School of Business and Economics

When it comes to creating efficient energy solutions, scientists and engineers are often the most visible players. Behind the scenes economists play a powerful role in public policy and scalability; they are the bridge between consumers and green technologies.

Dr. Lafrancois researches the electricity sector in the United States, focusing on renewable energy sources. She studies electricity generation and how public policy can influence the use of cleaner fuels. At the consumer level, she gauges consumer response to renewable fuel prices and investigates the changes in property values after the installation of power sources like wind turbines and solar panels.

Diversity is a hot-button issue in many industries—in the information technology sector, both women and minorities are underrepresented in the professional workforce. Dr. Huang investigates ways to correct the balance by determining how to promote and foster diversity.

On the global scale, Dr. Huang focuses on both big-picture and detail-oriented aspects of business. She researches global IT sectors, examining the connections between the development of IT sectors and the sustainability of an information economy. Concurrently, she is exploring how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of work collaborations among global virtual teams.

Man’s interaction with innovation is one of the great mysteries of mankind. People often focus on individuals as the creators of innovations—but in reality, it’s a very social process.

For a recent research project, Dr. Laplume studied an organization that operated in a completely foreign industry, looking to identify the underlying factors that enabled them to be innovative and successful. He spent months on site, attending high-level meetings, interviewing employees and analyzing company data. The project helped Laplume and his co-investigators develop a new theory about how firms balance exploration and exploitation without falling into failure traps.

Gender discrimination isn’t a thing of the past. In fact, courts are now dealing with second-generation sex discrimination where incorrect practices are still being examined. Dr. Goltz co-authored a publication focused on second-generation sexual discrimination cases and how they are currently brought to court. 

After interviewing 14 women about their experiences with second-generation sexual discrimination cases, Goltz and the other co-authors recommend reform of the litigation process. The researchers provide the foundation for adopting a better litigation process for courts, employers, and administrative agencies and the need to focus less on the rule-based approach to court proceedings and more on qualitative evidence.

Dr. Min focuses on the relationship memory in business-to-business marketing channel relationships (e.g., supplier-manufacturer relationship, manufacturer-reseller relationship, and service agency- buyer relationship). In these efforts, his research projects continue to empirically test the effectiveness of relationship memory in business market management. Most recently, Min's research includes the supplier selection decision, opportunism, industrial purchasing relationship, new product performance and innovation, the negotiation strategies, the salesforce control system, and the joint action in technology-intensive market.

Working with the Advanced Powertrain Research Center (APRC) and the Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI) at Michigan Tech, Dr. Johnson and a team of interdisciplinary researchers developed simulation and optimization models to identify the number of biofineries or biomass fired power plants in the upper portion of the lower peninsula of the State of Michigan. The optimization model developed for the Forestry Biofuels Statewide Collaboration Center for the Department of Energy and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is plug and play allowing for sensitivity analysis.  

Prior to arriving in Houghton in 1980, Merz was a Visiting Instructor at Miami (Ohio) University. In 1990-91, he was a Visiting Fellow at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. In 1994, he was elected to his first of three 4-year terms on the Houghton City Council serving as Mayor from 1996-2006. 

Merz was a Visiting Research Fellow at Curtin University of Technology in Perth July-November 2006 and July-August of 2007. He currently holds an Adjunct Professorship in The School of Economics and Finance at Curtin University.

What does it mean to be titled “systems analyst”, when you were hired as a “programmer”? And, if you do not make the transition to “systems analyst”, what will you inadvertently do to your career? These questions motivate Dr. Buche’s research—to investigate the radical impact of changes in technology and information systems on the professionals intimately involved in developing, implementing, and supporting those systems.

Dr. Buche and other MIS researchers are also working to provide recommendations to improve the gender balance in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Karol Pelc began teaching at Michigan Tech over 20 years ago. During his time at Tech, he co-founded and directed the Center for Technological Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship (CenTILE) and he initiated the founding of the Entrepreneurs Club at Michigan Tech.

As a professor emeritus, Dr. Pelc continues to advance technological innovation across the globe. Dr. Pelc is currently active in editorial work as a guest editor for International Journal of Knowledge Management and he has continued teaching graduate courses at Michigan Tech during the summer months. In spring 2010, Dr. Pelc served as a visiting scholar at Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Japan, where he conducted research on manufacturing management practices and lectured on "Japanese Innovation Management".

The entrepreneurship process is markedly different from country to country. In the United States, which is a highly individualistic society, it is easy to start a business but entrepreneurs must bear the risk alone. In collectivist societies like Japan or India, the entry into entrepreneurship is more difficult but the business is easier to sustain because the risk is shared.

With a multi-level study, Dr. Pathak is researching the way cultural or social aspects—such as an individualistic or collectivist societal norms—impact the entrepreneurial behaviors of individuals. The study involves more than 70 countries and over one million data points.

In collaboration with the Sustainable Futures Institute at Michigan Tech, Dr. Graman serves on a team of researchers dedicated to establishing a supply chain solution for a new ethanol plant being built in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In order to boost Michigan's economy, the new company, Frontier Renewable Resources, has arranged for representatives from Michigan Tech and Michigan State to provide consultation on critical issues.

The biggest challenge is the delivery of biomass (logs and wood chips) to the new plant for ethanol production. Transportation costs exceed the value of the logs by more than half, thus creating the need for a sustainable supply-chain system. Dr. Graman and the other researchers will determine how to develop, define, and demonstrate how the supply chain will function to yield an economical product.

The Great Lakes and their broader ecosystems help shape the industries, recreation, and culture of the people who live near them. The activities of those residents, in turn, affect the lakes and their ability to provide economic services. Associate Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Dr. William S. Breffle, is conducting research that examines the long-term environmental and economic impact of human activity on the Great Lakes environment. Dr. Breffle said he and his team of researchers hope that, ultimately, the research will aid in the development of policy management tools that sustain and protect the environmental and human-use services provided by these critical resources.

Gary Campbell began teaching in the School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech in 1982. He helped establish the MS in Mineral Economics (currently named Applied Natural Resource Economics) that admitted its first students in 1983. 

He is currently acting as the coordinator of the MS program and the associated Peace Corps Master’s International program. Gary Campbell is also involved with the Enterprise and Pavlis programs.

Dr. Soonkwan Hong’s research focuses on sociocultural and ideological aspects of consumption, which should better facilitate our understanding of a variety of consumption praxes, consumers’ lived experiences, and stylization of their lives. More specifically, such research illuminates consumers’ non-dialectical identity projects and their transformation into surrogate marketers, whom Dr. Hong and other scholars in the field refer to cyborgian consumers.

A multitude of reality-engineering/truth-making is witnessed in the current market system. Thus, Dr. Hong will continue to theorize about the new perspective of the consumer-market dynamics, as polyvalent power relations, to which consumers as “critical” constituents of the system constantly make sociocultural contributions.

Economists play an important role in moving a green technology from efficiency to long-term sustainability. In the end, even the most efficient technologies must be competitive in the market. Dr. Muralidharan explains that because consumers are more likely to respond to financial arguments than scientific facts, economists have an important role in environmental issues.

Dr. Muralidharan researches sustainable water use. She is currently adapting the methods she designed for a California water sustainability project and transferring them to work in Michigan, which has different environmental and social factors. Concurrently, she is seeking to determine whether or not climate change is a factor in achieving sustainable water use.