SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Demand outstripping supply in North America prompted LEGO to curb promotional activities in the world’s biggest market for toys. First-half sales in 2016, reported on Tuesday, slipped to about $524 million from about $533 million last year.

Rajshree builds the future of innovation from the ground up. Rajshree Agarwal, Rudolph P. Lamone Chair and Professor in Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, knows that being an entrepreneur isn’t just about starting a new company. The founding director of the Ed Snider Center, she looks at enterprise in a holistic way, inspiring the next generation to be creative and critical thinkers. We embody the spirit of entrepreneurship. We are Smith.

The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is happy to welcome six new full-time faculty members for the 2016-2017 academic year. New faculty joined the Smith School in August in following areas: Decision, Operations and Information Technologies Wei Chen, Visiting Lecturer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (PhD) Courtney Paulson, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California (PhD)

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Borrowing a newspaper from a neighbor might have been the extent of social media as recently as 20 years ago, says professor Anil K.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — On Women’s Equality Day last week at the White House, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, General Motors and other big U.S. companies signed an “Equal Pay Pledge” to close the gender pay gap for their employees. On the same day, a pair of states passed laws for the same objective — to eliminate the often-cited statistic of U.S.

Brent doesn’t believe in spinning his wheels when it comes to start-ups. Brent Goldfarb, associate professor, propels innovation in his entrepreneurship course. He knows there’s no better way to enhance students’ entrepreneurial prowess than to start and execute a business in 10-weeks flat – all the while in constant competition against their classmates.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — A recent White House memorandum to heads of federal departments and agencies outlining a policy toward “ensuring Government-wide reuse rights for custom code that is developed using Federal funds" could be problematic for vendors that customize software for individual federal agencies, says entrepreneurship lecturer

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — A Forbes survey last week revealed 69 percent of its respondents have played Pokémon Go during work hours.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — In a move Inc. calls a “Wall Street magic trick,” Facebook’s annual shareholders meeting on Monday yielded passage of a measure to issue 5.7 million shares of a nonvoting C Class stock.

Smith Brain Trust — Electric car maker Tesla Motors describes its bid to acquire full-service solar power systems provider SolarCity as a move destined to create the “world’s only vertically integrated energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products to our customers.”  But management professor Br