Management and leadership faculty experts at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business weigh in on the effects industry giant Apple may feel with CEO Steve Jobs stepping down. They delve into the company’s succession plan, how things might be different for Apple without Jobs, and how the investors will react. *The Smith School has an in-house facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content. A test to Apple’s leadership succession plan

Thursday, August 4, 2011, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, August 7, 2011, 7:30 a.m. Variety and Motivation As the old saying goes, variety is spice of life. It turns out, it’s also the key to keeping yourself motivated to meet your goals when you haven’t yet made much progress. The catch: if you are almost at your goal, less variety is more motivating.

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. You probably use social media – or at least you’ve heard of the major platforms. But how does social media fit into your business? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, William Rand, assistant professor of marketing, talks about social media at a business tool.

Decision, Operations and Information Technologies Professor Emeritus Saul Gass has published a new book titled “Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators.” The book was co-edited with Arjang Assad, dean of the School of Management, University at Buffalo, SUNY, and former senior associate dean of the Smith School. The book was published by Springer and is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

MEDIA ALERT: July 28, 2011 UMD BUSINESS FACULTY AVAILABLE TO EXPLAIN ISSUES SURROUNDING DEBT CEILING DEBATE Finance and economics faculty experts at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are available to comment on the federal debt ceiling debate. They can help explain the implications for the global economy should a deal not be reached, and they can provide perspective on why the political fight has been raging in Washington.

MEDIA ALERT: July 26, 2011 Pitfalls of Qualified Residential Mortgages and a Simple Solution

With the Aug. 1 deadline fast approaching for comments on Credit Risk Retention and the Qualified Residential Mortgage rules, Cliff Rossi, an executive in residence, tackles the topic with his latest policy briefing. The proposed QRM provisions oversimplify the risk tradeoffs among borrower, product and collateral attributes in such a manner that is likely to raise borrowing costs and prevent a large segment of well-qualified borrowers from obtaining a mortgage.

The Academy of Management will honor Professor Emeritus Ken G. Smith with its Distinguished Educator Award in San Antonio next month. The Academy of Management, the oldest and largest scholarly management association in the world with nearly 20,000 members, selected Smith for his work developing doctoral students and junior faculty.

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.

We’ve seen volatility in the prices at the pump this summer. Have we already hit the peak this summer or should we expect prices to continue to rise? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Dr. Charles E. Olson talks about the factors that impact gas prices.