Frost News
Faculty Findings Published in The Wall Street Journal; Case Published in the Harvard Business Review
Although complaints from disgruntled employees, former employees, and customers are not new to companies, such criticism when vented on the internet, can cause tremendous damage to corporate brand and reputation, writes Centenary College of Louisiana professor Christopher L. Martin and Georgia Institute of Technology professor Nathan Bennett. The pair’s research was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article on corporate reputation and as a case in the Harvard Business Review. Given of the Internet, unhappy employees and dissatisfied customers can post messages, construct Web sites, and create blogs to make their grievances about a company known to millions of people around the world. According to Martin, such cyber-venting can destroy a company’s brand and reputation overnight. Martin & Bennett have identified five strategies companies take when online attacks occur and which approach is most effective. Further, their research provides a clearer understanding of why disgruntled employees and ex-employees, or disappointed consumers take their concerns to the internet. "Specifically, we have focused on the role procedural, interactional and distributive justice theory play in predicting when negative consumer and employee generated content on the internet (CEGC) will crop up", notes Martin. The two professors also propose a strategy to protect – even inoculate a company – from negative CEGC that can quickly shift opinion or destroy the value of a company’s brand.
Read the artice in the WSJ and Sloan Management Review.
Frost School Students Experience Business in China
Frost School of Business students learned what business is like half a world away, as students in Dr. Chris Martin's May Module 2008 traveled to China with stops in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The trip included several visits with prominent Chinese business leaders as well as presentations and tours at companies from a variety of industries, including Dell, General Motors, P&G, Sykes, Kingway Brewery, and the Hong Kong Stock exchange. The trip also included cultural and historical tours, including trips to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the terra cotta soldier exhibit.
Read a blog from the China trip at http://centenarybusinessinchina.blogspot.com
Frost Business School Seniors Present Papers at National Meetings of the Federation of Business Disciplines
Frost School undergraduate students Laura Pryor (‘08), Robert James (‘08) and Ryan Landry(‘08) each presented their research at the 2008 annual meetings of the Southwestern Society of Economists, a member of the Federation of Business Disciplines in Houston, March 5 through 8. Landry presented a second paper to the Southwestern Finance Association that was also held at the FBD meetings.
Laura Pryor from Baton Rouge, La. is getting a B.A. with a double major in Political Science and Economics. Her paper is entitled "Market Concentration and the Cost of Attendance in Major League Baseball." Specifically she looks to see if the cost of attending Major League Baseball games is smaller in cities with more than one MLB team as economic theory would predict. She finds that there is not enough competition to hold down prices when she controlled for other variables that affected the attendance costs. The main determinants of the cost of attendance are the players’ salaries, the number of players a team has on the All-Star team and the number of players in the top 10 homerun hitters. She received special guidance from Dr. Elizabeth L. Rankin on the econometrics and from Dr. Harold R. Christensen on MLB and Industrial Organization.
Robert James is from McKinney, Texas and is graduating with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in Political Science. His paper is entitled "Voting Economics: Examining the Factors Influencing American Citizens to Engage in Politics Through the Act of Voting." Both Dr. David J. Hoaas and Dr. Elizabeth L. Rankin assisted as he prepared his paper. Using data for the 50 states plus D.C. to explain the percent of registered voters that voted in the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004, James finds that economic variables play an important role. Homeownership, per capita income and the unemployment rate all have positive effects on voter participation.
Ryan Landry will receive his B.S. with a double major in Finance and Business Economics from Morgan City, La. His economics paper is entitled "Evaluating Violent Crime Rates in Houston Before and After Hurricane Katrina." Landry tests the hypothesis frequently heard in the news after Katrina that the violent crime rate in Houston had increased due to the immigrations from Katrina evacuees. He finds no indication of an increase in the crime rate. In fact, according to his analysis, the crime rate in Houston reached its peak the month before Katrina hit. Dr. Rankin served as his adviser with this paper.
Dr. Barbara Davis served as Landry’s research advisor on his finance paper entitled "Is Mutual Fund Performance Linked to Fund Manager Ownership?" Using SEC filing, his research investigated whether managers make more wealth maximizing decisions for the fund if they have a financial stake in the fund.
The papers presented as a part of The Frost School of Business Undergraduate Student–Faculty Collaborative Research Program are available on compact disk from the Frost School Business Office of the Dean at 318.869.5149.
