Thursday, August 20, 2009, 7:30 p.m.Sunday, August 23, 2009, 7:30 a.m.Monday, August 24, 2009, 4:30 a.m.  The real estate market has been in a downward spiral for the past year. Have we finally hit bottom? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Clifford Rossi, managing director of the new Center for Financial Policy, shares his insight and prognosis for the real estate market.

Entrepreneurs begin their ventures lacking a lot of things—employees, funding, customers, technology. A large part of their success relies on their ability to get these things, and that depends in large part on the entrepreneur’s ability to network with people and organizations that can provide them with everything from further connections to equipment to good advice.

For companies to stay one step ahead of the competition they need to be innovative – one way to do that is to rethink business models to incorporate sustainability. This can lead to new efficiencies that add to the firm’s bottom line, make customers happy and lessen environmental impact as well.

In the 10 years that Lawrence Gordon, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance, has spent pondering the economic issues related to cybersecurity, the risks have changed significantly. Businesses and government agencies no longer have to worry about teen hackers taking a shot at their organizations for bragging rights. Instead, multinational corporations and government agencies are suffering cyber-attacks from organized crime, large-scale fraud, disgruntled employees and even terrorists.

If it seems like you and everyone you know is looking for a job, it might actually help your search if your friends have success landing a position. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Cynthia Kay Stevens, associate professor in management and organization, talks about her research that finds peers’ success predicts success in job searches.

College Park, Md. – June 15, 2009 – A collaborative white paper, Building A Cyber Supply Chain Assurance Reference Model, released today by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE:SAI] and the Supply Chain Management Center at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, tackles the nation’s cyber threat — now elevated to a presidential imperative — with an outline for an innovative model that applies end-to-end supply chain management to cyber security for the first time.

Life is full of decisions – sometimes tough ones– but those decisions can be made easier for informed consumers and savvy marketers. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Rebecca Ratner, associate professor of marketing, talks about her how people can make better decisions and the ways in which they can be persuaded toward a particular decision.

Broadcast Dates: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 7:30 p.m.Sunday, July 12, 2009, 7:30 a.m.Monday, July 13, 2009, 4:30 a.m. For companies to stay one step ahead of the competition they need to be innovative – one way to do that is to rethink business models to incorporate sustainability. This can lead to new efficiencies that add to the firm’s bottom line, make customers happy and lessen environmental impact as well.

The information revolution has not only introduced new technologies, but has fundamentally changed the way business is managed and conducted. Economic transactions increasingly take place via digital electronic activities focused primarily on the interconnectivity obtained via the Internet. A critical part of this interconnectivity is the way organizations have integrated their accounting and financial management systems with Internet–based applications.

Broadcast Dates: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28, 2009, 7:30 a.m. Monday, June 29, 2009, 4:30 a.m. If it seems like you and everyone you know is looking for a job, it might actually help your search if your friends have success landing a position.