Turner Business

On April 28, 2022, Columbus State University’s D. Abbott Turner College of Business welcomed regional leaders in business, government and education to the Cunningham Center for the university’s annual Financial Forecast Breakfast.   Dr. Deborah Kidder, Dean of the Turner College of Business, presented findings from the college’s Butler Center for Business and Economic Research on the local economy, including consumer buying trends and a business attitudes survey.   “The results of the survey for consumers and local business owners unfortunately were a bit pessimistic and there were several indicators that people are worried,” Kidder shared, “but one of the positive signs is the consistency in planned capital expenditures by local businesses, which suggests some confidence in the economy.”   Speaking on the future of banking, Synovus President and CEO Kevin Blair shared his perspective on how the bank relationships of the future will evolve from the branch model to serving...

Thirty-two undergraduate and graduate students were inducted into the Turner College’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma during the 2021-2022 academic year.  According to Danielle Navarrete , the Turner College’s Beta Gamma Sigma Advisor, 24 undergraduate students and eight graduate students comprise the newest inductee class at CSU. Undergraduate Student Inductees Graduate Student Inductees Tamara Allen Jordyn Denard Matthew Kennedy James Chancellor Jamia Altidor Tasya Diaz Amanda King Arunabha Das Hannah Anderson McKenzie Doran Grace Kiser Nathan Hannan Joseph Borchardt Kayla Gillard Manav Kotharia Camellia McCoy Isaac Bouton Anthony Hale Taylor Parker Philip McPherson Cameron Brundidge Jacob Harris Hannah Patchin Kas...

Are Some Bluetooth Devices Actually Toothless? TSYS School professors Yesem Peker and Alfredo Perez teamed with their former student Gabriel Bello to investigate the security features available in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standards, particularly as they relate to wearable devices, such the Fitbit hear rate wristband and the Polar heart rate chest wearable, and a BLE keyboard.   Their investigation of the standards for short-distance wireless communication that are implemented in these three popular devices is published in a 2022 issue of Sensors .   Their approach, which uses both the ComProbe Bluetooth Protocol Analyzer and the ComProbe software to capture the BLE traffic of these three devices, reveals that even though the standards provide security mechanisms, because the Bluetooth Special Interest Group does not require that manufacturers fully comply with the standards, some manufacturers fail to implement proper security mechanisms.   According to Peker, “thi...

Computing during Crises Turner College assistant professor of management information systems Yaojie Li teamed with scholars from around the globe to publish two studies in the 2021 volume of IEEE Engineering Management Review , each of which deals with information technology in the era of COVID-19.   In an investigation of how the COVID-19 epidemic affects the U.S. information technology (IT) labor market and, accordingly, how organizations choose to hire IT employees in the current situation, Li teamed with Xuan Wang of the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, Thomas Stafford of Louisiana Tech University, and Daqi Xin of Nankai University in China.   This group of researchers compiled a dataset of 57,847 IT job postings from a large online employment website during the second half of 2020 in order to examine the relationships between pandemic severity and work arrangements (remote versus on-site), work schedules (part-time versus full time), and organizational sectors ...

Modeling COVID-19 Infections and Recoveries New research by TSYS School computer scientist Linqiang Ge and his colleagues Yuexin Li, Yang Zhou and Jingyi Zheng of Auburn University, and Xuan Cao of the University of Cincinnati mathematically describes the dynamic of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking immunity, reinfection, and vaccination into account in a way that not only predicts the number of cases, but also monitors the trajectories of changing parameters, such as transmission rate, recovery rate, and the basic reproduction number.   Their study, which appears in a 2021 issue of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence , finds a significant decrease in the transmission rate in the U.S. after authorities announced a series of orders aiming to prevent the spread of the virus, such as closing non-essential businesses and lockdown restrictions.   Later, as restrictions were gradually lifted, their analysis detects a new surge of infection as transmission rates show increasing trend...

Which Type of Compensation works Best?   In their 2022 article appearing in Compensation & Benefits Review , Turner College associate professors Edward O’Donnell (marketing) and Laurence Marsh (management) provide an extensive review and critique of the academic literature on salesperson compensation.  This project was undertaken, according to Marsh, to “gain insights into the impact that compensation has on salesperson perceptions and behaviors.”  Their examination of the sales compensation literature dating back to 1985 reveals that much of this body of research has focused on incentive-based, than salary-based, compensation.  As O’Donnell explained to Turner Business , “the sales compensation literature strongly suggests that incentive compensation negatively impacts salesforce perceptions and behaviors. In fact, sales compensation researchers appear to conclude that incentive-based compensation should be avoided if the goal is to develop and maintain cust...

Veteran teaching and research scholar Riduan Abid has joined the faculty of the TSYS School of Computer Science.  Abid comes to CSU from Alakhawayn University in Morocco, after having also been previously affiliated with Purdue University and the University of Houston.  Abid, who earned a doctorate in computer science from Auburn University, primarily focuses his research on cloud computing, smart grids/cities, and wireless mesh sensor networks.  His prior research has appeared in the Journal of Signal Processing Systems , Journal of Wireless Sensor Networks , International Journal of Mobile Communications , International Journal of Next Generation Networks , Applied Sciences Journal , International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering , and, most recently, Information .  Since 2013, Abid has served as principal investigator of various research grants totaling more than $1 million.