SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- A surge of shareholder activism has fueled debate about how companies should balance dividend payouts with long-term investment, but an economist at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business says the money gets reinvested either way.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland is recognized as one of the top research institutions in the world, but it is also a place where students can learn from some of the best teachers in the business. Each year, Smith awards three different honors to its faculty members who have demonstrated a passion for teaching excellence: The Distinguished Teaching Awards, the Krowe Teaching Excellence Awards and the Legg-Mason Award.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Restaurants often come across as desperate when they offer Groupon-style deals, but a new study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business suggests that certain types of venues can escape the damage to their reputations. That's because the negative effect tends to be concentrated on restaurants at lower price points.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Citing a stalled U.S. economy through the first quarter of 2015, U.S.

Cybersecurity analytics was the theme of the Fifth Annual Business Analytics Workshop, held in College Park, Md., on Monday, May 18, 2015. Co-sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and IBM, the day-long workshop consisted of topics ranging from calculating cybersecurity investments to applying machine learning to cyber defense. The workshop provided ample time for questions from the audience and speakers delivered real-time solutions to some of the attendees.

What makes someone an effective and strong leader? Is this a skill that can be acquired? These are questions that are often asked about leadership. There are varying perspectives on leadership at the fringes, but at the core there are qualities that are absolutely necessary to be an effective leader. In this issue of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, host Jeff Salkin sits down with Gary Cohen to talk about what makes a good leader and how to become one.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- The introduction of Craigslist led to an increase in HIV-infection cases of 13.5 percent in Florida over a four-year period, according to a new study conducted at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith of Business. The estimated medical costs for those patients will amount to $710 million over the course of their lives.

Recent titles from Robert H. Smith School of Business faculty include: Dancing Elephants and Leaping Jaguars

Using a database of 130,000 Yelp reviews, Smith PhD student Jorge Mejia and two Smith professors have found a way to predict which Washington, D.C., restaurants will close. The technique, which grew out of Mejia’s dissertation, involves new software that can “read” and analyze the contents of online reviews.