School Notes: School of Management
July/August 2009

School opens search for new dean

Yale president Richard C. Levin has announced the formation of a committee to begin the search for a new dean for the Yale School of Management. Current dean Sharon Oster will step down at the end of the 2009-2010 school year and return to her role as a senior member of the SOM faculty. Levin has appointed James Baron, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management and professor of sociology, to head the search committee, which includes seven other faculty members. He also created an alumni advisory board to be chaired by senior fellow of the corporation Roland W. Betts ’68 and including Charles D. Ellis ’59, Ellis B. Jones ’79MPPM, Linda A. Mason ’80MBA, Edward J. McKinley ’79MPPM, Ranjani Hopkins Nagaswami ’86MBA, and George U. Wyper ’84MBA. 

SOM faculty detail research

This spring, Dean Sharon Oster launched a new speaker series in which SOM faculty will present their latest work and its impact on the world of management. The series is designed to provide SOM students with a view into faculty research efforts that they might not normally encounter in the MBA classroom. Three professors presented research this past semester, with Keith Chen focusing on his provocative reevaluation of decades' worth of work on cognitive dissonance; Martijn Cremers detailing his work on whether active fund managers produce better returns; and Oliver Rutz explaining the mechanics and benefits of search engine advertising. Also this spring, two papers by SOM faculty illuminated key aspects of the current economy. Hongjun Yan, assistant professor of finance, and doctoral candidate Steven Malliaris released research explaining how the investment decisions of hedge fund managers are often influenced by concerns about their reputations, often leading to more-conservative investment decisions and implying that future growth in the industry could be much slower than past growth. Also, Lisa Kahn, assistant professor of economics, released a study showing how graduating in a bad economy has a long-lasting negative effect on wages. See "When the Bad Times Roll" for a Yale Alumni Magazine report on Kahn's research.

New issue of Qn magazine explores value of globalization

Globalization is a much-debated topic, especially in the middle of a global economic downturn. Q5, the latest issue of the SOM magazine, explores the key issues surrounding globalization: the benefits of cheap goods versus the costs of rapid industrialization; how the economic crisis is threatening global relationships built over 30 years; the dramatic impact on culture of a rapidly shrinking world; and a deconstruction of how a brand goes global in the current age. The magazine also features an interview with former British prime minister Tony Blair about how values are critical to maximizing the benefits of globalization, a continuation of the conversation he began through his Faith and Globalization seminar last fall at Yale. Read the issue or request a print copy at qn.som.yale.edu.