Faculty endowments and fellowships are vital instruments in building the educational and community strength of a university and its colleges.
NC State Poole College of Management faculty receiving endowments or fellowships know first hand the benefits of having their work funded and their college supported in its effort to drive thought leadership and industry advancement in the world of business.
Four Poole College faculty members serve as primary examples of how essential the impact of endowments and fellowships is to the educational and community success of the college.
Stacy Wood, Langdon Distinguished University Professor of Marketing
Endowment
J. Lloyd Langdon Distinguished Professorship in Marketing
Current Impact
The Langdon Distinguished Professorship in Marketing makes a great impact on the work that I’ve done to help innovation-focused firms use behavioral science theories to improve their chances for success, and do so in a manner that includes students. The Langdon Professorship helped fund collaborative research projects with firms like Bayer, Burt’s Bees and Cisco. This provided me the time and resources to train Jenkins MBA students in cutting-edge research techniques and lead them in interpreting data.
Most recently, I’ve used the resources afforded by this professorship to tackle the challenges that come from new innovations in health care and technology. This is something that is critical for the well-being of our society and the health care industry. In working with doctors, hospital administrators and new technologies for health care (e.g., the use of Amazon’s Alexa for in-home health management), I’ve been an ambassador for the role of patient-centric decision-making in these areas.
Future Impact
I’ve recently had the great honor of being named a forthcoming editor of the Journal of Consumer Research. I’m happy that this is also reputation building for our university, as other editors are from Columbia University and the University of Oxford. Taking on this career pinnacle would not be possible if it were not for the Langdon Professorship since it gives me the extra time for scholarship. As editor, I have the unique opportunity to influence the trajectory and impact of my entire field. One of my goals in my continuing research is to translate insights from behavioral theories to find the win-win solutions where society (e.g., individual health, environmental protection) and firms both benefit. To me, these are the sustainable solutions that have the enduring power to change our world for the better.
H. Sebastian Heese, Business Management department head and Owens Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management
Endowment
Owens Distinguished Professorship of Supply Chain Management
Current Impact
I’m usually working on 15 to 20 research projects at the same time with doctoral students and faculty from NC State, Poole College of Management and other universities all over the world.
Much of this ties back to the Owens Distinguished Professorship of Supply Chain Management. A good portion of my research is related to supply chain management problems. Since the endowment has, in essence, given me time to do research, all of them are related to the endowment. There are no direct ties in terms of research prescriptions coming from the endowment, so it truly is all my research that is positively affected by the endowment.
In terms of projects that I’ve been working on recently, the key themes are related to retail and health care operations. For example, I study new retail formats such as on-demand platforms, online channels and subscription services, and their interactions with traditional retail channels. In health care, developed a framework to evaluate the benefits of new medical test under consideration of both medical and operational implications.
Future Impact
In the coming years, I plan to continue with my research in retail and health care operations, but I am also starting several research projects related to aspects of sustainability.
For example, we are exploring how legislation could induce firms to implement cleaner technologies in their product designs or to enforce clean sourcing throughout their supply chains. In another study we aim to characterize indicators of inhumane working conditions to facilitate more efficient auditing mechanism for firms that want to detect and eliminate such “modern slavery” from their sourcing.
Paul F. Williams, professor of accounting
Fellowship
Ernst & Young Faculty Research Fellow
Impact
(Editor’s note: Paul Williams is moving into retirement, but spoke about the impact the fellowship had before he retired)
The Ernst & Young Fellowship buys time. Time is the essential resource for any kind of scholarly work. The Ernst & Young Fellowship relieved me of the necessity to teach in the summer. Successive summers of research time provided a cumulative effect. As I was able to accomplish more each summer, the cumulative effect was substantial. For example, a continuing collaboration I had with a colleague at Yildiz University in Istanbul started with a conversation at a finance and accounting conference in Abu Dhabi a few years ago. The conversation involved integrated reporting. From there, we wrote two papers and outlined our third project out of this collaboration. Another benefit is that Ernst & Young was always extremely respectful of my academic freedom. The firm provided the support without any conditions on what topics I pursued or where I published the work.
Jon C. Carr, Ph.D., Jenkins Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship; Department Head, Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
Endowment
Jenkins Distinguished Professorship
Impact
A key impact has been the ability to champion research projects with faculty at NC State and at other organizations that are interested in entrepreneurship research. There are a number of research projects that directly benefit from the opportunities associated with the Jenkins Professorship, including projects on entrepreneurial frugality, business model processes, health and well-being and self-employment, and the implications of creativity within established organizations.
The support from the professorship has sponsored data collections, collaboration visits between faculty, and sponsorship of entrepreneurship programming at professional academic organizations.
Future Impact
I am very interested in using the Jenkins support as a means to showcase entrepreneurship and innovation research at NC State, but also to be a key player in the Southeastern U.S. for regional research conferences and grants and contracts. I think that the Jenkins professorship will continue to allow me to shine a spotlight on our entrepreneurship research activities and give Poole College and NC State the visibility it deserves with respect to its engagement with the entrepreneurship community.
