The Professional Services Leadership Initiative (PSLI) is an exciting new executive development program for mid-level marketers, offered by the CES in conjunction with Smith Executive Programs and Expertise Marketing, Inc.  The program targets professional services firms that are global leaders in their industries and are committed to pursuing marketplace excellence. Learn more.

Holiday shopping season is about to enter full swing and retailers are doing their best to lure customers. With a little comparison-shopping, consumers can score some great deals.   In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, host Jeff Salkin sits down with Janet Wagner to talk about this season’s holiday retail outlook.

The growing crowdfunding phenomenon has exploded in the past five years with sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. With crowdfunding, startups raise the funds they need in small doses, and “investors” get returns on their small investments, or products, perks or rewards for their donation-based funding. And now recent changes to SEC rules have made it possible for crowdfunding sites to allow startups to offer qualified investors a small slice of equity.

A recent scandal in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins organization brought to light the havoc bullying can create in the workplace – whether it’s the locker room or the boardroom. Bullies classify as “difficult” co-workers, and they can have big effects on job performance.  

A Smith doctoral candidate’s recent findings that guide marketers to focus beyond an online customer’s “last click” have drawn prestigious recognition from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI). 

Hank Lucas drew energy and optimism from a recent retreat amidst the world's foremost thinkers. Organizers of the 100th Renaissance Weekend invited Lucas, the Robert H. Smith Professor of Information Systems in the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, to contribute his expertise to their summit designed to build bridges among innovative leaders from diverse fields.

Could hackers have disrupted HealthCare.gov’s opening week, when 3.72 million visitors were attempting to register?  "Possibly," says computer forensic analyst Rebecca Mercuri, PhD. The launch was ripe for attack in an atmosphere of intense social and political opposition. “But we’ll probably never know.”  Nonetheless, there’s a lesson in the importance of "cyber-securing" critical infrastructure for policymakers to take away, said Mercuri, founding president of New Jersey-based Notable Software, Inc. 

Albert “Pete” Kyle, an expert in market microstructure at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, has been named a Fellow of the American Finance Association for his distinguished and sustained contributions to the field of finance.

The College of Behavioral & Social Sciences and the Robert H. Smith School of Business recently combined the strengths of their criminology and criminal justice and business ethics focus areas through the establishment of the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation, and Crime (C-BERC). C-BERC is the first venture of its kind to formally link business with criminology in an academic environment. Through C-BERC, UMD seeks to scientifically confront, assess, evaluate and develop best practices at the intersections of business, ethics, regulation and crime.

December 29, 2013 Career Coach: A year of leadership lessons December 23, 2013