Business faculty present at management conference

Three faculty from the Department of Business, Chandu Valluri, Dr. Shelly McCallum, and Larry Price, J.D., collaborated over the last six months to research and write a paper on entrepreneurship titled “Swimming with Sharks and Dancing with Dragons: A New Approach to Generating Entrepreneurial Intentions.”

The paper was accepted into the proceedings of the Midwest Academy for Management and selected for presentation at the conference, which was held in Omaha, Neb., this past Oct. 19-22.

Valluri prepared and delivered a 30-minute presentation with a Q&A session afterwards. The paper was well-received and generated some very engaging discussion over its main theme: the use of television programs such as “Shark Tank” as a means of increasing interest in entrepreneurship both in the U.S. and in the developing world. An in-depth discussion on dispositional optimism and entrepreneurial self-efficacy supported the main hypotheses of the paper: that these qualities act as moderating variables in the connection between exposure to entrepreneurial media and entrepreneurial intentions.

Price and Valluri also had the opportunity at the conference to have a one-on-one conversation with James Young, the CEO of Union Pacific Railroad, who was a keynote speaker.