Guest Blogger: This Insights article was contributed by Dr. William Sackley, Director of BB&T Center for Global Capitalism and Cameron School of Business Professor of Finance (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on July 15, 2020).

The stock market, as gauged by the S&P 500 index, just completed its strongest calendar quarter of appreciation during the 21st century, albeit following a dismal first quarter. At this writing, the index is down just over 4% year-to-date, or just over 8% from its February high. That is fairly amazing in the presence of a global pandemic that appears to be escalating rather than abating in the U.S., and which has resulted in a larger disruption of economic activity than during any downturn subsequent to the Great Depression. Should investors be complacent about their equity exposure at this point, or “heading for the exits?”

Guest Blogger: Contributed by Jessica Mesmer-Magnus, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR, an industrial, work, and organizational psychologist and a professor of management in the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on June 30, 2020).

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically affected workplaces worldwide. Not only are businesses trying to serve their customers and clients, but they are adapting “on-the-fly” to make payroll and to support employees who are working from home. Many employees do not have the experience or the tools needed to work virtually, and are often navigating this new work-norm while simultaneously being thrust into a world of homeschooling and dependent care. The need for alternate work strategies may be extended for an unknown period of time, and employers can’t take a “wait-and-see” approach. Although there is little research specific to managing employees during a pandemic, there are some takeaways that can be applied to help organizations navigate this situation.

Guest Blogger: Contributed by Dr. Edward Graham, Professor of Finance and Real Estate at the Cameron School of Business, UNCW (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on June 15, 2020).

Economic or financial risk is generally of two types: systematic and non-systematic. Non-systematic risk is risk that impacts a specific asset or group of assets – like a UAW strike impacting Ford and GM, or Mad Cow Disease impacting Wendy’s or McDonalds. Systematic risk concerns itself with factors that impact the entire economy, like the housing and financial crisis of eleven or twelve years ago motivating the Great Recession. The Covid “pandemic,” in turn, now manifests itself as a clear example of systematic risk, impacting the whole economy. But the pandemic has impacted some sectors of the economy far more than others.

Guest Blogger: Contributed by Richard J. Walsh, Director  UNCW’s Swain Center for Executive Education & Economic Development (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on June 1, 2020).

These last several months have been a time of change and innovation both for UNCW’s Cameron School of Business, as well as for local businesses, health providers and community leaders. Like us, many leaders are responding to these new realities, re-focusing their efforts, and adapting to our new work environments.

Guest Blogger: Contributed by Heather McWhorter, Regional Director of the Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC) (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on May 1, 2020).
 
The 890,000+ small businesses in North Carolina employ 1.6 million people and account for 60% of the private sector workforce and 45% of the Gross State Product. Like other employers, small businesses are concerned about the immediate and long-term business impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social distancing requirements.

Guest Blogger: Contributed by Dr. Thomas D. Simpson, Executive in Residence at the UNCW Cameron School of Business. Dr. Simpson joined the Department of Economics & Finance after his retirement from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on April 15, 2020).

The Corona Virus pandemic has been a shock to the global economy, precipitating a global recession. For the United States, the news of a 3 million surge in workers filing for unemployment insurance in just one week has sent a clear message that we are not immune to the downturn.

Guest Blogger: Robert Burrus, Dean, Cameron School of Business (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on March 31, 2020)

Greetings from the Cameron School of Business. The hallways might be quiet, but there is a TON of learning going on as we have quickly converted our classes to online classes in the wake of coronavirus. Perhaps we’ll write about how this will change higher education in another blog post. Today, however, we seek to gain some insights about healthcare and economic lessons learned over a century ago during the Spanish flu pandemic. These takeaways include the value of social distancing combined with economic policy to more effectively mitigate the health and economic tragedies.

Guest Blogger: Richard J. Walsh, Director UNCW’s Swain Center for Executive Education & Economic Development (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on January 27, 2020)

We know from experience, that the best leaders never stop learning. Often, they seek out new opportunities to grow and help steer their organization toward growth and success.

Guest Blogger: Dr. Thomas Simpson, Executive in Residence of Economics, Cameron School of Business (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on November 20, 2019)

On October 21, 2019, Professor John B. Taylor, Mary and Robert Raymond Professor at Stanford University and George P. Schultz Fellow at the Hoover Institution, presented the BB&T Global Capitalism and Ethics lecture in the Burney Center. Professor Taylor is one of the leading macroeconomists in the world today, and noted best around the globe for his development of the “Taylor rule” for use in conducting monetary policy. He has made seminal contributions to the field of macroeconomics and has a distinguished record of public service, including serving as Under Secretary of the Treasury.

Guest Blogger: Dr. Shaoling Katee Zhang, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Cameron School of Business (this post originally appeared on WilmingtonBiz.com on November 6, 2019)

In recent decades, we have seen numerous modern two-sided platforms emerging across a wide range of industries, such as transportation (Uber), hospitality (Airbnb), food delivery (GrubHub), recruiting (Monster), education (Coursera), financing (Kickstarter), healthcare (Cohealo), travel (TripAdvisor), professional service (Upwork), retailing (Alibaba), and local service (Angie’s List).