Costello College of Business News

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been on the business leadership agenda for more than 50 years, yet executives and corporate boards still demand to see the "business case" for CSR. Clearly, CSR’s familiarity as a concept has not translated into coherent ideas of where it fits into the cost-benefit calculations that motivate business strategy. A forthcoming article in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis by Lei Gao, associate professor of finance at George Mason University School of Business, Jie (Jack) He (of University of Georgia) and Juan (Julie) Wu (of University of Nebraska – Lincoln) goes beyond the business case to form cause-and-effect connections involving companies’ CSR efforts.

If you’re looking to fast track your skills and career potential, an MBA from George Mason University may be just what you need. Mason is conveniently located in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and our MBA program is designed to give working professionals intensive and personal learning experiences that can be applied on the job the next day.  

Since 2019, George Mason University’s Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) has led the university’s contribution to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) North America chapter.

Finance student Tao Wei is the vice president of the Risk Committee for the Montano Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF). In this piece, he shares first-hand experiences of working with SMIF, and what students can learn from this hands-on opportunity.

Since the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship’s (CREE) inception a dozen years ago, its advisory board, comprised of the region’s senior leaders from across the real estate industry, has been a staunch supporter of developing the next generation. As both the center and the master’s in real estate development program (MRED) mature, former students who have advanced in the careers and become industry leaders themselves, are coming back to support the program that helped them along their way.

The financial support that comes from receiving the Emerging Business Leader Award (EBLA) is significant, but for Nema Djavadi, BS Finance ’17, the recognition itself was most beneficial. The award opened up doors to prestigious employers and peers, allowing him to build a remarkable network, all while still an undergraduate student.

George Mason University's School of Business now offers students a STEM-designated program through the newly launched Master of Science in Business Analytics. A STEM-designated program is an academic program that is classified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as having a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math topics. For international students on an F-1 visa, graduating from a STEM-designated program allows them to extend their time in Optional Practical Training from 12 to 36 months in the U.S.

As Jenelle Conaway, assistant professor of accounting at George Mason University School of Business, says, “Being able to compare companies more easily makes for more efficient investment choices. And that scales from the individual level up to banks choosing who they lend to, and companies choosing who they want to merge with and acquire.” Her recent research finds that comparability trends have grown complicated.

While on campus, it was imperative to Juancarlos Figueroa, BS Finance '20 that he lived his Mason experience to the fullest. And he did just that, taking leadership positions in the Hispanic Student Association (HSA), Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), and the Student Managed Investment Fund (now the Montano Student Investment Fund). His Mason experience has continued since graduating, and as an alum he has served as vice president of the investment committee for the Montano Student Investment Fund and continues to serve on the Latino Alumni Chapter Executive Board. 

Jingyuan Yang, an assistant professor of information systems and operations management at Mason's School of Business, is at the forefront of AI research that aims to crack the codes of the physical world. Her results so far point toward innovative solutions for some of the biggest societal, governmental, and business challenges we face. 

Exceptions may prove the rule, but they must first be explained. That is why finance researchers are drawn to the distress anomaly-- a well-documented phenomenon that challenges the risk-return paradigm in equity markets. Generally, higher-risk investments are expected to yield higher returns than safer, more stable securities. In recent years, however, studies have shown that high-credit-risk securities for companies in distress – i.e. when their already-low credit rating is being downgraded -- realize abnormally low returns compared to non-distressed securities of the same or lower risk.  Academics have proposed a range of rationales for this puzzle. Alexander Philipov, finance area chair and associate professor at George Mason University, says they mainly fall into two categories. 

After transferring to George Mason University and graduating from the Master’s in Management accelerated one-year program in 2020, Cooper Mrowka decided to take advantage of his collegiate baseball eligibility to further his education. “I started looking to sports jobs, maybe combining my sport management and business management degrees and people kept saying that the new thing is data analytics–knowing how numbers work, how to analyze them, and how to use them to your advantage,” he says. Following completion of the business analytics certificate, Mrowka found that the skills he developed were applicable to a variety of fields, giving him many careers to choose from.