Mays Impacts

Two finance faculty members and a former doctoral student were recently honored at the PACAP/Financial Management Association conference in Tyoko, Japan.

Finance professors Donald Fraser and James W. Kolari, along with former student G. Hwan Shin, who is now on the faculty at University of Texas-Tyler, received a Best Paper Award at the international event.

Their paper, “How Does Banking Industry Consolidation Affect Ban-Firm Relationships? Evidence from a Large Japanese Bank Merger,” was supported by grant funds from the college’s Center for International Business Studies.

Starting Aug. 1, Dr. Robert Gates assumes the top position at Texas A&M University. The former CIA director takes over as university president upon the departure of Dr. Ray Bowen, who is stepping down after eight years of service.

This will be a return for Gates, as he served as interim dean of the Bush School of Government and Public service from 1999-2001. Prior to that post, the Kansas native spent 27 years with the CIA, serving six presidents, as well as nine years with the National Security Council.

Curious as to how construction on the college’s new Cox Graduate Business Center is progressing? Well, now you can keep tabs on the new building right from your desktop.

A Web camera is tracking construction on the 66,000- square-feet (gross) expansion. The facility, named after Kay and Jerry ’72 Cox, is slated to open in fall 2003.

To check out the Web cam, visit http://wehner.tamu.edu/Cox-GBC/ or visit the Cox Business Center site for more photos and information.

Launching successful new technologies requires more than just having a bright idea and garnering financial support. Today, the secret to developing commercial applications lies in knowledge management and building networks, says management professor Albert Cannella.

Director of the college’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE), Cannella recently addressed academics and industry practitioners at a technology innovation issues seminar, sponsored by Texas A&M’s Technology Licensing Office and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

“People with different kinds of knowledge have to get together and share it,” Cannella observed. “Knowledge creation and development occurs within people and virtually never in isolation. It is an inherently social process. The days of the lone inventor in his garage producing a world-changing product are largely in the past.”

Cannella sees Texas A&M as the perfect environment within which to initiate such network building, beginning with bringing together researchers from different colleges. Then, he says those relations must be expanded into the community to draw in those who want to turn basic research knowledge into particular applications.

“The more that people with different knowledge get together in interactions, the more likely it is that problems and solutions will come together,” Cannella said. “I see this networking as a bottom-up process. Get people involved, build success stories, and others will be drawn to the technology commercialization process.”