The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business awarded two PhD candidates with $4,000 each to support their research. CIBER Director Kislaya Prasad presented Yang Pan and Lanfei Shi, both PhD candidates in information systems, with the awards at a ceremony on May 11, 2016.
Yang conducts research to determine if information technology (IT) enables firms to expand globally and achieve higher foreign profits. Her research will leverage unique data sets from public Chinese companies to study the relationship between IT assets and companies’ overseas performance. The goal of the study is to provide practical suggestions for managers to expand businesses overseas through appropriate investments in IT.
Yang graduated from top Chinese universities, as she completed her undergraduate degree at Wuhan University and her master’s degree at Peking University. She has broad connections with Chinese research institutions and public companies.
Lanfei is working on a project to study the impact of mobile technology in diabetes self-management. Her project is in collaboration with the Harbin Institute of Technology in China and the CIBER grant is supporting her dissertation research. She chose to study diabetes because her grandmother suffered from it for 20 years and it impacted her entire family. Additionally, she notes that China has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world. She will use the CIBER grant to finance her travel to China for experiments, data collection and field surveys.
“The lifetime cost of unmanaged diabetes is $85,000 per patient on average,” shares Lanfei. “It creates great financial burden for insurance companies to absorb these costs themselves, so they are seeking solutions along with patients and physicians. Therefore, it’s my focus to examine whether and how we can utilize mHealth to improve the compliance to recommended care and lifestyle.”
Lanfei graduated from Xi’an Jiaotong University with her B.A. in information engineering and then attended the University of Pittsburgh to earn her master’s degree in human computer interaction and data analytics before starting her PhD in information systems at the Smith School.
“We are excited to award Yang and Lanfei with the PhD summer research grants,” says CIBER Assistant Director Marina Augoustidis. “Research for both studies will make a tremendous impact in their respective areas. In our fourth year of doing so, CIBER awards faculty and PhD candidates support to do research on international topics, prioritizing research that promotes the international competitiveness of U.S. business. We believe it is critical to encourage PhD candidates to do research in global business and provide this award to offset research costs.”
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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.