Doctoral Students’ Research Papers Recognized Regionally

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Sandhya Balasubramanian won the 'New England Journal of Entrepreneurship Best Paper Award' at the recent 2015 Eastern Academy of Management Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

06/22/2015
By Ed Brennen

From journal publications to conference presentations, the Manning School of Business’s Ph.D. program has quickly established a growing honor roll of student research achievements since launching in 2013.

This spring two students in the Ph.D. in business administration program — Sandhya Balasubramanian and Lauren Turner — added prestigious regional accolades to that list.

At the 2015 Eastern Academy of Management Annual Conference, held May 6 through 9 in Philadelphia, Balasubramanian won the "New England Journal of Entrepreneurship Best Paper Award" while Turner was one of only two nominees for the “Outstanding Theoretical Paper Award.”

According to Ph.D. Program Director Yi Yang, this latest recognition is indicative of the excellent research being done by all 13 students (10 full-time, three part-time) in the inaugural cohort.

”On one hand, the achievements are because of the students’ hard work. They take this program very seriously,” Yang says. “On the other hand, it’s because of faculty support. We have very committed faculty members willing to help every single student.”

And as the program’s reputation continues to grow, so too does its selectiveness. For the second cohort this fall, Yang says only 10 students (or 17 percent) were accepted from among 60 applicants. The inaugural cohort in 2013, by comparison, admitted 25 percent of the 40 full-time applicants.

Associate Vice Chancellor of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Steve Tello, who co-authored Balasubramanian’s paper along with Yang, says that the doctoral students’ achievements bode well for the university’s growth as an entrepreneurial leader.

“It says not only is UMass Lowell creating new companies and moving new technologies forward, but they’re also thinking about it smartly, developing this next generation of thinkers and researchers who can help us look at problems through different lenses,” Tello says. “And hopefully that has some impact beyond the university.”

Fusing her passions

After earning master’s degrees in philosophy and commerce from the University of Madras in India, Balasubramanian received her MBA from the Manning School in 2005. She has worked in several capacities at the university ever since, including Industrial Liaison for the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) and Assistant Director of Cooperative Education. In January she became Assistant to Provost (Special Projects).

“I love to be involved in creating new programs — that’s my role in the different places I’ve been in the university — and when I noticed the business school was coming up with a Ph.D. program, I couldn’t resist applying,” says Balasubramanian, whose concentration is in entrepreneurship. “It was an opportunity to take what I’ve been doing as part of my work and combine it with my other passion of intellectual pursuit and curiosity, to combine the two sides of the brain.”

Balasubramanian’s paper, “Leveraging University Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) to Enhance Technology Commercialization and Region Growth,” examined how a school’s entrepreneurial culture can contribute not only to its own growth, but create “ripple effects” to fuel regional economic development. The paper also looked at whether a university’s presence in a venture capital hub enhanced those outcomes.

To measure EO, Balasubramanian used computer-aided text analysis on nearly 500 letters from university presidents collected over the past five years — letters that she says are akin to a CEO’s annual report to shareholders.

“We found that a higher EO in the culture of the organization results in increased outcomes at the university level and to the regional economy, which is becoming the bigger focus as we’re all looking at innovation ecosystems and saying, ‘Why are universities so important to the regional and national economy?’ ” Balasubramanian says. “This is a study that might feed into that context and say it’s important to pay attention.”

Yang says the paper could also lend to the discussion of how EO impacts students in future professions.

“Those entrepreneurial activities on campus can influence how students think,” Yang says.

“They may not start a business right after graduation or become a Google CEO in the future, but they will change a life. They will become innovative and entrepreneurial even if they’re working for an existing company or a nonprofit organization.”

‘The stars aligned’

After working for 31 years at Mount Holyoke College, where she received her master’s in psychology, Turner became UMass Lowell’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Outreach in 2011.

“I always had a terminal degree on my bucket list, whether it was a Juris Doctor or a Ph.D., and to my delight the stars aligned when the Manning School launched the doctoral program,” says Turner, whose concentration is in leadership and organizational studies.

Turner’s paper, “Viewing Strategy in Higher Education Through an Institutional Theory Lens: The Higher Education Bubble,” developed a framework around which to examine how university leaders are adapting to the changing economics and competitive landscape of college education.

“Everything about higher education as an industry is changing, and this is really exploring what causes institutions to do what they do,” Turner says. “A lot of it is entrepreneurial — breaking away from traditions. Higher education has always moved at glacial speed, and there’s a lot of pressure that is causing these institutions to need to shift those practices.”

Turner cites the growing trend of universities no longer requiring SATs as an example of this shift. “About 20 percent of schools have broken away from that,” she says. “They do that for a variety of reasons. Part of it is to remain competitive.”

This marked the second year Turner attended the EAM conference, which is co-hosted by UMass Lowell, Towson University, Saint Joseph’s University and Project Management Institute. Turner has been named an “Outstanding Reviewer” both years. Her adviser, Assoc. Prof. of Management Kimberly Merriman, serves as Vice President at Large for the EAM.

In April, meanwhile, Turner received a “Best Student Research Poster” award at the university’s 2015 Student Research & Community Engagement Symposium at the ICC. While she still considers herself a research novice, Turner says her doctoral studies have given her fresh insight into her human resources work.

“It’s helpful in understanding academics and understanding the role of faculty — the teaching, research and service component of a faculty member’s job,” she says. “It makes me appreciate what I do and makes me better at understanding the community.”