VSB Inspiring Minds Podcast Villanova School of Business

For many people, the path to success can seem hard to follow. Even high-achieving students and employees can find themselves unsure about which choice to make when they reach a fork in the road. Critical decisions can be easier to make with the help of a mentor. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Patrick Haley ‘21 VSB talks with Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, The Helen and William O’Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business about the positive benefits of mentoring -- not just for the person seeking advice, but also for the mentor.

Payday lenders have few friends in the financial world. But without them, people who are unbanked would lose access to cash for necessary expenses. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Kelsea Wong ‘21 VSB talks with Father Craig McMahon, Assistant Professor, Economics, about the complicated realities of the payday loan market, including the viability of alternative lenders and the effects of economic crisis on borrowers and lenders.

When your flight arrives at gate K, how long will it take you to walk to gate C, where your connecting flight departs? What about a walk from your hotel on 37th street to a park on 45th? Cities and businesses label our journeys in myriad ways, and those labels have an effect on how we perceive distance. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Liz Ford ‘21 VSB talks with Shelly Rathee, PhD, Assistant Professor, Marketing & Business Law, about the expectations people have when destination labels use letters or numbers, and how businesses can use those expectations to drive consumer behavior.

Many researchers have studied how abusive managers negatively affect their employees but what are the personal implications of their toxic behavior? In a previous episode of Inspiring Minds, Manuela Priesemuth, PhD, The Megan ’07 and Matthew ’06 Baldwin Assistant Professor, Management & Operations, shared her research into the effects of workplace abuse on those who witness it. Now Dr. Priesemuth talks with Samantha Moccia ‘20 VSB about the effects of workplace abuse on the perpetrators themselves.

Many companies make the decision to outsource some of their IT systems, such as payroll, because outsourcing can improve efficiency and reduce costs. But outsourcing contracts can also be used as an accounting trick, to make a company seem to be more profitable than it really is. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Susan Rykowski ‘20 VSB talks with Stephen Liedtka, PhD, associate professor, Accounting & Information Systems about the factors that may result in questionable outsourcing decisions.

Typically, a management team runs a company and a board of directors monitors that team. Directors need to act in the best interest of shareholders, even if their decisions go against the management team. In this episode of Inspiring Minds, Jacob Bank VSB talks with Tina Yang, PhD, Associate Professor, Finance about the impact of Directors and Officers Insurance on the effectiveness of board governance. Dr. Yang says insurance companies can also serve as extra monitors on a company, based on investigations during the underwriting process.