On-site spectators will be missing Friday as athletes parade in Beijing for the XXIV Olympic Winter Games opening ceremonies. There will be pandemic-inspired protocols in place, extending through the competitions – similar to the ones adopted at the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo. And there's a diplomatic boycott in place as well, with the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia opting not to send government officials to the Games, in a show of protest against human rights violations in China. (Athletes from those countries will still compete.)

Industry Leaders and prominent academics will meet to discuss and share research on “Service in the World of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies” in the 2021 Frontiers in Service Conference. The virtual event takes place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, July 9-10.

The past year has been a wake-up call for the hotel industry, and travelers will likely start seeing its effects as they begin checking in again. Like much of the hospitality industry, hotels are struggling to hire employees, while others still haven’t fully brought employees back to work.

The Journal of Service Research, founded by Maryland Smith’s Roland Rust and sponsored by Smith’s Center for Excellence in Service, is among the most impactful journals in business studies, according to the latest impact factor published by Clarivate’s Web of Science.

A study of the world’s top researchers identifies 18 from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in the top 2% of the most-cited scholars and scientists worldwide.

New Book Guides Workers, Leaders and Educators The next stage in the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has workforce implications that may seem surprising.

New research uses AI-based text analysis tool to track how a brand’s reputation rises or falls, moment by moment, on brand-related events.

The pandemic has changed so much about the way we live and work. And some of those changes are here to stay.

Roland T. Rust, Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, has won the 2020 Buck Weaver Award from the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science. The award recognizes career achievements in marketing science and is bestowed by the industry’s leading organization for quantitative marketing.