Research
More than outstanding teachers, the College of Business faculty include internationally recognized researchers and thought leaders in their fields. Our faculty engage in relevant, impactful research that yields important insights into the complex problems facing businesses today. Their research advances both the science and practice of their business disciplines.
Through their research, our faculty members model intellectual curiosity and problem-solving. Known for their dedication to teaching, our faculty leverage their research insights in the classroom to provide an enriched learning experience.
Department Spotlight: Sports Administration
Research highlights from the Sports Administration Department
- Elizabeth "Liz" Wanless, Associate Professor in Sports Administration, mainly researches advanced analytics application to various aspects of sport organization operations. Liz’s recent article titled “Exploring Brand-Related Twitter Conversation Topics” is published in the Sport Marketing Quarterly. According to the research, the world of sports marketing, social media plays a pivotal role. To effectively navigate the wealth of consumer conversations, the research emphasizes the value of topic modeling, specifically, unsupervised latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). The method is applied to dissect Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)-related Twitter conversations during the 2020 season. From the analysis of 118,518 tweets, the authors unearthed 18 conversation topics grouped into two key themes: social justice issues and on-court performance. This underscores the power of unsupervised LDA for comprehensive data analysis and offers a new perspective on the world of sports management. The research extends the use of natural language processing in the sports industry, providing a foundation for understanding fan conversations.
- Jim Strode, O’Bleness Associate Professor of Sport Management, researches high school athletics, gender in sport leadership, coaching effectiveness and philanthropy. His recent article titled “Organizational-Level Factors That Influence Women Coaches Experiences” is published in theJournal of Sport Management. This study aimed to explore the real-world challenges faced by female high school basketball coaches, identifying what helps and hinders them within their coaching roles. Interviews were conducted with nine women coaches at two different points in time, delving into how various aspects of their coaching positions, particularly at the organizational level, have impacted their overall coaching experience. Findings revealed two key organizational-level challenges: dealing with inconsistent hiring practices and confronting the prevailing hypermasculine culture in school sports. These organizational factors were found to have far-reaching effects, extending to both the interpersonal and individual dimensions of the coaches' experiences. Interpersonally, coaches' interactions with mentors and their interactions with athletic directors were notably influenced by these organizational hurdles. Individually, elements such as age, experience, and sexual orientation were also impacted by these organizational dynamics. In summary, this research underscores the significance of specific organizational factors that shape the experiences of women coaches at both interpersonal and individual levels. It also delves into the power structures embedded in these relationships, shedding light on their implications.
Special Merits and Accomplishments
College of Business faculty members serve as Editors, Associate Editors, and members of the Editorial Review Board for over 50 academic journals, demonstrating their impact within their specific disciplines.
- Nick Panagopoulos, O’Bleness Professor of Marketing, was appointed Senior Editor of the Journal of Business Research (JBR) in the tracks of Sales, B2B Marketing, and CSR/Ethics. With an impact factor of 11.3, JBR is considered a top journal in the field of business.
- Luke Pittaway, Copeland Professor of Entrepreneurship, was awarded the 2023 Ohio University Presidential Research Scholar Award.
Research Grant Recipients
The following members of the College of Business faculty received research seed grants from the Intellectual Contributions Continuous Improvement Team (ICCIT) for 2022-2023. Each recipient will make at least one presentation as part of the College of Business’ Research Colloquia series:
- Ehsan Ardjmand (Assistant Professor of Analytics & Information Systems) and Bill Young (O'Bleness Associate Professor in Analytics & Information Systems): “Dynamic and Optimal pricing under Local Externalities Using Deep Reinforcement Learning”
- Shea Burden (Assistant Professor in the School of Accountancy): “The Impact of Emotions on Creditor and Non-Professional Investors Judgments”
- Megan Seymore (Assistant Professor in the School of Accountancy): “Internal Auditors’ Reporting of Audit Finding: How Organizational Culture and Internal Audit Department Culture Influence Reporting:
- Aaron Wilson (Associate Professor in the School of Accountancy): “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and the Evolution of Governance: The effect on Whistleblowing”
Research-Focused Faculty Awards
2023
- Jitendra Tayal: Excellence in Intellectual Contributions
- This award recognizes outstanding intellectual contributions in both qualitative and quantitative publications.
- Nikolaos Panagopoulos: Research Mentor Award
- The Research Mentor Award is given to faculty members who have demonstrated a willingness to serve as a mentor to colleagues seeking to launch or improve scholarship and intellectual contributions or to support undergraduate and graduate research theses, projects, and related activities.
2022
- Sinan Gokkaya: Excellence in Intellectual Contributions
- This award recognizes outstanding intellectual contributions in both qualitative and quantitative publications.
- Luke Pittaway:Research Mentor Award
- The Research Mentor Award is given to faculty members who have demonstrated a willingness to serve as a mentor to colleagues seeking to launch or improve scholarship and intellectual contributions or to support undergraduate and graduate research theses, projects, and related activities.
2021
- Liz Wanless: Excellence in Intellectual Contributions
- This award recognizes outstanding intellectual contributions in both qualitative and quantitative publications.
- Ehsan Ardjmand and Grigorios Livanis: Research Mentor Award
- The Research Mentor Award is given to faculty members who have demonstrated a willingness to serve as a mentor to colleagues seeking to launch or improve scholarship and intellectual contributions or to support undergraduate and graduate research theses, projects, and related activities.
- Tammy Rapp: Research Impact Award
- The College of Business Research Impact Award recognizes faculty members who have distinguished themselves as thought leaders in their discipline or profession on a national or global level. Recipients of this award are able to clearly demonstrate that their body of research and leadership has had an impact on one or more of the following: academic research, student learning, executive education, consulting, and the positive role of business on society and the economy.