Welcome to The Smith Report, a short audio podcast that will help keep you informed about current news and events at the Smith School. The podcast is less than 10 minutes long and is produced by the Office of Marketing Communications. Smith MBAs take on a variety of challenging internships over the summer to build their skills and make professional connections. In this issue of the Smith Report, Tom Fisher, MBA Candidate 2014, tells us about working as a financial analyst intern at Campbell's Soup in New Jersey.

Spending 36 hours straight with the same group of people would generally turn off most students, but a team of four undergraduates from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business enthusiastically did so in February 2013 as part of the Wake Forest Marketing Summit, a case competition held annually at WFU’s campus in Winston-Salem, NC. After nearly two days of intense competition that culminated in a final presentation to case sponsor FedEx, the students returned triumphantly to College Park with the first place trophy and $10,000 in prize winnings.

Bill Rand, assistant professor of marketing and director of the Center for Complexity in Business at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business comments on social media’s effect on the gun control debate that has been revived by the recent mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.:

Thursday, December 13, 2012, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 17, 2012, 7:30 a.m. E-commerce and online sales have revolutionized holiday shopping. First there was the rise of Cyber Monday, but now the growth of mobile and tablet-based commerce makes it easier than ever to shop from anywhere at any time. Social media has accelerated this process, with consumers sharing shopping tips with friends and retailers offering special deals.

Anil Gupta, the Smith School’s Michael Dingman Chair in Global Strategy and Entrepreneurship, will answer questions in “Adapt or Invent: Innovating in an Emerging Market," a webinar presented live by The Economist from 11-11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4.

Thursday, November 29, 2012, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 2, 2012, 7:30 a.m. Behavioral Economics for Businesses Many startups base their businesses on changing their customers’ behavior – which can be a challenge. But it doesn’t have to be so hard. The trick is understanding how customers make decisions and how to influence those decisions.

Thursday, November 29, 2012, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 2, 2012, 7:30 a.m.  Many startups base their businesses on changing their customers’ behavior – which can be a challenge. But it doesn’t have to be so hard. The trick is understanding how customers make decisions and how to influence those decisions. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up, the Smith School’s Rebecca Ratner talks about her experience working with entrepreneurs at Silicon Valley’s behavioral economics summit for startups, StartupOnomics, and the takeaways other businesses can use.

Responding to a projected shortage of analytical experts, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will launch a degree program focused on managing and analyzing big data. Classes begin in fall 2013 for the M.S. in Business for Marketing Analytics. The curriculum will equip its graduates to harness and process massive amounts of data to help design products, predict the effects of marketing campaigns, and better understand customers.

Media Alert: November 16, 2012 Marketing experts in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are available to comment on trends shaping the 2012 holiday shopping season. The Smith School has an in-house facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content.

Thursday, November 15, 2012, 7:30 p.m. & Sunday, November 18, 2012, 7:30 a.m.