Media Coverage

People who stand out for their way of working, thinking and above all being honest and humble, their success and achievements are due to their persistence, discipline, dedication. Get to know them!

Arturo E. Osorio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Practice - Entrepreneurship, Department of Management & Global Business, Rutgers Business School.

I AM sure that from an early age people have told you to be honest and truthful. Even in my entrepreneurial life, the best piece of advice I have ever been given was when someone very successful told me that to be effective, I must always conduct myself with integrity.

However, integrity seems to be a rare commodity in current times.

Why do people waver even though they know that integrity is so necessary?

In 2015, Oliver Sheldon, an expert in organizational behavior at Rutgers University, and Ayelet Fishbach, a social psychologist at the University of Chicago, studied the dynamics that impact self-control in ethical decision-making.

The researchers created experiments to examine the thoughts that occur in people just before they made an ethical decision.

The Rutgers Student Health pharmacies, which are expected to close later this fall, have been losing money for the past 10 years, said Neal Buccino, a University spokesperson.

The overall student health program was expected to reach a $1 million deficit for the 2020 fiscal year, with the meningitis B outbreak and investments in on-campus mental health care contributing to the spending. The pharmacy closures were aimed at mitigating the projected budgeted operating deficit, Buccino said.

Mahmud Hassan, a professor of finance and economics and director of pharmaceutical management at Rutgers Business School, said that the University — being a nonprofit and government institution — could have received a better deal.

“Under federal policies by government law, all manufacturers must give big discounts for Medicaid and special groups,” he said. “(The) University may not be a special group by definition, but they could make a case for it.”

Yesterday, the once-king-of-toys signaled the end has finally come: Sources say Toys 'R' Us will close all of its remaining U.S. stores and leave us for good. And so we asked the experts: Who is responsible for killing Toys 'R' Us? Here's what they had to say.

"Plus both Walmart and Target sell toys and other essentials," says Kristina Durante, an associate professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School. "Walmart has the lowest prices. And at Target, you can get a coffee. But there is nothing that's driving people to Toys 'R' Us."

Durante, a mom herself, also points to a lackluster experience inside Toys 'R' Us stores.

"It would be great if Toys 'R' Us had a capital infusion to make the store more than just looking at the shelves, but an experience," she says. "What can you do there that's unique? That would motivate you to go to the store? They could have thought of a possible reinvention if they had smaller stores that were more experiential."

This story originally appeared in The Straits Times on August 29, 2019.

Mark Castelino is a professor in the International Executive MBA programme in Singapore offered by the Rutgers Business School, from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Scientists and economists live in two different worlds, the former in the world of solutions and the latter in the world of trade-offs. Being both a scientist and an economist, I have a foot in both worlds and have long contemplated why this dichotomy in thought exists. The answer may be found in the discussion around global warming or alternatively, climate change.
How often have we heard the cliche that “97 per cent of scientists” believe in global warming? That is true but only in a trivial sense. As a matter of fact, the number should actually be 100 per cent because every scientist knows that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is increasing, and greenhouse gases cause warming.
The economist will not disagree with that conclusion but goes one step further by asking two critical questions – “how much?” and “does it really matter?”
Herein lies considerable dispute, which will not be settled only in the science but also in the politics, economics, morality and ethics of the issue. This is why the climate change problem is so intractable.

Black and Hispanic men seeking small business loans faced more scrutiny and worse treatment from bank officers than less qualified white men, according to a study, in cooperation with Jerome Williams, Rutgers Business School, released this week by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

The results demonstrate the challenges minority entrepreneurs face when trying to access additional capital to expand their businesses. The study also found declines in government-backed lending to black business owners, dropping from 8 percent to 3 percent of small-business loans between 2008 and 2016.

“People focus a lot on the cultivation and the dispensing, and there are so many other spaces where people can play and be successful out of the gate without as much risk, and that’s the part I’m teaching about, the picks and the shovels,” says Dawson, 40, a former executive at large companies like Target Corporation and Victoria’s Secret. Dawson is now a CEO, cannabis consultant, author and activist.

After graduating college with a degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University, and an MBA from Rutgers Business School, she went into the corporate world, helping to bring multi-cultural hair products and plus-size garments to the shelves of the retail giant Target. A career in cannabis—which was still illegal in Minnesota where she lived—never crossed her mind.

“I found there were too many people trying to reinvent themselves. And while that might have worked in the first wave, in order to be legitimate and diversify the industry quickly it’s just easier if you take the skills and the passion and credentials you have and apply them here.”

Using a cell phone to take a break during mentally challenging tasks does not allow the brain to recharge effectively and may result in poorer performance, Rutgers researchers found.

The experiment, published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, assigned college undergraduates to solve challenging sets of word puzzles. Halfway through, some were allowed to take breaks using their cell phones. Others took breaks using paper or a computer, while some took no break at all.

“The act of reaching for your phone between tasks, or mid-task, is becoming more commonplace. It is important to know the costs associated with reaching for this device during every spare minute. We assume it’s no different from any other break – but the phone may carry increasing levels of distraction that make it difficult to return focused attention to work tasks,” said Terri Kurtzberg, coauthor and associate professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School.

Video
MEejie Chapparo-Traverso and Patricia Trenckak in conversation with Margaret O'Donnell, Manager of Military & Veteran Engagement Programs for Rutgers Business School about her work with veterans, the wider community, and her lifetime of making a difference.

The Summer Technology & Entrepreneurship Program (STEP) is a weekday summer program that explores the connections between technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation with students. Students work together to seek solutions to real-world problems and learn about how to integrate technology with entrepreneurship. They learn to create, market and pitch their business. At the closing ceremony, students pitched their ideas in a pitch competition.

The program also featured guest entrepreneurs: Anthony Frasier, ABF Creative & Newark Venture Capital; Kevin Chu, Greater Newark Enterprises Corp.; Joshua Weiss, Teliapp; Joel Levin, mar*ket-ing, inc.; Ali & Emon Mahvan, Sharebert.com; Gary Minkoff, Department of Management & Global Business Rutgers Business School; Michele Valdespee, Bend No More; and Ras Heru, Rebel Ink Publishing.

Marketers are also taking an interest in this data. Kristina Durante, an associate professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School, has studied how hormones like estrogen and progesterone might influence what products you buy. She’s consulted with brands about partnering with fertility apps to send marketing messages based on where users are in their cycle.

“When estrogen is high, [women] want to look good, and so they might be more interested in consumer products like lipstick or cosmetics or procedures that help them enhance their appearance,” Durante said.

What’s the best way to find the right balance transfer credit card?

This is not a simple question, as we know different consumers have different needs (hence segmentation as a marketing tool) and therefore will need different choices. The ultimate decision seems to rest on what the consumer wants to gain from the transfer: e.g. Lower interest rates, higher rewards such as airline mileage or cash rewards, higher credit limits, or other Loyalty program elements. There may also be advantages to transferring to a financial institution where they do other banking activities to gain advantages as a more significant level customer.

Marc Kalan, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Department of Marketing, Rutgers Business School of Newark and New Brunswick

As the fall semester approaches, New Jersey business schools adjust their offerings to track industry trends

Stacy Smollin Schwartz , an assistant professor of professional practice in the marketing
department at Rutgers University Business School and a program director of the MS program,
said the school is creating a Masters of Science in Digital Marketing Program for the fall semester.

It is a fully online program because audiences may be seasoned marketers.

“We started realizing from an industry perspective employers want marketing skills,” Schwartz
said. “We live in a digital world. We consult our phones. Marketers need to integrate fluidity into
their marketing.”

She explained that employers are trying to respond to what customers are already doing.
“Because consumers are connected to each other on social media, that is why employers’
demands exist,” she said. “Employers realize their customers are connected to brands and to each
other. As a result, they want to hire people who understand how to market in a digital world.”

At 5 am on August 5, the US president sent a message on Twitter accusing China of being a “currency manipulator,” describing this as a “major violation.” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin followed with an official announcement later that day.

The term “currency manipulator” has no regulatory import or effect, but the accusation escalates tensions between China and the United States. On the same day, the Chinese currency, officially the renminbi yuan, had devalued to a rate of 7.05 per US dollar – meaning that a dollar converts into more renminbi than before, thereby insulating them from the effects of US tariffs.

This is not the start of a bad joke about three people walking into a bar. Instead, it is a simple lesson on the value of networking. Last week, I was fortunate enough to participate in meetings at the White House with Staff in the administration and portfolio managers of the top investment houses, as well as policy advisors and consultants from both sides of the aisle. We talked about trade, budgets, potential recession, drug pricing and more.

This is networking at its best.

The professor happens to be me. After 20+ years of being an investment banker and a finance executive, I am now an assistant finance professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School.

If you want to take a break and recharge from mentally challenging work, then it's best not to look at your phone, according to a new study in the US.
Carried out by researchers at Rutgers University, the new study recruited 414 participants and gave them sets of word puzzles to solve.

"The act of reaching for your phone between tasks, or mid-task, is becoming more commonplace. It is important to know the costs associated with reaching for this device during every spare minute. We assume it's no different from any other break -- but the phone may carry increasing levels of distraction that make it difficult to return focused attention to work tasks," said Terri Kurtzberg, co-author of the study.

"Cellphones may have this affect because even just seeing your phone activates thoughts of checking messages, connecting with people, access to ever-refilling information and more, in ways that are different than how we use other screens like computers, and laptops," she continued.

President Trump is banking on a strong economy to see him into a second term.
But nearly three quarters of U.S. business economists said in a new survey they expect a recession by the end of 2021.
Nearly 40% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics predict a recession will start next year. More than 30% expect one in 2021, while a small cadre of pessimists — 2% of respondents — say recession will hit this year.

A recent Bloomberg survey of economists yielded similar views.
"Trade tensions are needlessly roiling financial markets, which could eventually destabilize a stable economy,” Parul Jain of Rutgers Business School said in the Bloomberg survey.

We asked Kevin Riordan, Executive Director of the Center for Real Estate at Rutgers Business School to weigh in on the ideal type of office space for an IT startup:

By definition, the ages of employees in most IT startups are in their 20’s or 30’s. They were teenagers or in their early 20’s when the iPhone was introduced in mid-2007. What that means is that they have never known a world where information and communication are no more than a tap or swipe away. They thrive and adapt in a world where tomorrow a new app can help them navigate work demands better and interface with fellow employees and friends. So physical environment, while needing to be comfortable, must also be adaptable. This will naturally lead them to a coworking environment. The space will include small trappings of formality but embody a sense of community with shared goals.

Experts agree that moving toward gender equality is not only the right thing to do but it’s the smart thing to do. So shouldn’t MBA programs—where women frequently make up less than 38 percent of the student body—be focused on achieving it?

Consider Rutgers Business School, which excels at the traditional metrics. CEO Magazine ranks their global executive MBA as 11th best in the world. Financial Times has RBS in the top ten in four categories: corporate strategy, economics, statistics, and manufacturing/logistics. But one statistic, in particular, stands out: in 2014, over 50 percent of new MBA students at RBS were female. In the intervening years, the female population of MBA students at RBS has leveled out closer to the national average. It’s also caught the attention of the RBS administration and has got them changing the way they do business.

“Research shows it’s the diversity of ideas and the diversity of backgrounds that create successful teams,” says Dr. Sharon Lydon, senior associate dean of MBA programs at Rutgers Business School. “And in this global economy, we need to make sure teams represent the community which will be using their products and services. Diversity is only going to help further advance what we’re doing. But if we’re going to be homogenous and similar, we’re not going to get very far.”

This year’s Accounting Education Research Grant recipients include the team of Dierdre Collier and Hannah Rozen from Fairleigh Dickinson University and Alexander Sannella of Rutgers University. Their work, “Why Master’s in Accounting Students Do Not Sit for the CPA: Determinants and Perceptions of CPA Value,” attempts to identify characteristics—both objective and perceptual—of graduate level accounting students who successfully complete a master’s level accounting degree program without plans to sit for the exam. The team has been awarded $6,000 to purse this project.

At 5am on August 5, the US president sent a message on Twitter accusing China of being a "currency manipulator", describing this as a "major violation". US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin followed with an official announcement later that day.

The term "currency manipulator" has no regulatory import or effect, but the accusation escalates tensions between China and the United States. On the same day, the Chinese currency, officially the renminbi yuan, had devalued to a rate of 7.05 per US dollar - meaning that a dollar converts into more renminbi than before, thereby insulating them from the effects of US tariffs.

Ronnee Ades, professor of professional practice in the finance and economics department at the Rutgers University Business School, and Ryan Smith, a Rutgers business school student, talks with Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu about the school's competition to create a new index/ETF.

In recent years, The Journal Star has been hit with the kind of cutbacks that have become common for newspapers nationwide as they steer a bumpy course toward a digitally focused future. The newsroom had more than 80 guild employees in the 1990s, and now has about a dozen.

Such is the strange state of an industry that has been part of the American fabric since the days of The New-England Courant, a newspaper started by James Franklin, older brother to Benjamin Franklin.

“We gutted those papers by taking the journalism out of them,” said Mr. Chase, now chief executive of CALmatters, a nonprofit covering California state politics.

In the role of publisher, investors discovered that lowering overhead typically reduced costs at a faster rate than it drove down revenues. Many papers shrank. And their profits went up.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a hedge fund or private equity firm,” said John Longo, a Rutgers Business School professor. “Newspapers have steady, albeit slightly sinking, cash flow. In that kind of business, you can put some leverage on.”

The Rutgers Business School Master of Accountancy in Taxation ranked #5 best Master’s in Taxation in the U.S. by Accounting Degree Review.

The taxation specialty is growing, due in part to increasingly more complicated tax codes with frequent changes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports how careers within personal financial advising are expected to grow by 15 percent by 2026.

The Rutgers Business School is part of two universities: Rutgers University-Newark and Rutgers University-New Brunswick. The AACSB-accredited business school ranked #1 Public Business School in the Northeast U.S. by Financial Times. Rutgers Business School, founded in 1929, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. The Master of Accountancy in Taxation is one of 11 graduate programs. It ranked #11 best Master’s in Taxation program in the world by ValueColleges.com.

We are constantly reminded that 97 percent of scientists believe in global warming or alternatively climate change. That is incorrect, the number is actually 100 percent. Why? Because every scientist knows carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, that it is increasing, and greenhouse gases cause warming. That conclusion, however, is trivial. The far more important one is “how much and does it really matter”? Herein lies the crux of the problem.

There are approximately 8700 qualified opportunity zones located across the US with 169 in New Jersey. What do they all have in common? We take a closer look in this EXCLUSIVE commentary on the subject.

In December 2017, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law.

This federal law provides substantial tax incentives to tax payers who re-invest their capital gains in long term investments in certain economic distressed communities.

These communities, designated as low income census tracts are called Qualified Opportunity Zones (“QOZ”). There are approximately 8700 QOZs located across the United States. There are 169 in New Jersey located in 75 municipalities. What they all have in common is that they are all in need of private capital to spur economic development. It is estimated that $6 trillion in capital gains are waiting in the wings to be reinvested by taxpayers into these geographic areas.

Dr. Miklos Vasarhelyi, a professor at Rutgers University and head of the Rutgers CARlab, an accounting research center which furthers research and creative teaching methods in accounting and information systems, and Abigail Zhang, a PhD Candidate in Accounting Information Systems at Rutgers Business School, shared their perspectives on various technology related to accounting including robotics process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and smart contracts at EisnerAmper's recent Process Risk and Technology Solutions Summit "Adapting to Change in a World of Evolving Technology."

As New Orleans experiences downtown residential growth and urban economic resurgence, the timing is perfect for the Aspen Institute Socrates Program to return to the Crescent City and examine why residential and job growth in many cities often results in less diversity and inclusion.

The seminar will be moderated by Lyneir Richardson, the executive director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, a Rutgers Business School research and practitioner-oriented center. The salon will examine ways to expand opportunity, foster entrepreneurship and preserve the spirit of continual re-invention that animates American cities as they grow again. Registration is currently open.

Alejandro Magallanes, the CEO and founder of Amarillo-based education technology startup Learn Lounge, was the recent recipient of a $10,000 grant from the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development’s Black & Latinx Tech Initiative (BLT), which is a program of the Rutgers University Business School in Newark, NJ.

“Alejandro’s pitch presentation to the Rutgers faculty and angel investors was polished, convincing, and very impressive,” says Lyneir Richardson, Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Urban Entrepreneurship. “He was one of three winners of $10,000 accelerator grants, and he was competing against a number of very talented entrepreneurs from across the country who were selected for the BLT cohort.

Professor Jeffrey Robinson, the Academic Director of Rutgers' Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development and recipient of the Aspen Institute's Social Impact Faculty Pioneer Award for his research, service and teaching activities at the intersection of business and society, commented: "David's unique perspectives on how people from different walks of life can develop an entrepreneurial mindset is invaluable advice in today's world." He is bringing McCourt to Rutgers Business School for a special event open to the public on August 7th, 2019.

From October 19 through 26, Montclair State University will be celebrating the sixth annual Women Entrepreneurship Week with speakers, conferences and other activities. At a time when many people are trying to tear down gender-based barriers, the divisions between men and women are still enough to warrant gender-specific events like this one, according to some experts.

“I was coaching a woman that had her own perfume line, and she was having a hard time moving her inventory,” recalled Jasmine Cordero-West, an associate director at Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick who focuses on entrepreneurship programs. “As we are talking, she tells me that she used to work in a jewelry store and she was able to sell the product successfully there. I realized that the issue she had was selling her own product. She lacked confidence.”
Once she realized that, the business owner was able to sell more, Cordero West said.

The conference accepted papers from scholars around the world, and eventually five papers entered the best paper finals. The Best Student Paper Awards Jury consists of internationally renowned academics in the field of service science, including Robin Qiu (Pennsylvania State University, Founder of INFORMS Service Science Section, Chief editor of INFORMS's subordinate journal Service Science), Paul Messinger (University of Alberta, Chairman of INFORMS Service Science Section ), Fiona Jamison (CEO of Spring International), Michael Pinedo (New York University, Chief editor of Journal of Scheduling), Weiwei Chen (Rutgers university, Associate editor of Journal of Simulation), Hui Yang (Pennsylvania State University, Associate Editor of IISE Transactions).

During the War of 1812 (which didn’t end until 1815), British Navy ships began, on the night of September 13, 1814, a heavy bombardment of Fort McHenry, a promontory protecting the inner harbor of Baltimore. A giant American flag, measuring 30 x 42 feet, could be seen flying over the fort from long distances.

A Maryland lawyer, Francis Scott Key, very much an American patriot, viewed the bombardment while he was on board a British Navy vessel, which in several accounts is identified as the H.M.S. Minden. Why was he on a British ship? It was a gentlemanly arrangement. Key had gone on a sloop from Baltimore to negotiate with the British commander for the release of American prisoners, including the well-connected physician Dr. William Beanes.[3] Initially rebuffed, Key finally got permission to return with the released American prisoners. But by then, it was too late. Since both Key and Beanes knew about the plan to bombard Fort McHenry, all the Americans were detained through the night of September 13. They witnessed “…the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…” in cannonades from as many as 19 British vessels.

Eight years ago, Michael Lemanski’s grand vision to redevelop downtown Durham was crashing.

In the midst of this slide, Lemanski found a safe harbor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government as the director of a new university program helping local communities find developers to rebuild rundown areas. Lemanski took on the job with a $90,000 starting salary, and soon became viewed as a guru for the redevelopment of downtowns — including Durham’s — in three states.

“Just because you are doing good doesn’t mean you can do it any way you want,” said Joanne Ciulla, a Rutgers University professor.
Ciulla, the Rutgers business ethics expert, said those who use public office addresses as contacts for private business raise the question as to whether they are using public resources for private purposes.

By way of example, consider the situation of Jeff Bezos. Assume that he originally invested $100,000 to form Amazon and that the fair market value of his stock is now $100 billion. His tax basis would be $100,000, and if he sold his stock, he would be taxed on every dollar he received in excess of that amount. But if Bezos passed away tomorrow, the “step up in basis” rule would erase his entire accumulated gain from income taxation. His heirs would inherit the Amazon stock with a $100 billion tax basis, and could sell the stock tax free, depriving the Treasury of nearly $25 billion.

There seems to be a lot of saber-rattling these days and it got me to thinking. So, when did we last win a war?

I recently turned 68, a baby boomer who has been extremely lucky to be born in what is arguably the country of greatest opportunity and wealth during its height of power and influence, the second half of the 20th century.

As a marketing professional for my career, and nearly 20 years a professor of same, there is great learning to be gotten from studying our past. As each semester nears completion I challenge my students to look back on the full term, to learn lessons from our experiences and what they might suggest going forward. And as a trained history teacher, I believe there are important lessons from the past as we strategize and plan for the future, in business and in our political environment.

Paveena Sachdeva, an accounting major at Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, is part of the team of engineering, business and art school students, who will compete in the Formula Sun Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, between July 3-6.

Business students, including Sachdeva, led the team’s marketing and fundraising efforts, which were essential to paying for the technology needed to build the car. They are also leading the logistical work involved in transporting the car cross-country, and bringing the car to public schools across the state to promote sustainable energy and show students what they can achieve with higher education.

What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work?

One of my goals in joining the program was to hone my leadership skills – and execute decisions with relevant information. While previously I just knew how to make the right choices, I did not fully understand the reasons “why?” A year into the program, I was able to use every bit of learning I encountered. The real-world application orientation of the program – through its emphasis on market analysis, and investigations of journal and news articles in Managerial Statistics, Business Law, and Economics – helped me relate theory to practice. Leadership starts not just with knowledge, but also with people skills and with a genuine interest in improving the lives of people.

Professor Langdana’s “Cycle-Of-One” leadership lessons rescued me from some sticky corner-office situations and this mode of learning and its implementation helped me and my organization accomplish double-digit growth in revenue and size. The beauty of the EMBA program lies in the gradual build-up and enlightenment that comes with it over two years. In the “language of MBA,” I consider it an utter waste of an investment if an MBA degree doesn’t make you a better human being because at the receiving end of all decisions, are people whose lives you can impact as a leader.

Something extraordinary is happening behind the scenes at Impossible Foods.
The company has seen a huge surge in demand. And though you wouldn't know it from stepping into its Bay Area headquarters, it's in a frenzy.
The problem: Impossible is running low on fake meat.

Nestlé's scale, volume and extensive distribution channels could make it a game changer, said Arash Azadegan, an associate professor at Rutgers Business School with expertise in supply chain management. The company's large, well-established system can help keep costs down and supply plentiful.

"There's a Goliath entering into the market," Azadegan said.

What do the best business credit cards have in common?

The best business cards have low interest rates, small annual fees, high credit limit, and attractive miles/points that can be used for travel discounts. I also think it would be great - perhaps one a quarter - to have some flexibility “to skip a payment for 60 days” without negative credit reporting. This could help with small business cash flow management during periods when accounts receivable have not been collected.

Innovation is in our DNA: Oemer Akyazici, Rutgers Business School International EMBA, Shanghai '09

While many executives might relish the opportunity to talk about their business achievements, Oemer Akyazici is quite the opposite. Rather than spend too much time reflecting on the past, the Schuler China CEO prefers to keep his eyes firmly focused on what’s happening now and in the future.

“A company like Schuler should never be satisfied with its past success in light of rapidly changing market conditions,” Oemer explains.

“Of course, thanks to our outstanding employees, we’re solidly positioned in many different areas. However, if we wish to remain competitive in the future, it’s essential we generate a constant stream of product innovations.”

It is difficult to understand why some people (typically progressives) are so hung up on the issue of inequality. It is absolutely essential for progress.
Think of any innovation: the car, the airplane, pharmaceuticals, the color television, the video recorder, the DVD player, the iPad, the iPhone, and so on.
It is the wealthy who first demand these things. Next, it is the innovators and entrepreneurs, driven by the profit motive, who bring them to the market.
Competition then drives down the prices, making it possible for the average person, even the poor, to buy the items.
Some will call this trickle-down economics, but then has anybody heard of trickle-up economics?
The Soviets, Eastern Europeans, Cubans and Venezuelans have tried it.
In their "quest for equality" by redistributing wealth, they have been enormously successful in redistributing misery.

Often opportunity cost comes down to money – how it’s allocated, how much to borrow and when the funds will be returned. “As the cost of keeping working capital is increasing, more and more financial institutions are looking for more conservative ways to borrow money,” Weiwei Chen PhD, associate professor of supply chain management at Rutgers Business School, told Supply Chain Dive.

The Rutgers University Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development announced Wednesday it hosted a Black and Latino Tech initiative Pre-Accelerator Demo Day for minority entrepreneurs.

The initiative is a program developed and sponsored by the CUEED and was held at the Rutgers Business School. The mission is to provide Black and Latino startup entrepreneurs with educational training, coaching, mentorship, networking, funding and more.

Eleven startup companies from New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, California and Texas presented at the event.

Integrate Tech, a Newark-based ed tech startup, was the winner of the first annual “Audience Choice Award” and was given a check for $1,000.

In the Jewish community, Rhonda F. Levine, professor emerita of sociology at Colgate University, is best known for her book “Class, Networks, and Identity: Replanting Jewish Lives from Nazi Germany to Rural New York.” For that work, Levine interviewed Jewish refugees – some of them local – about their lives after they arrived in America.

Her new, ambitious work, “When Race Meets Class: African Americans Coming of Age in a Small City,” focuses on people’s lives as they occurred over a 15-year period.

The publisher describes “When Race Meets Class” as “a rare, 15-year ethnography, [that] follows the lives of individual, low-income African American youth from the beginning of high school into their early adult years. Levine shows how their interaction and experience with multiple institutions (family, school, community) and individuals (parents, friends, teachers, coaches, strangers) shape their hopes, fears, aspirations, and worldviews.”

According to Nancy DiTomaso, distinguished professor at Rutgers Business School, “‘When Race Meets Class’ provides a much-needed contribution to the understanding of how race, class, and gender reproduce inequality.”

The Rutgers University Business School is offering a new online Master of Science in Digital Marketing to produce modern marketing professionals with the knowledge and skills in demand by a growing industry.

The program is designed to provide in-depth instruction to a variety of prospective students, including educated marketing veterans continuing careers in a digital world and young professionals with one or two years of work experience.

“I often say there’s no such thing as digital marketing. There’s just marketing in a digital world,” said Stacy Schwartz, a Rutgers professor of professional practice who is building the program.

While stereotypes and security concerns are often used to defend discriminatory actions, they don’t have a basis in fact, said Jerome Williams, a consumer psychologist at Rutgers University-Newark who has researched what he calls “retail racism” for more than 25 years.

In one case, Williams found that black people made up 10 percent of a department store’s customers but 90 percent of those stopped by the store’s security team. The store’s explanation: Security was in place to prevent shoplifting.

There is no evidence that black Americans steal more often than anyone else, Williams said. There is evidence that black Americans are more closely monitored and more often accused, then more often arrested and prosecuted by a criminal justice system with well-documented biases.

As a long-term practitioner of marketing, now over 40 years in duration, I have often been challenged by the concept of “The Brand,” what it communicates, what it means, what it stands for and how it is integral to an organization’s position and ultimate success in the market. Bringing a background in consumer packaged goods (CPG) that incorporated executive-level marketing and sales stints on the client, vendor, and agency sides of the business, and now as a professor of same, I am often struck by our approach to positioning our brands, and wonder why we do not take a similar approach to ourselves. Are you not a “Brand” to those considering your value to the organization? A brand to be adopted (or hired) or rejected in favor of another whose potential is deemed superior. Isn’t that how we make purchase decisions? Isn’t that how hiring professionals approach the employee recruitment process? Is there really a difference?

Whether a company joins—and remains—a member of National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) or any trade group depends on how much it agrees with the association’s activities and how its membership in the association affects its reputation, said Michael Barnett, a professor of management & global business at Rutgers Business School who has studied trade groups.

“[Trade associations] are effective by influencing what others outside the industry think of the industry, like regulators, like customers, like communities,” Barnett said.

Trade groups help shield individual companies from the public relations backlash of lobbying on behalf of their industry. They often work as organizing forces to oppose regulation of industries and to lobby government for favorable laws and policies.

“The member firms want cover, they want that legitimacy, they want an improved reputation, but they don’t want to do those things necessary to gain that,” Barnett said. “It’s sort of like they’ve hired a personal trainer and they want that trainer to say, ‘Eat cake and you’re going to get fit.’”

For Anthony Brown, a Rutgers Business School senior soon to graduate from Rutgers–Newark, his biggest inspiration is his father.

After posting a drawing of himself and his father with the caption, “Pops took a job as a janitor that allowed me to receive free tuition at Rutgers University. He passed and I told myself his sacrifice would not be in vain. Here it is! Give the janitor the same respect you give the CEO.” on Twitter, Brown garnered more than 50,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in the span of four days.