Welcome to our annual newsletter. I am writing to share a few of the Management Department’s accomplishments over the last academic year. This was my first year as Chair of the Department and I have to say, it has been quite a year. We served over 7500 business students and provided programs for 1420 students majoring in management which includes specializations in entrepreneurship (551), human resources (115), and general management (754). I am delighted to share that in 2023-2024, our entrepreneurship program was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the 11th best program offered by public universities. Similarly, the international business program (of which we are involved in) was ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as the 6th best program offered by public universities. We are looking forward to the next academic year as we continue to build partnerships with the business community in our first “hot off the press” research mixer. Last year was an exciting year for the Management Department and we expect to continue this forward momentum in the 2024-2025 year.
Management Department Advisory Board Highlights:
With a highly engaged advisory board, chaired by Jennifer Freet (‘11), we have expanded to 12 members which includes adding three new board members this year: Nick Harris (‘06), Mary Lynch (’03, ’23), Cathy Zumberge (‘90).
Additional Board engagement events were added this year including a joint meeting with the Wendy Gillispie Center for International Business at Snap Dragon, a summertime happy hour, a football tailgate (planned for Fall 2024), a board member engagement event (planned for Spring 2025), and a “hot off the press” research mixer in Spring 2025 which will be headed by Stan Sewitch and hosted at WD-40.
The department hosted the Culture Forum, a two-day conference in October 2023 for C-level executives on creating highly engaged, positive, and high-performing organizations. The Forum was a huge success bringing in over 84 executives around the world. Many thanks to Stan Sewitch and Garry Ridge for their donations and championing this effort.
Combined Board Event at Snapdragon Stadium
Culture Forum Event, October 2023
Curriculum Enhancements & Innovations:
A unique unpaid internship that incorporates social impact into the Management internship course is the Urban Poverty Business Initiative (UPBI) where students provide individual business consulting to small, women, and minority businesses. Mentors from the Small Business Association are also on the team to assist students and business.
Paid internships are now on the rise for our Management Majors. A few notable companies that provided paid internships for Spring 24 included: Sempra Energy, Aspire Skill Development, Costco, Medical Equipment Partners, Collins Aerospace (Raytheon subsidiary), Dexcom Biotech, Amazon Games, WD-40, Sharp Health, and Schubach Aviation.
The Masters of Science in Global Business Development (MSGBD) students consulted with two local companies (Sempra and Fieldsheer Apparel) in Fall 2023. Sempra offered three students paid internships and the whole cohort visited Sempra’s Global Headquarters. In Spring 2024, the MSGBD students consulted with six international companies (two from the Czech Republic, two from New Zealand, one from Tunisia, and one from Algeria).
MSGBD students and faculty advisor, Martina Musteen, at Barrier Headquarters in Bacau, Romania
The MSGBD students did their capstone consulting project with Barrier (a leading producer of window frames) in Bacau, Romania. Their task was to identify, assess, and develop a plan to pursue business opportunities for Barrier in the U.S. market.
A new partnership was formed between SDSU Zip LaunchPad/Lavin Center and Miramar College’s REC Innovation Lab; this partnership will streamline the pathway to Entrepreneurship as an academic and career choice for community college students.
Miramar College and the REC Innovation Lab have been invited to take part in the next SDSU Social Venture Pitch Competition in March 2025 on Food Insecurity and its impact on underrepresented communities, our college students, the unhoused and others.
Student and Alumni Spotlights:
SHRM SDSU was chosen by national SHRM as one of four student chapters in the U.S. to pilot the SHRM Chapter Partnership Program (CPP) which includes a 4-week HR Talent Accelerator Program for our students. Fifty-one HRM students worked with local San Diego HR mentors on different HR topics each week and earned a Certificate of Completion.
Seven members of SDSU SHRM were each awarded a $2500 SHRM Foundation Academic Scholarship for the AY 2024-2025.
Eight SHRM SDSU students participated in the CalSHRM HR Advocacy and Legislative Conference in Sacramento in April 2024.
SHRM SDSU hosted a Student Organization Summit for the Fowler College of Business in October 2023 which also won the Outstanding Event Award.
SHRM SDSU students at the 2024 SHRM Annual Conference in Chicago, IL
Barton Bartosh (SDSU SHRM) won the Outstanding Member Award from the Fowler College of Business
Roberto Sanchez was selected as the 2024 Outstanding Student in Management and named MGT faculty Amy Randel as his Most Influential Professor.
Connor Van Kampen was selected as the 2024 Outstanding Student in General Business and named MGT faculty Gabi Eissa as his Most Influential Professor.
Lauren Johnson was selected as the 2024 Outstanding Student in the BSBA Online Program and named Zeki Pagda as her Most Influential Professor.
Alex Roberts, a management student, was named SDSU’s Female Athlete of the Year and the Mountain West Swimmer of the Year. She mentioned that her favorite class was Leadership in Organizations (MGT 475) taught by Derek Young.
Alex Roberts and Jaedon LeDee
Jaedon LeDee, a MBA student, was named SDSU’s Male Athlete of the Year. LeDee led the SDSU men’s basketball team to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Jacques Gravett (’92) management graduate is the Gold Winner for the 2024 Telly ACE award for TV Editing (the highest honor in video and television).
Cesar Lopez, an entrepreneurship major, was named 2023 Homecoming Royalty — the first Project Rebound student to do so — during SDSU’s annual homecoming celebration.
The management department faculty continues to win grants and awards for both teaching and service.
Gabi Eissa (on left) receiving the 2023 Fowler Teaching Excellence Award
Gabi Eisa received the 2023 Fowler Teaching Excellence Award
Michelle Dean received the Best Faculty Involvement Award from the Fowler College of Business Council.
Martina Musteen Received the Most Influential Professor Award for the MSGBD program, Class of 2023.
Amy Randel, Gabi Eissa, and Zeki Pagda were all named as the Most Influential Professor by the 2024 Outstanding Students in Management, General Business, and BSBA Online, respectively.
Beth Chung is receiving the 2024 SDSU Alumni Award for the Fowler College of Business and will be honored at Convocation in August 2024.
Alex DeNoble, as part of a research team, received a $3,687,931 grant from the Collaborative of Native Nations for Climate Transformation and Stewardship (CNNCTS).
Taekjin Shin, Gabi Eissa, and Amy Randel all received a SDSU Division of Research Innovation’s Seed Grant.
Dwarka Chakravarty and Jessi Rivin both received a course release grant from SDSU’s Division of Research Innovation.
Taekjin Shin received a Certificate of Recognition for being an Outstanding Reviewer for the 2023 Strategic Management Society (SMS) conference.
Yue Song won the Best Paper Award from the IEEE Conference on Innovation Management.
Taekjin Shin was promoted to Professor in Spring 2024.
Devin Rapp with his youngest child, Sage
Under the leadership of Mujtaba Ahsan, the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center hosted its tenth annual California Entrepreneurship Educator’s Conference (CEEC).
In summer of 2024, we welcomed our newest management faculty member: Devin Rapp (Organizational Behavior) who has already won numerous awards. Devin Rapp was nominated for Best Traditional Paper at the Western Academy of Management 2023 and selected for the Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division’s Most Innovative papers of the year at the 2023 Academy of Management Conference.
Management Faculty continue to be prolific with their research and editorships. Management faculty serve as members of 20+ journal editorial boards and contribute as Associate Editors for Journal of World Business and Journal of Small Business Management.
The department faculty collectively have published over 92 articles in the last six years with 12 of them published or accepted for publication this year in leading journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business Research, Journal of World Business, among others.
Below is a list of these articles:
Stojcic, N., Dabic, M., & Musteen, M. 2024. (In Press). With a Little Help from My Friends: Institutional Obstacles, Networking and SME Exporting in Emerging European and Asian Economies. International Business Review.
Liu, S., Chakravarty, D., & Beamish, P. W. (2023). An emerging market multinational company's internationalization: From original equipment manufacturer to global brand leader. Thunderbird International Business Review, 65(5), 501-517.
Carter, M.Z., Cole, M.S., Bernerth, J.B., Harms, P., Wilhau, A., & Palmer, J. (In Press). Rotten apples in bad barrels: Psychopathy, counterproductive work behavior, and the role of social context. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Wiegand, J. P. (2023). When overqualification turns dark: A moderated-mediation model of perceived overqualification, narcissism, frustration and counterproductive work behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 214.
Rapp, D.J., Hughey, J.M., & Kreiner, G.E. (In Press) Dirty Heroes? Healthcare Workers’ Experience of Mixed Social Evaluations During the Pandemic. Academy of Management Journal.
Song, Y., Gnyawali, D., & Qian, L. (2024). From early curiosity to space wide web: The emergence of the small satellite innovation ecosystem. Research Policy, 53(2), 104932.
Schwarte, Y., Song, Y., Hunt, R. A., & Lohrke, F. T. (2023). Passion as process: Three perspectives on entrepreneurial passion and an integrated path forward. Journal of Business Research, 156, 113474.
Randel, A.E. & Alexandra, V. (2024). From cultural intelligence to workgroup inclusion through synchrony preference and perceived workgroup similarity. Journal of World Business, 59(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2023.101490
Faridian, P. H., Neubaum, D., & Terjesen, S. (2024). Untangling the complexity of innovativeness in new ventures: The interplay between causal entrepreneurial processes and social capital. Small Business Economics, 1-23.
Weaver, K., & Faridian, P. H. (2023). The power of posture: organizational reputation following product failures and the role of entrepreneurial orientation. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 1-13.
Chung, B. G., Shore, L., Wiegand, J., & Xu, J. (In Press). The effects of inclusive psychological climate, leader inclusion, and workgroup inclusion on trust and organizational identification. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Ehrhart, K.H. & Chung, B. G. (2024). The Moderating Effects of Relative Racio-Ethnicity on the Inclusion to Health to Turnover Intentions Relationship. Personnel Review, 53(5),1289-1310.
Management Lecturer Accolades:
Mike Sloan, a lecturer for the management department for the last 15 years, won the 2024 Glazer Outstanding Lecturer Fellowship Award.
Ami Doshi, is the recipient of the SDSU Undergraduate Research 20-Week Program Grant and mentor to Cesar Lopez on a project called “Climate change adaptation strategies and sustainable innovation in Southern California and Baja wineries”.
Bill Sannwald published his 7th edition of “Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations”.
With the leadership of Tanya Hertz, SDSU ZIP LaunchPad/Lavin Center sponsored Miramar College’s REC Innovation Lab for $5,000 and announced a collaboration between the two campuses.
Maisha Cobb served as an advisor for the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center and also mentored three companies for Tech Stars SDSU.
2023 Management Department Holiday Gathering
2024 Management Department Summer Picnic
We look forward to an even more exciting 2024-2025 year. Our engagement with our students, alumni, other faculty, advisory board members, and the community is at the heart of who we are as we emphasize the “human side of business” in the Management Department.
