Kelley School of Business – Go from Moment to Momentum

Kelley School research explains why a bad first impression cost Google $100 billion — or more

Posted on March 10, 2023 by George Vlahakis

No, there isn’t a key to press for Google to turn back time on its costly Bard launch.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Google’s launch of Bard, it’s search-integrated, AI-powered chatbot, went wrong when the bot’s first advertisement accidentally showed it was unable to find and present accurate information to users.

Research by professors at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management explains why it may be harder for the creator of the world’s largest search engine to write off the situation as a temporary issue.

Although it isn’t uncommon for software vendors to release incomplete products and subsequently fix bugs and provide additional features, the research shows this may not be the best strategy for AI.

As seen through a one-day $100 billion decrease in market value for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, a botched demo can cause significant damage. Findings in an article published by the journal ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction indicates that errors that occur early in users’ interactions with an algorithm can have a lasting negative impact on trust and reliance.

Antino Kim and Jingjing Zhang, associate professors of operations and decision technologies at Kelley, are co-authors of the paper, “When Algorithms Err: Differential Impact of Early vs. Late Errors on Users’ Reliance on Algorithms,” with Mochen Yang, assistant professor of information and decision sciences at Carlson. Zhang also is co-director of the Institute for Business Analytics at Kelley. Yang taught at Kelley in 2018-19.

Known as “algorithm aversion,” users tend to avoid using algorithms, particularly after encountering an error. The researchers found that giving users more control over AI results can alleviate some of the negative impacts of early errors.

Kim, Yang and Zhang examined the situation through the lens of their research and present their analysis below:

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Students in Kelley’s Full-Time MBA Program win the John Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition

Posted on February 22, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Members of the winning team, left to right, Samuel Clark, Armel Nibasumba, Vennetta McCray, Taydra Jones, Natalia Corredor and Paulos Tewalde.

ATLANTA – Six Full-Time MBA students at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business swept the competition in the third annual John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Competing under the name “Café Con Leche,” the team of second-year MBAs Taydra Jones, Natalia Corredor, Vennetta McCray, Armel Nibasumba, Paulos Tewalde and Samuel Clark won both the overall competition and the audience choice award.

The Kelley School team earned the top prize this year for their “Ringing the Bell” strategy, a three-pronged plan designed to help Taco Bell, one of the competition’s sponsors, achieve a more diverse supplier base.

The team will split the $20,000 prize down the middle with chosen charity organization The Urban Canopy, an organization pioneering the local food cycle to create a more sustainable and equitable food system on Chicago’s Southside. All teams share half of their prize winnings with an organization of their choosing that advances racial justice.

The team also received the Audience Choice award, accompanied by an additional $3,000 prize.

“This competition exemplifies many of the values that are reflected in a Kelley School education — teamwork, diversity and equity, and societal impact,” said Ash Soni, interim dean of the Kelley School and the Sungkyunkwan Professor. “We’re thrilled the Kelley team won the competition and the audience choice award. We know our students are special, and it’s wonderful when others recognize their talent.”

Created in 2020 to honor the late John R. Lewis, a civil rights icon and U.S. representative from Georgia, the competition is the first of its kind, student-run case competition focused on racial justice.

It provides students with an opportunity to understand the history of systemic racism in the United States and provide bold, innovative, and actionable recommendations for companies actively looking to address issues of racial inequality both inside and outside their organizations.

Vennetta McCray, left, and Natalia Corredor toured the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

“To be awarded a first-place award with his name on it is humbling,” said Corredor, a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow and a Forté Foundation Fellow. “John Lewis challenged inequitable systems since he was a teenager and has left behind a legacy that challenges us to cause get in good, necessary trouble.

“This case competition asks business leaders to thoughtfully craft a problem statement so that equally thoughtful solutions are produced. It’s important to me to champion racial justice in my future workplaces and continue to be involved in community programs that advance disadvantaged groups,” added Corredor, a native of Colombia from Chicago who came to the United States as a child.

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Kelley School professor to discuss ‘Business, Peace and the War in Ukraine: One Year Later’

Posted on February 16, 2023 by George Vlahakis

A destroyed Russian tank sits abandoned in a field surrounded by trees singed by fire outside Kyiv, Ukraine (Photo by Joel Carillet/Getty Images).

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its second year, much has been reported about the role of the NATO alliance, led by the United States, in providing support. But less discussed are the actions of business to influence the situation.

An Indiana University Kelley School of Business professor will discuss the impact of corporations at the next event in the national online speaker series Equity Now, a national online speaker series co-sponsored by the school.

The webinar event, “Business, Peace and the War in Ukraine: One Year Later,” will begin at 6 p.m. ET on Monday, Feb. 20. Registration is free and open to the public through the series’ website.

Presenters will be Tim Fort, the Eveleigh Professor in Business Ethics and a professor of business law and ethics at Kelley, and John Katsos, associate professor of business law, business ethics and social responsibility at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Russia escalated its war with Ukraine on Feb. 22, 2022 with an attempted full invasion. While more than 1,000 companies have terminated operations in Russia, many others merely limited operations or still trade openly there.

“This panel will explore the surprising influence of multinational corporations on war and peace, especially the actions of businesses on the war in Ukraine,” Fort and Katsos said in their preview. “We will also examine the impact of decisions to divest, the role of consumers and boycotts, how the legal environment influences business conduct, and what the next year may bring in terms of war, peace and the role of business in building a just and peaceful world.”

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Meet your new AI colleague; Kelley professor studies working with digital humans

Posted on February 15, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Ren (left) and Rin (right) are digital-human shopping assistants created by Pinscreen for fashion retailer ZOZOtown. Photos courtesy of Pinscreen.

Editor’s note: You are welcome to view a one-hour webinar, “Meet your new AI Colleague – Working with Digital Humans,” which was presented by Kelley Professor Alan Dennis and his co-authors on Feb. 23.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – With rapid progress in computer graphics and advancements in artificial intelligence, human faces are now being put on chat bots and other computer-based interfaces with customers, employees, and others.

Coined “digital humans,” they mimic people as they are used as sales assistants, corporate trainers and even social media influencers. For example, Lil Miquela, an online influencer with nearly 3 million Instagram followers is virtual and not a real person.

Soul Machines, an autonomous animation software company, has deployed about 50 digital humans in organizations around the world.

Alan Dennis, professor of information systems and the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, has been observing this emerging trend for seven years with colleagues at the University of Sydney and Iowa State University.

In their Feb. 14 Harvard Business Review article, “AI with a Human Face: The case for – and against – digital employees,” they explain how different types of digital humans interact with us in various ways and when it is most appropriate.

“Firms that embrace this new technology will lower costs, increase revenues and gain a sustainable first-mover advantage that slower adapters may find hard to overcome as customers become attached to their digital counterparts,” Dennis and his co-authors wrote. “Within a decade, we believe, managers at most companies are likely to have a digital human as an assistant or an employee.”

Other authors are Mike Seymour, co-director of Motus Lab at the University of Sydney; Dan Lovallo and Kai Riemer, professors at the University of Sydney; and Lingyao “Ivy” Yuan, an assistant professor at Iowa State University.

Although we know the digital human isn’t “real,” our minds are “attuned to and react emotionally to facial signals,” they wrote. “We know that what we see on the screen is an artificial construct, but we still connect instinctively to it, and we do not have to turn ourselves into computer experts to interpret the facial signals and make the exchange work properly.”

Through their experience working with and consulting on projects for companies that create digital humans – including Pinscreen, Epic Games and Soul Machines – Dennis and his colleagues have researched design and appearance of digital humans, when they should be deployed and what contexts are best.

“Digital humans can be a much better choice when it comes to communicating complex instructions or describing features of a product. This is why YouTube instruction videos – rather than pages of text – are so successful,” they said. “Someone searching for clothes online might welcome seeing the outfit on someone who looks like them to get a feel for how the items go together and whether the look reflects who they are. In such cases, a digital human will engage the customer more, help complete the sale, and reduce the likelihood of product returns.” (more…)

Kelley School program chosen as the national model by U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Posted on February 10, 2023 by George Vlahakis

The award was announced as part of the “USASBE 2023: Driven By Dreams” annual conference. Left to right, Dennis Barber, awards committee co-chair; Julienne Shields, president and CEO of USASBE; Donald F. Kuratko, Sara Cochran, Susan Batchelder and Jeff McMullen, all from Kelley; Thomas Pittz, USASBE board chair; and Judi Eyles, awards committee co-chair.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Kelley School of Business is the recipient of the prestigious 2023 USASBE Model Entrepreneurship Program Award, presented by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE).

The Model Entrepreneurship Program Award honors the institution with the most comprehensive, high-quality educational program that successfully trains future generations of entrepreneurs. It is one of the association’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Awards, which recognize “bold and innovative programs making an impact.”

“It was a pleasure to present the model program award to Dr. Donald F. Kuratko and Indiana University entrepreneurship faculty at the annual USASBE conference in January,” said Thomas G. Pittz, board chair of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and associate professor at the University of Tampa. “We were delighted to honor Indiana’s outstanding achievements and are proud to have them as a part of the USASBE community.”

Ash Soni, interim dean of the Kelley School and the Sungkyunkwan Professor, said the award confirms what he and others believe – that the school is home to one of the finest entrepreneurship programs in the world.

“The Kelley School’s comprehensive entrepreneurship curriculum spans across all degree levels and even beyond the business school, thanks to innovative partnerships with several schools across campus as well as a customizable certificate in entrepreneurship available to all students at IU,” Soni said. “Combine that with a stellar faculty who are leaders in entrepreneurial research, and it’s easy to see how Kelley makes an impact. “

Donald F. Kuratko

“This is truly a remarkable award to receive from USASBE as they are the leading entrepreneurship organization in the world,” added Donald F. Kuratko, the Jack M. Gill Distinguished Chair and professor of entrepreneurship. “This award exemplifies the quality and dedication of our entire entrepreneurship faculty team. I am personally honored to have this recognition of our program as one of the very best in the world today.”

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Two NFL players are pursuing the Vince Lombardi Trophy and a Kelley School degree

Posted on February 6, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs looks for an open receiver behind Kelley graduate Joe Thuney during a recent game. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – As the Kansas City Chiefs make their third Super Bowl appearance in four years, two team players – one a student and the other an alumnus of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business — also are poised to return to the big game.

Joe Thuney, an offensive lineman, and Jordan Franks, a tight end on the practice squad, each took advantage of a partnership with the NFL Players Association that offers MBA and Master of Science programs to current and former NFL players.

Since 2014, more than 200 veterans of the gridiron have pursued either a degree or a graduate certificate online through the partnership, delivered by Kelley Executive Degree Programs. Fifty-five players have graduated with an MBA or MS degree and another 19 have completed certificates. Another 128 are currently enrolled in the program.

This fall, the Kelley School announced a similar partnership with the Major League Soccer Players Association and will begin admitting students this spring.

“We cheer for all our students. Not all will achieve their goal of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but our leadership and innovation in delivering degree programs provides them with the flexibility to design a winning experience for these accomplished athletes,” said Richard Magjuka, associate professor of business administration, faculty chair of Executive Degree Programs and the Fred G. Steingraber Chair in Distributed Education. “Many of them will one day transition to new careers away from the game, where they will enjoy other victories.”

Joe Thuney, center, runs off the field during the NFL game in Arizona. He completed his degree in 2020 (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images).

Thuney, a 2020 MBA alumnus, and Franks, a current student, continue a tradition of Kelley student success off and on the field. Recent Super Bowls have featured students who celebrated with the Lombardi Trophy, which goes to the winning team.

Last year, they included Los Angeles Rams cornerback Grant Haley. Others who recently celebrated a Super Bowl win have included Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ryan Griffin and Cameron Brate in 2021, Kansas City Chief Tanoh Kpassagnon in 2020, New England Patriots Stephen Gostkowski (2015, 2017 and 2019) and Ted Karras (2017 and 2019) and Philadelphia Eagle Corey Graham in 2018.

Thuney has been there before. He is the only player in NFL history to start in the Super Bowl in each of his first three seasons, celebrating Super Bowl wins with his New England Patriots teammates in 2017 and 2019. This will be his first trip to the Super Bowl with the Chiefs.

“It was a lot of hard work, but I thought very well worth it,” Thuney said of his Kelley MBA in 2020, adding that one of the most beneficial parts of the program was working with others – as with football.

“There was a lot of group-work, collaborating, how to communicate well with your teammates what your strengths are, what you can help the team with,” he said. “That was one aspect, and then just working through problems. There were some hard assignments and football teaches you to keep working, keep your head down and keep grinding away. That helped too. Be persistent about it, just one thing after another.”

Two former NFL players — Lester Archambeau and Andy Studebaker — were interviewed in 2019 by Kelley’s ROI Podcast. The former players shared unique perspectives gained through their football careers to business.

Richard Magjuka, left, with Kansas City Chiefs legend Lake Dawson, who earned an MBA through the partnership with the NFL Players Association. Dawson today is assistant director of college scouting for the Buffalo Bills. Photo by Ann Schertz.

Kelley School students, faculty help make history of Wylie House – home of IU’s first president – more accessible

Posted on February 1, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Students and faculty helped make more accessible the attic bedroom of Elizabeth Breckenridge (whose grandmother is shown in the framed picture), a Black woman who worked for the family of IU’s first president.

Editor’s note: This article was written by Joe Hiland, a web content specialist at IU Libraries.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For Carey Champion, director of Indiana University Libraries’ Wylie House Museum, accessibility has always been at the forefront of the museum’s mission to support student and faculty research, and to provide the broader community with an important link to Bloomington’s past.

Yet the realities of maintaining a 19th century house in historically accurate condition can make physical access challenging.

For instance, in 1835 the Wylie House was built with steep and narrow staircases connecting the ground floor to the first floor, and an even more steep and narrow staircase connecting the first floor to the attic. For many visitors, these staircases make the upper floors difficult or impossible to access physically.

Fortunately, with the help of students and faculty at the IU Kelley School of Business, Wylie House now offers a 21^st century solution.

In 2019 and 2020 Champion worked with the Indiana University IU3D Team to create a Matterport virtual tour of the historic building. This not only provided virtual access to the upper floors for patrons with mobility issues, it also proved to be an indispensable tool for continuing the museum’s academic mission when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“The tour launched shortly before IU Bloomington classes were forced to go fully remote, allowing the Wylie House to provide alternative curricular support to instructors, and virtual access to both students and community members.

More recently, expanding the virtual tour allowed the Wylie House to better share its newest permanent installation — an interpretation of the attic bedroom occupied by Elizabeth Breckenridge. Elizabeth was a Black woman who lived with and worked as a paid domestic employee for IU professor Theophilus Wylie’s family. Wylie House was built in 1835 by his cousin, Andrew Wylie, the first president of IU. Elizabeth eventually purchased a home of her own in Bloomington, which she lived in for a short time prior to her death in 1910.

Breckenridge’s mother is widely believed to have been a leader in the local Underground Railroad.

“We will never be able to offer an elevator, but we can offer everyone a look at the upstairs spaces with a virtual tour shared via the museum’s iPad or patrons’ personal devices. It is wonderful to be able to provide an option to overcome the physical challenge that stairs can present,” Champion said. “Last year, I learned how much more we could and should do to accommodate even more people.” (more…)

For a fifth year in a row, the Kelley Direct Online MBA is ranked No. 1 by the Princeton Review

Posted on January 31, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Kelley Direct students celebrating an earlier No. 1 ranking in 2022 by the Princeton Review.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the fifth consecutive year, the Kelley Direct Online MBA Program is at the top of the Princeton Review’s “Top 50 Online MBA Programs for 2023.”

The Princeton Review ranking, based on student survey and administrator data, follows last week’s news of another No. 1 ranking by U.S. News & World Report for the second consecutive year. It also has been ranked No. 1 twice by Poets & Quants.

“It’s always great to be recognized for the exceptional programs and experiences we offer our students,” said Ash Soni, interim dean of the Kelley School and The SungKyunKwan Professor. “We were the first top-20 business school to offer an online MBA, and we are still one of the leading schools in this space. That’s a credit to our wonderful professors — who teach in both the online and the Full-Time MBA programs — and to our dedicated staff.”

Will Geoghegan, Kelley Direct Programs chair and clinical associate professor of management and entrepreneurship, said being able to offer the No. 1 online MBA stems from practicing something students are taught – vertical integration.

“As with successful companies, we employ an approach toward delivering a quality educational experience that means every aspect of programming — from career services and instructional design to admissions and the IT help desk — is delivered in house,” Geoghegan said. “This may not sound unique, but in an educational environment increasingly relying on external for-profit partners, it is.

“The student experience is at the core of everything we do. Vertical integration enables us to invest tuition dollars back into the program and our students. We do not outsource, and we are better for it,” he added. “We are nimble and responsive, and we create incredibly unique, valuable experiences for our students. This is why Kelley is consistently ranked No. 1 and why our online graduate programs standout from other top universities.”

Students surveyed by the Princeton Review echoed Geoghegan’s statements. In its profile of Kelley Direct, under the headline, “See what students say,” editors wrote, “Online MBA students agree that IU professors are not ‘anything less than exceptional.’”

One Kelley Direct student was quoted as saying, “There are times when I am actually overwhelmed by how organized my professors are. They are always on top of things, and the quality of teaching is exceptional. They are able to break down concepts using ‘real-world business examples.’”

The Princeton Review today also issued its list of “best on-campus MBA programs,” which included Kelley’s Full-Time MBA Program. Overall, the residential MBA programs weren’t ranked, but Kelley’s was in the top 10 in three categories – third in marketing, sixth for “family friendly” and ninth for “best professors.”

Kelley’s Center for Global Sales Leadership partners with Humantic AI to research impact of buyer intelligence in sales

Posted on January 26, 2023 by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Established as one of the first educational sales research centers in the country, the Center for Global Sales Leadership is the umbrella organization for “all-things-sales” at Kelley – including the professional sales major and sales curriculum. It is committed to excellence in the classroom and in preparing students for professional sales careers.

Kelley attracts top talent through cutting edge courses and practical business experiences that enhance students’ professional selling, sales management, and leadership skills outside of the classroom.

Humantic AI is a buyer intelligence platform that helps sales teams identify and understand buyers at a deeper, more personal level while fostering authentic connections. Its technology is anchored around its proprietary personality AI engine which assembles detailed personality profiles that provide actionable recommendations to sellers. Companies using Humantic AI see exponential increases in buyer response rates and improvement in first-time engagement.

“Through this partnership, Kelley’s Advanced Sales Practicum students will use Humantic AI’s technology to learn how to leverage AI-assisted selling and how to understand their buyers better,” said Charles Ragland, executive director of the Center for Global Sales Leadership, clinical associate professor of marketing and Fettig/Whirlpool Faculty Fellow. “They will also conduct various research activities on the impact of buyer intelligence. Students will not only learn about adaptive selling, but also how technology can better help to understand themselves and others.”

“Joining the Kelley faculty after more than 30 years in technology sales, I became interested in how we can educate our students to not only understand adaptive selling, but also how they could leverage technology to appeal to buyers more effectively,” added Michelle Lane, marketing and professional sales lecturer. “This led me to identifying and working with a cutting-edge company, Humantic AI, which was already working towards solving this problem for salespeople.”

The primary objective of this partnership is not just to shine light on the importance of buyer-centric adaptive selling, but also measure the visible impact of such an approach.

During the semester, the students will be engaging in various research activities and case studies to measure the impact and effectiveness of buyer intelligence.

“Humantic AI is built on a foundation of decades of academic research in the fields of neuroscience and computational psychometrics” said Amarpreet Kalkat, founder and CEO of Humantic AI. “When the opportunity to give back to the academic community came up, we jumped at it. We’ve already seen astounding results with sales teams in the industry, and we’re thrilled to help the talented participants at Kelley make AI-assisted selling a core part of their skill set.”

Kelley School online MBA ranks No. 1, again, in 2023 U.S. News rankings

Posted on January 24, 2023 by George Vlahakis

Kelley Direct students celebrating an earlier No. 1 ranking in 2022 by Poets & Quants.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Continuing its tradition of excellence in online education, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business is ranked No. 1 for its Online MBA in the 2023 U.S. News and World Report rankings.

This is the second consecutive year and fifth overall for Kelley Direct Online to be ranked best in the country. It also has been ranked No. 1 twice by Poets & Quants and six times by The Princeton Review.

Ash Soni, interim dean of the Kelley School and The SungKyunKwan Professor, said Kelley Direct’s continued top placement among the best online MBA programs recognizes more than 20 years of online educational innovation, while putting students first.

“Kelley Direct’s continued placement among the best online MBA programs is a testament to the quality of our Kelley faculty and our dedicated staff in providing an innovative student experience and career success,” Soni said. “We continually seek feedback from our students and have set high standards to remain a program that operates at the leading edge of business education.”

For this year’s rankings, the Kelley Direct Online MBA not only tied for first overall, but also ranked in the top 10 in all program specialties ranked. Its finance, general management and business analytics specialty degrees all ranked second, while marketing ranked third. The Kelley Direct Online MBA Program also ranked sixth among veterans.

“The quality education and valuable connections is a hallmark of our Kelley culture, and we’re pleased this student-first focus was recognized again this year with a No. 1 ranking by U.S. News & World Report for both our Online MBA and MS programs,” said Will Geoghegan, Kelley Direct Programs chair and clinical associate professor of management and entrepreneurship. “At Kelley Direct, students learn from the best, with the best.”

The Kelley Direct Master of Science degree program was also ranked No. 1 by U.S. News.

This year’s edition evaluates more than 1,800 online bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. The methodologies incorporate metrics specific to online learning by regionally accredited institutions. Prospective students can see how the Kelley School of Business compares to other institutions and how the rankings are calculated at USNews.com.

The Kelley School of Business boasts the largest business school alumni network with more than 127,000 living graduates. Learn more about this prestigious group and why the Kelley Direct Online MBA is ranked No. 1.