Strong Showing of Smith Scholars at Annual Academy of Management Meeting

Twenty-six scholars from Maryland Smith’s Management and Organization department participated in 22 presentations at the 2024 Academy of Management Meeting in Copenhagen. Three faculty members—Rajshree Agarwal, Hui Liao, and Alyssa Tedder-King—received prestigious awards recognizing their research and teaching excellence.

Smith’s Jie Zhang and PhD Graduate Min Kim Earn Prestigious AMA Award

Smith professor Jie Zhang and PhD alum Min Kim won the AMA’s 2025 Don Lehmann Award for their Journal of Marketing Research article on predicting online shopping preferences in dynamic, large-scale retail assortments.

Agarwal Honored for Her Mentorship of PhD Students

Rajshree Agarwal, Smith’s Rudolph Lamone Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, earned the 2025 STR Outstanding Educator Award for mentoring PhD students and leading research-driven programs for high schoolers, undergraduates, and executive MBAs at the Snider Center.

ISSIP Honors Smith’s Roland Rust for ‘Advancing Service Innovation'

Smith’s Roland Rust has been named a 2025 ISSIP Fellow for pioneering contributions to service research, including founding key conferences and journals, and advancing AI scholarship in the field. He ranks among the world’s top 100 business research scientists.

AERC Honors Smith’s Lemma Senbet

Lemma Senbet, Dean’s Chaired Professor of Finance at Smith, received the African Economic Research Consortium’s Distinguished Service Award for his longstanding contributions to economic research, policy, and capacity building across Africa. He was also recently appointed to the Bretton Woods Committee.

Exploring Workplace Creativity and Innovation

Smith School professor Vijaya Venkataramani, a 2024 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award recipient, shared insights on workplace creativity during her lecture. She explored how social networks, team dynamics and leadership influence innovation, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity and psychological safety.

Kannan Wins AMA TechSIG Lifetime Achievement Award

The AMA TechSIG honored Smith’s P.K. Kannan with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for his impactful research in marketing technology and innovation. Kannan, an expert in digital marketing and AI, shared the recognition with USC’s Gerard Tellis at the AMA Winter Conference.

Smith Faculty Awarded Grants for Innovative Teaching Practices

Smith’s Teaching/Learning Innovation Grant supports Cliff Rossi’s experiential learning project, where students analyze climate risk impacts on mortgages using machine learning. The project develops industry-relevant skills, preparing students for top finance roles and advancing climate-risk insights in housing.

Smith School’s Bjarnadóttir Earns Highest Icelandic State Honor for Research Impact

Margrét Bjarnadóttir, associate professor at the Smith School, was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon for transformative research on pay equity.

Smith School’s P.K. Kannan Earns EMAC Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award

P.K. Kannan, a distinguished marketing scholar at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, has been honored with the European Marketing Academy’s 2024 Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award, recognizing his significant contributions and impact in the field of marketing.