Give Light

The alumni, parents and friends of the Hankamer School of Business continue to support the Give Light campaign’s priorities in significant ways. This includes providing valuable resources to programs, research and scholarship endowments in an effort to build a stronger foundation for Baylor Business.

“We are grateful for the Business alumni who have given so generously to support our students, provide resources for our faculty and ensure that the good work started within the Business School continues to multiply and increase in impact,” Sandeep Mazumder, the William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean of the Hankamer School of Business (HSB), said. “We have a bright future here, and we are grateful for the alumni, parents and friends committed to Christian higher education and the role we can play in forming future Christian business leaders.”

In June, HSB celebrated as its donors reached $125.8 million in total gifts to the Business School, eclipsing its original campaign goal of $125 million. The second-largest academic unit at Baylor, HSB saw alumni make up an impressive 63 percent of donors to the Business School’s campaign efforts.

HSB received gifts and pledges totaling more than $85 million toward its endowment, supporting everything from new faculty chairs and professorships to scholarships and program funds. The endowment giving represents permanent resourcing that will provide annual support for the Business School. Another $31 million in current gifts and pledges will provide immediate impact within the Business School, providing Dean Mazumder with resources and flexibility as he begins his second year at the helm. A further $9.5 million in capital support rounds out the Business School’s fundraising to date.

The Business School’s alumni, parents and friends who have given to the Give Light campaign are supporting the aspirations of Illuminate, Baylor’s strategic plan, as well as Dean Mazumder’s priorities for HSB to grow funding support for purposeful research, experiential and innovative learning and Christ-centered diversity.

Are you an alum of the Hankamer School of Business and live outside of the U.S.? We would love to connect and learn more about what you are doing.

Update your contact information in the Baylor Alumni Network Directory at baylor.edu/alumni/directory

Connect directly with the Hankamer School of Business at bbr.baylor.edu/submit-alumni-news

Trey Hagins
Managing Director of Development
254-710-1982
Trey_Hagins@baylor.edu

Jamie Youens
Director of Development
254-710-8415
Jamie_Youens@baylor.edu

Adam Contreras
Assistant Director of Development
254-710-7036
Adam_Contreras@baylor.edu

Alumni News

1970s

Les Leskoven, BBA ’78, was elected board chair for Methodist Children’s Home, effective June 2022. Leskoven has served as a member of the MCH Board of Directors since 2018.

1980s

Clinton Potts, BBA ’86, completed his purchase of Legacy Oak Financial in Georgetown, Texas. Potts serves as the wealth manager with Upstream Investments.

1990s

Christopher Alan Morrow, BBA ’91, received a 2022 Summit Club Award for finishing in the top five percent of sales representatives at Astellas Pharma U.S. He also received this honor in 2011, when he was the top overall sales professional.

Robert Woodard, BBA, MBA ’91, was recently named president and CEO of JRBT, a leading accounting firm in Waco, Texas. Woodard also serves as an adjunct professor of graduate-level tax courses at the Hankamer School of Business.

James R. Langabeer, MBA ’92, was named a finalist for the Success Magazine’s “Most Influential Leader of 2022.” He also just released his latest book on personal finance, The Quest Wealth: Six Steps for Making Mindful Money Choices.

Kristen Koepf Ray, BBA, MBA ’97, accepted a position as assistant treasurer/controller at Texas Baptists.

Clint Edens, BBA ’99, was named president and CEO of Surface Armor, a nationwide converter and master distributor of protection films and tapes that cover a wide range of products.

2000s

James Beard, BBA ’08, was named a shareholder with JRBT. Beard joined JRBT in 2011 after earning his BBA in Finance and Accounting from Baylor. He is also a recent graduate of the 2021–2022 Greater Waco Chamber Leadership Waco program.

2010s

Margarita Regina Licon, BBA ’12, received Expeditors’ Sales President’s Club Award as the company’s top sales performer.

Amine Qourzal, MBA ’13, was elected Mayor of the City of Woodway, Texas, in May 2022.

Matt Brugner, BBA ’15, launched Stewardship Partners, a traditional business search fund, in August 2022. Inspired to pursue “entrepreneurship through acquisition,” Brugner hopes to be a succession resource for a business owner looking to pass on their company to a faith-driven leader.

Ryan Rogers, BBA ’15, started a new job as tax manager for Baylor University after serving seven years in public accounting.

David Winfrey, BBA ’16, was promoted legislative director to Rep. Kay Granger, chair of the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kylen Kornek, BBA ’18, co-founded In Reverie, a full-service wedding planning and design company, which serves couples in the Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding Texas areas.

Priscilla James, MBA ’18, was awarded Student Organization Advisor of the Year in 2022 by Baylor University. She serves as an advisor for the Christian Business Leaders Student Organization.

Grace Elizabeth Edwards, BBA ’19, was named the global operations and strategy coordinator at ADF International.

—

Update your contact information in the Baylor Alumni Network Directory

Share your news for an upcoming issue of the magazine at bbr.baylor.edu/submit-alumni-news

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023

In the News

SPACs Were All the Rage. Now, Not So Much

Professor of Finance Mike Stegemoller was quoted in The New York Times about SPACs and Wall Street’s waning appetite for them due to the threat of regulation.

Edgy Ad Campaign for Christian TV Series Gets Mixed Reviews

Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing Tyrha Lindsey-Warren was quoted in a Boston Globe article about a disruptive advertising campaign for a popular Christian TV series.

How to Successfully Shift From “Work Mode” to “Family Mode”

Assistant Professor of Management Kaylee Hackney, an employee well-being expert, discussed how to shift from work mode to family mode when working from home, featured in Fatherly.

4 Key Social Security Claiming Strategies for Widows

Professor Emeritus William Reichenstein discussed four social security claiming strategies to maximize a widow’s surviving lifetime benefits, featured in Financial Advisor.

How Roth Conversations Can Reduce Sting of Social Security, Medicare Hikes

Professor Emeritus William Reichenstein shared advice in a Financial Advisor article about how married couples can complete Roth conversions to reduce their joint lifetime taxes and Medicare premiums.

New Study from Feeding America Shows Extensive Disparities in Food Insecurity at the County Level

Food policy expert and Professor of Economics Craig Gundersen was the lead researcher of Map the Meal Gap in PRNewswire, the only study that provides local-level estimates of food insecurity and food costs across the United States. 

Time for Digital Detox

Research by Marketing professors Meredith David and James Roberts, who found that screen time is harmful to relationships, is cited in an Axios article about digital detoxification.

Hungertech Challenge Seeks Solutions to Food Access

In an Inside Indiana Business article, food policy expert and Economics Professor Craig Gundersen identified ways to eliminate delivery costs for SNAP recipients and ensure the same shopping experience for SNAP and non-SNAP recipients.

Pew Charitable Trusts: More States are Forgoing Extra Federal Food Aid

Craig Gundersen, a food policy expert and professor of Economics, was quoted in a Stateline article about pandemic-related expansion of SNAP.

Dr. Matt Quade – Ethical Leadership, Moral Courage and Feedback Culture

Matt Quade, director of Christian Leadership and Ethics, discussed ethical leadership and moral courage in Convos with Clay.

How is Using Your Cellphone at a Restaurant Connected with Relationship Satisfaction?

Research by Marketing professors Meredith David and James Roberts about the harmful effects of smartphone usage is cited in a Deseret News article about restaurants becoming increasingly technology-based.

Cheapest Car Insurance in Texas

Associate Professor of Marketing Meredith David was a featured expert in a WalletHub article about car insurance in Texas.

Audio: Future of Work Wednesdays: A Conversation about Hybrid Work with Dr. Sara Perry of Baylor University

Associate Professor of Management Sara Perry was interviewed about her research into the future of hybrid work, featured in Robin.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023

Baylor Business Buzz

Baylor’s 58:10 Project Provides Waco Community 101,000 Meals

The second annual 58:10 Project gathered students, faculty, staff and Waco community members to pack meals to fight food insecurity in the Waco area.

Baylor Hosts Risk Theory Society Seminar

The Hankamer School of Business hosted the 2022 Risk Theory Society Seminar at the Foster Campus for Business and Innovation, the first time Baylor has facilitated the event.

Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business Climbs in The U.S. News Rankings

The Hankamer School of Business climbed 10 spots in the latest Best Colleges rankings for 2023, released by U.S. News & World Report. Baylor’s highest-ranked program was undergraduate entrepreneurship, which moved up to No. 8 nationally in the rankings.

Baylor University’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation Recognized For Research Productivity

The Department of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation was recognized as No. 4 in the world by the TCU Global University Entrepreneurship Research Productivity Rankings from the Neely School of Business at TCU.

“Night at the Museum” Helps Students Develop Team-Building, Relationships

Management students participated in a scavenger hunt at the Mayborn Museum designed to enhance problem-solving skills and team-building skills.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023

On Closer Inspection

Study takes a hard look at the efficacy of measures meant to ensure public company audit quality.

by Justin Walker

You might remember a social media trend from a few years ago where parents filmed their child’s response to temptation. The parent instructed the child not to eat the food placed in front of them, while the child was left to decide to listen or not with the parent waiting in anticipation in the next room.

The cute and often funny videos highlighted examples of a regulatory relationship. Although no serious consequences came from disobeying, that is not the case in real-world settings, especially in public company auditing.

Michael Mowchan, an assistant professor of Accounting and Business Law at the Hankamer School of Business, investigated the regulatory relationships between the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and public company auditing in the paper, “Does PCAOB Regulatory Enforcement Deter Low-Quality Audits?” published in The Accounting Review.

“The PCAOB has argued that they deter low-quality audits among non-sanctioned groups,” Mowchan said. “But in 2019, a Project on Government Oversight report said the PCAOB was a ‘toothless body of law.’”

This sparked Mowchan, along with Phillip T. Lamoreaux of Arizona State University and Wei Zhang of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to study whether PCAOB governance prevented low-quality audits—misstatements identified through subsequent financial statement restatements.

“We looked at enforcement broadly,” Mowchan said. “Are firms responding to sanctions within their own firm or are they responding to competitors within their local market?”

Mowchan and the research team hand-collected all PCAOB enforcement actions from the organization’s website from 2005 through 2015, identifying the involved audit firm, the penalties imposed and the geographic location of each audit office. They examined whether audit quality improved among non-sanctioned auditors following the public revelation of these actions.

The team’s findings fell somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Mowchan said. They did not observe a general deterrence across the board following all enforcement actions, but the size and location of the firm did make an impact. The team split non-sanctioned audit firms into groups based on whether they were the same size as the sanctioned firm and whether they were in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)—a large city and its suburbs.  

Mowchan and the team found that small firms are less likely to produce low-quality audits following repercussions to a similarly sized firm within their MSA. Large firms, however, do not respond based on geography, but due to sanctions of another office within their own firm.

“These findings, to some extent, silence some of the critics of the PCAOB,” Mowchan said. “It is constrained to a geographic region, and occasionally within a firm, but at least they are doing something to deter low-quality audits on a broader perspective.”

Mowchan also noted the interesting result that press coverage impacted a non-sanctioned firm’s response.

“We found when those PCAOB enforcements received more coverage in the media, there was a stronger reaction from those non-sanctioned auditors as well,” he said.

Since the study entered the review process, Mowchan has seen a lot of changes from the PCAOB. Fines have increased in recent years, and he suspects it is the board’s way of addressing the previous criticism.

“What we are seeing now is the PCAOB realizing they may not have the clout they were claiming to have, but now they are going to enforce even more,” he said. “They will create more enforcement actions than before, and that will lead to larger magnitude penalties.”

Building from this research, Mowchan is interested in examining the individual partner’s response to sanctions, investigating the social networks that exist from office to office and firm to firm.

“We are potentially going to look at how the social networks for those individuals that are sanctioned can impact perceptions of another partner’s audit quality,” he said.

There are significant implications for the general public from low-quality audits, Mowchan said. It is essential for accountants to exercise great care in their work, he said, because when they don’t and a big scandal occurs, the financial markets can be significantly impacted.

“From a societal standpoint, auditors are doing work to help the financial markets run smoothly,” he said. “Hopefully, that work prevents any large financial scandals in the future.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023

Love a Brand? It Can Be a Tense Relationship

Assistant Professor of Marketing Claudio Alvarez identifies “relational tensions” between consumers and the brands they hold dear.

by Eric Butterman

We think about the relationships with the people in our lives, but what about the brands? The pull the consumer feels to the products they purchase keeps them coming back—solve that problem and it’s potentially a billion-dollar solution.

Claudio Alvarez, assistant professor of Marketing at the Hankamer School of Business, explored this phenomenon in the study, “Doing Relationship Work: A Theory of Change in Consumer-Brand Relationships.” The research, co-authored by Danielle J. Brick at University of New Hampshire and Susan Fournier at Boston University, entailed interviewing consumers to reveal relational tensions with brands and their responses to them. The team found results that unlock part of the mystery that has long haunted the consumer marketplace.

Comparing brand relationships to friends, Alvarez noted that even though you cherish your friend, that doesn’t mean you want to be with them every second.

“There is this tension between connection and autonomy,” Alvarez said. “We found that consumers want a relationship with their brands and grocery services. But at the same time, they want at least the sense that there are competitors they could choose from.”

This was the first of the four relational tensions identified in the paper that consumers are grappling with: Connection-Separation. The other three relational tensions identified were Affect-Instrumentality, Ideal-Real and New-Known.

There was also a fine line between what was and was not a valuable personal relationship. At Cheers, everybody knows your name, but are you always glad you came? Alvarez mentioned a startup in the paper where a consumer went to the location and the owner repeatedly took the time to know them and engage them. That gives a feeling of connectedness.

“But, on the other side, sometimes you may need to buy your product and go, and this owner didn’t necessarily always recognize that the consumer didn’t have time for a back and forth,” Alvarez said. “The personal service kind of reduced the benefit.”

This hit on Affect-Instrumentality. This consumer wants an emotional connection but sometimes doesn’t have time.

The third relational tension, Ideal-Real, involves measuring your ideals and expectations for a product against the reality you experience in using it, often with quite a gulf. Finally, the fourth, New-Known, consists of the feeling of familiarity (seeing the Golden Arches ahead) versus the excitement of something new.

How consumers navigated these issues was by doing relationship work, Alvarez said.

A compelling example of this in the paper was a consumer buying from an online grocery service. Over four interviews, the team saw the peaks and valleys of the consumer-brand relationship. The relationship work was done—the relationship is “saved” but modified.

Alvarez and the co-researchers observed that brands could create tentative solutions to paradoxical consumer relationships and encourage the adoption of enabling or disabling actions. They see these as two areas for future exploration.

“Because we were focusing on only one brand, we were not able to look at the flip side: ‘What is the relationship work that brands do?’” Alvarez said. “There were still moments where it felt like the brand was trying to resolve the tension for the consumer, and it was kind of counterproductive.”

Ideally, the relationships find balance, Alvarez said. But occasionally, consumers might have to call it quits.

“Sometimes, that is the best outcome for all,” he said. “It is interesting how similar that is to actual human relationships. It does take work to make relationships last.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023