Symposium drew crowds, sparked discussions at Davis College
Nearly 100 guests visited Radford University March 30-31 to attend this year’s Appalachian Research in Business Symposium (ARBS).
The symposium is an annual collaborative effort involving Radford and Appalachian State, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Marshall and Western Carolina universities. This was the first year ARBS has convened on Radford’s campus.
ARBS is both an academic summit and a forum that offers new research, networking and exchanges of contemporary ideas – ranging from data analytics to accounting to finance to risk management and supply chain issues – and this year’s event featured 66 presentations throughout Kyle Hall by scholars from the participating schools.
Radford’s representatives included faculty from the Davis College of Business and Economics, the Department of Appalachian Studies and Radford University Carilion. Seven students also attended the event.
“When I looked at the kind of research being presented, I was blown away at the topicality,” Davis College’s Dean Joy Bhadury said in his opening remarks, citing presentations with subjects that included overcoming math anxiety, gender inequality in health care leadership and improving the diversity of students in technology programs. “I am very thrilled with the presentations here.”
“What pleases my heart the most,” he added, “is that there will be discussions that are of particular relevance to our home, Appalachia. In fact, there is an entire session called Business in Appalachia and … a session on Feeding Appalachia’s Future, about food insecurity.”
The event closed with an interactive session called “Mapping Appalachia’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Post-Covid Perspective,” led by Professor of Management Dale Henderson and Samantha Steidle, director of the university’s Venture Lab Entrepreneurship Faculty.
Radford Assistant Professor of Management Zachary Collier is an ARBS committee member and served as this year’s conference chair.
“From the quality of the research presentations to the food and facilities, I have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the conference participants, many of whom were visiting Radford University for the first time,” Collier said after the event.
“ARBS is an opportunity for faculty at universities similar to Radford to meet and share their research in a collegial atmosphere, learn about the latest developments in the field, and form new research collaborations.”
The full proceedings of ARBS 2023 are available to read online.
Nearly 100 guests visited Radford University March 30-31 to attend this year’s Appalachian Research in Business Symposium (ARBS), an annual collaborative effort involving Radford and Appalachian State, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Marshall and Western Carolina universities. This was the first year ARBS has convened on Radford’s campus, and the event featured 66 presentations throughout Kyle Hall by scholars from the participating schools.