With two of the most prominent combat sports properties—WWE and UFC—now united under one belt, eyes are on parent company TKO Group Holdings for its plans to continue growing the brands moving forward. While the challenge of maximizing the adjacent brands’ marketing potential is seemingly difficult from the outside looking in, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business’ Mary Beth Furst doesn’t expect TKO to struggle in grappling with the task.

Many defining moments in professional basketball took place when the NBA was airing on NBC. That period marked Michael Jordan’s heyday, the 90s, when he and the Chicago Bulls won six titles. And just hearing the opening bars of John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” brings this spectacular time in basketball history to mind.

A Strategic Design Fellows team representing the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business tied for third place in the recent American Marketing Association (AMA) International Collegiate Case Competition sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. The Smith team was among 10 selected (from 78 teams submitting cases) for the competition held in early April in New Orleans.

How did you spend your summer vacation? Students working with Maryland Smith’s Center for Global Business have an impressive answer for that question. CGB offered two programs this summer to allow students to develop their professional skills and build work experience, ultimately helping them to build their resumes and gain a competitive advantage in their future careers. Here’s how they spent their time. The Global Marketing Virtual Internship Program

Eight faculty members earned Maryland Smith teaching honors last week, as part of an annual tradition at the business school. Tunay Tunca, chair of Maryland Smith's Teaching Excellence Committee, announced the faculty teaching awards during a virtual spring faculty and staff assembly. Tunca is the Dean's Professor of Management Science and Operations Management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland. Special Recognition: Tricia Homer

The Maryland Smith chapter of the American Marketing Association drew several accolades at the 2021 International Collegiate Conference. The chapter was recognized as outstanding in three categories: Chapter Planning, Membership and Internal/External Communications. The 2020-21 academic year has been filled with challenges, but the chapter’s executive team demonstrated that they could rise to those challenges. The team successfully transitioned the chapter to the online environment, seeing an impressive 60% increase in membership applications.

The pandemic has changed so much about the way we live and work. And some of those changes are here to stay.

This summer the Center for Global Business at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business organized the first Global Marketing Virtual Internship program, a program the center plans to make a yearly affair. Twenty-two Maryland Smith undergraduate students were selected from a pool of over 100 applicants to participate in the cohort-based 10-week program focused on website globalization and digital marketing. The students were placed with Maryland and D.C.-based companies that export their products and services abroad.

In our video series, Maryland Smith experts share their insights on the broadly reaching impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.