International markets have seen some tumultuous times lately. Much of the volatility stems from economic trouble in China, spilling over to other regions. In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up, host Jeff Salkin visits the Smith School to discuss market volatility with Kristen Fanarakis, assistant director of the Center for Financial Policy.

When the South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Washington, DC, last week, she brought along a small army of business representatives: 166 in all. 

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Want to talk about who is overpaid or underpaid at your office, or gripe about long hours or working conditions? Want to even take those complaints to social media?

When it comes to generating revenue, the U.S. health care system sometimes rewards quantity over quality. Fixing the flawed incentives will require greater transparency about the costs and values of services, experts said Oct. 9-10, 2015, at the sixth annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics, hosted by the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Companies in which employees feel empowered to solve problems on their own, rather than simply follow rules, outperform peers where that doesn't happen — and employees at such companies feel a sense of

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Men getting in touch with their masculine selves — like in Wall Street’s male-dominated, competitive culture — breeds overconfidence and financial risk-taking,

Development banker Evelyn Hartwick, EMBA ’10, knew little of the world outside El Salvador when she arrived in the United States at the start of a civil war that tore apart her country in the 1980s. She was 17, fresh out of high school and alone in a foreign place. “I had $200 in my pocket, and I didn’t know any English,” she recalls.

Economists point to rural Africa, India, China and Eastern Europe as the next big frontiers for multinational corporations. But to be successful in rural developing markets, companies need to customize their approach to the local market in all aspects of their business strategies.

When a company promotes a woman to its top management team for the first time, you might expect the following to happen: The company grows comfortable with women in positions of power, women perceive new career paths and the movement toward gender equity snowballs.

Why are so many people reluctant to go to the movies or dinner alone? The existence of this inhibition is widely known, but its underpinnings have been subjected to surprisingly little scientific scrutiny — until now. Research by Rebecca Ratner, a marketing professor and assistant dean for academic affairs at the Smith School, sheds new light on the psychology of solo consumerism.