Costello College of Business News

Managers often struggle to motivate their teams, but that could be because they’re looking in the wrong place. Mason School of Business professor Shora Moteabbed believes that how employees relate to one another on a one-to-one basis is key to understanding—and influencing—workplace behavior.

Faculty, staff, and students from three units across Mason have worked together to create a new VR experience so elementary students can take a “field trip” to the Mason apiary and learn from an expert beekeeper.

This month, Paul Vosti will graduate from George Mason University with a master’s degree in finance, part of the program’s first cohort of 14 students.

A double major and member of the Honors College, Juan Escalera came to Mason as an alumnus of the university’s Early Identification Program.

Marketing professor Tarun Kushwaha’s recent research finds that the effectiveness of brands’ growth strategies can be correlated with the state of the economy. Analyzing 17 years of data on U.K. brands, Kushwaha concludes that brands that prioritize assortment and wider distribution are in the best position to weather the ups and downs of the macroeconomic cycle.

Management professor Toyah Miller recently co-edited a special issue of Global Strategy Journal exploring how changes in our world are shifting the opportunity space for start-up founders and funders. Miller is the new research director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and an expert in the rapidly expanding field of social entrepreneurship.

For Mason Korea students, the transition from Songdo, Korea, to Fairfax, Virginia, can be challenging, but the opportunities are immense. Many students pursuing their degree at Mason Korea are looking to a future career in the United States. This makes their time in Fairfax critical. The School of Business accounting program is one of the most popular degrees offered at Mason Korea, and faculty in Fairfax work hard to offer students support for their future career success.

Mason alum Alaleh Jenkins, acting assistant secretary for the United States Navy, shared her keys for success in a fireside chat with School of Business Dean Ajay Vinzé.

George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) recently convened an in-person Stakeholder Roundtable on the subject of Corporate Governance. The half-day event took place at Point of View International Retreat & Research Center at Mason Neck in Lorton, VA on October 21.

George Mason University announced the largest gift to a center within the School of Business from Attain Partners founder and CEO Greg Baroni and his wife, Camille. The first-of-its-kind university center to address business, technology, policy, and regulatory issues in government contracting, the Center for Government Contracting will change its name to the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting in honor of the new donors.

Mehmet Altug, an associate professor of operations management, has been researching retail returns policies for a decade. The issue has recently come to prominence, as the lenient policies of online retailers have led to skyrocketing return rates (now exceeding 20 percent in the U.S.). Altug’s various academic papers delve into the difficult trade-offs retailers face when setting returns policies. While there are no easy answers, Altug’s research identifies factors that can help retailers achieve more strategic flexibility.

In late October 2022, Latifa Sharifi and her three sons reached the safety of American soil after evading Taliban pursuit for more than a year. The acclaimed human rights attorney had been placed at the top of the Taliban’s kill list, following the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in September 2021. For more than a year, she lived in a purgatory marked by narrow escapes by mere seconds and minutes, followed by seemingly endless stretches of anguish and uncertainty. When she finally walked through the arrivals gate and into the loving embrace of family at the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, her back bowed and her emotions flowed. The bright lights of the terminal were a welcome end to a year spent hiding in the shadows and living in the dark. Her sons were her focus, her faith was her foundation, and an international team of relative strangers had been her lifeline.