Rajshree Agarwal, the Rudolph P. Lamone Chair and Professor in Entrepreneurship, has been named academic director of the new Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets.

Mind the Gap to Motivate Employees

Companies work fairly hard to place one woman — but only one — in a top management position, according to research by Cristian Dezső, an associate professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, and two co-authors. The article found evidence of a “quota” effect: Once a company had appointed one woman to a top-tier job, the chances of a second woman landing an elite position at the same firm drop substantially — by about 50 percent, in fact.

Teams searching for innovation increase their odds of driving the evolution of a field when they reach out to colleagues — or to research findings — outside their field's area of expertise, a new study from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business suggests.

Congratulations, you just got a stretch assignment! This means your boss trusts you and sees leadership potential. But beware. New research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business shows potential pitfalls. The same assignment that can inspire engagement and critical thinking also can trigger self-doubt and anxiety.

It’s a truism in workplace: Psychology studies show that physically attractive people generally have an advantage. But new research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business clarifies the mechanism through which attractiveness works as an advantage in one specific scenario — job interviews. More intriguingly, the research also shows when beauty can work against you.

U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) hoard approximately $2 trillion in cash, the majority of which is kept overseas, and are required to pay U.S. corporate income taxes upon repatriation of foreign earnings earned in lower tax jurisdictions. New research provides evidence that MNCs facing higher repatriation tax costs are more likely to engage in acquisitions of both U.S. targets and foreign targets.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Though successfully scraping together a 200 million euro repayment to the IMF, Greece will struggle to cover the 770 million euros due to the IMF by May 12, the Associated Press reports today. Bill Longbrake, executive-in-residence at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Berkshire Hathaway shareholders should feel reassured to see younger executives stepping up as retirement looms for chairman and CEO Waren Buffett, said David Kass, a Berkshire investor and finance professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Though the gender gap in the corporate world has narrowed over the last few decades, women still have a lot of ground to cover before they are equally represented in top positions in business. A big step toward closing the gap starts with business schools. The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business outlined its commitment to closing the gap in March, announcing its 50/50 by 2020 Pledge.