Announcements

Important Dates for Giving Day

The planning for Giving Day is underway! Please see the training sessions listed below for training opportunities relevant for your work with Giving Day. We hope you'll join us for the training sessions this week and next,  particularly the new session we've added on the toolkit walkthrough with the creative team.  

Giving Day for non-Advancement teams 

  • Nov. 14, 10 a.m. via Zoom 
  • Audience: Those who are responsible for executing Giving Day activities on behalf of their program or area who are not otherwise in an Advancement team. 

Giving Day Communications Toolkit walkthrough session 

  • Nov. 20, 9 a.m. via Zoom 
  • Audience: Anyone who promotes Giving Day — includes professional communicators and other employees who are tasked with communicating on behalf of their area. 

Updates from the Department of Business Information Technology

  • BIT Associate Professor, Idris Adjerid, received the ISS Best Paper in Management Science award at the 2024 INFORMS conference for a paper he co-wrote, “Consumer Consent and Firm Targeting After GDPR: The Case of a Large Telecom Provider.” Management Science, 68(5), 3330-3378. (https://connect.informs.org/iss/awards/award-winners)  
  • Wenqi Shen, Assistant Professor for the BIT Department, received a Pamplin Women Faculty Research Grant for her project entitled, “Distrust in Conversational AI in Mental Healthcare – Going beyond Algorithm Aversion via Empathy and Emotions”. 
  • Professor and Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Fellow in the BIT, Anthony Vance’s paper entitled, "Inexpert Supervision: Field Evidence on Boards’ Oversight of Cybersecurity" was accepted into the journal, Management Science.

Updates from Undergraduate Programs

The Teaching & Learning in the Classroom (TLC) Faculty Group is excited to start a bi-weekly TLC Roundtable series to continue more in-depth discussions around various teaching topics. We have scheduled the following roundtable topics based on faculty suggestions so far. Each session will be facilitated by a faculty lead with invited university partners (TLOS, CETL, and others). We hope the TLC group will provide both a community for teaching support as well as an opportunity for faculty to share best practices. We look forward to having you join the conversation! 

Updates from the Department of Management

Department of Management Faculty Led Discussions at the 2024 International Conference of the Strategic Management Society in Istanbul, Turkey  

Faculty members from Virginia Tech’s Department of Management took center stage at the 2024 Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Professors Devi Gnyawali, Karen Schnatterly, and Pankaj Kumar presented innovative research across strategic topics, emphasizing Virginia Tech’s impact on global strategy research.  

Dr. Devi Gnyawali: Coopetition and Cybersecurity in Digital Alliances  

Dr. Devi Gnyawali, known for his expertise in strategic alliances, presented in a symposium titled “Coopetition in a Digital World.” This session explored how digital transformation disrupts traditional competition, urging companies to adopt co-opetitive strategies for resilience in an interconnected world. His presentation focused on opportunities and challenges for value creation through coopetition.   

In a collaborative research paper, “Cybersecurity, Data Breaches, and Interfirm Alliance Persistence,” co-authored with Dr. Kumar and Ph.D. candidate Abidul Islam, Dr. Gnyawali and the team examined the ripple effects of data breaches on alliances. Their study is among the first to assess how cybersecurity incidents threaten alliance stability, urging firms to address these vulnerabilities.    

Dr. Karen Schnatterly: Exploring AI in the Workplace and DEIB Initiatives  

Dr. Karen Schnatterly co-organized a panel titled “AI at Work: AI as Your Co-Worker” and contributed significantly to the conference theme track on “Contradictions in AI.” The panelists included scholars from various universities around the world. The panel explored AI’s role in workplaces, particularly its impact on productivity, reskilling, and competitive advantage. This discussion offered fresh perspectives on AI’s evolving relationship with human labor.  

As a member of the SMS DEI Committee, Dr. Schnatterly also co-led a bystander intervention workshop, providing tools to promote inclusive, respectful environments. The attendees practiced interventions and discussed topics like unconscious bias and data privacy in DEIB research, empowering scholars from diverse backgrounds to engage confidently.  

Dr. Pankaj Kumar: AI and Network Strategy Research  

In addition to the cybersecurity data breach paper with Dr. Gnyawali and Abidul Islam, Dr. Pankaj Kumar also presented several other papers. His presentation of “AI for Strategy Research,” highlighted AI’s powerful role in empirical strategy, particularly in causal inference. He demonstrated how using techniques like LASSO and causal machine learning models can improve rigor in strategic research.  

In a paper titled “Navigating the Legal Minefield of Network Brokerage,” co-authored with Dr. Kiran Awate, Dr. Kumar presented findings on how strategic network positioning can both drive innovation and pose litigation risks. This research illuminates the balancing act firms face in leveraging network advantages without exposing themselves to legal pitfalls.  

Dr. Kumar also presented “All About Him? Alliance Network Structural Holes, CEO Narcissism, and Gender,” analyzing how CEO personality and gender affect alliance structures. The study found that narcissistic male CEOs are more likely to build alliances with structural gaps, a pattern less prevalent among female CEOs.  

These presentations underscore Virginia Tech’s leadership in strategy and DEIB. Through their work, Dr. Gnyawali, Dr. Schnatterly, and Dr. Kumar address key issues in the digital age.  

Engage TAs for Spring 2025 

It’s time to start planning for TAs for spring classes!  All faculty members teaching in the spring semester should have received access to a shared spreadsheet to indicate their TA preferences.  Check your email for that access, access and reach out to Dr. Barbara Fraticelli (fraticelli@vt.edu) if you have any trouble.   

You can use the spreadsheet to state how many TAs you are requesting and whether you require them to be present during class time.  You can also nominate specific students to work with.  We need faculty input by Friday, November 15.  After that time, department heads will review requests and determine the appropriate level of TA support for each course.  Interested students can find a link to the application at our website (https://pamplin.vt.edu/engage.html).   

As a reminder, TAs can be used for grading, office hours, live lecture support, implementing SSD accommodations, and other tasks.  Each TA position works an average of 16 hours per week or 96 hours per semester.   

Honors, Awards, Achievements

Zheng “Phil” Xiang, Professor and Head of the Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management, was honored with an inaugural Jacob A. Lutz III Award for Eminent Scholars. Dr. Xiang’s scholarship broadly focuses on the use of information technology and its impact on hospitality businesses and tourist destinations. His contributions include seminal works on smart tourism and travel search. His scholarship has repeatedly landed him as a “Highly Cited Researcher” for five consecutive years (2019-2023). His editorship of the Journal for Information Technology and Tourism has elevated the journal to the top 10% of all SSCI HTM journals.  

Established in 2024, by Jacob “Jake” A. Lutz III '78, the Jacob A. Lutz III Award for Eminent Scholars will be awarded annually and recognizes long-term, substantive contributions to research and creative scholarship across the faculty member’s career span, demonstrated through evidence of scholarly impact. 

Awardees will receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds, which may be used for both including personal and professional use. 

Viswanath Venkatesh is among the few business researchers whose citations in Google Scholar have recently passed the 200,000 milestone. An Eminent Scholar and Verizon Chair of Business Information Technology in the Pamplin College of Business, Venkatesh’s research has advanced the understanding of how individuals and organizations adopt, use, and benefit from new technologies. He is recognized for developing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), a pioneering model that has shaped how technology acceptance and diffusion are studied worldwide. His body of work is published in top-tier journals, such as MIS Quarterly, Management Science, and Information Systems Research.

The American Bankers Association has elected John C. Asbury ‘87, president, and CEO of Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bankshares, as it’s organization chair for 2024-2025. Asbury earned his Bachelor of Science in Business, graduating summa cum laude. He is an active contributing member to the Department of Finance’s Advisory Board.

Scholar GPS has recognized Kevin J. Boyle, Willis Blackwood Professor of Real Estate, Blackwood Department of Real Estate, as a Top Scholar based on his publication record and impact of his work. Boyle’s scholarly contributions placed him among the top 0.5% of all scholars in the field of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Scholar GPS applies artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, and other data science techniques to its database of over 200 million publications and 3 billion citations to rank over 30 million scholars and 55,000 institutions worldwide.

The 2024 Management Science Best Paper in Information Systems has been awarded to Idris Adjerid, associate professor in Business Information Technology, and Miguel Godinho de Matos for their paper ‘Consumer Consent and Firm Targeting After DGPR: The Case of Large Telecom Provider.” The award is given by Management Science, a top information system journal.

Pamplin College of Business’ Integrated Security Education and Research Center (ISERC) has recently received $194,270 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr Arianna Schuler Scott, Senior Associate Director, ISERC, will be working with experts in neurodiversity programming, local government, local leadership and professional networks, experts in knowledge management and AI, and key stakeholders within Virginia Tech, to create a reverse career fair in Spring 2025. This event will focus on non-traditional cybersecurity roles, coach employers in writing skills-based job descriptions, and coach students in professional presentations. This work complements the ISERC’s innovative education and research portfolio that includes the Securitas residential living-learning program, and other sponsored programming projects.

Employee Spotlight

Each employee below has been submitted for this recognition by their colleagues. 

This is SEED's 2023 - 2024 class, we currently have 41 members and 12 in training! 

This month, SEED completed its recruitment process for the Spring semester and had several pitches along with speaker events. 

One holding that has done well this month and since purchasing in March is Palantir Technologies. Pitched by Zach Schwartzman and covered by Sebastian Franks, Palantir Technologies is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and is a leader in big data analytics and artificial intelligence-driven solutions. It serves both the public and private sectors, with a strong focus on defense, security, and enterprise software. A key holding in the technology sector, SEED’s investment in Palantir has returned significant gains, recently peaking at 100% HPR. This performance was fueled by the company’s strong Q3 2024 earnings, where it exceeded both revenue and profitability expectations, further backed by its innovative AI offerings. Palantir Technologies’ strong position in the AI space drives excitement in the tech sector. Their platforms, Foundry and Gotham, are recognized for advanced data analytics, and their ongoing investment in AI infrastructure solidifies their role as a key player in the growing market for AI-driven solutions. 

Outside of the office, SEED is gearing up for its annual trek to NYC on November 14th and 15th. The trip offers members an invaluable opportunity to explore various career paths on Wall Street, hear from Hokies on how they successfully landed their jobs, and gain insights on what initiatives they can pursue at Virginia Tech. We look forward to the memorable trip and hearing from VT Alumni in the coming weeks! 

As SEED looks forward to the upcoming semester, we're thrilled to introduce our incoming class with an average GPA of 3.89, marking the highest in our training program's history. With the momentum of recent successes, including in Palantir gains, we're eager to see how our new analysts contribute to SEED's growth and performance.  

Congratulations to Heather Simpson (HTM) who was the winner of the Pamplin Pumpkin Contest! Seven students and faculty/staff members competed for the College’s first Pumpkin Decorating Contest hosted by the Dean’s Advisory Board of Students (DABS). Other faculty/staff mentions include A’me Dalton and Cassy Kost (Office for Transformation) and Onur Seref (BIT). 

Submit staff and faculty for upcoming issues here: tbprice@vt.edu

Upcoming Events

Wellness Weekdays

Puzzle Room - November 18: 2:00-3:00pm, Pamplin 1028 and Zoom

This past summer we hosted a puzzle room, and it was so much fun that we are bringing it back. We hope you can drop in and put together puzzles with us. Fun fact – putting together puzzles a trigger an increase production of dopamine!

Zen Garden – November 19: 10:00am-2:30pm, Pamplin 1045
Please drop by and join Hokie Wellness, Mental Health Specialist, Carlo Rivera in marking a Zen garden for your desk/workplace. This is an interactive activity that will incorporate content around practicing mindfulness in changing environments and healthy boundary setting.

Pamplin Walking Wednesdays – November 20: 12:00-1:00pm, Pamplin Atrium

Reach out to cassey@vt.edu for additional information or accommodations.

Please join us for an End of Year Celebration
Hosted by the Pamplin College of Business

December 5; 4:00-7:00pm at the University Club of Virgnia Teach South End Zone Club

Register>>

For more events, check out https://pamplin.vt.edu/events.html