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School of Business Research Newsletter January 2022

We are delighted to present the first Research Newsletter of NJCU School of Business!  

We have started this newsletter to keep in touch and share information about the research done at the School of Business. Our plan is to issue a Newsletter twice a year. We hope that you will enjoy finding out more about faculty’s research and get informed on the next The Business & Economics Research Committee (BERC) activities and events. 

The BERC team: Nava Cohen (Accounting), Sujin Song (Management), Sevincgul Ulu (Marketing), Jorge Medina (Economics), Ahmad Rabaa’i (Finance), and Li Xu (Finance).   

Meet Faculty Members

In this regular feature we introduce you to faculty members and find out a little more about them, their interests and their aspirations. For this issue, we are delighted to present one member of the BERC advisory board Professor Michael Bell. 

Professor Bell, a native southerner, is an Assistant Professor in the Management Department at NJCU where he teaches business and commercial law related courses. He received a B.A. in Economics from Howard University (Washington, D.C), and a J.D from Tulane University Law School (New Orleans, La.), where he served on the Moot Court Board. His legal experience includes White & Case LLP (New York and London, UK) and King & Spalding, LLP (New York), where he has worked in Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Debt Finance. Professor Bell's core research interest is interdisciplinary, focusing on understanding how law can advance the interests of society, and how society shapes law. Prior to entering law, he worked in Finance at both JP Morgan Chase (New York) and Credit Lyonnais (New York), gaining experience with private sector large and middle-market businesses, and financial institutions. 

What is your favorite thing about working at NJCU? 

For me, amongst the biggest benefits of working at NJCU is the diversity of the student population.  As an African-American educator, I think it is important (and gratifying) to pass along not only my knowledge of my discipline (Business Law subjects), but also to give tips on working in the real world. I’ve had some very good professional experiences, and to the extent I can try to help give minority students (and others) words of wisdom that will help them navigate the corporate/working world, I’m very happy to do so. 

What are you working on at the moment? Why are these research projects important to you?

My core interest is in interdisciplinary research. I have a current article under review by the American Journal of Law and Medicine (Boston University), titled “Machine Learning in Public Healthcare: A Focus on Design and Model Development to Evolve Policy and Regulation”.  Simply stated, I think this manuscript contributes to the existing literature by unraveling the so-called “black box” of machine learning as it is applied to public healthcare, and suggesting possible policy prescription within and amongst the several steps in building a machine learning algorithm for public healthcare, thus highlighting for a broad multidisciplinary audience where attention might be focused. The article discusses and analyzes some of the causes of some of the racial and socio-economic disparities experience in the government provision of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to its discussion of racial and socio-economic disparities, this article is important to me because there is very limited legal scholarship discussing artificial intelligence and machine learning as related to healthcare. More frequently there is literature covering these applications as they relate to policing and financial credit scoring.  Since the healthcare domain is very unique, and the application of machine learning to this area is increasing at such a rapid pace, more directed scholarship is needed in this area. 

Another article that I am currently working on was selected for presentation as an extended abstract at Princeton University last April 2021. This article, “The Role of Inclusivity in the Evolution of Law and Policy to Accommodate Smart Sustainable Cities”, is very special to me, as I had to really learn about “Smart Sustainable Cities”. As it turns out, “Smart Cities” and “Sustainable Cities”, individually, each receive adequate treatment in the academic literature. However, the concept of “Smart Sustainable Cities” is an emerging interdisciplinary field. My focus in this article is to place emphasis on the transformation of traditional legal concepts in the socio-ecological context. There are environmental and socio-political aspects to this subject matter. In the extended abstract, I note that “the goal of inclusivity in such contexts is not only critical to the concerns of equity and fairness, especially to historically marginalized populations, but is a key determinant as to development of law and policy to accommodate the pace of innovation that smart sustainable cities represent”.  With this article I hope to invite scholars to make contributions with multidisciplinary approaches. 

Summer & Fall 2021 School of Business Faculty Publications

Accounting, Economics, Finance

, 
Contemporary Accounting Issues,January 2022; Lukas Helikum, Hun-Tong Tan, and Tu Xu.

, Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, August 2021; 
Jorge Medina.

 , Organizational Psychology Review, November 2021; Muhammad Jawad.

Management

, Journal of Higher Education Management., November 2021; John Donnellan and Janne Roslöf.

, UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education, December 2021; Daniel Julius

 , Routledge, November 2021; Daniel Julius.

, The Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics, March 2022; GeunSub Kim, EunSu Lee, and BoKyung Kim

PANDEMIC RESPONSES: WHAT THEY ELUCIDATE ABOUT CRISIS MANAGEMENT, DECISION-MAKING, AND SHARED GOVERNANCE,
, April, 2022; Daniel Julius.

THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN STATE LAWS REGARDING MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AND EMPLOYEE PROTECTIONS,
, 2021; Gita K. Sharma and Vanessa L. Johnson.

Marketing

, Journal of Product & Brand Management, November 2021; Omer Cem Kutlubay, Mesut Cicek, and Serdar Yayla.

,
Journal of Business Research, September 2021; Erin Cavusgil, Serdar Yayla, Omer Cem Kutlubay, and Sengun Yeniyurt.

Awards and Recognition of SOB Faculty

Dr. Lukas Helikum

Dr. Lukas Helikum’s (Accounting) paper , was listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal in November 2021.

Dr. Serdar Yayla

Dr. Serdar Yayla’s (Marketing) paper “
” was listed in Sousa et al. (2021) as one of the top ten articles devoted to "International Market Re-entry", a relatively new and emerging research area, based on its average citation score.

News: Research Labs at the School of Business

Two research labs opened in Fall 2021

The Finance Department at NJCU School of Business launched the Data Science, FinTech and Information Systems Research Lab. This research lab conducts research centered around various aspects of analyzing and modeling data to help with data driven decision making and understanding the adoption and use of information systems and technology in organizations.  

Research areas are AI and machine learning applications, data science for social good, ethics and AI, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, payment systems, wealthtech, financial technology adoption, and information systems implementation. Project examples include for instance the use of data science to improve student retention, applications of Blockchain technology and Machine Learning in asset pricing, cryptocurrency algorithmic trading with Google Cloud Platform, or ethical framework for AI technologies. For additional information, please contact the research team.  

• Dr. J.D Jayaraman
• Dr. Li Xu
• Dr. Youngmin Ha
• Dr. Xiaodi Zhu
• Dr. Ahmad Rabaa’i
• Dr. Muhammad Jawad

 aims to contribute to build a sustainable society of environmental, economic, and environment community through the applications of advanced information technology, and effective supply chain, and demand analytics. This lab aims to serve as a platform where industry experts, students, and faculty members work together on cutting-edge Supply Chain, Demand, Transportation, and Logistics research topics.

These two labs will also strengthen practical research skills and provide experiential learning opportunities to student research assistants.

Our Fall 2021 Events

During the Fall 2021, professors Huijian Dong (Finance) and Nava Cohen (Accounting) presented their research in the Gothic Research Seminar Series. These seminars aim to enhance intellectual exchange among faculty and students by providing a forum to discuss research on business-related topics.

Dr. Huijian Dong joined NJCU this summer as the Associate Dean of the School of Business. Dr. Dong is an associate professor of finance at NJCU. His research interest lies in financial market analysis and higher education administration. On October 1, 2021, Dr. Dong presented his paper “Option Price Predictability, Splines, and Expanded Rationality” in which he and his co-authors suggest using the spline method to forecast option prices directly. The spline forecast model incorporates the illiquidity issue and avoids the vital pitfalls in the current leading option pricing techniques.

Dr. Nava Cohen is an assistant professor of accounting at the School of Business at NJCU. Her research area is empirical archival, centered on how firms’ corporate social responsibility and charitable donations decisions affect their financial reporting. On October 15, 2021, Dr. Cohen presented her working paper “Charitable Alignment and Auditor-Client Contracting: An Exploratory Study” in which she and her co-authors examine the association between auditor-client charitable alignment (i.e., when an auditor and her client make corporate charitable donations to the same nonprofits), and several audit outcomes. Her results show that audit quality may be lower when there is an auditor-client charitable alignment which suggests a need for better monitoring of corporate charitable practices.

Save The Date For Our Upcoming Events

Next Gothic Research Seminar - Friday, February 25 at 2:30 p.m.

The Gothic Research Seminars are held online every month throughout the year and are open to NJCU faculty, staff and students, and others by invitation. 

On February 25th 2022 at 2:30pm, we will held our first seminar, featuring presentation from 
Dr. Serdar Yayla, assistant professor in the Marketing department. Prior to joining NJCU, he worked at Albion College. Dr. Yayla earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University and MBA in Marketing from the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. His research interests are brand management, quality management, market entry, digital marketing and entrepreneurial marketing.

We hope to see you all! Flyer with Zoom invitation will be sent via email. 

Register to present your research in our next Gothic Research Seminars.

Spring 2022 Business Student Research Showcase - Friday, May 13 at 2:00 p.m.

The Business and Economics Research Committee is pleased to invite students to participate in the 10th Business Research Showcase Competition. This competition offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and present their research. This competition is also a great opportunity for students to participate in an extra-curricular activity that will highlight their academic and professional acumen to prospective employers or for future academic endeavors. 

Students participating in this event will compete for a first place prize of $150 and a second place prize of $100. Additionally, all accepted submissions will receive a certificate of participation. A formal call for participation will be distributed via email in Spring 2022. For additional information, students may refer to the Business Student Research Showcase website.

Please send faculty achievements at  to be featured in the next newsletter.