Just like the COVID-19 vaccine protects against contracting the contagious virus, the collective elements of self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency - otherwise known as “PsyCap” - helps inoculate employees from the negative effects of working through a pandemic, according to Jeffery Houghton, management professor. Houghton and two of his Ph.D. students, Richard Oxarart and Luke Langlinais, found that those lagging in PsyCap characteristics drifted to maladaptive behaviors and exhibited a high perception of stress. Read more at WVUToday.
A Divine Business Plan
Religiosity can help turn believers into entrepreneurs, according to Nancy McIntyre, associate professor of management at the Chambers College. A study by McIntrye found that when religiosity is more than attending a place of worship — “when it’s a commitment to religious principles and activities” — it strengthens the desire to create a business with a conscience.
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.
Economics, Gentrification and Crime
You often don’t think of gun violence, gentrification and drug crime when thinking about business education. But one recent economics alumnus found a research niche on that topic.
All Women, All Business
Prior to 2019, West Virginia University was the only Big 12 school without a student organization dedicated to women in business. That fall semester, Deanna Crumm – now a marketing and organizational leadership senior – and other young women in the Chambers College began the University’s first Women in Business student organization to foster a supportive community of women and equip them with the knowledge, skills and network to succeed and follow their passions.