This episode of Inspiring Minds is about corporate social responsibility, how companies pay taxes, and whether there’s any relationship between the two. But it’s also about the value of returning to a question long after the research papers have been written, to see if the ideas hold true – and how Villanova’s mission demands that business leaders look at how their actions affect the communities around them. Luke Watson, PhD, The Kevin Tedeschi ’71 Assistant Professor of Accounting & Information Systems at VSB, talks with Justin Bagin ’22 MAC.

Economics doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s also about human rights, environmental rights, and people’s expectations of living a safe and prosperous life. Chris Jeffords, PhD, associate teaching professor, Economics, studies how these areas overlap. In this episode of Inspiring minds, he talks with Austin Glass ’22 VSB about his research and how to balance policies and ideas on paper, with their practical applications in the real world. They also discuss what the next generation of economists can do to prepare for a changing world.

Millions of people have been working from home for many months due to the pandemic. The shift has drastically altered commuting habits, spending patterns and --for many -- workplace communication. People feel disconnected from their colleagues and cranky about perceived slights. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Jake Galgano ‘21 VSB talks with Manuela Priesemuth, PhD, Associate Professor, Management & Operations, about the ways companies can support their WFH employees while continuing to set expectations and effectively manage for success. NOTE: This podcast was recorded at the height of the pandemic and references events from March through September of 2020.

In this episode of Inspiring Minds, alumni Chris Josephs '18 VSB and Ryan Mazzie '18 VSB talk with Assistant Professor of the Practice Keith Wright, Accounting & Information Systems, about their highly successful tech start-up and the mindset of younger investors, who are used to sharing their entire lives online, including what stocks they buy and how much they pay. In January of 2021, Wall Street hedge funds bet that they could drive down GameStop’s stock price. The Reddit “hivemind” had other ideas. This is perhaps the best example of the way social media has changed the day trading landscape, as zero-commission trades and apps like IRIS have altered the Millennial and GenZ trading landscape forever.

For many people, the path to success can seem hard to follow. Even high-achieving students and employees can find themselves unsure about which choice to make when they reach a fork in the road. Critical decisions can be easier to make with the help of a mentor. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Patrick Haley ‘21 VSB talks with Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, The Helen and William O’Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business about the positive benefits of mentoring -- not just for the person seeking advice, but also for the mentor.

Payday lenders have few friends in the financial world. But without them, people who are unbanked would lose access to cash for necessary expenses. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Kelsea Wong ‘21 VSB talks with Father Craig McMahon, Assistant Professor, Economics, about the complicated realities of the payday loan market, including the viability of alternative lenders and the effects of economic crisis on borrowers and lenders.

When your flight arrives at gate K, how long will it take you to walk to gate C, where your connecting flight departs? What about a walk from your hotel on 37th street to a park on 45th? Cities and businesses label our journeys in myriad ways, and those labels have an effect on how we perceive distance. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Liz Ford ‘21 VSB talks with Shelly Rathee, PhD, Assistant Professor, Marketing & Business Law, about the expectations people have when destination labels use letters or numbers, and how businesses can use those expectations to drive consumer behavior.

Many researchers have studied how abusive managers negatively affect their employees but what are the personal implications of their toxic behavior? In a previous episode of Inspiring Minds, Manuela Priesemuth, PhD, The Megan ’07 and Matthew ’06 Baldwin Assistant Professor, Management & Operations, shared her research into the effects of workplace abuse on those who witness it. Now Dr. Priesemuth talks with Samantha Moccia ‘20 VSB about the effects of workplace abuse on the perpetrators themselves.

Many companies make the decision to outsource some of their IT systems, such as payroll, because outsourcing can improve efficiency and reduce costs. But outsourcing contracts can also be used as an accounting trick, to make a company seem to be more profitable than it really is. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Susan Rykowski ‘20 VSB talks with Stephen Liedtka, PhD, associate professor, Accounting & Information Systems about the factors that may result in questionable outsourcing decisions.

Typically, a management team runs a company and a board of directors monitors that team. Directors need to act in the best interest of shareholders, even if their decisions go against the management team. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Jacob Bank VSB talks with Tina Yang, PhD, Associate Professor, Finance about the impact of Directors and Officers Insurance on the effectiveness of board governance. Dr. Yang says insurance companies can also serve as extra monitors on a company, based on investigations during the underwriting process.

Closing the gender pay gap has become a goal for many companies -- and many countries. But the process isn’t as simple as giving every woman a raise. So how can companies adjust pay disparities while boosting morale and making themselves attractive to strong female candidates? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Kelsea Wong ‘21 VSB talks with David Anderson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management & Operations, about strategies for pay equity. Dr. Anderson has worked with 23 companies in Iceland to close the gender pay gap.

In a globally connected world, societal challenges affect organizations across all sectors. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Nicole Anderson ‘19 VSB talks with Jonathan Doh, PhD, Associate Dean of Research, Herbert G. Rammrath Endowed Chair in International Business and Co-Faculty Director for The Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership. Dr. Doh says governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations will need to continue and deepen the trend of collaboration in order to create effective responses to issues like climate change and the use of natural resources.

Can you understand a company’s culture by crunching the numbers? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Emily Brown ‘19 VSB talks with Jennifer Altamuro, PhD, Associate Professor, Accounting about a recent paper she co-authored that focuses on corporate culture in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Altamuro and her colleagues used data about compliance with federal regulations to gain an understanding of the companies’ internal accepted practices. She says a weak compliance culture can have implications for shareholders and board members, as well as employees.

The trade policies of the U.S. government has become a newsworthy issue in recent years. As the Trump administration renegotiate trade deals and levies tariffs on broad sectors of imports, how do those policy changes affect American producers and consumers? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Chidinma Chioke ‘21 VSB talks with Michelle Casario, PhD, Co-Faculty Director for The Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, about the effects of tariffs on prices, production and the economy as a whole.

It seems the “Gig Economy” is here to stay. More people are working in nontraditional arrangements with employers than ever before. But are those workers happier -- and better off -- than salaried employees? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Lucy Finnegan ‘18 VSB talks with Cheryl Carleton, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics and Mary Kelly, PhD, Associate Chair, Economics about what factors contribute to job satisfaction, and how those factors differ based on gender and job type.

Compared to the heyday of manufacturing, the annual growth of the U.S. economy has slowed. Individual corporations perform well, but that performance doesn’t seem to lift all boats. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Lauren Cooper ‘19 VSB talks with Miron Wolnicki, PhD, Associate Professor, Economics about his ideas for boosting economic growth via a more robust influence of the federal government, a concept he calls the “American Entrepreneurial State.”

Nonprofit organizations do good work, but only if they can attract enough donors to support their mission. Donors crave information to help them make their donation decisions, and effective nonprofit organizations feed that craving with radical transparency. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Manny Garcia ‘18 VSB talks with Erica Harris, PhD, The Andrew J. Melton Jr. ’42 Assistant Professor, Accounting & Information Systems about the financial reasons nonprofits should tell the whole story about their operations -- especially when the news is good.

Among investors, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are gaining unprecedented popularity. Like mutual funds, they hold a portfolio of multiple securities in various asset classes providing more efficient long and short exposures. Additionally, because ETFs are traded like stocks, they provide much greater liquidity to investors. But, how do ETFs affect the prices of the stocks that comprise them, specifically the volatility and liquidity of these stocks? And do ETFs make it more difficult for investors to diversify some of the risk exposures they were created to reduce? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Emily Brown ‘19 VSB talks with Rabih Moussawi, PhD, Assistant Professor, Finance, about some of the unintended consequences of one of the greatest financial innovations in recent decades.

It’s never been easier to catch a ride. Companies like Uber and Lyft have filled the gaps left by taxi services and mass transit, attracting customers with a streamlined user experience. But how have ridesharing companies affected the revenue of taxi drivers and the valuation of taxi medallions, or licenses? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Ian MacPherson ‘20 VSB talks with Sutirtha Bagchi, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics about the economic effects of ridesharing companies on infrastructure, regulations and the long-term viability of taxi services.

The days of the barking boss should be long behind us, but research shows that 65 percent of employees have witnessed derogatory behavior in the workplace within the past year. Workplace aggression is traumatic for its victims, but the negative effects can spread to bystanders, creating a toxic environment. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Alexa Farrah ’19 VSB talks with Manuela Priesemuth, PhD, Assistant Professor, Management & Operations about what happens in a workplace when supervisors mistreat subordinates.

A diverse workforce can be a competitive advantage for companies by developing dynamic capabilities and enhancing work processes. But in order to tap those advantages, it’s not enough to hire a diverse workforce. Managers and executives must actively work to create a climate that welcomes the participation of new perspectives. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Shayla Frederick ‘18 VSB talks with Quinetta Roberson, PhD, about successful approaches to increasing and leveraging diversity.

Nonprofit organizations do good work, but only if they can attract enough donors to support their mission. Donors crave information to help them make their donation decisions, and effective nonprofit organizations feed that craving with radical transparency. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Manny Garcia ‘18 VSB talks with Erica Harris, PhD, The Andrew J. Melton Jr. ’42 Assistant Professor, Accounting & Information Systems about the financial reasons nonprofits should tell the whole story about their operations -- especially when the news is good.

The business world is globally connected. It’s no easy task to run the numbers on companies that cross borders, and differences between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) used in the United States complicate matters. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Angela Chen ‘17 VSB talks with Lucy Chen, PhD, Associate Professor, Accounting & Information Systems, about the ways that the two standards affect audit costs and the assessment of a company’s financial health, as well as how macroeconomic trends influence global accounting principles.

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, many financial institutions were motivated to diversify their loan portfolios by lending overseas. When there’s an increase in lending from one country to another, how does that affect the likelihood of a financial system failure? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Carl Sonnenschein ‘17 VSB talks with John Sedunov, PhD, the Michele and Christopher Iannaccone ’91 Assistant Professor, Finance, about the risks and rewards banks can incur when lending across borders.

In a company, no one is an island. Employees are usually part of one or more work teams -- often grouped with colleagues from different cultural and functional backgrounds. A team’s collective personality can be a help -- or a hindrance -- as it strives for synergy. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Caroline Manion ‘17 VSB talks with Narda Quigley, PhD, Associate Professor of Management, about methods to ensure that a work team will be greater than the sum of its parts.

Analytics has long been a part of baseball. Because batters and pitchers perform in a series of discrete events, the sport lends itself to statistical analysis. But what about a free-flowing, low-scoring, and complex game like soccer? The discrete events might be harder to spot, but a statistical analysis can still be part of a winning season. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Dan Bernardi and Leo “Laeka” Brenninkmeyer ‘17 VSB talk with Bret Myers, PhD, Assistant Professor, Management & Operations, about his analytics work with two Major League Soccer teams.

When a private equity firm buys a publicly traded company, lots of things change in the corporate environment. The organizational structure, the influence of the board, and the incentives for managers can all shift dramatically. But how do these types of buyouts affect the efficiency of cashflow? We’ll find out in this episode of Inspiring Minds, as Kyle Coleman ‘18 VSB talks with Meg Luo, PhD, Associate Professor, Finance.

If companies don’t embrace changing technology, they will fail. But change is hard, and sometimes scary. How can business leaders overcome fear within their teams to keep pace with the competition? And is all new technology a perfect fit for every company? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Madeline Shiley ‘17 VSB talks with Stephen Andriole, PhD, the Thomas G. Labrecque Professor of Business Technology, about strategies for successful digital transformation.

The world produces a lot of food. So much, in fact, that a great deal of it is wasted before it can be consumed. From farmers to consumers, and every step in between, greater emphasis can be placed on reducing food waste. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Alex Riesterer ’17 VSB talks with Beth Vallen, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing & Business Law about “The Squander Sequence” and other findings of a recent paper on food waste.

The US Catholic Church has experienced enormous changes in the last 30 years, including demographic, financial, and pastoral changes. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll find out how those realities shape the ways Church officials are planning -- and adjusting to -- the future. Listen as Matthew Plucienik ’17 VSB talks with Charles Zech, PhD, faculty director, Center for Church Management and Business Ethics.

Companies have long sought to reduce costs by sending work to remote sites overseas. What are the effects of offshoring on a complex and fast-paced industry, such as public accounting? In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll hear about the kinds of audit tasks that are sent to overseas firms, how that strategy can empower local staff who are new to the profession and what pitfalls may complicate the offshoring strategy. Listen as Lexi Evans ’17 VSB talks with Denise Hanes Downey, PhD, assistant professor, Accountancy & Information Systems.

The DiLella Center for Real Estate will soon celebrate its 10 year anniversary. To mark the occasion, we’ll hear from Shawn Howton, PhD, the faculty director of the DiLella Center. Dr. Howton tells Matt Zaboudil ’17 VSB about the origins of the center, highlights of the curriculum and describes the robust alumni network that contributes to a family atmosphere in VSB’s business education.

In recent years, the cost of prescription medication has been volatile. Changes in the insurance market, new regulations on wholesalers and the entrance of companies like FedEx and UPS into the retail-delivery market have all affected the profits of drug companies. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll get a look at the recent history and the near term future for the pharmaceutical market as Liam Hurley ‘19 VSB interviews Kathleen Iacocca, PhD, Assistant Professor, Management & Operations.

On Wall Street, so-called passive investments have become very popular. Leading the way are ETFs, or Exchange Traded Funds. They gather equities or bonds into huge baskets that trade throughout the day. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Tyler Bausinger ‘17 VSB talks with Caitlin Dannhauser, PhD, Assistant Professor, Finance about her research into corporate bond ETFs. Dr. Dannhauser found that yields for bonds included into ETFs were lower than they would have been if the bonds remained in the traditional market.

Institutions like the World Bank can have a large effect on developing countries. The funding they provide has the potential to improve -- and even save -- the lives of millions of people. The funding they provide also has the potential to keep governments in power. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we'll find out how an incumbent government's alignment with the United States impacts its access to money from the World Bank in the run-up to an election. Listen as Will Seabaugh’16 VSB interviews Erasmus Kersting, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics and Christopher Kilby, PhD, Professor, Economics.

The most expensive commercials on television air during the Super Bowl. Companies spend millions of dollars for a 30-second opportunity to reach consumers. Is it worth the money? Lots of those ads use animals and celebrities, and in this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll find out which is more effective at raising brand awareness as Claire Asmussen ’16 VSB interviews Ray Taylor, PhD, John A. Murphy Professor of Marketing, Marketing & Business Law.

In Hollywood, opening weekend can make or break a movie -- or a career. Globally, ticket sales are increasing, but movie piracy is on the rise. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll delve into the mind of the movie pirate. Is it stealing or sharing? Does it really hurt anyone? And is it more fun to stream a movie on a laptop or head to the multiplex? Find out by listening to Angela Layne ’16 MBA and Mike Kaufman ’16 VSB interview Peggy Chaudhry, PhD, Associate Professor, Management & Operations.

Across the country, workers and politicians are advocating for a federal $15 minimum wage. Some states have already adopted that standard, but many others use the current rate of $7.25. Still others have no minimum wage at all. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll look at how those disparities affect the rate of job creation and destruction. Listen as Claire Asmussen ’16 VSB interviews Suzanne Clain, PhD, Associate Professor, Economics.

When investors send their money abroad, they want to understand the foreign market. Each country has different customs, rules and levels of corruption. Not surprisingly, transparent countries are easiest to invest in. However, it turns out that a little corruption is worse than a lot. Find out why in this episode of Inspiring Minds as Jeanette Ding ’16 VSB interviews Michael Pagano, PhD, Professor, Finance and The Robert J. and Mary Ellen Darretta Endowed Chair in Finance.

Two women walk into a clothing store. One is white, and the other’s skin is dark. Are they treated differently by the staff? The short answer is yes. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, we’ll hear a deeper investigation of minorities in the marketplace, which reveals a complex web of discrimination and expectations that often leads to unequal treatment. Listen as Thomas Rodriguez ’16 VSB interviews Aronte Bennett, PhD, Associate Professor, Marketing & Business Law.