Participants in this year’s Mid-South Management Research Consortium spend time networking in Lamar Hall. Submitted photo
OXFORD, Miss. – More than 80 scholars from nearly 20 institutions of higher learning gathered at the University of Mississippi over the weekend (Feb. 24-25) to discuss research and potential projects in the field of management and to mentor doctoral students in the discipline.
The Mid-South Management Research Consortium convenes each year to strengthen faculty and doctoral students’ research programs, and to develop research collaborations. This year’s event began with an opening reception at Boure hosted by Noel Wilkin, UM interim provost, and Ken Cyree, dean of the School of Business Administration.
“We are excited to be hosting such a distinguished group of scholars here at Ole Miss,” Cyree said. “It’s good for academics to get together and share research interests and findings, and we are fortunate to be able to provide a venue for this event to take place.
“I am thankful for the hard work consortium coordinators Paul Johnson and Walter Davis put into the event; it was a productive and educational time for the attendees.”
The conference featured scholars from across the Southeast, including representatives from the universities of Alabama, Kentucky and Memphis, Georgia State University, Louisiana State University, Florida State University, Southern Illinois University, Texas A&M and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The opening keynote speaker was Micki Kacmar, endowed chair of the Department of Management at Texas State University, who spoke about the purpose and impact of management research on organizational leaders.
Saturday sessions in Lamar Hall included various roundtable discussions and expert panels on topics ranging from “Navigating the Job Market” by John Harris, a fifth-year doctoral candidate at Florida State University, to “Entrepreneurial Orientation: An Incisive Reflection and Evaluation of its Critiques” by Erik Markin, a second-year doctoral candidate at Ole Miss.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for us to show off the University of Mississippi to our colleagues from around the South,” said Paul Johnson, assistant professor of management. “We keep telling them about all the great things we do here in the School of Business, but this is the first time they get to see it with their own eyes.”
One of the most important functions of the consortium was to introduce a new generation of doctoral students to the opportunities available in business research.
“We are pleased to bring some of the top business researchers in the nation to the Ole Miss campus,” said Walter Davis, associate professor of management. “This was a great time for doctoral students to explore opportunities to collaborate with some of the best scholars from other universities.”
The closing keynote speaker was William Gardner, director of the Institute for Leadership Research at Texas Tech University, who spoke about the importance of networking with others and the implications of networking for organizations.