“The Goizueta faculty comprises an outstanding community of accomplished scholars, educators, and leaders,” says Wei Jiang, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance, “They continually push the boundaries of knowledge and best practices.”

Join us in celebrating these faculty members for their recent honors and accolades:

Faculty Books

Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean and professor of information systems and operations Management

An Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in Python, Springer, July 2023

Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chaired Professor of Marketing

Customer Centric Support Services In The Digital Age: The Next Frontier Of Competitive Advantage, Palgrave Macmillan, Decemeber 2023

Wesley Longhofer, Goizueta Foundation Term Associate Professor of Organization & Management and executive academic director of the Business & Society Institute

Social Theory Re-Wired (3rd edition), Routledge, June 2023

Research and Teaching Awards

Sandy Jap, Sarah Beth Brown Professor of Marketing, is a fellow for the American Marketing Association (AMA) Fellow as of 2023. The AMA gives this distinction to members who have who have made significant contributions to the research, theory, and practice of marketing, and/or to the service and activities of the AMA over a prolonged period of time.

Jap is also the 2023 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management James M. Comer Award (2023) runner up for best contribution to Selling and Sales Management Theory, received for The Big Open Spaces in Sales Negotiation Research, with Stefanie L. Boyer.

Sergio Garate, assistant professor in the practice of finance and director of the Goizueta Real Estate Initiative, won the Jonathan Welch Award for best case study manuscript at the 2023 North American Case Research Association meeting.           

Panagiotis Adamopoulos, assistant professor of information system and operations management, won the 2023 Goizueta Business School Alumni Award for Excellence in Research. Adamopoulos also won the 2023 Emory University Goizueta Business School Research Grant.

Prasanna Parasurama, assistant professor of information system and operations management, was the 2023 runner up for the Best Responsible Research Award from the Academy of Management OMT.

Melissa Williams, associate professor of organization and management, won the 2023 Goizueta Business School Holland Award for Excellence in Research, the school’s research award at the associate professor level.

Allison Burdette, professor in the practice of business law, was awarded Poets and Quants Best Undergraduate Business School Professors Award.

Wei Jiang, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance, was elected to become the Vice President of American Finance Association (AFA), the premier association for academic finance. She will become President of AFA in 2026.

Community Service

Jesse Bockstedt, senior associate dean for graduate programs and professor of information systems and operations management, joined the board of directors for Georgia Organics Board of Directors in February 2023. He advises the CEO of the nonprofit Georgia Organics and serves on the Finance and Operations committee.

Bockstedt also joined the board of directors for Atlanta Technology Angels in January 2023. In this role, he leads and manages Atlanta Technology Angels with specific committee responsibilities for member education.

Jeffrey Byrne, assistant professor in the practice of accounting and director of master of professional accounting, joined the Board of Advisors for BidBee, LLC in April 2023.               

Peter Roberts, professor of organization and management and academic director of Specialty Coffee Programs in the Business & Society Institute, co-Founded the Research Group for Sustainable and Equitable Specialty Coffee Markets in March 2023. The group is a network of 30+ researchers from more than 25 universities and other organizations.

Tonya Smalls, assistant professor in the practice of accounting has joined the advisory board of Make-A-Wish Georgia as of May 2023.

Andrea Dittmann, Assistant Professor of Organization & Management, was named Co-Director of Research of New Blue in fall of 2023. In this role, she will be leading and cultivating collaborations between researchers and law enforcement fellows aimed at organizational reform and policy change to improve community trust.

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, check out our faculty profiles and their related publications. 

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Her classmates were popping with the same curiosity about collaborating with the Emory College advanced hip-hop class: How were international business law and hip-hop going to work together? 

The assignment was to perform an engaging original dance on Patterson Green that tackled a current human rights issue in international business law. 

Hip-hop dancer Madison Lee 24BBA 24C had a few doubts herself. As a first-year business major, she wondered if the international business law students would be willing to try choreography and dancing, some for the first time. Plus, her crew had to create a routine together that reflected human trafficking, and they needed to capture its severity. 

The discomfort was part of Allison Burdette’s design. As Goizueta Professor in the Practice of Business Law, learning means opening yourself to new things. “It’s not a risk if you know how it turns out,” she said. “In Zoom classes, we miss the moments of serendipity. It was time to create a little bit of that magic.”  

Goizueta Got Something to Say

On a brilliant day on Patterson Green in late April, the business-dance teams made their (literally) moving presentations. Daro’s crew of five focused on the global oppression of prisoners, first with a call-and-response poem. Posters displayed during the dance featured excerpts of the poem (We suffer / they tyrannize / You catastrophize, but we still die). 

Dressed in all black, the dancers synced distressful movements to “Believer,” a chart-topping 2017 song from Imagine Dragons: “I’m fired up and tired of the way that things have been / Pain! You break me down and build me up.”   

“A lot of times when we think of human rights violations, we think of other countries far away that are treating people unfairly,” Daro said. “The reality is that the U.S. is treating people unfairly through our criminal justice system. We systematically incarcerate Black Americans at a rate much higher than any other race. We also employ cruel punishment in the form of solitary confinement. I chose this topic because I wanted to acknowledge the human rights violations taking place close to home and learn more about how I can help.”

Lee’s crew wore blue, the internationally recognized color for human trafficking awareness, and used hip-hop as part of a public service announcement. They centered a narration by activist Barbara Amaya of being trafficked from age 12, which included the poignant line, “I never had my first dance.” Choreographed to “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” by Drake and Rick Ross, the seven dancers used aggressive moves to convey the violence of human trafficking. They ended in a tableau of submissive poses such as kneeling or hands covering eyes, before describing ways that the audience could help.

“Everyone in my group had such great attitudes, and they really wanted to learn and make sure they nailed the choreography,” Lee said. “This experience has definitely helped me with my leadership and collaboration skills, especially when working with people across multiple disciplines.”

The six student dancers who interpreted climate change waved their bodies apart and together to portray sea level rising to the eerie percussion of “Money Trees” by Kendrick Lamar. Each dancer broke away to recite original lines of spoken word such as, “The earth cries out, but we cover our ears.” 

“Waving is like a current through your limbs, and when I saw the dancers pass that along to one another to create this massive circular wave that washed down and brought bodies down to the ground, I felt like that group was effective at embodying the subject matter,” said Assistant Professor Julio Medina 13C of Emory Dance and Movement Studies Program, whose dance students including Lee were leading the business students. “Water levels are rising but they’re going to come down hard on us.”

“It Was a Good Day”

Burdette’s previous semester’s work with Emory’s inaugural Arts and Social Justice Fellows program gave her confidence to collaborate with Medina. “With the pandemic, there is a sense of now or never,” he said. “If we don’t go out of our way now, this is not going to happen.”

While the performances tested his students’ leadership skills, learning hip-hop tested attributes that Goizueta Business School students master for business success.  

“Hip-hop takes discipline and commitment and a lot of creativity and willingness to work in collaboration with others,” Medina said before adding one more: “You need to make yourself vulnerable.”

Daro has digital proof of that. “I have some pretty cringe videos on my phone of me dancing alone in my room. But it was very worth it,” she said. 

“This experience taught me to keep an open mind heading into any project. I have no idea where my career will lead in the future, but if I head into new experiences with excitement and enthusiasm, I will learn new things about myself and find new passions to explore.”

Cross-collaboration across Emory University on critical human rights issues is celebrated with creative, thought-provoking events like these. Learn more about the important work Goizueta is doing through The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute to advance our understanding that meaningful change requires meaningful action. 

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The Roberto C. Goizueta Award for Leadership is the highest honor given to a student graduating from Goizueta Business School. Funded by The Goizueta Foundation, it is presented annually to two graduating Goizueta Business School students—one BBA and one MBA—who during their time at school have embodied the values and leadership qualities exhibited by Mr. Goizueta. Candidates are evaluated based on key criteria including: a love of learning, inspirational leadership, creative thinking, courage and commitment, transparency and trust, and excellence and integrity. Each honoree receives a $25,000 award and identifies the faculty or staff member at Goizueta who had the greatest impact on them during their time as a student. The faculty or staff members selected each receive a $5,000 honorarium. 

“At Goizueta, we are preparing principled leaders to have a positive influence on business and society,” said Karen Sedatole, Interim John H. Harland Dean of the Goizueta Business School. “Students like Lori and Willie are shining examples of our core values in action. We value our partnership with The Goizueta Foundation and their unwavering support of convening the brightest minds to solve the world’s biggest problems.”

“We are honored to support this important award,” said Olga Goizueta Rawls, board chair and chief executive officer of The Goizueta Foundation. “I congratulate Lori and Willie on receiving the Roberto C. Goizueta Award for Leadership and on their many important contributions to the Goizueta Business School community and their peers, which have also helped to bring recognition to the school and its programs.”

Meet Lori Steffel 21BBA: Student Government President, Community Changemaker, and Teaching Assistant

With a deep commitment to scholarship and community, Lori Steffel maintained high honors during the COVID-19 pandemic while also serving as the Emory University Student Government Association president, overseeing four divisional councils, managing a $1.4 million budget, and balancing numerous campus leadership responsibilities. Steffel was also the lead teaching assistant for two core classes in the undergraduate curriculum: Strategic Management and Business Law. 

Among her many achievements, Steffel created an Undergraduate Student Leadership Council, initiated the Student Artisan Market and Emory Food Security Fund, co-launched the Emory Votes Initiative, and created a Transportation Committee to evaluate making shuttle routes more responsive to student needs during the pandemic. 

Steffel’s fellow BBA seniors and peer leaders wrote, “It is hard to find someone at Emory who Lori does not know or who has not been touched by her intellect and kindness. During her tenure as SGA President, she has been a fearless advocate for students and the Emory community.”

Inspired by her mentor and Professor in the Practice of Business Law Allison Burdette, Steffel praised the educator for whom she has been a teaching assistant.  “She weaves her students’ lives into class examples to help us remember the content, and she also takes an interest in us beyond the classroom,” Steffel wrote of Burdette. “All of this becomes even more impressive when you factor into account that she teaches every single student in the business school; her ability to connect with and support students is unmatched.” 

Meet Willie Sullivan 21MBA: A Powerful Voice for Justice

For opera singer Willie Sullivan, portraying the role of Alfredo in the Verdi opera “La Traviata” was both moving and powerful. With his rich tenor voice, he imbued awe within a hushed audience that savored his every note.

At that moment in his life, Sullivan could have no idea that he would graduate as a National Black MBA Scholar of Goizueta Business School’s Class of 2021, where his powerful voice would once again become the instrument for inspiring emotional response — this time in the realm of racial justice.

Ever conscious of how classroom learning can translate into real-world impact, Willie Sullivan, along with Goizueta leaders and classmates, conceived of, envisioned, and managed the execution of the inaugural John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition. The competition inspired over 500 students from more than 50 universities and leading businesses including Walmart, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Truist Bank, Salesforce, and The Southern Company to create innovative and actionable racial justice initiatives for those companies. 

Associate Dean for Goizueta IMPACT Lynne Segall noted, “After hearing Willie talk about his vision, it was impossible for anyone to say no.”  

Sullivan also received the Fall 2020 MBA Core Values award for Courage. In February, he was honored with the Leaders in Corporate Citizenship “Rising Star” Award” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. 

“As I have often said, real societal change is hard,” Sullivan noted. “It takes people showing up over and over again, even when the camera crews and media have moved on. It takes showing up when you are tired, stressed, or dealing with other issues.”

For her passionate support of the John Lewis Case Competition, Sullivan recognized Segall as the faculty member who most influenced his Goizueta journey. “Professor Segall stayed committed to this competition through family commitments, a large course load, and being an active member of her civic community,” he said. “I am still surprised with how much she is able to accomplish. I don’t even question it. I am just thankful she came into my life when she did in order to make my vision a reality, and to continue the work of John Lewis, Martin Luther King, and so many others for racial equality.” 

Learn more about the critical work of The Goizueta Foundation to inspire motivated young people to learn and succeed. Find out how The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute is transforming business to solve society’s challenges through cutting-edge research, innovative programming, and principled leadership. 

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Cryptocurrency can be used to invest, pay bills, or to buy cars, but is it actually considered legal tender? More than 5,600 cryptocurrencies are currently trading, with a combined market cap of over $1.5 trillion.

Over the past year, the cryptocurrency bitcoin has gained traction as a legitimate cash replacement. The online payment platforms Square and PayPal now accept bitcoin. In May 2019, NFL offensive lineman Russell Okung announced plans to convert half of his $13 million salary into bitcoin. And investments in bitcoin are now held by the endowments of Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities. In February 2021, electric automobile and clean energy company Tesla, Inc. purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin and announced it would accept the currency as payment for its products.

Launched in 2009 as a decentralized and less expensive way to make financial transactions, there are no physical bitcoins, just digital transactions logged in a transparent, public ledger called a blockchain. Until recently, the technology behind bitcoin kept traditional investors at arm’s length—as did bitcoin’s wild price fluctuations. In 2010, a single bitcoin could be had for $0.0008. In January 2020, it hit $8000. In mid-February 2021, after Tesla announced its bitcoin purchase, the price topped $57,000.

When it comes to bitcoin, “Investors should generally have longer time horizons and be able to stomach a tremendous amount of volatility,” said Michael Sonnenshein 08BBA, CEO of Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. “It’s not appropriate for everyone.”

In 2014, when Sonnenshein joined Grayscale, the company was in its first year of operation. At the time, Grayscale had $60 million in assets under management (AUM), all in bitcoin. In February 2021, Grayscale’s AUM topped $42 billion, the vast majority in bitcoin, although the firm offers investment products that feature eight other digital assets. (According to Coinlore, a cryptocurrency research platform, there are more than 5600 cryptocurrencies currently trading, with a combined market cap of over $1.5 trillion.)

Do Not Ignore Digital Assets – A “Tidal Wave” of Money is Coming

In several interviews, Sonnenshein has cautioned his audience that the real investment risk is to ignore bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. “Bitcoin is not going away,” he said. “We’re still in the early days of where digital assets are ultimately going to go.” Sonnenshein added that the question about whether to invest in digital assets “has shifted from ‘why’ to ‘why not?’”

In an interview with Fortune.com’s “Balancing the Ledger” in 2019, Barry Silbert 98BBA, founder and CEO, Digital Currency Group, Grayscale’s parent company, likened bitcoin to this generation’s version of gold. However, unlike gold, which loses utility as its price goes up, Silbert argued that bitcoin has “real utility,” he said at the time.

“It’s creating a new financial system. It’s eliminating middlemen and friction and cost. It’s removing barriers.”

– Barry Silbert

As bitcoin awareness grows, regulation improves, and more on and off ramps are created where consumers can buy and sell bitcoin, Silbert predicted that “a tidal wave” of money will flow into the digital asset marketplace.

That said, bitcoin is not “legal tender.” It’s not backed by a centralized government or by a commodity. So why does bitcoin work? “People accept and use bitcoin because everyone agrees it has value,” explained Tom Smith, associate professor of Goizueta Business School in the practice of finance. Because most people don’t use cryptocurrencies to buy goods and services, the price of bitcoin “is driven more by unilateral elements,” Smith said. For instance, earlier this year when Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that bitcoin prices “seem high,” the price took a steep drop. Cryptocurrencies are also attractive because of their liquidity, noted Smith. Depending on the how it is traded, in general, bitcoin can be converted to cash in 1 to 5 days. Given that bitcoin has increased in value more than 400 percent over the last year, for those who have the financial means, Smith added, “Their thinking is, why not take some of the money they’d hold in cash and hold it in bitcoin?”

Is Investing in Bitcoin a Smart Strategy?

Through Grayscale, investors gain exposure to bitcoin and to other alternative digital assets such as ethereum and litecoin. Investors can also buy into Grayscale’s Large Cap Fund, much like they would a mutual fund, to diversity across several types of cryptocurrencies. As CEO, Sonnenshein’s goal is to make Grayscale “synonymous with digital currency investments the way PIMCO is to bonds or Vanguard is to indices,” he said. “Rather than our products facilitating certain investment exposure to stocks or bonds or commodities, the type of exposure our products offer is that of digital currency.” Investors can also buy bitcoin through exchanges such as Robinhood and Coinbase, which allows investors to purchase as little as $2.00 worth of bitcoin.

By the end of this year, Sonnenshein plans to double the number of Grayscale’s employees—from 30 to 60. He spent the first part of the year establishing his leadership team. One of his big hires was adding fellow Goizueta alum Hugh Ross 89BBA as Grayscale’s COO.

Sonnenshein wasn’t aware that Silbert had also earned his BBA from Goizueta until Silbert’s assistant pointed it out on the day of his interview in 2014. “It gave the two of us a really nice touch point,” said Sonnenshein. “To think about our time at Emory—the professors we had and the classes we took.” Sonnenshein added that he constantly draws on his Business Law class, taught by Allison Burdette, professor in the practice of business law. “That class is kind of like a rite of passage at Goizueta,” he said. “I’m not a securities attorney, but that foundation is certainly helpful no matter what you do because you’re always looking at contracts and partnerships.”  A frequent interview subject and speaker at live events, Sonnenshein credits his Business Communications class with helping him hone his “ability to speak confidently in a public forum,” he said. “I have nothing but the utmost, fondest memories of my time at Goizueta.”

Read more about the Center for Alternative Investments at Goizueta Business School. Learn more about Grayscale and Digital Currency Group.

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In fall 2020, the seminar went even deeper, building their hearts and capacity for empathy, which is the first step in design thinking for innovating in business and for social change. Burdette co-taught with Atlanta actor Olivia D. Dawson, and their collaboration was part of Emory’s inaugural Arts and Social Justice Fellows program.

To practice storytelling—a key business skill for connecting to investors and consumers, as well as job interviewing—the 15 students created a haunting 12-minute video directed by Dawson. “A Space for Empathy” shares their personal stories of belonging, and what it feels like not to.

“A simple interaction laid the foundation for me and dozens of other students’ stereotype: that Hispanic people are naturally better at soccer,” one unnamed student says in the video. “However, now I look back and realize how easily unfair and often untrue generalizations of race can be spread almost like a virus.”

Redlining in White Detroit

The seminar, Social Justice: Zoning, Contracts and Environmental Racism, began with the story of Ossian Sweet in the required text: Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, a National Book Award winner.

Sweet was a grandson of a slave who had become a doctor in Detroit, and in 1925 bought a home in a previously all-white neighborhood. When a mob of white people gathered outside his house, shots were fired, a white man in the mob was dead, and Sweet was arrested and charged with murder. Famed attorney Clarence Darrow took Sweet’s case, and the book chronicles the societal shifts from slavery to the Great Migration to the civil rights movement. 

The class also studied a case in Union Hill, Virginia, a rural and mostly Black community whose ancestors were enslaved on the same land. The residents won a federal lawsuit to prevent the building of a massive natural gas pipeline compressor station, and now are eligible for nomination for historic landmark status. Oral narratives, and archival research that revealed unmarked slave burial grounds, were key to fighting off the pipeline station.

“Even though I used stories all the time to teach business law, I did not see the idea of empathy initially,” Burdette said. “As Olivia put it so well, I look at legal perspectives and systems. That is so important, but people need to tap into empathy and build empathy to make systematic change. That was brilliant and I didn’t see that before. We use the word ‘interdisciplinary’ and I now see how that works. I’d love to have our business school do more work in storytelling.”

Students Share Personal Social Justice Stories

First-year student Nyah Bruce 24BBA said the class was well-timed after the protests and dialogue in summer 2020 sparked by the death of George Floyd. A graphic designer, Bruce has worked in marketing and branding.

“When you have a product or service, you build a brand that conveys a story,” she said. “And in professional development, you’re trying to tell your story and build that brand for yourself. The class exercise was a little bit different but is equally important for where I see myself in business.”

In the video, Bruce tells her story of growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, where she heard her Black hair compared to animal fur and had to learn to tell people not to pet it. When she stopped straightening her hair in middle school, other students made fun of her, and after only 48 hours, she ditched her natural look. For the next four years, she says she “straightened every curl and coil until I couldn’t recognize them anymore.”  

Her classmates’ openness inspired the same in her. “I wasn’t expecting a negative reaction to my story, but once I shared it, it was not a big deal because of the environment we were able to foster by telling our stories,” she said.

In that circle of trust, Chris Kusumonegoro 22BBA went on camera to describe breaking free from immense cultural pressure to be perfect: “For some reason the world looks at me and tells me that because of my race, who I like, what I feel, that I am not smart enough, not Christian enough, not man enough, not good enough.”

The class connected art to business for him in a powerful way, and helped him assert his values were changing, along with his professional goals. As he said in the film: “And so, I rewrite my story each and every day for my God, and with my faith, that I make my own to define myself with new eyes.”

He had been attracted to the fast pace of consulting but realized during the class that he needed to make sure his work improved lives. Helping people was more important to him than profit maximization.

“To know your art is to know your story, and to know your story is to know how much of an asset you will be to the organization you are joining,” he said. “A lot of times in business, people are cogs in a machine, but if you know your own story, you know that people have inherent value, and you can help your company bring out that value.” 

Face Social Justice Issues with Courage and Compassion

The class and its film achieved the goal of the fellowship program, to offer “critical nuance to the public dialogue about [social justice] issues and prepare college students to face them with courage and compassion in the real world,” says Carlton Mackey 05T, co-creator of the program and director of the Ethics & the Arts program.

The program is part of Emory’s commitment, as the 2020-21 academic year began, to racial justice actions “inspired directly by the vision, energy, and guidance of our students and community — to improve the Emory experience and live up to our values so that everyone feels a sense of belonging and shared purpose,” Emory President Gregory Fenves said.

Participating in the inaugural Arts and Social Justice Fellows program highlights Goizueta Business School’s commitment to cross-disciplinary education for business students interested in the arts, and for student artists attracted to business. 

“We are very energized by the work being done in the business school and across the university around social justice. The context that comes from addressing this crucial topic from an interdisciplinary perspective enhances understanding and adds depth and breadth to the conversation.”

– Andrea Hershatter, senior associate dean of undergraduate education and senior lecturer in Organization and Management.

“Professor Burdette’s course serves as one example of many natural intersections between business and the arts. Our students’ passions have led us to offer a vibrant and growing Arts Management concentration that includes BBA students along with majors in art history, music, dance and theater. I believe we are still in the early stages of imagining where these collaborations might lead.”

To Dawson, the significance of the class stretched far beyond campus. The 15 Goizueta Scholars modeled the honesty and strength needed for racial reconciliation and healing among all Americans. “They have set the example and are leading the way,” she wrote on her blog. “Follow their example and share your story; listen to someone else’s; find connections and commonalities as we move forward as a nation—together.”

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BBA Distinguished Educator: Allison Burdette

Full-Time MBA Best New Educator: Renee Dye

Full-Time MBA Best Classic Educator: Ray Hill

Full-Time MBA “Last Lecturer”: Ryan Hamilton

WEMBA Distinguished Educator (Core): JB Kurish

WEMBA Distinguished Educator (Elective): Kevin Crowley

Evening MBA Distinguished Educator (Core): Usha Rackliffe

Evening MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective): Doug Bowman

MEMBA Distinguished Educator: Shehzad Mian

MSBA Distinguished Educator (Core): George Easton

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“It’s what employers are requesting, so that’s what we are preparing them for,” says Anna Hobby Gibbons, BBA advisement and academic programming director. “We want to give them the confidence to say, ‘I may be working at a marketing firm, and my job may be data analytics, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pull on something I learned in accounting or finance.’ We want to give them the confidence that they have a very strong business foundation and toolkit to access.”

Overseen by Charles Frame, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, the course requires students to complete two modules led by various professors. The following examples suggest the diversity of faculty offerings:

• Business law professor Allison Burdette directed a module asking students to explore water rights amid the Flint, Michigan, water crisis.

• Reshma Shah, associate professor in the practice of marketing, teamed up with a professor from Kennesaw State University to offer a creativity and innovation class that focused on idea formation.

• Tom Smith, assistant professor in the practice of finance, led a module on healthcare and hospital bed needs.

• In partnership with the Harlem Globetrotters, marketing professor Mike Lewis spearheaded a module asking students how a brand can remain relevant while staying true to its history.

• Deloitte, one of the industry firms involved, asked students how to reposition yesterday’s department store for success within today’s marketplace.

Students, who meet on Thursday evenings, are divided into groups and presented with a problem to resolve. On Friday morning, students return to continue their work. That evening, teams present their solutions to a council of professors, industry professionals, and peers.

As Gibbons explains, “All of this takes place in less than 24 hours, and that’s a major goal of the program. Our students are very comfortable with knowing at what point they must turn in a polished assignment. But what happens when you get that 4:00 p.m. phone call on Friday and your boss wants it by Monday? The capstone course is nontraditional, but it’s a really cool experience for the students.”

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In June, Professor Benn Konsynski, George S. Craft Distinguished University Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, coordinated a program to share expertise from Goizueta with 25 Mandela Washington fellows from the Young African Leaders Institute (YALI). Now in its second year at Goizueta, the program included an innovation session with Google’s Patricia Arundel 11EMBA as well as classroom sessions on negotiations with Earl Hill, senior lecturer in organization & management, and new technologies taught by Konsynski. Dean Erika James gave the luncheon keynote. The 25 YALI fellows hailed from 18 countries.

Each summer, interns flood Atlanta’s Fortune 100 businesses to sharpen their skill sets and to set the stage for future employment. In June, Corey Dortch, director of full-time MBA programs, organized the third annual Matrix event, bringing together 150 MBA summer interns from dozens of colleges and universities. The event helped introduce the MBA interns to Atlanta and Emory and opened future networking opportunities for the students. Dortch also took the lead on the Welcome to Atlanta reception for the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA). The June 30 event celebrated Goizueta’s partnership with NBMBAA and the opening of its new headquarters in Atlanta.

Goizueta continued its tradition of hosting summer programs aimed at arming high-achieving college and high school students with the skills to succeed in business. This year Libby Egnor, assistant dean of the BBA program, coordinated the Goizueta Summer Business Institute (SBI), which included faculty members Allison Burdette, Ryan Hamilton, and Clifton Green. SBI welcomed 18 non-business students with a professional development course and an intensive academic experience that provides immersion into the functional areas of business while giving students the opportunity to prepare a pitch for a new business venture. For the high-school set, Professors Chip Frame and Earl Hill prepared an academic challenge for this year’s LEAD Global Business Institute for high-potential diverse students. The program, now in its second year, offered scholars exposure to a variety of business topics, issues, and functions.

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By the time she says good morning to her husband, Parker has already placed an order with a credit card and information she has on file, RSVPd to attend a business event, and added it to her calendar. After scanning the news headlines and her Instagram feed, opening a weather app to view the forecast, and making a quick bank transfer, she’s almost ready to get out of bed.

In minutes, Parker has packed in more daily tasks than previous generations may have done in weeks. She’s also transferred personal information to innumerable websites, a daily routine that could expose her to internet thieves. Are her actions misguided, or are the conveniences provided by technology too beneficial to pass up?

*Composite character

Race to adoption

Technology has become an integral part of everyday life. From morning exercise monitored by Fitbits to a ride to work courtesy of Uber, staying plugged in has become second nature for  billions of global users.

Recent research indicates nearly 3.5 billion people now use the Internet, up from 394 million just ten years ago. This rapid surge in use began in 1995, when businesses bet on the Internet and the first tech IPOs brought new products and services to an audience growing in awareness and willingness to engage.

What followed was an “explosion of adoption  and consumer-driven content,” says Benn Konsynski, George S. Craft Distinguished  University Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management at Goizueta. “Consumers came online and were not just shopping but also adding content.”

The shakeout from the 2000 Internet bubble left strong players like Microsoft and Amazon poised for expansion. Equally important, these surviving companies identified the elements needed to remain viable in a new business environment.

“What we learned from the market is that high valuations are in the context players, not content players. Netscape didn’t own much information, Google doesn’t create information. Craigslist, Amazon, and eBay don’t create much content,” explains Konsynski. “Instead, all of these players are creating high value by letting others create information. It’s what we call democratic production. Those that are able to exploit that high velocity, high volume of content creation are the ones that win.”

The evolution of smartphone applications has made it even faster and more convenient to conduct business, research, and shop online. Indeed, online sales, increasing through mobile apps, are making up a large chunk of the retail figures. According to Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online study, store-based retailers saw a 135 percent growth in sales on smartphones and an 86 percent boost in sales via tablets year to year.

“People want a seamless experience. Many of the in-store expectations are the same online: People want the right assortment, on-shelf availability, and good value,” says Jessica Cheng 07BBA, shopper insights manager at Procter & Gamble. “Shoppers used to associate online shopping with better prices, but that’s not necessarily the case now. People value other things more, such as convenience, free shipping, and exclusive offerings.”

Done correctly, a business’s online offerings should “supplement brick-and-mortar shopping. Programs such as subscription and customizable bundles give shoppers more control and freedom to shop for what they want, when they want it,” Cheng says. “We expect that such programs will make shopping more enjoyable for consumers and build greater brand and retailer loyalties.”

Consumers also thrive on the ability to build their online credibility by offering opinions, whether it’s blogging on a topic or critiquing a product on Amazon. The power to influence fellow users makes the strength of social media beneficial for commerce. And for many users, the personal recognition is equally valuable.

Take the current explosion of restaurant and fan  reviews. Rhett Marlow 02WEMBA is tapping into this obsession with e-commerce brand and app foomanchew.com, a company that offers delivery  of high-quality Asian cuisine, which they have  established through extensive health-grade  research. Marlow, who cofounded foomanchew  and another technology-based company, believes coupling a trend with the assurance of a high-quality product is a recipe for success. It serves our appetite for convenience in two ways: reliable information and food delivery.

“For the customer using our app, the research is already complete,” Marlow says. “They are guaranteed a quality Asian food experience.”

Specialty apps like these are on the rise, and convenience tops the list of reasons. Statista, an online statistics company, reports that as of July 2015 more than 1.6 million apps were available for Android users, while Apple’s App Store offered 1.5 million. These apps cover every imaginable pursuit, from tracking personal fitness to monitoring fashion trends and shopping. But internet usage doesn’t stop there. For many people, unwinding with technology is just as vital a pursuit as working.

The binge mentality

Alex Slinin 05MBA, director of internet product development and management at Cox Communications, notes: “More than ever, consumers rely on the Internet for their communication and entertainment needs. The average US household has more than six devices connected to the Internet that they use for social networking, streaming video or music, gaming, web surfing, emailing, uploading photos, video chatting, and more. As a result, we are seeing internet data usage continue to double every
two years.”

For some consumers, the convenience and freedom of being able to tap into games or media whenever they please can be addicting. Gamers have been known to play 10 or even 24 hours straight, often leading to exhaustion or worse. For media viewers, there is the freedom to watch one episode of a program or devour an entire series in one sitting.

“The Internet has become a fundamental and constant thread throughout our lives, both in and out of the home,” Slinin observes. “For example, over the course of any given Saturday evening, about 90 percent of households have at least one device online.” Consumption, too, has changed, Slinin says. “During weekday evenings, video streaming of TV shows, movies, and other video clips comprises about 75 percent of all internet traffic.”

In new research, David Schweidel, Caldwell Research Fellow and associate professor of marketing, and coauthor Wendy Moe (University of Maryland), used data provided by Hulu, a streaming TV subscription service, to understand today’s protracted consumption of media—or binge—tendency. They found that “the more you watch a program, the more likely you will continue to keep watching that same program and to keep the viewing session going,” notes Schweidel.

This is not unlike what researchers describe as “flow,” a person’s ability to become so engaged in websites and online experiences that they lose track of time and what’s happening in the outside world. “With binge watching, a similar pattern to flow seems to occur. I am immersing myself in this experience,” Schweidel says. “Consider what Netflix did with its original series House of Cards, the political drama. They decided to offer the entire season at once. When Netflix announced the date that House of Cards would be available, people set aside that weekend to watch the entire series. Technology has enabled us to consume media whenever we want. I can say, ‘OK, I have Hulu, Netflix, and a DVR, and if I want to, I can watch one episode at a time, or I can decide to blow off the day and just watch TV.’”

There’s also a downside for businesses. According to Schweidel, this binge mentality is not great for a company’s bottom line. “From a business standpoint, the more you binge watch the less responsive you become to advertising,” he says. “This is not necessarily good for marketers.”

Clearly business benefits from consumers’ ability to engage with products, companies, and services at a moment’s notice and for as long as we desire. This flexibility has changed the way consumers schedule their time and resources. Email is checked incessantly, television is provided on demand, and smartphones are seen as an appendage that keeps us plugged in at all times. For some, this means overindulging in technology to the detriment of other, more valuable activities. Are the consequences of our internet addiction enough to curb the desire for more access and the subsequent privacy risks, or is the habit too appealing to stop?

It’s noon, and Parker is starving. But with meetings booked back to back and an overflowing inbox, leaving her building is out of the question. With smartphone in hand, she opens an app and places her lunch order for delivery. She walks downstairs to the coffee bar in the lobby and orders a latte, paying via another app that rewards her for frequent visits.

While she’s waiting for lunch back in her office, Parker scans her mortgage statement online, makes an additional principal payment, then logs out to instant message her husband about dinner plans. Lunch arrives, and she takes a seat while scanning the day’s top news and videos, all before returning to the chaos of her day. 

Though some individuals are hesitant to virtually engage, for most people, technology has become a norm. “Habit-forming technology is already here, and it is being used to mold our lives,” says Nir Eyal 01C, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. “A habit is at work when users feel a tad bored and instantly open Twitter. They feel a pang of loneliness, and before rational thought occurs, they are scrolling through their Facebook feeds. A question comes to mind, and before searching their brains, they query Google.”

Eyal describes this consumer truth as “the urge you likely feel throughout your day but hardly notice.” He contends that in engineering these habits, “companies increasingly find their economic value is a function of the strength of the habits they create.”

In his extensive research on how individuals use technology, Eyal recognizes that “habits keep users loyal.” Behavior, he acknowledges, can be shaped through promise of variable rewards. “The fact that we have greater access to the Web through our various connected devices—smartphones and tablets, televisions, game consoles, and wearable technology—gives companies far greater ability to affect our behavior,” he says.

Konsynski agrees: “We are moving to the algorithmic enterprise, with decisions driven by adopted algorithms more so than scripted decisions or human intervention. For better or worse, we are surrendering decision rights to systems that we trust to engage with volumes and velocities that humans can only poorly address.”

Willing to pay the price

Even if companies are profiting from our internet habits, the ability to get what we want, when we want it may prove an elixir so strong that we are willing to accept the consequences.

“Whether we’re sharing information consciously or not, we are making that decision,” says Schweidel, who wrote Profiting from the Data Economy. “It’s a trade: Facebook gives us a social network, a way to stay in touch with people, and we derive some value from that. What am I willing to give up in value? I’m willing to give up a lot of information about me.”

For companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google that are built on advertising platforms, user information is culled and shared with advertisers as a means to pay the bills. From the contents of the “free” Gmail account, the ethnicity of the photos uploaded to Facebook, or the items searched, products can be tailored to an individual, thereby making personal data an attractive cache to advertisers.

“Consumers care about access and convenience. Yes, there is an end user license agreement that goes along with apps—or the terms of service—and we are agreeing to these things. Now, whether or not we’ve actually read these documentations? That’s another story,” says Schweidel. “Technically, if you are using platforms like Twitter, Google, or Facebook, you have agreed to the terms of service, and in those agreements, you are granting your permission. There have been criticisms that those terms of service are so dense and long that no one ever reads them. But from a legal standpoint, the company is clear: You have clicked, and you have agreed. But are people fully aware of what they are agreeing to? Probably not.”

A call for more transparency is under way, as media attention highlights questionable collection of data that goes beyond the intended usage, like the 2014 discovery of a popular flashlight app that was gathering more personal data than necessary. Last year, the Obama administration released two reports around internet privacy and data, urging organizations to be more upfront with what and how data is being used.

As long as there are opportunities to gather behavioral data, the collecting of information won’t stop any time soon. “The best companies are able to use this data in a positive way to delight their customers,” says  Kelley Quinn Coram 15EvMBA, campaign manager for BrightWave, a leading email marketing agency. “We’ve all had an experience where we felt our data was misused. Think of that email list you somehow got on and can’t seem to unsubscribe from. It is a fine line that digital marketers deal with every day and is an ever-changing target. As marketers, we are trusted with our customer’s information and have to be good stewards of their data if we hope to keep them as a customer.”

Then there are digital ads that follow one’s activity around the Web. Called retargeting, the cookie or trail left by every search or visit to a website allows an advertiser to follow you and remind you of the item originally viewed. This is especially beneficial to retailers who, armed with the knowledge of what consumers are thinking of purchasing, can target reminders and coupons to convert that thinking into a sale.

Alok Deshpande 99BBA, president of SmartPath, a financial wellness company that helps reduce absenteeism, turnover, and financial stress for employees, explained retargeting to students as they strive to control spending. Using himself as an example, Deshpande told of researching the cost of a cruise for his family.

“Companies can figure out what you want to buy and then send online ads to you over and over,” Deshpande says. “Now there is nothing wrong with this, but you just need to be aware of this practice and really stay true to what you can afford.”

While computer users will notice this retargeting practice more readily, it may be less apparent on cell phones. “You may not notice retargeting as much on your mobile device because cookies have to be enabled on your device,” explains Michelle Andrews, assistant professor of marketing at Goizueta. “It may help consumers who are concerned about security to note that cookie data is anonymous and does not contain personally identifiable information. Because mobiles are considered more personal devices than desktops or tablets, though, it’s possible consumers will still be more concerned about mobile retargeting.”

Equally concerning, Andrews contends, is the common practice of using Facebook or Google log-in credentials to access other websites. “Sites that allow you to log in using Facebook often do so because they buy ad space on Facebook and want to deliver more targeted ads based on browsing information,” Andrews says. “Consumers have greater reason to be concerned about their privacy in this instance because logging into other sites via Facebook allows that site to request information about you from Facebook. Thus, the site can accumulate more information about you when you log in with Facebook than if you choose to log in with an entirely new or site-specific account.”

Convenience > risk

Clearly, with so many sites requiring passwords, using a shortcut like a Facebook log-in can make it easier to navigate the Web. But consumers are likely unaware of the rights to information they willingly click away when accessing content online. In other words, internet usage creates a push-pull effect of information, with companies wanting information about consumers and individuals wanting privacy along with online convenience. Add to this the hackers out to steal personal data stored by companies, and it’s enough to give one pause.

Or is it?

According to Ryan Hamilton, associate professor of marketing, consumers often underestimate the risks involved. Though each person will weigh risk and convenience differently, Hamilton says these judgments can be impacted by a mental shortcut called the “availability heuristic.”

“Consumers often estimate the likelihood of something by considering the ease with which they can bring instances of that thing to mind,” he says. “For example, when a person is trying to determine how likely they are to be seriously inconvenienced by fraud, they are likely to think of how many people they know who have had their lives seriously disrupted by fraud. Although most of us know people who have had some fraudulent charges on their credit cards, these are usually minor inconveniences. The person makes a phone call, and they are issued a new card. Cases where fraud has caused serious or lasting problems are much harder to bring to mind. So we estimate—accurately or not—that serious fraud is rare.”

In other words, people tend to think that serious internet crime won’t happen to them. While consumers may dismiss such a threat, companies that collect personal data need to be vigilant.

According to a report by the Ponemon Institute, which does independent research on privacy, data protection, and information security policy, 43 percent of companies surveyed in 2014 experienced a data breach. Well-publicized breaches last year included eBay, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Neiman Marcus.

“If companies fail to follow basic industry practices of ensuring their data is secure—due diligence—then they face liability for data breaches,” says Allison Burdette, assistant professor in the practice of business law. “In fact, failure to exercise due diligence can mean that the company’s insurance policies will not cover the damages.”

This shift in liability from consumers to merchant allowed the rapid expansion of e-commerce, but it has increased the cost to companies.

“The threat of a data breach is a huge liability, and firms have started adding chief privacy officers and taking other measures to adequately protect their consumers’ data,” says Ramnath Chellappa, associate professor of information systems & operations management. “The alternative is to not store any consumer data, which obviously prevents companies from pursuing strategies that use the data. Another option for firms is to store modified forms of the data, which basically anonymizes the information to the merchant by storing larger profiles of customers as opposed to personal identifying information. For example, if you swipe your card at a counter at Target, why do they need to store your credit card number? That’s a onetime transaction so maybe don’t store it at all. Essentially, if you are storing consumer information, it’s your job to protect it. That’s the law.”

According to Gerry Baron 13WEMBA, economics often drive what companies do and don’t do regarding information security. Baron, chief marketing officer for Cirrity, a leading, channel-only secure cloud solutions provider, knows about helping businesses secure their data.

“Businesses are motivated to generate profits, and to the extent that they believe there are legal ramifications, industry regulations, or market drivers to invest in information security, they’re likely to take a minimalist approach,” he says. That can be particularly problematic, given that the cost per data breach is on the rise. Baron notes companies have to be ever vigilant when it comes to cyberhacking, and that means continuous monitoring to evaluate the business’s security posture in light of evolving threats and compliance requirements.

Cyberprotection is a two-way street

Even as many firms strive to prevent hackers from accessing data, consumers can be proactive by choosing awareness to circumvent the malaise that results from mindlessly checking email, sharing life updates on social media, or downloading the latest app. New challenges will arise as The Internet of Things (IoT), grows and more devices can connect or tap into the Internet. Thus, additional opportunities to monitor and capture consumer habits, locations, and activities emerge.

“Whether it is watches or refrigerators, pretty much anything that can have a chip attached to itself and an address assigned to it can communicate with other devices and send data,” Chellappa says. “The tech industry is rife with speculation that Apple is getting into the automotive business—after all, you can think about an automobile as a collection of computing and communication mechanisms on four wheels. The same goes with devices for the home, whether they ostensibly are meant to keep track of the temperature or used for security, they are collecting all types of information. You could have a completely digitized home that automatically knows when to shut off the lights. And these are not advances that will happen in the future. They already exist. They are not commonplace, but they will become commonplace because the cost and standardization of technologies will allow for anything to communicate with anything.”

Data collection on consumers’ web activity will continue to reign as the driver of more products and services that bring convenience. However, it comes with a price. Since data can never truly be deleted, awareness will be the strongest deterrent to protecting personal information. Yet this has to go hand in hand with companies protecting the data they collect.

Baron admits it’s a struggle, especially with the new app economy. “It’s so easy to create a new app, and in a few minutes, there will be a ton of people using it,” he adds. Security is often an afterthought on the part of the app developer and the user.

Technology is continuously evolving, of course, and our thirst for and ease with technology means we are always going to be connected. “At the end of the day, it’s a delicate balancing act between convenience and security, whether it’s for the individual surfing the Web or for the company producing the consumer-facing technology,” says Jackie Breiter 01WEMBA, chief operations and information officer at Goizueta.

Consumers need to be especially aware of their online behavior and take an active part in protecting personal information whenever they can.

“Budgets determine the scope of data protection, and some companies will be better at it than others,” Breiter warns. “That puts the onus on consumers to determine their level of comfort when they choose to offer up information online.”

Parker has finished her office work for the day and returns home to make dinner from an online recipe. While she and her family eat, they catch up on a few episodes on Hulu. Later, after a Skype call to grandma and kids’ homework submitted via Google Classroom, she and her husband tuck their children in for the night.

With a fresh mug of tea at her side, she updates her Facebook page and uploads a gallery of the kids’ latest antics. Although she may include every point of information when she blogs about her latest DIY conquest, Parker doesn’t tag her children’s images. Without fully questioning why, Parker and her husband both understand some things are better left unshared on the Internet—just in case.

– By Michelle Valigursky and Nicole Golston

Related Content

• Cyber security prevention just as important as response
• Data breaches harm store brand, reputation
• The Inconvenient Truth about the Convenience of Technology

The post The Inconvenient Truth about the Convenience of Technology appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Goizueta Business School

• The Emory Williams Teaching Award: Kristy Towry, professor of accounting
• Emory Crystal Apple Teaching Award: Steve Walton, associate professor in the practice of information systems & operations management
• The Marc F. Adler Prize for Excellence in Teaching: Klaas Baks, associate professor in the practice of finance
• Donald R. Keough Award for Excellence for faculty: Charlie Goetz, senior lecturer in organization & management and distinguished lecturer, entrepreneurship
• BBA Distinguished Educator Award:  Clifton Green, associate professor of finance
• BBA Crystal Apple Award: Allison Burdette, associate professor in the practice of business law
• MBA Teaching Excellence Award – Classic Faculty:  Ray Hill, senior lecturer in finance
• MBA Teaching Excellence Award –Rodney Lacey, assistant professor in the practice of organization & management
• Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator Award: Manish Tripathi, assistant professor in the practice of marketing
• Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator Award: Eve Rosenzweig, associate professor of information systems & operations management, and Kevin Coyne, senior teaching professor in organization & management
• MEMBA Distinguished Educator Award:  Shehzad Mian, associate professor of finance
• WEMBA Distinguished Educator Award: Rob Kazanjian, professor of organization & management

The post Emory, Goizueta recognize teaching awards for 2014-15 academic year appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.