The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently replaced its food pyramid nutrition guidelines with a user-friendly plate icon to help Americans understand the proportions of foods they should be eating each day for a healthy diet. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Dr. Rebecca Ratner talks about how her research supports the new nutrition guidelines.

Nations around the globe are captivated with World Cup fever. For the first time, the tournament is in South Africa and having big impacts on the country. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up, Smith marketing faculty member Hank Boyd discusses a recent MBA student trip he led to South Africa to learn about the marketing surrounding the World Cup.

Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, 7:30 p.m.    Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, 7:30 a.m.    Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, 4:30 a.m.  ForecastingConsumer Spending

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Roland Rust talks about his new research that can forecast consumer spending better than other econometric models currently used.

A team of undergraduates at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, placed second and took home $2,000 in the General Motors “GM&U” Marketing Challenge. The challenge: create an integrated marketing communications plan for GM’s new College Discount Program. Out of the 49 campuses and two rounds of scoring, Maryland was one of three universities selected to travel to Detroit in December 2009 to present at the General Motors headquarters. Syracuse University came in first place, and Drexel came in third.

Making your list and checking it twice could help you avoid picking up the extra unplanned purchases this year and curb your spending while shopping. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Rosellina Ferraro talks about her new research that offers easy tips that can help consumers cut back on unplanned purchases.

Making your list and checking it twice could help you avoid picking up the extra unplanned purchases this year and curb your spending while shopping. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Rosellina Ferraro talks about her new research that offers easy tips that can help consumers cut back on unplanned purchases.

College Park, Md. – November 11, 2009 – The University of Maryland was recognized as No. 16 in the world for the strength of its faculty and quality of research in business and economics in the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released Nov. 4. The rankings are compiled by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. The University of Maryland also ranked No. 17 in the broader field of social sciences, which includes business and economics.

Much of advertising is visual—TV commercials, print and Web site ads, billboards. So what draws consumer attention—when they’re shopping, Web surfing or just out on the town? Does that attention-grabber build or destroy brand value?

The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business is pleased to welcome the following new faculty members for fall 2009. Accounting and Information Assurance Carolyn Levine, assistant professor; PhD, Carnegie Mellon University James Staihar- Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Michigan Decision, Operations and Information Technologies Karen Gold, Tyser Teaching Fellow of statistics, UCLA Canan Savaskan-Ebert, visiting assistant professor; PhD, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France Finance