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Testify

Testify

John Deskins, director of the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research, testified on Capitol Hill before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in July. The topic? The importance of energy innovation to economic growth.

“In West Virginia, the real key is finding things that are related to energy that build on our comparative advantage, that build on our historic strengths that are still different, new, innovative and growing — not just simply the extraction and exportation of raw coal and gas but other industries that relate to energy and benefit from local abundant supply of energy.”

Take Stock

Worried about a looming recession and what to do with your money? Hold steady on those investment plans, advises Alexander Kurov, professor and Fred T. Tattersall research chair in finance. In an article penned for The Conversation, Kurov writes “Stick to your long-term plan and ignore day-to-day market fluctuations, however frightening they may be. Don’t take my word for it. The tried and true approach of passive investing is backed up by a lot of evidence.” To dive into the full article, go to go.wvu.edu/kurov.

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Trending

Twitter is more than rantin’ and ravin’ and snarky memes. It can influence stock returns, according to Alexander Kurov, professor and Fred T. Tattersall research chair in finance. Kurov and Chen Gu, a 2018 graduate of the finance doctoral program, found that firm-level Twitter content has information useful for predicting next-day stock returns, and that it is a stronger predictor of returns for firms with less analyst coverage. Their study, “ Informational role of social media: Evidence from Twitter sentiment,” is published in the Journal of Banking and Finance.

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Mountaineers Sans Frontières

Students working with the Robbins Center for Global Business and Strategy took part in an experiential learning project that combined local service with international impact. 

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Virtual Globetrotting

While COVID-19 has forced us to pivot the way we work and play, the Robbins Center for Global Business and Strategy is no exception. In fact, two virtual activities alone in October saw more than 250 students involved in international lecture, case analyses and culture sessions in Hong Kong and Bahrain. “Framed in this way, that's very promising international reach between WVU and these two international partners,” said David Dawley, executive director of the Robbins Center. 

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First Pitch

Supported by Silicon Valley CEO Ray Zinn, the first ZinnStarter Pitch Competition, hosted by the LaunchLab, gave aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs an opportunity to win cash to build their ideas into the next groundbreaking product or business. Winners included: First place ($2,500): Emma Adams, WVU animal and nutritional sciences major, and her business idea PetRecord, which provides universal medical records for pets in emergency situations; second place ($1,500): Cameron Keefe, global supply chain management major, and her idea ThermoRoller, which combines physical massage with temperature control to relieve sore muscle pain; and third place ($1,000) to the team of Austin Davis, Anne Byer and Emily Thomas, from the University of Charleston, and their idea Second Chance, a program that helps give active control back to people with quadriplegia and paraplegia. 

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