• Cheol Eun, professor of finance and Thomas R. Williams chairholder, delivered the keynote address at the Inaugural International Conference on Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, held December 8-9 in Seoul, Korea. Sponsored by the Korean Securities Association, the conference was attended by scholars from the United States, Canada, Korea, China, India, and other countries. In his address, titled "Global Financial Convergence: Causes and Consequences," Eun discussed how global financial markets have converged toward each other in terms of their risk and return attributes, reducing the gains from international investment. To enhance the efficiency of international investment, he proposed the utilization of stock market factor funds. "This is a new, innovative way of diversifying funds for the purpose of maximizing portfolio efficiency," he says.

• Frank Rothaermel, associate professor of strategic management, was recently appointed to the editorial board of the prestigious Strategic Management Journal.

• Deere & Company awarded a one-year $290,000 grant to Koert van Ittersum, assistant professor of marketing; Len Parsons, professor of marketing sciences; and doctoral student Muge Capar. The grant is funding a project to test the validity of a model developed to predict the acceptance of technologies.

• Alka Citrin, assistant professor of marketing, received a two-year $138,742 grant from the National Science Foundation to study "Change Management and Organizatinal Innovation Perspectives on Business Processes Offshoring."

• Accounting professor Arnold Schneider's new book, Illustrative Financial Statement Extracts (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company), will soon appear in print.

• Luis Martins, associate professor of organizational behavior, recently took over as program chair of the Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division of the Academy of Management. He was also voted Outstanding Professor by December 2006 graduates of the Master of Science in Management of Technology program.

• Vinod Singhal, professor of operations management, was recently named associate editor of the journal Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. In the fall, he delivered keynote addresses at the Supply Chain Risk Management Conference in Colombia, the Supply chain Executive Management Forum in Dubai; the 10th International Convention on Quality Improvement in Pakistan; and the 2006 Supply Chain and Logistics Summit in Austin, Texas.

• Marco Ceccagnoli, assistant professor of strategic management, received a $15,000 grant from the Kauffman Foundation to study "Innovation Strategies of Successful Entrepreneurs."

• Stelios Kavadias, assistant professor of operations management, is co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Product Development, due in June.

• Jason Kuang, assistant professor of accounting, received a $3,000 grant from the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study the effect of disclosure on conflicts of interest in the financial services industry.