Management and Marketing Newsletters
Spring 2019
Spotlight on Students
“Why Daphane Tan Thinks You Should Always Keep Learning”
Daphane Tan is currently an MMR graduate student at SIUE who wants to eventually be a professor and work in academic research. She has already applied to over ten doctoral programs across the country and is determined to get into one of best programs to continue her SIUE MMR inspired studies.
Daphane is originally from Malaysia and made her way to SIUE via Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. She got her first experience in research at Truman working on a class project that required completing a research project for the local Humane Society. She was tasked with helping the Humane Society improve their image and, thereby, increase their donations. Daphane designed, conducted, and fielded the research which was so good, the director of Humane Society cried when presented with the findings. Since that research, their donations have definitely increased.
At SIUE, Daphane has worked as a research assistant on research projects with Dr. Madupalli examining the effectiveness of tradeshows in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC). This project paper, with Daphane as the co-author, is expected to be in the Spring 2019 Journal of Business Industrial Marketing. She has also worked with Dr. Richard Flight and Dr. Michael Hair on several other research projects. Daphane, with Dr. Flight as her Advisor, studied millennials’ perceptions of Fossil Smartwatches for the Collegiate Echo Marketing Challenge in 2018. Using factor and cluster analysis research, they made a recommendation to Fossil to implement a trial and error program for their omni-marketing campaign. Daphane is currently working with Dr. Hair as her Advisor on another Consumer Behavior Independent Study investigating the effect of brand equity and empathy on consumer ethnocentrism tendencies. For this study, Daphane with Dr. Hair’s guidance, wrote the questionnaire, programmed the online study with Qualtrics, and analyzed the data using three-way mixed ANOVA and Hayes PROCESS model. Daphane is also the co-author on the paper for this research now in resubmit with the Australasian Marketing Journal for Spring 2019. She has also attended the 30th Association for Psychological Science Convention, in San Francisco, CA, to present her “Technology-Enabled Mindfulness and Gender Effect on Sequential-Task Performance” poster.
In addition to currently being a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Hair at SIUE, Daphane just finished a Marketing Research Internship at MaritzCX in Fenton, MO. She worked on many projects including ad hoc studies for Maritz clients in the credit card and financial services industry writing a quarterly newsletter on the financial services industry including client-specific competitor intelligence reports. She also designed reports and made recommendations that aligned research results and completed multiple critical studies simultaneously within budget and time constraints.
If you ask Daphane what she likes best about research, she will quickly tell you, “the best part of research is learning new things. Also learning how to focus on the most relevant aspects of the research and realizing what is important.” Daphane feels each research project on which she works is significant in its own way. She mentioned, “with each project you gain more experience and expertise which moves you to the next project. Each one builds on the other and I learn something important with every new and different type of research study and project. The new learning always pays off!”
Daphane Tan will graduate from the MMR program in May 2019. Then her most exciting journey begins with her studies toward her doctorate in market research. Daphane just keeps learning!
Alumni in the News
Though he now lives in Pontoon Beach, Ill., Josef Bosnyak actually started his own business, JB Smartphone Repair, in 2015 while going to school full-time and working at a motorcycle shop in Edwardsville. He began with purely mobile repairs by doing repairs in customers’ homes, school, places of employment, or anywhere else most convenient for them. JB Smartphone Repair has been in business for four years now and hired its first employee in January.
Bosnyak graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration focused in both Computer Management Information Systems and Entrepreneurship. When asked what he enjoyed most about SIUE, Bosnyak said, “I really enjoyed networking and making friends with students and teachers at SIUE. Networking with people from all walks of life gave me a chance to see the world through other people's eyes and it really helped me to figure out myself and where I stood in life.”
Bosnyak is a member Troy/Maryville/St. Jacob/Marine Chamber of Commerce as well as an active member in many of the local car enthusiast groups. Passion for automobiles is something Bosnyak took to time to explore during his time at SIUE and he says his relationships are better for it, “through the SIUE Car Enthusiast group, I found a community of really great people who support each other in every aspect of life. Without these friends that are practically family, I probably wouldn't have stayed in the area after college.”
Focus on Faculty
“Students Rated Dr. Solomon ‘An Excellent Professor’”
On Dr. Stan Solomon’s evaluations his students rate him as an ‘excellent professor.’ These students are very complimentary in praising him for his determination in making sure they learn about the subjects covered in his classes. They pointed out that his main concern is going over the class materials till his students absorb everything about the subjects Stan teaches.
Stan joined SIUE last August as Assistant Professor teaching graduate classes in Quantitative Methods and undergraduate classes in Operations Management. He comes to SIUE from Sam Houston State University where he was Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management in the College of Business Administration. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering at Madras University, Chennai, India; his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at California State University, Sacramento, CA; and his Ph.D. in Business Administration in December 2015 from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, MO. Coming back to the St. Louis area meant coming back home for Stan and he looked forward to again being in the metropolitan area. Stan stated, “The greater St. Louis metropolitan area plays a major role in our country’s supply chains. Our location in the Midwest presents opportunities for both faculty and students.”
Stan’s teaching interests and experience are in logistics and operations management, supply chain management, quality management and business analytics. He developed The Supply Chain Management graduate course for MBA students at Sam Houston State and worked with the College of Business Administration faculty to develop the Supply Chain Management undergraduate concentration area for the Management and Marketing Department. Stan is currently working with colleagues from the Management and Marketing Department at SIUE to develop a Supply Chain Specialization for students.
In the area of research, Stan has been working on a long-term, multi-year research collaboration with Hewlett Packard (HP) Research Labs (based in Palo Alto, CA) that began in 2011.The focus of this research is to address various operational problems HP encounters in its business. This HP collaboration has led to the development of an innovative stochastic optimization methodology for resource allocation and has received the status of an invention. It has been defensively published in Research Disclosure with the potential to patent. Some of Stan’s manuscripts under review include: School Bus Routing and Scheduling at OMEGA; Dynamic Assignment Problem in the Service Setting-A Simulation Optimization Framework at the International Journal of Applied Management Science; Developing Robust Supplier Portfolios in the Retail Industry using a Multi-Stage Knapsack Model for the International Journal of Business Analytics. Stan recently published a paper titled “Multi-Period Stochastic Resource Planning in Professional Services Organizations” for Decision Sciences, which was funded by HP. This research deals with resource allocation for large projects in uncertain environments over time.
Stan is also very proud of his appointment to the Boards of the St. Louis Chapter of Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the St. Louis Chapter of Transportation Research Forum. Stan, and his colleague and fellow board member on the Transportation Research Forum, Dr. Gertrude Pannirselvam are working with industry leaders to enhance the educational aspects of supply chain and logistics in the area. Stan and Gertrude are organizing an expert panel with local university faculty in aerospace, supply chain management, and geography for a session on March 19 at SIUE to discuss and share research on the future of drones.
Stan, his wife and two boys, are glad to be back home in the Midwest and Stan is thrilled to be doing his teaching and research at SIUE. It’s obvious his students will benefit from Stan’s commitment to putting learning and applying that information above everything in his classes. Stan is excited to be back!
Spring 2018
Alumni in the News
“Never Say Never” to the founder of Never Industries, Inc.
In 2014, Alex Burkart, BS ’12, MA ’14, created Never Industries, Inc., a marketing strategy consulting firm. Never Industries, Alex said, “was named to question the impossible, to challenge the status quo and to never give up."
Alex showed his entrepreneurial talents early at SIUE when he started The Red Storm—the student booster group for athletics. He led students, all in Cougar red, in cheers and support for all Cougar athletic events and teams. The Red Storm group still cheers for Cougars today.
While finishing his master’s degree, Alex networked his way to an internship with the founders of one of St. Louis’ hottest advertising and promotion agencies, Zipatoni, which was founded by another SIUE alum, Mitch Meyers. Under their mentorship, Alex gained an incredible foundation in advertising, new business development and creative strategy. He was able to parlay that experience into another agency position at Paradowski, in St. Louis. Alex worked with the agency’s president on client development, market research, branding, strategic planning and consumer insights. In October 2014, Alex decided he wanted to run his own company and founded Never Industries, Inc. Never Industries works with presidents, owners and decision makers of organizations, helping them identify and pursue marketing opportunities to increase their revenue and streamline their operations. Alex works with these firms on developing strategic direction, market and customer research, marketing planning and execution, and the successful implementation of corporate strategies. Never Industries is currently working on a new business initiative Alex calls “Missed Opportunity Consulting’ (trademark pending). He helps firms find opportunity and moves the firms from good to great!
Just ask Alex Burkart about never giving up on advancing his career and his company. He certainly hasn’t, and doesn’t plan to anytime soon.
Focus on Faculty
Compulsive Buyer? Maybe Dr. Richard Flight Can Help!
If you want to know why you continue to buy stuff you don’t need, ask Dr. Richard Flight—as one of his areas of marketing research is ‘impulsive and compulsive buying.’
Dr. Flight joined the Department of Management and Marketing in August 2017. He was previously associate professor (2013-2017) and assistant chair, School of Business, marketing (2012-2017) at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. He is currently teaching courses in marketing strategy and marketing research. He has previously designed courses in marketing strategy and management, principles of marketing, new product development, promotions and advertising management, and e-Commerce. While at Eastern Illinois University, Dr. Flight co-led study abroad programs to the Netherlands, Italy and Croatia.
His working research areas include innovation characteristics and cause-related marketing, product diffusion, branding, and compulsive buying behaviors. He has presented his research at numerous international conferences and is published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Channels, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, among others. Dr. Flight also serves as a reviewer for Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Journal of Small Business Management.
Dr. Flight also has been active in developing and delivering entrepreneurship training programs in emerging and developing markets. In 2011, he traveled to Erbil, Iraq, and conducted a week-long business development seminar to NGO leaders on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Additionally, in 2016, he delivered a week-long workshop to entrepreneurs in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“I think SIUE is wonderful,” stated Flight. “SIUE is a dynamic campus, and the proximity to the St. Louis metropolitan area adds more cultural diversity. Edwardsville appears to have a real connection to everything St. Louis brings to this market. One of the big draws for me to SIUE was the MMR program (master’s in market research). This program brings together the students with working professionals and their professional environment. The SIUE senior students I’ve encountered in this program seem very diligent in their studies, and are definitely more goal- and career-oriented than other students I’ve taught.”
Dr. Flight is originally from St. Johnsbury, Vt. He received his PhD in marketing in 2007 from the University of Alabama and holds an MA in economics from the University of Alabama, and an MBA and BS in business administration from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Prior to joining academia, Flight worked for eight and a half years (1994-2002) in sports marketing and management. Dr. Flight and his wife, Donna, have three children: Maegan, Sarah and Jacob.