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Kelley School of Business Indiana University Bloomington
Kelley School of Business

‘The Commons,’ a Kelley-wide initiative, begins with reading of ‘How to Be an Antiracist’

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS — Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, has announced the next step in a broad initiative to creating thoughtful conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion. On Sept. 10, Kelley students, faculty and staff at IU Bloomington and IUPUI were asked to participate in “The Commons,” an effort to foster better understanding during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Each month, Kesner will announce a selection that students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to read, watch, or listen to on their own. At the end of the month, she will host a panel discussion about it with special guests that might include members of the Kelley community, experts from Indiana University, professionals from Kelley’s hiring companies, and local leaders.

Topics may include racism, immigration, LGBTQ+ issues, indigenous Americans, people with disabilities and cultural differences. Selections will include films in addition to books.

Her first selection for September is the 2019 New York Times best selling book “How to Be an Antiracist,” by Ibram X. Kendi. It is available as a free e-book to students, faculty and staff through IU Libraries. The first panel discussion will take place virtually on Sept. 30. All degree-seeking undergraduate, graduate and online MBA and MS students are invited to participate. Panelists will be:

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Ethical leadership necessary for the continuance of American democracy, writes former congresswoman and Kelley alumna in new book

Posted on by George Vlahakis

Lee Hamilton, Leon Panetta, Marcy Kaptur, Paul Helmke and Richard Painter joining Jill Long Thompson at book’s launch

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In the introduction to her new book, former Indiana congresswoman Jill Long Thompson tells the story of a dinner invitation from a powerful committee chairman to illustrate the importance of ethics to the future of American democracy.

“It was clear to me that none of the other members of Congress at the table that evening thought it was inappropriate for lobbyists to buy them dinner. They apparently saw no conflict of interest,” said Long Thompson, who chose to join the private dinner but opted only to drink a diet soft drink and reimbursed the host the next day.

The powerful committee chair that evening later was convicted on corruption charges and served prison time. “To this day, I believe he was a genuinely decent man, but he was human … Like many people he probably had never taken the time to seriously and diligently reflect on what constitutes ethical behavior,” she said. “Without ethics, democracy cannot survive.”

Long Thompson, who earned her MBA and doctorate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, has drawn upon experiences from her distinguished career in public service to teach at the business school and at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Her book, “The Character of American Democracy: Preserving Our Past, Protecting our Future (Indiana University Press),” will be published Sept. 15. Her colleagues for the last five years in Kelley’s Department of Business Law and Ethics and IU Press are co-hosting a virtual book launch that day from 4 to 5 p.m.

She will be joined in conversations by special guests, including Lee Hamilton, Distinguished Scholar and professor of practice in the Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies; Leon Panetta, former CIA director, secretary of defense and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton; Paul Helmke, professor of practice and director of the Civic Leaders Center in the O’Neill School; U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; and Richard Painter, the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota. Registration is required.

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Business Law and Ethics faculty return from Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference with top honors

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The annual conference of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business may have been held virtually this year, but one constant feature remained – high honors for business law faculty at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Nathaniel Grow

Three professors – Nathaniel Grow, Jennifer Pacella and Abbey Stemler – were the recipients of numerous awards. Avanti Cheruvallath, a senior studying finance, marketing and professional sales, also was honored as the winner of the Student Paper Competition.

“The conference has shown why Kelley BLE is leading the discipline in every facet,” said Jamie Prenkert, associate dean of academics and the Charles M. Hewitt Professor of Business Law.

“I sat in on presentation after presentation, panel after panel featuring colleagues who were just hitting it out of the park. Without exception, I was blown away by the depth and breadth of the expertise we have in this department and the excellence that each of you exudes,” Prenkert said in a note to faculty. (more…)

Kelley alumnus fires up his 3D printers and a national network of others like him to create respirator shields for COVID-19 first responders

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – This spring, as everyone was beginning to understand the devastating public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeremy and Amy Filko were like many Americans. They felt helpless. They supported passive efforts to flatten the curve, such as wearing masks, social distancing and supporting the lockdown, but wished they could do more.

But when Jeremy Filko, an alumnus of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, looked at their 3D printer, he saw potential. A device that previously had been used as a hobby to fabricate a replica of the starship Enterprise from “Star Trek” for a friend and containers for leftovers could be used to make something helpful for medical workers, he reasoned.

Not only did the Vienna, Va., couple begin producing 3D plastic respirator shields for doctors, nurses and other first responders during the initial shortage, but they also launched the non-profit Collective Shield and a network of like-minded people in the “maker” community worldwide to do the same thing. Their shield designs today are being replicated all over the world.

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School-wide committee appointed to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion at Kelley

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, has announced a broad initiative to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Kesner on Aug. 17 announced the appointment of a school-wide committee, chaired by Jason Brown, associate professor of accounting (pictured left), that will include students, faculty and staff. The committee, which was originally established at the end of July, has been given a mission to “examine our systems, structures, and curricula for unconscious biases and opportunities to foster a culture of inclusion and respect.”

“Although Kelley has made steady gains in the recruitment and retention of diverse students, the recent racial injustices and protests across the country and in our own back yard have shown us our efforts don’t go nearly deep enough,” Kesner said. “We need to address systemic racism, prejudice and privilege, and to prepare our students to be anti-racist business leaders. To do that, we need the kind of change that can be made only through critical assessment and difficult conversations.”

“The committee and I are excited to begin this important work at Kelley,” Brown added. “We are inspired by the support that we have received from the entire Kelley community. Working with the committee in partnership with students, faculty and staff, I am confident that we will further Kelley’s commitment to a fully inclusive community.”

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At a time when many firms cut professional development, Kelley offers discounted courses and resources to help alumni keep current

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Recent reports have highlighted the need for professional development during the COVID-19 crisis, as those in business and other fields react to tectonic changes in how work is done. The business world already had changed rapidly since the start of the Millennium, but the pandemic is accelerating that evolution.

At the same time, many companies have dramatically cut training and coaching programs as a result of the pandemic. For decades, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business has been a champion of continuous learning.

To help Kelley School alumni update and retool, Kelley’s Executive Education program (KSBEE) is offering them a 50 percent discount on any non-credit open enrollment certificate program or course offered online or in-residence.

Courses are designed and taught by the same faculty in the Kelley School’s award-winning degree programs. The programs are available to anyone looking to sharpen their business and management abilities. Alumni can bring along a colleague to the same program and they will also receive the discount.

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Three Kelley professors to receive American Accounting Association’s Wildman Medal for their research contributions to the profession

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Three accounting professors at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business will receive the 2020 Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal Award from the American Accounting Association.

The Wildman Medal recognizes research that is “judged to have made or will be likely to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of public accountancy.”

Patrick Hopkins, chair of the Undergraduate Program and the Glaubinger Chair for Undergraduate Leadership as of August 1 and previously faculty chair of Graduate Accounting Programs; Joe Schroeder, associate professor of accounting; and Lori Bhaskar, assistant professor of accounting, will receive the award on August 12, as part of the virtual annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.

They were honored for their paper, “An Investigation of Auditors’ Judgments When Companies Release Earnings Before Audit Completion,” which was published in the Journal of Accounting Research in  May 2019. It also was supported by the Center for Audit Quality.

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Twelve top students from across Indiana selected for next class of Kelley Scholars

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Twelve incoming Indiana University freshmen from across the Hoosier state have been selected as Kelley Scholars at the Kelley School of Business.

The Kelley Scholars, who intend to major in business at IU Bloomington, will receive standard tuition and fees, a stipend for living expenses and funding for academic activities such as possible overseas study.

The Kelley Scholars Program is funded by a multi-million-dollar gift from E.W. “Ed” Kelley and his family, made to IU in the fall of 1997. The university named its school of business for the Kelley family in acknowledgment of the gift.

This year’s class of Kelley Scholars was selected from a group of top students admitted to IU, who were invited to apply for the program because of their outstanding academic records. The application included references, a high school transcript, several personal statements on a variety of topics and an essay.

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Chatbots can ease medical providers’ burden, offer trusted guidance to those with COVID-19 symptoms

Posted on by George Vlahakis

Customer service and support live chat with chatbot and automatic messages or human servant. Assistance and help with mobile phone app. Automated bot and robot. Smartphone helpdesk for feedback cell.

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — COVID-19 has placed tremendous pressure on health care systems, not only for critical care but also from an anxious public looking for answers.

Research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business found that chatbots — software applications that conduct online chats via text or text-to-speech — working for reputable organizations can ease the burden on medical providers and offer trusted guidance to those with symptoms.

Researchers conducted an online experiment with 371 participants who viewed a COVID-19 screening session between a hotline agent — chatbot or human — and a user with mild or severe symptoms.

Alan Dennis

Alan Dennis

They studied whether chatbots were seen as being persuasive, providing satisfying information that likely would be followed. Their results showed a slight negative bias against chatbots’ ability, perhaps due to recent press reports. When the perceived ability is the same, however, participants reported that they viewed chatbots more positively than human agents, which is good news for health care organizations struggling to meet user demand for screening services.

“The primary factor driving user response to screening hotlines — human or chatbot — is perceptions of the agent’s ability,” said Alan Dennis, the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems at Kelley and corresponding author of the paper, “User reactions to COVID-19 screening chatbots from reputable providers.” “When ability is the same, users view chatbots no differently or more positively than human agents.”

Other authors on the paper, forthcoming in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, are Antino Kim, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies at Kelley; and Sezgin Ayabakan, assistant professor of management information systems, and doctoral candidate Mohammad Rahimi, both at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

Even before the pandemic, chatbots were identified as a technology that could speed up how people interact with researchers and find medical information online.

Antino Kim

Antino Kim

“Chatbots are scalable, so they can meet an unexpected surge in demand when there is a shortage of qualified human agents,” Dennis, Kim and their co-authors wrote, adding that chatbots “can provide round-the-clock service at a low operational cost.

“This positive response may be because users feel more comfortable disclosing information to a chatbot, especially socially undesirable information, because a chatbot makes no judgment,” researchers wrote. “The CDC, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other health organizations caution that the COVID-19 outbreak has provoked social stigma and discriminatory behaviors against people of certain ethnic backgrounds, as well as those perceived to have been in contact with the virus. This is truly an unfortunate situation, and perhaps chatbots can assist those who are hesitant to seek help because of the stigma.”

The primary factor driving perceptions of ability was the user’s trust in the provider of the screening hotline.

“Proactively informing users of the chatbot’s ability is important,” the authors wrote. “Users need to understand that chatbots use the same up-to-date knowledge base and follow the same set of screening protocols as human agents. … Because trust in the provider strongly influences perceptions of ability, building on the organization’s reputation may also prove useful.”

To the Kelley MBA community

Posted on by Kelley School

We appreciate your passion and care about the Kelley School. In this moment of focused attention on racial inequality, we have the opportunity as individuals and educators to recommit to make our university, school, programs, and our classrooms fair and just for all. We have a distinctive opportunity to shape curriculum and instruction in support of our ideal goals of democracy, diversity, inclusion, equity, equality, and social justice.

This is an important and pivotal moment. As Dean Kesner noted in a message to the Kelley community, Mr. Floyd’s tragic death has led to an understandable sense of fear, outrage, sadness, and discontent in addition to feelings of powerlessness. It is an all-too-familiar example of the injustices against the Black community in this nation—nicely summarized by the HBS note—and is an injustice that is grossly disproportionate in its impact on this community. It is an injustice so great that we are left wondering if, when, and how we can heal as a country.

Kyle met with the core faculty this morning. He is pleased to share with you that every member of the core has pledged to add cases or assignments where possible that deal with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There was also a good discussion of working toward a case that might be used across some or all of the disciplines.

We, along with the administration of the program and school, and the core faculty support the petition you have presented. We are happy to commit to:

  • incorporate multiple cases/assignments in the Core that feature or focus on under-represented minorities and women. This will include required reading of the HBS note, “African American Inequality in the United States.”
  • allocate two days of the Core to lead DEI discussions using qualified external instructors
  • provide annual diversity and inclusion training for Kelley faculty and staff that deals with racism, implicit bias, and racial inequality using qualified and experienced person(s) of color.

In addition, we would like to share the following additional activities that will support diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the Kelley School:

  • Professors Kolovou and Cattani are working with current Kelley Consortium students to develop a diversity, equity, and inclusion case specifically for Me, Inc.
  • The MBA Program administration and the Office of the Dean are working with the MBA Consortium leadership and Diversity Champions to explore additional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for the Kelley MBA Program.
  • Dean Soni will meet regularly with the MBA Consortium leadership to facilitate these and other initiatives.
  • The Kelley Direct Program will also incorporate cases that feature or focus on underrepresented minorities and women. This will include required reading of the HBS note, “African American Inequality in the United States.”
  • Professor Cattani and Regina Funk, the Kelley Director of Diversity & Inclusion for the Graduate Programs, have been working on several diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for the Kelley MBA Program.

We stand with our racially diverse students and alumni in solidarity and we are deeply committed to working together. All these initiatives will be developed and executed in collaboration with the current MBA Consortium and MBA student leadership. The MBA consortium leadership team has strong ideas and opinions and working with them provides an opportunity for them to assist Kelley while at the same time strengthening their own skills in areas such as leadership, teamwork, creative problem solving, communications, project management, and many other areas. Engaging the current students will ensure that we will create the curricular and co-curricular programming that will be meaningful and relevant for their experiences in the MBA Program. We ask a lot of them and we appreciate that they, in the long tradition of Kelley Consortium students, help make Kelley stronger.

Thank you for your continued engagement in our MBA program and the Kelley School.

Sincerely,

Idie Kesner, Dean, Kelley School of Business

Ash Soni, Executive Associative Dean for Academic Programs, Kelley School of Business

Kyle Cattani, MBA Program Chair, Kelley School of Business

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