News & Events

The annual Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest such university-based competition in the world, awarded more than $2 million in prizes in early April. Lidrotec, a student startup that aims to increase production in the semiconductor industry, took home the grand prize at the competition.

Every business school in the top 25 (and many more outside of it) saw its foreign student numbers rise from 2020 — and most are up big.. Rice Business leaped more than 18 points to 39% international enrollment from 2020 to 2021.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has only exacerbated the issue by skyrocketing the price of fuel, and as gas prices increase, that in turn drives up the cost of food supplies, said Dean Peter Rodriguez. “Since early 2021, we felt really acutely supply shocks in a number of key materials around the world."

During 2017-21, Fortune 1000 companies paid senior executives more than $180 billion to develop and execute strategy. But execution requires that senior executives come to agreement on that strategy, and our research shows that this doesn’t always happen. Rice Business professor Vikas Mittal explains.

Ope Amosu’s restaurant, ChòpnBlọk, bills itself as “a contemporary approach to traditional West African cuisine.” The Rice University MBA graduate’s modern fast-casual fare follows in the footsteps of many successful Nigerian and West African restaurants in the city.

Last fall, the Jones Graduate School of Business added to its offerings for undergraduates by launching a business major. Rice undergraduates in the Classes of 2024 and 2025 can declare a business major with either a finance or management concentration.

The semi-finalists will present to a panel of investors April 22. Judges will select the top four, who will pitch their ideas again on April 23 for a chance at prizes totaling $30,000 and financing opportunities.

What matters more when investing in a startup? Expertise or self-presentation? Research from Rice Business professor Alessandro Piazza, doctoral candidate Sung Hun (Brian) Chung, and Daniel Reese provides an analysis of more than 4,000 firms, their founders, and their funders.

Rice University brought back its international student startup competition to its in-person format in a big way, giving out nearly $2 million in investment and in-kind prizes to over a dozen student teams.