Smith School Awards 14 Faculty Grants for Innovative Research

Fourteen faculty teams at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have been awarded three-year grants from the school for research projects that address the world’s grand challenges and reimagine learning in support of the University of Maryland’s vision and the Smith School’s strategic plan.

The Smith School’s Dean’s Office announced the new internal grant program in fall 2022. The program provides $250,000 to support additional research for each of the next three academic years. Grants awarded range from $10,000 to $40,000 per research team.  In addition, several projects involve data purchases that can help benefit additional research in the school beyond these programs.

“I am very pleased to announce below the recipients of this coming year’s internal grants,” said Gilad Chen, Smith’s associate dean for research. “The topics investigated across the research programs address highly important and timely workforce, organizational, and societal problems, in line with our strategic plan.”

Here are the faculty teams receiving grants and their research projects:

• Serguey Braguinsky, Rajshree Agarwal and Yuheng Ding, for their research on “Knowledge Complexity, and its Impact on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Income Inequality.”
• Sean Cao and Alex He, for their research on “Responsible AI: The Adoption of AI in Retail Product Pricing and Social Equity and Inclusion for Consumers.”
• Jessica Clark, Jui Ramaprasad, Lauren Rhue and Siva Viswanathan, for their research on “Detecting and Mitigating Toxic Content in Online Platforms.”
• Ali Faraji-Rad, Andy Li and Shareef Shah, for their research on “Persuasion Over New Communication Mediums.”
• Anil Gupta, Siva Viswanathan and Kunpeng Zhang, for their research on “The Heterogenous Diffusion of AI Skills,” and the creation of the “Smith AI Index.”
• Il-Horn Hann and Weihong Zhao, for their research on “The Role of Social Media in Propagating Firm Efforts in ESG.”
• Rebecca Hann, for her research on “ESG Disclosure, Supply-Chain Disruptions, and Human Capital Disclosure.”
• Amna Kirmani, Andy Li and Rosie Ferraro, for their research on “How Companies Should Convey Their Silence on Sociopolitical Issues.”
• David Kirsch, Nima Farshchi, Evan Starr and Reuben Hurst, for their research on “Smith Workplace Partisanship (SWoP) Index: Measuring Workplace Partisanship With Voter Registration Files.”
• Jennifer Carson Marr and Aneesh Rai, for their research on “Status Loss, Status Mindsets and Job Crafting,” and “Organizational Rejection Messages and Applicant Reengagement.”
• Bruno Pellegrino, for his research on “Big Data for Equitable Growth and the Public Good.”
• Raghu Raghavan, for his research on “AI for Efficient and Equitable Organ Allocation Policies.”
• Wen Wang, for her research on “Investigating the Power of Students’ Facial and Motion Cues for Creating Personalized Education and Improving Teaching Content in Online Classes.”
• Yi Xu and Bo (Bobby) Zhou, for their research on “Public Private Partnership and Congestion in Healthcare Provision.”