Media Coverage

We Wondered If NFTs Could Change Education, So We Decided to Sell This Article on the Blockchain

Since I write about education and tech, I wondered if there were applications in the world that EdSurge covers. And since so many people we talk to stress the value of experiential learning—and since this particular trend is so fast-moving and hard to illustrate—we decided to try minting and selling an NFT ourselves and document the process. Specifically, we are going to auction off an image of this article—the first NFT ever sold by EdSurge.

My first step, naturally, was to reach out to an educator who knows the NFT space. And I found Merav Ozair, an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers University’s business school. She’s a data scientist by training, and It turns out she has taught a few courses about blockchain, which is the technical framework that makes NFTs possible.

“If you see a painting in a museum you can take a picture of it, but it’s not the same—you don’t own it,” says Ozair. “But an NFT is like [an original] painting because it has an ownership in the code, and you can show it to everyone that you have it.”

Professor Merav Ozair speaks with Tim Stenovic and Katie Greifeld on Bloomberg QuickTake about non-fungible tokens and the business-use potential of NFTs (18:30 into the video).

Merav Ozair, FinTech faculty member at Rutgers Business School, thinks people can create additional income streams, as long as someone is willing to pay for their virtual/digital content. "In the case of a chef, instead of posting recipes on Facebook, a cooking video on YouTube or photos on Instagram for free, just in order to generate followers and induce sells, they can NFT [tokenise] the recipe, the video or the photo and sell it or receive royalties for it,” she says. By doing so, these professionals create an immediate income stream and protect their rights for their unique recipe or dish.

“When it comes to something like blockchain technology and NFTs, I believe that almost anything you can imagine can happen. So if you have an imagination and you’re enthusiastic about innovation and technology, just run with it.”
Merav Ozair, PhD, FinTech Faculty Member at Rutgers Business School, Research Director of the RBS Blockchain Hub

NFTs have become popular in industries from sports memorabilia to fashion and art, where their ability to provide authentication and uniqueness is prized. Last week, Shopify started allowing merchants on its platform to sell NFTs directly, betting that there’s demand for an alternative to third-party crypto marketplaces. The company aims to win over merchants by giving them more control over the sale and customer relationship, President Harley Finkelstein said on Twitter last week.

”We all like convenience” and Shopify makes it easier for people to buy NFTs, said Merav Ozair, an assistant professor of fintech at the Rutgers Business School who specializes in blockchain technology. “NFTs will go more and more mainstream because of Shopify’s existing customer base.”

by Farrokh Langdana

A sustainable Federal budget deficit used to be defined as being less than about 5% of GDP.1 Today, the budget deficit/GDP is over 13%! Disaster, right? Should we expect hyperinflation to be coming? The short answer is no. Keep in mind we were in the same ballpark during the subprime mortgage crisis (10-12% for the budget deficit/GDP ratio) and the sky did not fall on our heads. Why not?

Back in the day with large deficits and the massive printing of money, sure, hyperinflation was a real concern and possibility. But in the subprime mortgage crisis we had a unique situation. During this particular time of turmoil, the U.S. was still the “safest cave” on the planet.2 With all global economies “huddling in their respective caves” in the global housing crisis, we were in the best position. Consequently, massive global capital poured in and, to some extent, helped fund our budget deficit.

But, despite all this, there was no notable change in inflation. Here is a very important point: Massive monetary infusions ONLY erupt into mind-numbing hyperinflations when the money is actually injected into the economy.

The Ripon Forum Magazine: https://issuu.com/riponsociety/docs/ripon_forum_-_july_2021/15

The Rutgers Center for Women in Business (CWIB) is honored to serve as guest editor for this special edition of the Rutgers Business Review as we spotlight scholarly research focused on advancing women in business. While women have achieved many milestones toward parity in the workplace, there is still a long way to go. CWIB was established in December 2019 as a research and education center dedicated to helping women achieve economic and workplace parity. The center accomplishes this by providing access to education, opportunity, and thought leadership that removes barriers, builds community, and empowers women with the confidence and skills to succeed as business leaders. This Rutgers Business Review issue is an extension of the center’s mission to educate both scholars and practitioners through thought leadership. We have curated articles from various academic scholars throughout the country. The articles are organized around the three tenets of the CWIB mission of removing barriers, building community, and empowering women.

Exclusive NFT Q&A with Outside Experts
The Motley Fool had the chance to connect with Dr. Merav Ozair, a FinTech Faculty Member at Rutgers Business School (RBS) and an expert on blockchain and cryptocurrency. She serves as Research Director of RBS Blockchain Hub, as well as an Advisor and Researcher at the Rutgers Blockchain and FinTech Collaboratory.

The Motley Fool: NFTs seem to be the new craze this past year, but do you anticipate this trend to continue or do you foresee NFTs being just another bubble? Why?

Dr. Ozair: Whether an asset's value is in a “bubble” or not is determined in hindsight. If you are purchasing an NFT as an investment, then the risks associated with it are the same as with any other investment -- whether that's stocks, collectibles or real estate. The NFT's value may go up or down, depending on market sentiment, conditions, or preferences. Anyone can guess at or believe what the future value will be.

In this Bloomberg Quicktake, Rutgers Center for Women in Business Director Lisa Kaplowitz talks about the challenges working women faced, especially during the pandemic. She also offered advice and personal anecdotes on things that worked for her family.

Watch the video, 5:44

The impact of tax credits may also be less of an incentive in a still uncertain environment. Tax attorney Jay Soled, a professor at Rutgers Business School and director of the university’s Masters in Taxation Program, said tax incentives are really not big dollars when it comes to the whole picture for a company considering relocation or expansion.

“People have to keep in mind that taxes are just one component in what goes on in these decisions. And it’s a small component,” he said.

“You can incentivize people all you want, but they are scarred from the past 18 months,” Soled said, referring to the effects of the pandemic on the economy.

Before the pandemic, Kristina Durante had a hard stop in her workday at 5 p.m. to leave to pick her daughter up at aftercare. Like many others, she has enjoyed the increased flexibility caused by remote work in the pandemic. Durante, associate professor and marketing department vice chair at Rutgers Business School, saves time on her commute and is available to communicate with colleagues outside of normal business hours.

“Now I can kind of take care of those things around the house whenever I have a moment, so I’m kind of always reachable,” Durante said. “So, from the business side of it, that is a benefit.”

Why have so many countries with so many conflicting interests joined the agreement? While the agreement sounds viable in theory, in practice taxable income, which is the base on which the rate is applied, is determined independently by each country, so the tax-code definition of taxable income can be adjusted to offset an undesirable tax rate.

The agreement also refers to the statutory rate, which differs from the effective rate that corporations actually pay. The 21% statutory corporate tax rate in the U.S. is illusory because it is manipulated by a phalanx of tax lawyers and accountants, resulting in an effective rate around 8%. Similar differences between statutory and effective rates exist in other countries.

Wading into controversial topics is not new for U.S. businesses, certainly not in the wake of last year's protests against police brutality and systemic racism. In one prominent example, activist ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's urged the dismantling of what it calls a domestic culture of white supremacy. Still, it's rare for a group of companies to collectively push back on a single issue.

Yet that's exactly what happened in 2021 when lawmakers in Texas as well as several other states sought to tighten access to voting amid persistent but discredited claims of voter fraud in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election.

Facing internal and external pressures, numerous corporations and business leaders responded.

Michael L. Barnett, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University, calls some of the carefully worded vocalizations by businesses "a calculated risk."
"It's far from a legal contract with any binding provisions," he says. "It's a pressure-release valve for immediate problems."
"Most companies really don't want to mess with this stuff because it can just backfire quickly and suck all the oxygen out of the room," says Barnett, the Rutgers professor. "You've got lots of other things to worry about."

A first credit card can be an intimidating commitment for some and, more so, a difficult one to navigate and understand. With a long list of options, finding the student credit card that best works for your needs and spending habits can be challenging. When analyzing student credit cards, there are a few key benefits and elements to keep in mind.

Many students are not educated on credit card use, managing spending and debt. What tips do you have for new credit card holders or parents looking to teach their students how to properly use a credit card?

A credit card may be profitable if you use it wisely. It provides an interest-free loan and many companies offer reward programs, providing free or discounted perks on a variety of products and services. The catch is you must have the discipline to pay off the credit card balance in full every month. Otherwise, you will be charged high interest rates that may put you in a financial hole that will be difficult to recover from. So, find credit cards that provide rewards that are tailored to your spending habits and pay them off in full each month. Otherwise, just stick to debit cards since they won’t allow you to spend more than you have in the bank.

John Longo, Professor of Finance

Whether you’re a freelancer, a gig worker, or a business owner with multiple employees, you may be a candidate for a small-business credit card. These can help you build both personal and business credit, finance your business charges and earn rewards.

With fewer protections and higher interest rates than consumer cards, is it truly worth it for a small business to have and use a business card versus a personal one for business expenses?

It’s not crucial to have a business card, but it makes it easier to prepare your taxes. In theory, everything on a business credit card should be tax-deductible, while there will be a mix of deductible and non-deductible items when utilizing your personal credit cards. It may also be possible that there are unique offerings of business cards related to the types of things your business purchases that are not available via a personal credit card. Lastly, if you have several employees it may be more efficient to have each of them given company credit cards to more efficiently track spending than to deal with reimbursement on a one-off basis for each person.

John Longo, Professor of Finance

With each new year and each major election, the issue of drug prices becomes more highly charged. Stakeholders throughout the pharmaceutical industry agree that quality and cost-effective care for patients is their prime concern, although several factors interfere with that goal. The misaligned incentives intrinsic to each stakeholder adds complexity because each has different profit motivations that further drive up the costs of drugs.

Top Experts From Delivering Good Roundtable Series Provide Empowering Insights for Women in Business and Philanthropy

The national nonprofit Delivering Good has completed a robust and dynamic three-part series, virtually attended by over 500 people in June, covering leadership, philanthropy and opportunities to support women. The panel discussions are now available at https://www.Delivering-Good.org/womenofinspiration.

The first event included an impressive group of women sharing their unique perspectives on the opportunities to gain leadership today, as well as overcoming challenges that women may have in seeking new leadership responsibilities. The program featured Congresswoman Kathy Manning, U.S. Representative (D-NC) as the keynote speaker. Lisa Kaplowitz, Executive Director of the Center for Women in Business, Rutgers University as the moderator and the panelists were: Fran Horowitz, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch Co.; Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks; and Rear Admiral Aisha K. Mix, Assistant Surgeon General, Chief Nurse Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

On Wednesday, 32 years after English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee penned “Information Management: A Proposal,” the genesis of the World Wide Web, Sotheby’s auctioned the Web’s original source code for $5.4 million. It was, of course, in the form of a nonfungible token aka an NFT.

Dr. Merav Ozair, an expert on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and a fintech faculty member at Rutgers Business School, compared the NFT sale of the World Wide Web source code to the historic moment when the founding fathers of the United States of America signed the Declaration of Independence. The only difference is that the code that created the web also changed the way the world functions today.

“This was also a historic moment when he created a code that initiated everything, and this is not something only for the U.S. it’s for the global community, everywhere,” she says.

Ozair says the auction marks the kick off of Web 3.0, a version of the web where cryptocurrencies thrive.

Who was your favorite MBA professor?

Doug Brownstone, assistant professor of professional practice in the Management & Global Business Department. Professor Brownstone has been an exceptional mentor and guide during my time at Rutgers. I have been fortunate enough to work with him on real-world projects such as the first-ever RBS J&J Hackathon 2020, the annual Rutgers Business Plan Competition, and the Paterson Film & Entertainment Commission. He is super friendly, insightful, and approachable. His consulting class, “Integrated Business Applications,” is designed to be exciting, and interactive. Outside of academia, his industry experience and professional network are vast, and he leverages it to invite relevant guest lecturers to his courses.

NFTs, the hottest collectible that has been embraced by the founder of Twitter, the National Basketball Association and the artist who created a flying cat with a Pop-Tart body, has cast its reach back to the beginning of the digital age: the source code to an early version of World Wide Web.

Sotheby’s on Wednesday auctioned off the code, created by Tim Berners-Lee, in the form of a nonfungible token, or NFT, for $5.4 million with fees. Sotheby’s said it was accepting payment in cryptocurrency for both the hammer price and its buyer fee.

The NFT is an early copy of the code, a version of which has long been available in the public domain, but the token auctioned by Sotheby’s represents the original archive of the time-stamped files. “It’s authenticating that first code that was created and then selling it as memorabilia,” said Merav Ozair, an assistant professor who teaches finance and technology at Rutgers Business School.

“An NFT is by definition a unique token. Each token has a unique hash number or a unique signature of an artist on their creation,” Professor Ozair said. “With this hash number, you can trace each NFT to the origin and the creator.”

El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as a legal currency along with the US dollar. This makes it the first sovereign nation in the world to do so.

Other than El Salvador, the Philippines, a developing nation, also deals a lot with cryptocurrency. “Although the Philippines has not adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, the reality is, that payments with cryptocurrencies are commonplace in the country,” Dr. Merav Ozair, FinTech Faculty member at Rutgers Business School, told The Buttonwood Tree. “Legalizing it, is simply making it ‘official’ to some extent.”

No. 2: Miklos A. Vasarhelyi

Vasarhelyi is changing the direction of accounting, multiple transactions at a time. The director of the Rutgers University Accounting Research Center is credited with developing the concept and application of “continuous auditing,” or a real-time review of business processes that can highlight exceptions to their compliance, performance and effectiveness. Applications include utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence to flag bogus invoices, unusual or fraudulent insurance claims, and other questionable activity before a check gets cut.

The Hindu In Focus Podcast

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs as they are known, have been around since 2017. But they suddenly went mainstream this year, attracting the attention of both crypto-currency traders and general investors. The sale of a tokenised digital art work titled ‘Everydays – The First 5000 Days’ by an artist called Beeple, for $69 million, appears to have unleashed an ‘NFT bubble’, with some analysts comparing to the ‘Tulip bubble’ of the 17 th century.

Are NFTs primarily a digital art-related phenomenon – a way to trade digital art and other digital collectibles? Or will they have a wider impact in the offline world as well, extending to domains such as music, fintech, and real estate? We demystify NFTs in this episode of In Focus with Dr Merav Ozair. Dr Ozair is a FinTech Faculty member at Rutgers Business School. She is a data scientist, a quant strategist, and a Crypto/Blockchain expert.

Listen to the Podcast

These new blockchain-created digital assets may be treated as intangibles for tax purposes, but a dearth of guidance leaves questions.
By Walter Effross, J.D.; Leonard Goodman, CPA, Ph.D.; Anthony Pochesci, CPA; and Jay A. Soled, J.D., LL.M.

A new enterprise that has captured widespread attention is the production and use of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Like individual snowflakes, each NFT is unique; unlike snowflakes, each lasts indefinitely, can be transferred, and might be valued at millions of dollars. They have been employed to digitize an increasing range of intellectual property such as text, artwork, recordings, and images.

This analysis considers potential tax consequences associated with the creation, use, and transfer of NFTs.

Members of the LGBTQA community and their allies from across Rutgers share their thoughts on what pride means to them.

Turning Rainbow Capitalism Into Action

Arturo E. Osorio
Associate Professor of Professional Practice
Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick
He/his/him/el

“I got my civil rights!” was Marsha P. Johnson’s cry that sparked the June 28, 1969, Stonewall’s protests. This moment was not the start of the LGBTQA movement. Yet, the power and extent of this event helped to catapult the US-LGBTQA movement to a new high.

Pride celebrations mark years of work towards acceptance and equality. Branding brings awareness and focuses on the LGBTQA people and allies and their ongoing civil rights fight. Yet, while there have been gains, there are still ways to go. Financial planning, human resources protections, and family benefits are just some of the spaces that are still to be won.

For most knowledge workers, this summer spells the end of the Great Remote Work Experiment and the beginning of a return to normal. People are shuffling back into offices, dusting off desk space, and returning to their old routines. But for some people, the pandemic year has permanently changed the relationship to the office.

Many of the companies that led the way on remote work are now expecting employees to return to the office. Apple, for example, will reportedly require people to come in at least three days a week. Uber has a similar policy. Other companies, like Facebook, have afforded their employees more choice, but those who aren’t approved to work remotely will still need to be in the office half the time.

In that version of remote work, there’s significantly less globe-trotting. Americans have been settling in major cities, like New York and San Francisco, for the past 50 years. Some economists, like Morris Davis from the Rutgers School of Business, think the pandemic is unlikely to upend that pattern. “Will work-from-home undo these trends that we’ve witnessed for the past 50 years? My guess is no,” he says. One bit of evidence is the price of housing, which in the US has only gone up in cities and their suburbs.

However, Davis says, even a fraction of American employees going full nomad could be enough to support a cottage industry of remote-first services, including ones for flexible housing. “Maybe it’s only 2 percent of the workforce who wants to do that,” he says, “but that’s 5 million people.”

An initiative that will better serve Newark's minority-owned businesses by increasing contract relationships with anchor institutions launched on Thursday by Rutgers Business School’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED).

The program, dubbed "Ascend Newark," will be headed by Rutgers and work collectively with RWJBarnabas Health, Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation and Greater Newark LISC, to help local entrepreneurs grow their revenues, profits and employee size. The program is funded through investments from JPMorgan Chase and Prudential Financial.

“We are pleased that the Ascend program, which connects underserved entrepreneurs with capital, procurement opportunities and business management education resources, is adding Newark to one of 14 cities nationwide where the initiative operates,” said CUEED Executive Director Lyneir Richardson. “With investment from JPMorgan Chase and Prudential Financial, we are now working closely with anchor institutions and Community Development Finance Institution partners to intentionally bolster the growth of minority-owned companies in Newark.”

In recent years, I’ve taken stock of my assumptions about who makes for the best entry-level employee. I have no doubt that Ivy League universities attract smart, talented and ambitious kids. But do these institutions add value? My answer is increasingly negative. Dysfunctional kids are coddled and encouraged to nurture grievances, while normal kids are attacked and educationally abused. Listening to Haverford’s all-college Zoom meeting also made it clear that today’s elite students aren’t going to schools led by courageous adults. Deprived of good role models, they’re less likely to mature into good leaders themselves.

In my experience, top-performing students at Rutgers are as talented but less self-important than Ivy Leaguers. They’re more likely to accept the authority of those more experienced. This allows for better mentoring, which in turn produces better results over time.

Teaching kids how to manage their money is one of the most important lessons parents can impart.
If you missed a few opportunities to teach your kids about money in the past, you can make up for the lost time by trying these tactics with your teens.

Consider adding your teen as an authorized user on a credit card once they get a job. This way they start learning the responsibility of paying off their balance on time and in full. “If they prove to be responsible with its use, older teens may eventually get a low-limit credit card backed by their parents. Urge them to pay the balance off in full each month, and if it isn’t, consider terminating the card or placing it on a freeze until responsible credit behavior is established,” says John Longo, professor of finance at Rutgers University and the author of Buffett’s Tips: A Guide to Financial Literacy and Life.

The pandemic may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean we’ll return to full-time commuting and packed office buildings. The greatest accidental experiment in the history of labor has lessons to teach us about productivity, flexibility, and even reversing the brain drain. But don’t buy another dozen pairs of sweatpants just yet.

Stephen J. Dubner talks with Morris A. Davis, Professor and Paul V. Profeta Chair in Real Estate.

Listen to the podcast with transcript.

Chinese citizens have been barred from trading in virtual currencies for years, Merav Ozair told VERIFY.

“I always say, China is a very interesting place in the world when it comes to everything to do with cryptocurrency and blockchain. On the one hand, you see them really investing a lot of money and time and effort and minds into blockchain development,” Ozair said.

“When it comes to technology they are very much ahead of the curve. It is a very interesting place when you think about how they see the blockchain space - technology yes, trading no,” she added. Most major virtual mining operations originated from China, she said, despite China first prohibiting financial transactions in bitcoin in 2013.

Avoid Your Mobile Phone During Learning Breaks

Research by professors Sanghoon Kang and Terri Kurtzberg from Rutgers Business School has revealed that using a mobile phone for a break does not allow your brain to recharge as effectively as the other types of breaks.5 They note: “As people are increasingly addicted to their cell phones, it is important to know the unintended costs associated with reaching for this device every spare minute. Although people may assume that it is not different from any other kind of interaction or break, this study shows that the phone might be more cognitively taxing than expected.”

In terms of this crackdown from China, the impact could be short-term. “The effect is short-term,” Dr. Merav Ozair, FinTech Faculty member at Rutgers Business School, told The Buttonwood Tree. “Long term we should focus on the technology – blockchain technology. The technology is here to stay. Like with the internet, more than 20 years ago, when we had volatility and the dot.com bust, but we survived it, and today we cannot imagine our lives without internet – so would Blockchain technology. Thus, Blockchain technology is the future. It is here to stay, and it is at the core of any digital asset – it’s the next generation. The internet is referred to as Web 2.0 and Blockchain is referred to as Web 3.0.”

In 2005 a photo of four-year-old Zoë Roth standing in front of a burning house went viral on the internet. It became a meme known as “disaster girl”. In April 2021, the image sold for $473,000 as an NFT, or non-fungible token - that’s sort of a digital record of ownership.

And the sales keep coming. Another NFT recently sold for $69 million. The first-ever Tweet went for a huge $2.9 million … and a GIF of a pixelated rainbow cat sold for $690,000.

But what is an NFT, and is it really the next big thing? Suzanne Kianpour explores the world of NFT’s speaking with Merav Ozair.

Listen to the podcast.

Anticipating the start of a fun event like a holiday can make it feel like it is nearly over as soon as the actual event begins, according to a study into the perception of time.

Four independent studies published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that anticipation and excitement had an impact on perception of time.

'People feel like the beginning and the end of their time off are similarly far from the present,' Malkoc said.

'In other words, in their mind's eye, the vacation is over as soon as it begins. It has no duration,' despite how long it may actually last in real time.

'Thinking about future positive and negative events leads people to take two different paths to the same conclusion,' said co-author Gabriela Tonietto of Rutgers Business School.

Rutgers Business School Dean Lei Lei expressed appreciation for M&T Bank’s willingness to provide the funding to fuel CUEED’s efforts.

“We are grateful for M&T’s generous investment in a fund that CUEED has created to assist vital Black-owned businesses and to ensure that our communities remain economically strong,” she said. “At Rutgers Business School, we believe we should play a role in helping to strengthen our communities. With the commitment of partners like M&T Bank, CUEED plays a critical role in our ability to have that social impact.”

CUEED Executive Director Lyneir Richardson said the purpose of the new fund is to strengthen and enhance the efforts of NJ BEST, a program funded by the U.S. Cares Act to enable the Small Business Development Center offices and other community-based groups in New Jersey to help 25 Black-owned High-Impact Vital Enterprises recover from the economic turmoil of the past year.

“It is well documented that Black business owners desperately needed financial resources, in addition to technical assistance and entrepreneurial management consulting, to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and position their businesses to thrive in the post-pandemic economy,” he said.

People enjoy content even more when it’s a pleasant surprise. But getting it wrong is a real risk.

Kristina Durante was driving in her car one day when “Material Girl” by Madonna came on the radio. It’s a song she’d heard countless times, of course, but not in a long while. “How had I forgotten what a gem this song is!?” Durante thought, as she cranked it up loudly. Later, recalling the thrill of the moment, Durante did what a lot of us would do: She downloaded it, and put it into her music library.

“I played it, remembering how much I loved it,” says Durante. “And when it was on my playlist, I was like, ‘It just isn’t the same.'”

Durante’s story is probably familiar to many of us. Whether it’s a song on the radio, or a free sample at a store, these surprises—these moments of serendipity—make us appreciate the little things so much more than if they were planned. But as a professor of marketing at Rutgers, Durante could do something most of us couldn’t. She and her team enlisted hundreds of people who took part in nearly half a dozen experiments, just to answer that question: Do we really enjoy things more when they’re serendipitous discoveries rather than something we carefully choose ourselves?

It turns out, we do. And the phenomenon is significant enough that Durante believes that products should be designed around surprise rather than painstaking curation.

CHAMPIONS OF WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP: The cause of gender equality continues to gain momentum, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Supporting women to be on track toward leadership, whether in the business, institutional or academic spaces we occupy, will mandate critical changes. These panelists share their unique perspectives on the challenges and opportunities to gaining leadership today and on becoming more comfortable with raising your hand for new leadership responsibilities.

Keynote Message: Congresswoman Kathy Manning, U.S. Representative (D-North Carolina)

Moderator: Lisa Kaplowitz, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Women in Business, Rutgers University

Fran Horowitz, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks; President & CEO, Marshalling Resources Consulting
Rear Admiral Aisha K. Mix, Assistant Surgeon General, Chief Nurse Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

The mission of the Disruptor 50 list has always been to identify fast-growing, innovative start-ups on the path to becoming the next generation of great public companies. But in 2020, things got ridiculous. Twelve of the 50 companies named to the 2020 Disruptor 50 are now public companies. Four more have announced deals to become public via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies.

Special thanks to the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council, who again offered us their time and insights. As always, we appreciate their contributions.

[The 47 members of the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council includes]
Lyneir Richardson, assistant professor of Professional Practice, Rutgers University

Researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Florida, and Rutgers University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the role of serendipity in customer satisfaction and how marketers can provide it.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Serendipity: Chance Encounters in the Marketplace Enhance Consumer Satisfaction" and is authored by Aekyoung Kim, Felipe Affonso, Juliano Laran, and Kristina Durante.

Leaders at real estate programs at Rutgers, Monmouth both say more opportunities are good for students and industry in N.J.

Morris Davis, the Paul V. Profeta Chair of Real Estate and the academic director of the Rutgers Center for Real Estate, said he sees the NJIT program as a potential partner, too.

“If there’s a way we can work together, I’d be all for it,” he said.

“My view is, any investment in any real estate program in New Jersey is just good for the state. NJIT is now going to invest in real estate education and their students are going to be well-trained. That’s good for everyone.”

New Jersey ranks 48th for the cheapest rates in the country, which makes it especially important for drivers to shop around for car insurance.
Ask the experts

Can (John) Uslay Ph.D., Vice-Dean, Academic Programs and Innovations, Professor of Marketing, Chair, Entrepreneurial Marketing SIG, AMA, Rutgers Business School at Newark and New Brunswick.

Why are car insurance prices so different from state to state?

The cost for car insurance, similar to real estate prices, varies dramatically based on several factors such as demand, population density, crime rates, and average claim rates and amounts based on the zip code. In addition, states have varying minimum liability requirements which can impact the resulting rates.

Are car insurance companies really able to save drivers as much as they advertise?

The chances of the savings are not random, and they are indeed generating the advertised savings for a certain group of consumers otherwise the FTC would get on their case. However, the chances that you belong to that well-defined group of customers are low. Your results will vary. Read the fine print and make sure to review the quotes for the same level of service. Numbers do not lie but ironically statistics do!

Financial technology, or fintech, is changing how we earn, spend and invest money.

Rhonda Schaffler sits down with fintech experts to discuss the rise and volatility of cryptocurrency, the exploding interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and how the state plans to both promote and regulate the fintech industry.

Plus, Rhonda breaks down the major headlines of the week, including the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions in New Jersey.

00:00 - Open
02:09 - Easing Restrictions
03:03 - Esports
06:50 - Future of Work Accelerator
07:36 - Workplace Inclusivity
08:36 - Cryptocurrency
13:08 - NFTs
17:21 - Fintech
21:44 - Crypto Warning
25:35 - Credits

The Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) Friday released a revised working paper entitled, "A Quarter Century of Mortgage Risk," with the intention of improving policymakers' understanding of how mortgage risk has evolved over time and the role it played in the 2008 recession, FHFA said in a press release.

The paper—written and researched by William Larson of FHFA, Morris Davis of Rutgers University, Stephen Oliner of the American Enterprise Institute, and Benjamin Smith of the University of Pennsylvania—can be read in full at FHFA.gov. And it identifies three key findings, according to its authors:

Mortgage risk accumulation started earlier than previously thought.
Risk accumulated with borrowers across all credit scores.
FHFA's expanded data set, the press release explains, led to an additional key finding, which is that mortgage risk is accumulating again in America today.

Rutgers Law School co-Dean David Lopez, who oversees the school in Newark, will step down from his post as of June 30, the school announced this week.

Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Provost Ashwani Monga praised Lopez in a statement to the community:

“David’s leadership has been pivotal in advancing the school’s groundbreaking publicly engaged scholarship on everything from child advocacy and corporate governance to desegregating schools, expanding the rights of immigrants, advocating for equitable growth and achieving algorithmic justice; setting a new standard for engagement with alumni, especially in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the school’s signature Minority Student Program; and the pursuit of racial justice through the law school faculty’s adoption of a resolution last year to develop anti-racist curricular reforms, responding forthrightly to America’s rising consciousness of the need to transform our institutions.

“We could not have hoped for a more forceful advocate and capable ally in all of these areas, which are as critical to our institutional identity and priorities as they are to the law school’s.”

It sounds like a nice problem to have, but experiencing hyper-growth brings with it a unique set of challenges. How does the theory of how to handle it compare to what actually happens on the ground?

The theory
Jeffrey Robinson is associate professor and academic director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers Business School. Here he outlines the five Ms founders have to think about.
Marketing, Money, Management, Mentoring, Mergers

'After hyper-growth, it’s no longer about selling your product or service one at a time. Instead, it becomes about how you’re interacting with wholesalers or large-scale distributors – all relationships that come with intermediaries. If you’re dealing directly with consumers, how do you maintain the customer feedback loop? Having customer relationship management is not something that solo business owners are usually prepared to do. If your strength isn't in marketing, then who are you partnering with to do it internally and externally?'

Entrepreneurs often thrive in times of uncertainty, said Rutgers Business School professor Gary Minkoff, who also chairs the advisory board for the school’s Small Business Development Center.

They see opportunities in what many perceive to be problems, he explained. But taking the leap into entrepreneurship can often feel like a necessity, Minkoff said.

The internet and social media offer relatively new opportunities to start a business and gain an initial customer base with far less of an initial investment than a brick-and-mortar business would require, Minkoff said.

“People who have a particular skillset now have platforms to build audiences and followings in ways they hadn’t before,” he said.

After reviewing over 120 nominations, TechUnited:NJ and its Selection Committee honored 12 winners at its 2021 Catalyst Awards, a virtual event on Thursday, May 20th, 2021.

“The definition of catalyst is ‘an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action’. The term catalyst couldn’t more appropriately represent the incredible leaders we celebrated at this year’s TechUnited Catalyst Awards. We are thrilled to showcase them all as exemplary members of our incredible technology community. Congratulations to all of our remarkable nominees and winners. You continue to inspire and catalyze us all. ” shared TechUnited CEO Aaron Price.

2021 awards include:

Lyneir Richardson, Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Rutgers Business School is the winner of the 2021 Catalyst Of Progress Award, sponsored by Grant Thornton LLP. This award is presented to an individual who promotes & actively supports diversity, inclusion, and equity.

This video series was developed to introduce the IB community to the people behind some of the most widely cited studies in our field. Each interview spans about 30 minutes, covering a range of topics including the author’s professional journey, an overview of their body of work, and a number of topics they find promising for future research.

View and listen to the video recording

Financial Expert Advice: Saving and Investing
John Longo
Professor of Finance at Rutgers Business School; Author of Buffett's Tips: A Guide to Financial Literacy and Life

How much should beginners invest in stocks and bonds? And when is a good time to increase those investments?

Before someone starts investing, the first thing to remember is to live within your means. For example, if you have outstanding bills or high-interest credit cards you should pay them off first before investing. Then you should contribute some funds towards an emergency fund, such that you have at least 3 months of living expenses, with the goal of eventually building this up to 12 months of expenses. Regarding stocks and bonds, a rough rule of thumb is to have 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds. With interest rates so low today, I would favor an increased allocation to equities if someone has a long-term time horizon.

I would also encourage people to set up a global portfolio, which is easy to do today with various low-cost ETFs and index funds out there. In terms of the balance between the two (stocks vs. bonds) a good long-term strategy is to add more to the asset class that has underperformed. For example, if stocks have fallen sharply in recent months, it may be a good strategy to contribute a bit more to them, if you can stomach it. Beginning investors usually have time on their side so they can usually afford to take on a little more risk, if they are already living within their means and have an emergency fund put aside.