March 2008 Newsletter
In This Issue:
Faculty News
BFRF Call for Proposals
Upcoming Research Chats
Final Products Accepted
Corporate, Foundations and Government Relations Office (CFGR)
Grant Writing Tips
Community of Science (COS)
Requests for Proposals
Call for Papers
Faculty News
New book by Dennis Mathaisel
CRC Press and, Auerbach Publications say of the book: "Providing both engineering and management views to sustainment, Sustaining the Military Enterprise focuses on the tools that management, product development, and operational support teams must consider in the design, development, operation, and improvement of products that are cost-effective in all phases of the life cycle. This book describes a Lean Enterprise Architecture strategy to transform the military maintenance, repair, and overhaul industrial enterprise. Integrating new systems engineering principles with proven commercial management practices, the text demonstrates how to minimize non-value-added activities throughout the entire military sustainment enterprise."
Assistant Professor Dessislava Pachamanova's paper "Constructing Risk Measures from Uncertainty Sets" was accepted for publication in Operations Research in March 2008. Her paper "Incorporating Asymmetric Distributional Information in Robust Value-at-Risk Optimization" appeared in Management Science, Vol. 54, Issue 3 (March 2008). Both papers were joint work with K. Natarajan and M. Sim at the National University of Singapore, and were supported by the BoR/Gill grant.Back to top
BFRF Call for Proposals
Deadline: Wednesday, March 26
We have funds available for spring 2009 course releases and 2008 summer stipends. Only full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty members on a current contract are eligible to apply. Endowed chair holders and current BFRF members are ineligible.
Application Information is on the BFRF website.
If you have questions, contact Susan Chern (x5339) or any of the BFRF members: Jennifer Bethel, Dhruv Grewal, James Hoopes, Gordon Prichett, Joseph Weintraub.
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Upcoming Research Programs
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Research Chat
Amanda Elam, Entrepreneurship
"How Gendered Institutions Influence Business
Start-up Propensity for Men and Women"
Donna Kelley, Entrepreneurship
"Corporate Entrepreneurship Management Practices:
The Influence of Project Leader Characteristics
and Level of Innovativeness"
Thursday, April 3, 2008 - External Funding Panel
"Transforming a Research Idea into $$$"
Faculty and Staff will talk about various aspects of the external funding process and the multitude of on-campus resources. Topics include: finding funding sources, budgets, internal review board, and comments from faculty who have received external funding.Back to top
BFRF Final Products Accepted
The BFRF has accepted the Final Products from the following faculty members who have completed their BFRF sponsored research projects.
Donna Kelley, Entrepreneurship, "The Role of Technology Resources and Internationalization in SME"
This research looks at SME survival as a function of both resource ownership and leverage, focusing more specifically on technology resources. We take an international perspective in examining the pool of technology resources, both within and outside the firm, that serve as an input to a firm's activities, and the market that values and purchases the output of these activities. Our survey examination of 1,612 Korean SMEs suggests that technology resources themselves do not provide superior survival prospects, but internationalization on both the input and output side can explain survival, as well as modify the relationship between technology resources and survival.
Mary O'Donoghue, Arts and Humanities, Aquitania: A Poetry Collection.
Aquitania is a book of poetry in three parts – Wrecks, Transports, and The Ship Beautiful –, each part situated in sea-faring. Part I, Wrecks, focuses on shipwrecks ranging from the Spanish Armada off the coast of Co. Clare to the Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea. Part II, Transports, is based on the conveyance of convicts from Ireland and England to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries, with particular attention to female convicts. Part III, The Ship Beautiful, is a long narrative poem detailing the end of a relationship during a transatlantic crossing aboard the Cunard liner Aquitania (also known as 'The Ship Beautiful') in the early 20th century. Back to top
Corporate, Foundations and Government Relations Office (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.
If you would like to explore the possibility of external funding or examine your research agenda please contact Wendy Silverman, Director, CFGR, at x5993.
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Grant Writing Tips
When applying for a grant, remember The Basics. These points may seem obvious, but they are often overlooked.
- Read the application instructions carefully and follow the rules meticulously – failure to do so can cost you the grant. Twenty pages, double spaced means just that. Some agencies simply do not read proposals that do not follow the guidelines.
- Fit the program – If the Department of Agriculture seeks research on 7 insect pests, do not apply for one that is not on list.
- Call with the slightest question. Grant officers are there to serve you. They welcome your queries and can help steer you to the right program for your research idea.
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Community of Science (COS) Funding Opportunities
Babson, with funds from the Babson Faculty Research Fund, subscribes to the Community of Science (COS) 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.
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Request for Proposals
FULBRIGHT VISITING SPECIALISTS PROGRAM
The institutional competition for the Fulbright Visiting Specialists Program: Direct Access to the Muslim World is now open for the 2009 calendar year. The deadline is April 1, 2008.
This program provides opportunities for U.S. higher educational institutions to host scholars from countries with sizable Muslim populations for a short-term (3-6 weeks), intensive lecturing, community outreach, and consultation program. Specialists come from communities in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and a few countries in Europe.
Please visit the website at: www.cies.org/Visiting_Specialists or contact program staff at vstngspec@cies.iie.org.
North American Case Research Association 2008-2009
$10,000 Case Research Grants The North American Case Research Association (NACRA) is a nonprofit, voluntary professional association whose mission is to promote excellence in case research, writing, and teaching in business and other administrative disciplines. NACRA will make at least two grants to support case research during the 2008-2009 academic year.
Grant proposals may target one or a combination of the funding categories: Using Cases to Build Theory Grant; Teaching with Cases Research Grant; or Teaching Case Development Grant.
The final product of the grant research is expected to be an article or case accepted for publication in the Case Research Journal or another appropriate journal.
Submission Guidelines are available at www.nacra.net. All submissions must be received by June 2, 2008. If you would like feedback on the appropriateness of your proposal or have a question about the review process, please contact Mike Welsh, NACRA President, at MWELSH@gwm.sc.edu
The Center for The Business of Government
The IBM Center for The Business of Government was created in 1998. They have made research awards to over 250 scholars to examine new approaches to improving the effectiveness of government at all levels resulting in more than 175 published reports
and books.
Individuals receiving research stipends ($20,000) will be responsible for producing a 30- to 40-page research report in one of the areas presented in Research Announcement 2008 Research Announcement (PDF). The reports should be written for government leaders and should provide practical knowledge and insights.
For information about the Center, see http://www.businessofgovernment.org/main/apply/index.asp
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Call for Papers
8th Global Conference on Business & Economics
University of Florence, Florence, Italy, October 18-19, 2008
Sponsored by: Association for Business & Economics Research
International Journal of Business & Economics
Submission Deadline: May 15th, 2008.
Competitive papers (or abstracts) are invited in all areas of business, including: Management Information Systems; Global Business; Marketing Theory and Applications; Accounting; Economics; Finance & Investment; General Management; General Business Research; Business & Economics Education; Production/Operations Management; Organizational Behavior & Theory; Strategic Management Policy; Labor Relations & Human Resource Management; Business Law; Public Responsibility and Ethics; Technology & Innovation; Public Administration and Small Business Entrepreneurship. Papers are also invited papers on teaching issues such as: curriculum, ethics in higher education, promotion and tenure, accreditation, teaching methods and styles, administration, technology in the classroom, faculty evaluation, and related topics.
Qualified individuals will referee papers submitted through a process of double blind peer review. Accepted papers will be published in Conference Proceedings. All completed papers will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Business & Economics (ISSN 1543-1614) (http://www.facultyforums.com/ijbe).
Proposals for cases, workshops, symposia, colloquia, panels, tutorials on current topics of interest, and other special sessions are also invited. The URL for conference is http://www.facultyforum.com/gcbe 
