Recent Articles

Smith Brain Trust

Third-Party Apps for Brand-Customer Interaction, Smith Expert Gives Pros and Cons

Convenience is invaluable for both sides in business-customer interaction. Thus, companies increasingly are integrating live chat and messaging – an advancement from voice and email – into the customer service channel mix. Third-party apps facilitate and fuel this trend. “The top three apps (WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook Messenger) each have more than one billion active daily users, making them seemingly indispensable for brands to engage with their customers," says Bo “Bobby” Zhou, associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Smith Brain Trust

What is the Future of Humanity?

How will new technologies and changes in the economic and political landscape in different countries affect humankind in the next 20 to 50 years? Maryland Smith’s G. “Anand” Anandalingam explores different facets of that question with an expert guest in each episode of his new podcast, Future of Humanity.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Kevin Plank ’96 Shares Entrepreneurial Lessons at EnTERPreneur Conference

Maryland Smith alum Kevin Plank ’96, speaking with University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines during a keynote chat at the third annual EnTERPreneurship Conference on June 9, urged members of the audience to support and acknowledge entrepreneurial hustle whenever they are able to – including something as simple as stopping at a children’s lemonade stand.

Top News

Smith Grads Among Poets & Quants’ Class of 2022 Best and Brightest Online MBAs

New Maryland Smith graduates Anthony Duellman and Lynze Hagan are among Poets & Quants “Best & Brightest Online MBAs: Class Of 2022.”

Smith Brain Trust

How Target Missed the Mark on Inventory

Target missed the mark when calculating this season’s inventory and now the retailer is scrambling to liquidate extra items. The company is slashing prices to move items like patio furniture and household appliances to free up space on shelves and in warehouses. But how’d they get it so wrong?

Smith Brain Trust

Mitigating Drug Shortages via a Quality Management Rating System is Viable: New Study

The longstanding ‘safe and effective’ regulatory approach to assure Americans their drug products meet a high standard of quality remains effective. However, the pharmaceutical industry needs an additional apparatus – a quality rating system – to address recent supply shortages that are attributable to deficiencies in manufacturing practices, says Maryland Smith’s Clifford Rossi, a risk management expert. Think CMNS nursing home ratings and CARFAX® car history reports, he adds.

Smith Brain Trust

Climate Finance Risk Management Virtual Bootcamp Dovetails with SEC Proposed Disclosure Rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently proposed updated rules for public companies to report the climate-related impact of their businesses to the federal government and their shareholders. While the commission collects public comments on the proposal up to June 17, the University of Maryland has crafted a Climate Finance and Risk Management Bootcamp (June 23 and 30) geared to mid-career and senior professionals across industries, who increasingly weigh climate-change factors into business decisions and financial disclosures.

UMD to Present Climate Finance and Risk Management Bootcamp

As climate change increasingly affects business decision-making, risk managers, financial analysts and other leaders must anticipate how weather events may impact their growth outlook, estimate how port taxes may increase because of rising sea levels, develop contingencies for supply chain disruptions and respond to the unexpected.

World Class Faculty & Research

Why Companies Can’t Treat Every Holiday as a ‘Holiday’

Juneteenth may be the newest federal holiday, but that doesn’t mean consumers—especially African Americans—want to see themed streamers and beverage koozies at their local supermarket and party store.

Smith Research

How Sellers Can Make Group Buying Work for Them

When Groupon stormed onto the e-commerce scene in 2008 it sought to bring group buying to the U.S. But unlike in China, it never quite panned out as the company envisioned forcing it to pivot to coupons. Now, new research from Maryland Smith is examining why that happened and how companies can best implement the strategy.

Community

2022 Faculty and Staff Recognition Awards

One of the world’s top schools for business research, Maryland Smith also is where students experience top-level teaching in a highly supportive community. Smith chronicles and celebrates this distinction at the end of each academic year by honoring its outstanding faculty and staff members with awards of excellence.

Smith Research

Playbook for a Climate-Ready Supply Chain

Extreme weather that has increasingly hammered factories, rail lines, ports and highways is expected to intensify as the globe continues to warm. Across industries, leadership teams have awakened to the high degree of financial risk posed by this climate change.

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