Media Alert: Aug. 14, 2013Attention News and Business Editors  COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Michael Ball, associate dean for faculty and research and Dean’s Chair in Management Science for the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, comments on factors behind the U.S. Justice Department and a group of states moving to block the merger of US Airways and American Airlines because they say the deal would reduce competition and increase fares. 

Media Alert: Aug. 13, 2013 Attention: Business Reporters COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Experts in the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business are available to discuss the current state of the print news industry. Their analysis follow the recent Washington Post acquisition by Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, the Boston Globe sale to Red Sox owner John Henry, plus other recent sales and spinoffs of newspapers across the United States.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business’s Center for Complexity in Business held its second-annual Digital Marketing Analytics Roundtable Aug. 1, 2013 at the Smith Suite in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. The roundtable was held in collaboration with Teradata. Smith marketing faculty members Bill Rand, the director of CCB, and Roland Rust, the executive director of CCB, led the event. 

Aug. 6, 2013Media AlertAttention: Business and Economics Editors and Reporters COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Long odds face U.S. fast food workers who have been demanding higher wages, says an expert in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Professor Curt Grimm, the Charles A. Taff Chair of Economics and Strategy, comments on the workers’ demands that include better pay, the right to unionize, and more than doubling the $7.25 minimum wage to $15:

As a Securities and Exchange Commission deputy chief economist, Kathleen Weiss Hanley has garnered praise for delivering “critical thought leadership” and spurring “rigorous economic modeling.” This fall, the respected economic strategist and researcher returns to the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business finance faculty, which she served from 1994-1999. She arrives from the SEC with a colleague -- Associate Professor Gerard Hoberg, following his one-year sabbatical as a visiting financial economist.

MEDIA ALERT: July 31, 2013Attention: Finance Reporters COLLEGE PARK, Md. - David Kass, Tyser Teaching Fellow in finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, comments on Facebook’s price per share rebounding to near its $38 IPO level (from May 2012) after trading as low as $17.55 last September. The Smith School has an in-house facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content.

College Park, Md. – November 14, 2012 – World-leading cybersecurity researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business won a significant grant from the Department of Homeland Security to develop economic models for cybersecurity investments. Professors Lawrence Gordon and Martin Loeb – along with colleague William Lucyshyn from the School of Public Policy -- received one of just 34 contracts awarded to 29 academic and research institutions for research and development of solutions to cybersecurity challenges.

Air dates: Thursday, July 11, 2013, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 14, 2013, 7:30 a.m. If you got it, don’t flaunt it. That’s the conclusion Smith School researchers came to when they studied how people display the brands they use. According to the study, people flaunting the brands they use in a conspicuous manner – such as obnoxiously displaying a designer handbag label or wearing Gucci sunglass indoors – is a big turn-off for many consumers.

Air dates: Thursday, June 26, 2013, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 29, 2013, 7:30 a.m. Whistleblowers can play in important role in putting a stop to unethical or illegal behavior within organizations. But how can organizations head off unethical behavior in the first place? Does it only come from the top down?

Air date: Thursday, May 30, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Recently, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, landed in the headlines for her telecommuting policy. Or rather, her reversal of the company’s previous liberal telecommuting policy, which has many employees working almost exclusively outside the office. But with stretched resources and growing commute times – particularly in this region – telecommuting is an attractive option for many.