, to share stories, and to continue on their principled business leadership journeys while universities have shifted to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge included creating a mission statement and branding concept behind the name.

Pirsos, the president of ����app�ٷ���վ�� Mu Pi chapter, won for “Brotherhood Unbounded.”

“My concept was that being ‘unbounded’ means addressing the fact that there are limits surrounding you, but not accepting them,” Pirsos said. “There are so many limits placed on our academic and brotherhood experience, but as a community we can push past those limits and continue to learn, share, and grow together.”

Pirsos’ concept was selected from five finalists. In her submission, she wrote, “…for our brotherhood, unbounded truly means having or appearing to have no limits. We are in a challenging time right now in the world, in our country, in our academic experiences, and in our brotherhood. But despite all of the physical and emotional constraints, coming together as a community is helping us remember that we are no defined by the limits placed on us. ‘Brotherhood Unbounded’ captures the essence of the types of people that make our fraternity better. We are the challengers. We are the innovators. We are the risk takers. We are the ones who will not let obstacles stand in our way.”

‘Brotherhood Unbounded’ captures the essence of the types of people that make our fraternity better. We are the challengers. We are the innovators. We are the risk takers. We are the ones who will not let obstacles stand in our way.

AKPsi’s “” site is live and will be utilized across AKPsi nationally, reaching more than 300 chapters and 35,000 members.

The national honorary and professional management society encourages and recognizes scholastic excellence and promotes cooperation between the academic and practical aspects of management.

Founded in 2011, ����app�ٷ���վ�� chapter strives to recognize student achievement in the field of management and spread the importance of the major throughout the campus and community.

Initiates are required to meet national requirements of a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 for undergraduate students and 3.50 for graduate students. New members must have also completed a minimum of 30 semester hours at Elon, and have received a minimum of a “B” in one management course. Finally, members need to have stated their interest in continuing in the management or related curriculum by taking at least one more management course.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the chapter did not hold its traditional initiation ceremony. The initiates will receive their certificates and pins by mail.

Elon’s student executive board includes: Alessandra Martorana ’20, president, Mikayla Edwards ’21, vice president, Alyssa Mallon ’20, treasurer, and Kelly Quinlan ’20, secretary. Assistant Professor of Management Matthew Perrigino serves as the chapter’s faculty advisor.

2019-20 Initiates

·      Riley Allen
·      Kevin Alvarado
·      Adam Bloom
·      Patrick Brundidge
·      Zoe Budsworth
·      Janae Carpenter
·      Matt Casametno
·      Irisgzel Cheong
·      Cristin Connerney
·      Quinn Dolan
·      Madison Dwyer
·      Jill Madison Ford
·      Christine Frena
·      Lily Friel
·      Brandon Goodman
·      John Hagan
·      Anita Harkov
·      Alex Horenstein
·      Hannah Kenny
·      Thida Kim
·      Olivia Kraebel
·      Lauren Krause
·      Chloe Krulak
·      Avery Lagattola
·      Amber Lin
·      Abby Lord
·      Maris Mapp
·      Jovani Mendez-Sandoval
·      Julia Mercurio
·      Natalie Muir
·      Anna Murphy
·      Gillian Palmer
·      Erin Parkinson
·      Sadie Pollock
·      Grace Rappleyea
·      Kelly Quinn
·      Victoria Russo
·      Lilly Santiago
·      Abigail Street
·      Andy Torres
·      Christopher Van Dijk
·      Mary Vidmar
·      Cali Wadsworth
·      Nathaniel Widlake
·      Amanda Wilson
·      Claire Ziolkowski
·      Ashley Zung

Every spring AKPsi hosts a 5K in honor of Trent Stetler, an ����app�ٷ���վ�� student and member of the co-ed professional business fraternity who died by suicide in 2015. The event raises money and awareness for the chapter’s philanthropy, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Last year’s 5K raised more than $4,000 with over 140 participants.

Given the current circumstances and ����app�ٷ���վ�� transition to remote learning, AKPsi wanted to ensure the Elon community would still be able to participate in a similar event promoting mental health awareness and self-care.

“We know that transitioning to online classes has been challenging for many of our fellow students,” said Alexandra Pirsos ’21, a Business Fellow and member of AKPsi. “We think that this is the perfect time to promote mental health awareness and self-care. Getting outside, taking a break from technology, and walking is a great way to do just that.”

The goal of this competition is to walk or run as many steps as possible during the week either as an individual or a team. Cash prizes for the top three individuals and top three teams will be awarded.

After donating $5 to AKPsi’s and registering on , participants will be able to track their steps on live leaderboards. Registration ends April 18. Participants can either join as individuals or in teams, with a minimum of three people and a maximum of 10.

For more information or help with registering, please contact akpsistepitup@gmail.com.

The co-authors documented how the choice for activist investors to start communication early with management, before the 13D disclosure, fits within a campaign’s overall strategy. Nearly a quarter of the activist campaigns in their research sample began with what they call “open activism.”

“More credible activists with lower costs of activism are more likely to engage with management early and this early engagement is related to their desire to see specific changes made at the target firm,” the authors write in the paper’s abstact. “Together, our findings suggest that open activism is an important part of the activist’s underlying strategy and that market participants understand this link.”

The Journal of Corporate Finance aims to publish high quality, original manuscripts that analyze issues related to corporate finance, including financial structure, payout policies, corporate restructuring, financial contracts, corporate governance arrangements, the economics of organizations, the influence of legal structures, and international financial management. It is ranked as an A* journal by the Australian Business Dean’s Council.

Aiken received a Ph.D. in finance from Arizona State University, a Masters in Economics from Duke University and a B.S. in Business Administration (finance) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating from UNC, he worked for the UNC Management Company, the endowment arm of the university. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2003.

Aiken’s research interests include financial institutions and performance measurement, with a particular focus on hedge funds.

Gala presented and received the 2020 Federation of Business Disciplines Distinguished Paper Award for “CEOs’ Level of Confidence, Marketing Outcomes and Role of Marketing Power.”

In the paper, Gala and co-author Saim Kashmiri, University of Mississippi, focused on how CEOs with high levels of confidence succeed in overcoming the problem of myopic marketing management by investing more in advertising, R&D as well as corporate social responsibility. The co-authors also tried to find a solution on how to encourage under confident CEOs to overcome the problem of myopic management by changing the composition of the top management team.

The co-authors share in the paper’s abstract, “The results on a sample of U.S. publicly listed firms reveal that firms with confident CEOs, on average, outperform those with under confident CEOs on a key forward looking metric – hubris, however the great investments of such firms tend to come with an important cost – product harm crisis. These differences in strategic and marketing decisions seem to be driven by highly confident CEOs’ higher risk-taking personality which is biased towards gains and accomplishments compared to under confident CEOs’ vigilant focus for duty and responsibility as well as short term profits.”

Additionally, Gala presented the paper, “Stressed and Relaxed Behavior and Impact on Purchase Intentions Through Menu Labeling,” which she co-authored with Hecht, a marketing major from Carmel, Indiana. The co-authors looked at the presence of calorie information as well as food images to test how stress or relaxed minds select types of food depending on how they are presented in menus. Their research found that “although stress is associated with the biological changes that could be expected to reduce food intake, it works in the opposite way because of how individuals respond and cope with the stress.”

An abstract of the article is provided below:

“This study provides evidence on the impact of physical education on child body weight, cognitive, and noncognitive achievement using data from the Early Child Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K:2011). Students in the 2011 cohort were exposed to increased accountability pressures by No Child Left Behind, yet average weekly physical education time has not decreased from that reported in studies using the original ECLS-K class of 1998-1999. We instrument for teacher-reported weekly PE time using state physical education laws and exploit the panel design of the data to estimate individual fixed effects models to address concerns of endogeneity. We find time spent in physical education has essentially no effect on child body weight or human capital outcomes of U.S. elementary school children.”

Health Economics publishes articles on health policy from the economic perspective. It covers aspects such as the determinants of health; the supply and demand for health care; various market mechanisms; evaluation of individual procedures and treatments; and evaluation of the overall performance of health-care systems with a focus on equity and allocative efficiency.

Bednar received a doctorate in economics from Yale University and undergraduate degrees in economics and applied mathematics from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on applied microeconomics and political economy.

Rouse earned her doctorate in economics from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree in economics from Miami University. Her research in the area of education economics also includes several studies on the effects of year-round school calendars.