University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Dr. Nancy Landrum, associate professor of management in the UALR College of Business, has published a paper showing that Murphy Oil’s $50 million donation to establish the El Dorado Promise college scholarship program for local youth, was more than “checkbook philanthropy.”

“It was strategic philanthropy,” Landrum says. “Strategic philanthropy is that in which corporations use their charitable initiatives to improve the competitive context for the business, or the quality of the company’s immediate business environment.”

A major component necessary to conduct business is human capital. Since the announcement of the Murphy Corp.’s commitment, company officials said the Promise program will help make it easier to recruit people and rebuild the local talent pool. One year after announcing the Promise program, the city saw an 18 percent increase in college-bound seniors.

After two years, the community saw a 4 percent increase in school enrollment, the local community college experienced a 16 percent increase in enrollment, and families from more than 28 states and 10 foreign countries had moved to El Dorado.

“When viewed from the framework of strategic philanthropy, it becomes apparent how Murphy Oil’s investment in its business environment was strategic in nature by investing in factor conditions necessary for ongoing business (or the creation and development of human capital) and has the potential to improve long-term business prospects for the company,” Landrum said.

In addition to this research publication, Landrum had two other journal publications in 2008 and is anticipating the release of her book in August 2009, Sustainable Business: An Executive’s Primer.

A team of UALR graduate business students is one of five teams selected to compete in the worldwide Microsoft Imagine Cup H.E. Suzanne Mubarak Special Award competition in Cairo, Egypt, next month.

The Special Child team was among 113 entries in the competition to get the chance to represent the U.S. at the worldwide finals. Special Team won second runner-up in the national Microsoft Corp. Imagine Cup Software Design Initiative competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass.,in April. UALR’s finish was a stunning accomplishment, considering it was the first year the University competed in the worldwide contest.

UALR won two spots in the national competition. Earlier this spring, UALR fielded eight teams in the regional competition and is the only university in the four-state region - Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana - to have a team in the nationals.

In fielding eight teams this year, UALR broke the previous record of teams in the semi-finals. Three years ago, Virginia Commonwealth set the previous record of five teams.

The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s largest competition, and they invest millions in it each year. Students had to design software around the theme “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.” Now in its seventh year, the Microsoft U.S. Imagine Cup attracts more than 200,000 students from more than 100 countries globally to enter the competition.

Special Child, UALR’s team of graduate students, proposes to establish a central point of information on adoptable children through Arkansas state agencies and families who have registered to be adoptive parents.

Special Child team members - all Master of Science in management information systems majors - are Joshua Thacker of Little Rock, Sandy Callahan of Benton and currently residing in Conway, Shreyasi Dutta, a native of India who lived in Dallas before coming to Little Rock, and Tomica Seals of Marvell.

The teams have been coached by Janet Bailey, Ph.D., associate professor of MIS, and James Parrish, assistant professor of management.

The second UALR team in the finals at MIT was PRODIGY - Positioning Research on Dynamic Information Globally Yielded. The team of undergraduates proposes using bioinformatics to uncover and eradicate causes of childhood cancer. It harnesses the power of technology to provide a mechanism through which parents, doctors and medical researchers can enter data into a worldwide database.

Management Information Systems majors on the team are Angela Howell of Mabelvale, Bernard Myers of North Little Rock, Aaron Yates of Bryant, and Emil White of Sherwood, who is also double majoring in accounting.

For their final projects in the Spring 2009 semester of Management 4385, Sustainable Business, groups of students conducted research into sustainable business practices, forming a blueprint for organizations that want to improve the world starting in their own backyards.

Students focused on a number of improvement areas, finding ways for organizations to improve energy efficiency, join groups for like-minded businesses, and save money while utilizing sustainable products. Projects included:

* Energy Efficiency Funding Opportunities – Many businesses are eager to implement energy saving measures but need financial assistance in funding the initiatives. Students identified 29 funding sources that included loans, grants, tax credits, tax deductions, and free energy assessments.

* Sustainable Business Networks – Students studied 22 nonprofit organizations around the country and found that they are commonly named sustainable business networks and sustainable business alliances. The organizations are membership-based and provide a variety of services, such as speakers bureaus, social events, professional mentoring and support for local sustainable and green businesses, green business certification programs, “Local First” shopping campaigns, and presentations, clinics, and workshops on sustainable business practices. The students’ research serves as the foundation for the creation of the Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas (www.sbnca.org), a nonprofit membership-based organization expected to be launched this summer to support the growing sustainable business community of central Arkansas.

* UALR College of Business Paper Project – Students identified ways the University could become more “green” and environmentally-friendly in printing practices and paper purchases while also saving money. The research study examined several options to reduce the environmental impact of the College of Business’ printing practices.

After considering several options and combinations of options, the students ultimately recommended that the college switch to 30 percent recycled paper, change default printer margins on all college computers, install printer management software on all college computers, change default settings on all printers and copiers to duplex (double-sided copies), and install EcoFont on all computers and set it as the default font.

The combined impact of these recommendations implemented in unison would reduce the college’s paper and ink purchases and result in a 39 percent cost savings over current methods; require the purchase of 151 cases of paper (instead of the current 251 cases) and 26 laser ink cartridges and toner (instead of the current 30 cartridges). The environmental benefits of implementing these recommendations would be 87.3 trees saved, 11.3 tons of wood saved, 16,659 pounds of CO2 emissions prevented, 57,753.6 gallons of water saved, 33,449.9 kilowatts of electricity saved, and 6,985.7 pounds of solid waste prevented.

For more information on the Sustainable Business course, contact Dr. Nancy Landrum.