Upcoming Research Programs
Save the Dates
Noon to 1:15 PM
Needham Room, Olin Hall Thursday, September 6
BFRF Research Chat and Meet New Faculty
Rohit Chopra, History & Society
Gang Hu, Finance
Tuesday, September 18
BFRF Grant Writing Workshop
Kerry Rourke, Director, Writing Center
This hands-on session will jump-start your grant proposal.
Start formulating some proposal ideas now.
Watch for additional information and pre-workshop assignments.
BFRF Deadline
Wednesday, October 17
There is just one due date for major awards, 2008-2009 course releases, and 2008 summer stipends. Application forms and instructions can be found on the BFRF website or online at k\faculty\BFRF\forms..
If you have any questions, contact Susan Chern (x5339 orany of the BFRF members.
Changes on the BFRF
To Jennifer Bethel, Dhruv Grewal, Dennis Mathaisel, Larry Moss, and Blake Pattridge, thank you for your dedicated work on the successful launch of the restructured research fund. You have established a sound foundation of Bylaws and policies for the BFRF. This September, 3 of the founding members roll off the committee – Dennis Mathaisel, Larry Moss, and Blake Pattridge. Three distinguished faculty members, elected at the March faculty meeting, are joining the committee this fall. We welcome James Hoopes, History and Society, Gordon Prichett, Mathematics and Science, and Joseph Weintraub, Management.
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Faculty News
The May issue of Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice included an article, “Advancing a Framework for Coherent Research on Women's Entrepreneurship,” by Candida Brush, Entrepreneurship, and co-authors Anne de Bruin, and Friederike Welter.
The Third Space of Sovereignty: The Postcolonial Politics of U.S.–Indigenous Relations by Kevin Bruyneel, History and Society, will be released in November 2007. University of Minnesota Press, publisher, says of the book:
“The Third Space of Sovereignty offers fresh insights on such topics as the crucial importance of the formal end of treaty-making in 1871, indigenous responses to the prospect of U.S. citizenship in the 1920s, native politics during the tumultuous civil rights era of the 1960s, the question of indigenousness in the special election of California’s governor in 2003, and the current issues surrounding gaming and casinos.
In this engaging and provocative work, Bruyneel shows how native political actors have effectively contested the narrow limits that the United States has imposed on indigenous people’s ability to define their identity and to develop economically and politically on their own terms.”
This book project was supported in part by a major Gill award from the Board of Research (BoR).
Lisa Colletta, Arts and Humanities, reports that The Journal of Popular Culture will publish her essay "Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart." This research was supported by a 2006 BFRF summer stipend.
“Making it ‘Real’: Money and Mimesis in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog” by new faculty member, Jon Dietrick, Arts and Humanities, appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of American Drama.
Rutgers University Press has recently published Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights by Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg, Arts and Humanities. The book is one of five in the New Directions in International Studies series. This book project was supported by grants from the Babson Board of Research (BoR), the Babson Faculty Research Facility (FRF), and the Babson Faculty Research Fund (BFRF).
“Institutional Trading, Allocation Sales, and Private Information in IPOs” by Gang Hu, Finance, won the NASDAQ Award for the best paper on capital formation at the 2007 Western Finance Association (WFA) meetings in Big Sky, Montana. WFA is widely regarded as the best academic finance conference. This year there were 1,059 submissions. Each paper went through a double-blind review process with two reviewers. 144 papers were selected to be on the program, out of which 5 papers received best paper awards in different areas. Authors of other award winning papers include a recent Journal of Finance Editor and are from: MIT, Chicago, Wharton, Yale, UT Austin, USC, and New York Fed. This project received support from a BoR course release award in Spring 2006.
“Adaptation, Metafiction, Self-Creation,” by Julie Levinson, Arts and Humanities, will appear in Volume 2007, no. 1 of Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture. The paper was funded by a BoR 2003 Summer Stipend.
Dessislava Pachamanova, Mathematics and Science , has two new publications to her credit. “Incorporating Asymmetry Information in Robust Value-at-Risk Optimization” (with K. Natarajan and M. Sim), which was funded by the BoR Gill grant in 2004-2005, was accepted in Management Science. “Optimization of the Light Distribution of Luminaries for Tunnel and Street Lighting” (with A. Pachamanova), will appear in Engineering Optimization.
“The minimum span of L(2,1)-labelings of certain generalized Petersen graphs” by Denise Sakai Troxell, Mathematics and Science, (with co-authors Sarah Spence Adams, Jonathan Cass, Matthew Tesch, and Cody Wheeland) was published in Discrete Applied Mathematics, Vol. 155 (2007) 1314-1325. This research was supported by a BFRF 2006 Summer Stipend.
Share Your ‘Research News’
We would like to publish information about your recent research activities in future newsletters and to update the publications list that appears on the BFRF website. Please forward the details of your recent research activities and publications to the Babson Faculty Research Fund, Babson 204.
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BFRF Fall 2007 Course Releases
The following faculty members will be using BFRF Fall 2007 Course Releases to advance their research agendas.
Kevin Bruyneel, History and Society
“Hierarchy and Hybridity: The Silent Role of Colonialism in Shaping the American Racial Order.”
This paper demonstrates that there is a persistent colonialist tradition in U. S. politics that can be seen in the political and legal process that perpetually re-creates luminal ‘no-man’s lands’ on American political boundaries.
Dana Greenberg and Elaine Landry, Management
“Negotiating after the Negotiation: The Challenge of Implementing Flexible Work Arrangements.”
This research uses in-depth qualitative interviews to investigate the actual outcomes of negotiated agreements and, specifically, the implementation issues and experiences women face as they navigate the ongoing conflict situations inherent in working a flexible schedule. Toni Lester, Accounting and Law, “Mediating LGBT Empowerment -- Does Mediation Help or Hurt LGBT Employment Discrimination Claimants?”
This research explores whether or not mediation actually achieves its desired outcomes in the context of LGBT employment discrimination dispute resolution.
These faculty members also have fall 2007 release time as part of major BFRF awards (more than a single course release or stipend).
Lisa Colletta, Arts and Humanities
Voluntary Exiles: British Novelists in Hollywood, 1935-1965.
Colletta’s time will be used to complete her book manuscript which examines the life and work of British novelists working in Hollywood in the middle decades of the twentieth century through the lens of literary and film history, memoir, and travel narrative.
Mary Godwyn, History and Society
“Narratives and Images of Minority Women Entrepreneurs.”
This major research project, undertaken with Donna Stoddard, TOIM, is an integration of entrepreneurship studies and sociological theory. The ethnographic exploration of atypical business owners and an analysis of the businesses will provide visibility to minority women entrepreneurs that reflects their burgeoning numbers and redresses their lack of representation in the literature on entrepreneurship.
Mary O’Donoghue, Arts and Humanities
“Aquitania: a Poetry Collection.”
Each of the three-part poetry book is situated in sea-faring. Wrecks will focus on shipwrecks; Transports will be based on the conveyance of convicts from Ireland and England to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries; and The Ship Beautiful will be a long narrative poem detailing the end of a relationship during a transatlantic crossing aboard the Aquitania in the early 20th century. Back to Top
BFRF Final Products Accepted
Gang Hu, Finance
“Costly Arbitrage and Idiosyncratic Risk: Evidence from Short Sellers.”
Previous studies have shown that heavily shorted stocks tend to have price run ups before being shorted and price declines afterwards. We find that idiosyncratic risk is associated with a more pronounced pattern. The difference in monthly abnormal returns between high and low idiosyncratic risk stocks averages 5.07% per month prior to entering the high short interest portfolio; in the months subsequent to entering portfolio the average is -3.05% per month. We find that idiosyncratic risk is persistent; firms maintain their relative level of idiosyncratic risk before and after entering the high short interest portfolio. These findings along with others suggest that idiosyncratic risk is not the result of a type of trading activity, such as arbitrage, or noise trading, or opinion divergence. The results do imply that idiosyncratic risk limits arbitrage. One interpretation of the results is that short sellers only take positions in high risk firms when the mispricing is large enough to compensate them for the cost of holding a volatile position.
Yoo-Taek Lee, TOIM
“A Taxonomy of Supply Chain Capability.”
The practitioner-oriented research has proposed frameworks that suggest there are “strategic” groups of manufacturers that develop similar sets of supply chain capabilities. However, most of these proposed strategic groups have been based on case studies and have not been identified or tested using analytical methods. This research identifies strategic groups of manufacturers with similar supply chain capabilities using a data-based analytical approach. In addition, this research identifies the characteristics, the priorities and the performance levels of each strategic group. Our taxonomy of strategic supply chain capabilities provides a strong framework for discussion, research and pedagogy.
Mary O’Donoghue, Arts & Humanities
“Not Their Muse: Irish-Language Poetry in Translation, Cross-Gender Linguistic Ventriloquism, and the Problem of Pharaoh’s Daughter.”
Irish-language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s bilingual poetry collection Pharaoh’s Daughter (1990) features English translations by a variety of notable Irish poets, among them Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon. An Irish Times review by Douglas Sealy appears to posit Ní Dhomhnaill as somehow blameworthy for spawning the book’s “bewildering variety”, and suggests that she is but the conduit by which the largely male roster of translators in fact create their own poems: a damning critique of the translation enterprise. In referring to Ní Dhomhnaill’s original poems as “starting points”, Sealy’s criticism is underpinned by the notion of Ní Dhomhnaill as but the inspiration – the muse – of these poets, who take what she has to offer and mold it into work that is, as Sealy would have it, emphatically theirs. In its attention to the linguistic and literary ventriloquism at work in Pharaoh’s Daughter, Sealy’s forgotten review provides a fascinating entry point into the overlooked area of gender as it plays out in the translation of Irish-language poetry. Drawing on studies of feminization and translation, as well as notions of feminist translation, both within and without the Irish literary setting, this paper examines Sealy’s nexus as it informs, and is seen to deform, the fortunes of Ní Dhomhnaill’s poems in translation.
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Services for Faculty
Writing Center Offers Consultations
The Writing Center offers free and friendly services for faculty members. Several hours are set aside each week for faculty consultations. So if you need help to tighten up your executive summary, to proof an article before submission, or to review your grant proposal, do not hesitate to set up an appointment.
Contact Kerry Rourke, Director, x-5704.
Statistical Consulting
Available to Faculty and Staff
If you are:
then, the Center for Statistical Consulting is the place to go for help. All queries, from the simplest to the most challenging, are welcomed. All projects, from a simple regression analysis of a small amount of data to a complex, multivariable analysis of large volumes of data, are appropriate. So don’t let those numbers bother you any longer.
Call John McKenzie at X4479 or send him an e-mail today.
Library Liaisons
Contact your library liaison for course-related research guides and class instruction, and for customized assistance with research strategy, selecting and accessing library materials, and performing literature reviews.
Division Name Extension E-mail
Accounting and Law Mary Gavett-Orsi x5605 gavettorsi@babson.edu
Arts and Humanities Sarah Pawlek x5604 spawlek@babson.edu
Economics Kristin Djorup x4471 kdjorup@babson.edu
Entrepreneurship Frances Nilsson x5486 nilsson@babson.edu
Finance Cynthia Robinson x5257 crobinson1@babson.edu
History and Society Kate Buckley x4985 buckley@babson.edu
Management Rachel Zyirek x6482 rzyirek@babson.edu
Marketing Nancy Dlott x4987 dlott@babson.edu
Math and Science Linda Reifler-Alessi x6450 lreifler-alessi@babson.edu
TOIM Anna Burke x6407 aburke1@babson.edu
EndNoteX1
What is EndNote?
EndNote is software that allows you to import citations while you search, “Cite While You Write” in Word, and create bibliographies in your preferred format (APA, MLA, and thousands more).
EndNote X1 is the latest version of the software and includes an updated version of “Cite While You Write” for Word 2007, the ability to organize your citations into groups, and a new quick search among other enhancements. For more information, including tutorials and support contacts, and downloading instructions, see the EndNote page on the Library web site.
RefWorks
New Citation Tool for Faculty
RefWorks is an online research, writing and collaboration tool designed to help students gather, manage, store and share all types of information. In particular, it communicates with library databases to easily generate citations and bibliographies. Combined with EndNote, research management needs for the entire Babson community are met.
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External Funding Information
Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations Office (CFGR)
Wendy Silverman, Director, CFGR
The Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations (CFGR) within Development and Alumni Relations at Babson College provides guidance and assistance to faculty and staff seeking funding from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to support their research and curricular development initiatives. Among the services provided are pre-award activities such as identifying and researching possible funding sources, assisting with cultivation of funding prospects and with proposal development and writing, particularly in the final draft stage, and ultimately with the submission of proposals. Post-award assistance is provided by both the CFGR and the Business Office. Among the post-award activities for which faculty and staff can obtain help are grant negotiation, budget clarification, financial and narrative reports, requests for extensions, and grant close-outs.
If you would like to explore the possibility of external funding or examine your research agenda please contact me at x5993 or silverman@babson.edu.
Community of Science (CoS)
Funding Opportunities
Babson, with assistance from the Babson Faculty Research Fund, has subscribed to the Community of Science (COS) Funding Opportunities database.
The COS Funding Opportunities is the largest, most comprehensive database of available funding to support research and other academic activities. It has more than 22,000 records representing over $33 billion in funding. Grants are available for work in all disciplines—physical sciences, social sciences, life sciences, health & medicine, arts & humanities—and for many purposes, such as research, collaborations, travel, curriculum development, conferences, fellowships, postdoctoral positions, equipment acquisitions, and capital or operating expenses. Searching is easy and intuitive.
If you are looking for external funding ideas, this link to COS is accessible on or off-campus. If you want to explorer external funding ideas, contact Wendy Silverman, Director Corporations, Foundations, and Government Relations, x5993.
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