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Posts Tagged ‘Ross Business School’
Student-Led Venture Fund Achieves Record $2 Million Return on HandyLab Acquisition
A series of strategic venture capital investments in University of Michigan technology spin-out HandyLab Inc. has paid off handsomely for the University-based, student-led Wolverine Venture Fund (WVF), part of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies (ZLI) at the Ross School of Business. HandyLab, an Ann Arbor-based developer and manufacturer of molecular diagnostic products, entered into an agreement earlier this fall to be acquired by Becton, Dickinson, and Co., which is based in Franklin Lakes, N.J. The transaction closed on Nov. 19, 2009, returning a record-setting $2 million to the WVF and handing Michigan business students their third successful portfolio-company exit since the fund's inception in 1998. "This clearly demonstrates that great things can be accomplished when hard-working entrepreneurs and innovative technology are matched up with senior leadership of the quality of HandyLab President and CEO Jeffrey Williams and forward-looking investors in the venture community, including the Wolverine Venture Fund," says Thomas C. Kinnear, ZLI's executive director. [Read more...]
The Limits of Carbon Pricing: Can High Prices Alone Cut Emissions?
U-M Professor Andy Hoffman writes in his latest Perspectives blog posting that "we place too much faith in pricing as a singular mechanism for solving environmental problems in this country. The most vivid example is the call to create a price for carbon as the solution to the climate change problem. As the logic goes; if we set a price for carbon high enough, innovators will create new gadgets that emit fewer greenhouse gases, investors will invest in them, companies will adopt them and consumers will buy them. But, not so fast. We are not like some sort of mice chasing a piece of cheese whenever it is placed in front of us. Unlike mice, we are not so singular in focus. We actually care who is placing the cheese and we may even ignore the cheese if it is not placed in the right way." This first appeared on the Newsweek.com “Green Business” blog on November 18, 2009. [Read more...]
Making the best of the year’s biggest shopping day
For most Americans, Thanksgiving Day means a flurry of food, family and football. But the real frenzy begins the day after, say researchers at the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University. "Just as turkey and pumpkin pie are associated with Thanksgiving, the day after has become synonymous with one thing—shopping," said David Wooten, associate professor of marketing at the U-M Ross School of Business. "Black Friday has become an annual consumption event with more than 60 million people braving the elements, snarled parking lots, hours waiting and early morning crowds to shop on a day that has come to signal the beginning of the Christmas shopping season." New ethnographic research by Wooten and colleague Robert Harrison of Western Michigan University explores the competitive aspects and game-like characteristics of Black Friday shopping, the motivations and behaviors of shoppers and the implications for retailers. [Read more...]
UM professor recognized by Michigan Venture Capital Association
David Brophy, director of the Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, was honored Monday night with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual awards dinner of the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Venture Capital Association. In 1972, Brophy, who is also an associate professor of finance, founded the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium to help diversify the state’s economy away from its dependence on auto manufacturing. [Read more...]
Business Week ranks Ross School of Business one of all-around best
Business Week has announced that the Ross School ranks among the Top 10 for its part-time MBA (No. 5) and executive MBA (No. 7) programs and for its open enrollment (No. 8) and custom enrollment (No. 10) executive education programs for 2009. The Ross School currently ranks No. 5 for its full-time MBA program and No. 4 for its BBA program, according to rankings previously released by Business Week. The Ross School is currently the only business school worldwide to be rated among the Top 10 in all six of Business Week's biennial rankings of business school programs. [Read more...]
Viewing sneezing and coughing in public raises fears
Seeing other people sneeze and cough affects how people view the U.S. health care system and how likely they are to support federal spending to develop a flu vaccine, a University of Michigan study shows. "We found that exposure to public sneezing and coughing increased risk perception even for risks that are completely unrelated to the flu," said Norbert Schwarz, a research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research, a professor in the U-M Department of Psychology and a professor at the U-M Ross School of Business. "We also found that people were unaware that exposure to public symptoms of the flu had influenced their judgments of risk, their views about government spending on flu research or their opinion of the U.S. health care system." [Read more...]
Michigan Solar Car Team finishes third in Australian race
For the fourth time in U-M Solar Car Team history, the students placed third in a biennial 1,880-mile race across Australia. Infinium crossed the finish line in Adelaide Wednesday evening (EDT), after competing for five days in the Global Green Challenge, formerly known as the World Solar Challenge. Tokai University of Japan won the race. Michigan fought hard with four-time champion team Nuon of the Netherlands for second place. On day four, the teams leap-frogged six times. But Infinium received a 10-minute penalty when the students had to push it up a tough hill toward the end of the race. That solidified Nuon’s lead. [Read more...]
Make Entrepreneurship a Business School Priority
Established companies, not just startups, need MBAs with entrepreneurial skills, but B-schools aren't producing enough, writes University of Michigan professor Tim Faley in Business Week. [Read more...}
Environmental and Social Responsibility: Ross School No. 1 in the U.S.
The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is the best business school in the United States for integrating environmental, social, and ethical issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute's 2009-10 Beyond Grey Pinstripes report. The biennial survey and ranking of business schools placed the Ross School at No. 2 worldwide. The Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto is ranked No. 1 in this year's survey. Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, which was ranked No. 1 in 2007, is ranked No. 4 this year. [Read more...]
Ross School tops in the U.S. for environmental/social responsibility
The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is the best business school in the United States for integrating environmental, social and ethical issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute's 2009-10 Beyond Grey Pinstripes report. The biennial survey and ranking of business schools placed the Ross School at No. 2 overall. The Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto is ranked No. 1 in this year's survey. Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, which was ranked No. 1 in 2007, is ranked No. 4 this year. [Read more...]