If there was ever a time for the Rice University community to step up, that time is certainly now. From the evidence to date, it seems it is.

Rice students, faculty and staff are finishing the spring semester in unprecedented circumstances, responding to the threat of COVID-19 by hunkering down and delivering classes online.

Within a matter of days, faculty modified their courses to remote instruction, figuring out how to deliver quality higher education while sitting in front of computer screens instead of standing in front of lecture halls.

From the logistical challenges involved in delivering lectures and labs remotely to adjusting course content for the radically altered world students are now navigating, instructors and the staff supporting them are finding creative ways to continue meeting the university’s high standards for the classroom experience.

Many of them are sharing their stories, and some of their best practices, with Rice News. As electrical and computer engineer Ray Simar said after reconfiguring his class, “We could turn it into a miniseries. It has more storylines than ‘Game of Thrones.'”

Many classrooms are moving to Zoom for live instruction. Daniel Domingues, an assistant professor of history, found his Africa in the Museum course disrupted with the abrupt end of FotoFest, but found a way to integrate the course’s existing Canvas page with Zoom. “We’re going to try to continue our meetings online,” he said. “I say ‘try’ because my wife and I live with a 3-year-old in a tiny apartment and the little one isn’t very cooperative.”

Chemist László Kürti declared himself ready as well, and added a twist. “I have now practiced sharing the notepad feature of iPad where I can use the Apple Pencil and draw chemical structures and interact with the students,” he said.

English professor Joe Campana noted a benefit of teaching adults in his Glasscock School master’s course, Exploring the Arts, is that many already use Zoom at work. He said one student who manages Zoom calls at her workplace quickly wrote a handy guide. “We got really lucky,” he said. “We’re a small group, so that helps, and we’d already bonded in a number of different ways weeks ago, and that’s partly because we went to live performances together.”

Economic chair George Zodrow called in the cavalry to get classes up and running online, putting faculty members Jimmy DeNicco and Mahmoud El-Gamal in charge of the Social Sciences Transition Resource Team. “Jimmy has a great deal of experience with the online teaching of our Principles of Economics course and Mahmoud, who is our director of undergraduate studies, is also one of our more tech-savvy faculty members,” Zodrow said. “Mahmoud recently was able to benefit from the extraordinary support of Rice IT to get some specialized software made available to students in a matter of a few hours.”

Sports medicine lecturer Laura Kabiri learned something about herself as she organized her material for Zoom. “Immediately upon hearing that we should prepare for remote course delivery, I started recording my lectures to post online,” she said. “Unfortunately, I found myself falling asleep during my own lectures.

“No one plans for this,” Kabiri noted, “but I know Rice will analyze, improve and revolutionize the way educators and students make lemonade out of all these lemons.”

One course seemingly meant for the times, Monster by Deborah Harter and Mike Gustin, explores what humans find monstrous from a scientific and literary perspective. It took a different turn with the recognition of parallels between the course and the current crisis.

“Students come into our class thinking that the course is about vampires and Dracula and all of that,” Harter said. “And what they are often surprised to discover is that that we’re interested often in those monstrosities that are not so visible, that are in fact invisible. And that is what makes, I think, the coronavirus so frightening.”

Jones School professor Jing Zhou, who teaches graduate-level management and psychology, said detailed preparation several weeks ago has paid off in a smooth transition online for her working professional students. She’s going solo in a Jones classroom set up for remote teaching.

“I like to walk around and write things on a board, and teaching in a real classroom allowed me to hold some things constant amongst a sea of change,” she said. “I was pleasantly surprised that teaching went really well. The 60 students stayed engaged throughout the two days. … Occasionally, the students’ toddlers, dogs and cats popped in our class, bringing a smile to our faces.”

Robert Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School of Music, noted online learning holds particular challenges for Shepherd students, given the importance of ensemble participation.

“Having to take these actions is extremely disappointing for everyone, yet we do so knowing these measures are necessary and in the near-term interests of our school community,” he said. But students and teachers are working together to fulfill their commitments. “We are committed to insuring that students scheduled to graduate are not obstructed by these unfortunate setbacks.”

Jones Professor Scott Sonenshein has particular expertise in adapting to circumstances.

“As someone who has literally written the book on resourcefulness, I put into action what I’ve spent much of my career researching,” he said of his Leadership Intensive Learning experience course. “With only a few short days to get my class online, I transitioned it with minimal disruption and took advantage of the online platform to do things I never had thought about in the classroom environment.”

The School of Social Sciences’ Rachel Kimbro actually found herself ahead of the curve with her Medical Sociology class, thinking not only about what could happen but also how it could and should be recorded for history.

“About a month ago, by student request, I jettisoned a planned class day and lectured on the coronavirus,” she said, noting that little of record remained from Rice’s experience with the 1918 flu pandemic. “I determined that we would create contemporaneous records of student experiences (and mine), influenced by course material, and contribute them at the end of the term to the Woodson Research Library and Rice’s archives, with the support of (University Historian) Melissa Kean.

“So far, the entries are wonderful — full of wistfulness about leaving Rice and concern for others.”

Many Americans who are worried about being able to provide food, water and other necessities for their families during the coronavirus outbreak aren’t making rational decisions, according to a consumer behavior expert at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Utpal Dholakia, professor of marketing at Rice Business, is available to discuss the dynamics at play.

“Everyone is panic-buying, not just all over the country, but basically all over the world,” Dholakia said. “That makes the sense of urgency even more — are all these suppliers going to be able to keep up with the demand?”

Rather than try to find deals and stick to their normal routines, shoppers on panic sprees scoop up as much as they can, including items they might not even use, Dholakia said. They generally spend more, and some might even rack up credit card debt, harming their financial health, he added.

To schedule an interview with Dholakia, contact Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Dholakia bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/utpal-dholakia.

Updated from original post that was published on 03/19/2020.

What’s the cost of an MBA? Even for candidates certain that their next step is business school, the financial commitment is significant. For candidates who are still deciding, calculating the variables — tuition, time, meeting responsibilities to family, work and community — can be overwhelming. Both types of high performers may be surprised how affordable a Rice MBA actually is.

I’d like to share a range of perspectives on how accessible our programs can be for students who meet the Rice Business criteria for acceptance. As the director of financial services for Rice Business, I’m in charge of showing candidates the many options that can put this superlative education within reach. There are scholarships, financial aid, loans both within the school and outside.

The key concept to know is how individualized paying for a MBA tuition can be. That’s why it’s essential if you aspire to a Rice Business MBA to contact me. Trying to figure out tuition options without help, frankly, is daunting. I’m familiar with the whole field of possibilities for lowering business school costs — and there are many. And I am available one-on-one to find every break that’s there for you.

Student Loan Options

The first question many students have is about loans. There are two types available: federal and private. Federal loans are often times easier to qualify for; but private loans can offer better interest rates. Neither are bad options, but depending on circumstance, one might be best for you overall.

Rice Business Scholarships

Rice Business also grants an impressive roster of merit-based scholarships, largely to full-time MBA students: almost $6.5 million worth in 2022 in a full-time class of about 170 students. We’re  especially proud of our financial support for the full-time MBA program, whose students pause employment for two years: more than 83% of them will receive some form of scholarship. 

Outside the business school, there are still more scholarships available. I can help you find these. This is why I tell candidates to talk to me as early as possible when considering their Rice MBA, in order to take maximum advantage of the options out there. Business school can seem very expensive — but I’ll show you what you’ll actually pay, and especially if you’re a full-time MBA, it’s usually less than the sticker price.

Knowing this can be a decisive factor. For Barkat Syed, in the full-time MBA class of 2020, scholarship support not only helped him cover tuition, it let him to devote full concentration to his studies once he got there. Thanks to a Rice Business scholarship, Syed said, “My family can rest easy knowing that I can take care of myself without my having to put anything on them.”

The Value of Getting an MBA

While considering the actual dollar amount of your education, you’ll also want to know the long-term return on this investment. In an entertaining video, Rice Business Professor James Weston does the math. Walking through the same type of equation you would use making any other major business decision, Weston shows that the ROI of a two-year business education — even without a tuition break — gives a lifetime salary ROI of 20 percent.

Another important part of your business school ROI will be your preparation for the disruptions and unforeseen demands of 21st century business. That’s part of the equation for Rosalee Maffitt, a second-year student in the professional MBA program. While this program does not have the same level of scholarship support as the full-time program, Maffitt chose it because she could earn her salary uninterrupted while positioning herself to advance.  

“Having a career is important to me, and I knew I had specific knowledge gaps in business,” she said. “For example, I'd been in enough situations where my boss asks me to look at a company's financials to deliver a brief, where more formal training would be helpful.” A former professor suggested Rice Business, because she wouldn’t have to leave the workforce to advance through higher level skills and a new network. In fact, Maffitt said, her Rice Business professional cohort has been one of the program’s most distinctive benefits, thanks to her classmates’ life and work experience. 

“The world is changing more quickly than ever,” Maffitt said. “What made me successful 10 years ago will not necessarily make me successful 10 years from now. I firmly believe having robust and strong professional skill-sets are necessary to adapting to change and having more professional choices.”

An Affordable MBA for All Students at Rice Business

For first-generation Americans, women and underrepresented minorities, the selection of tuition options is excellent, said Lina Bell, Rice Business executive director of diversity and inclusion. “Rice Business is not out of people’s reach financially. If you are a competitive applicant who meets the Rice Business criteria, it is likely that it will be financially possible for you,” she said. “We trade on potential. So if you have the leadership, the academic chops and leadership potential — there is funding available.”

Some of this funding, Bell said, comes in partnership with national groups promoting diverse student bodies: Among these are The Forte Foundation, and The Consortium.

“It’s just a whole world of options out there,” Bell said. “Once you take advantage of these opportunities, your Rice MBA can change the trajectory of your career. It can be exponential in terms of your professional success. It can change who you are in the world.” 

Explore Scholarship & Funding Opportunities/a>

Based on research by Yan Anthea Zhang, Yu Li & Wei Shi

• Expanding into foreign markets is tempting, but strategic fit can determine success or disaster. 
• Three company characteristics strongly affect the fate of expansion into a distant or culturally different country: age, size, and state versus private ownership.
• Paradoxically, firms with the resources to handle geographical distance lack the resources to manage cultural distance — and vice versa.

You built your business from the ground up, patiently finding techniques and products that work, carefully crafting solid bonds with your clients. Then one day a new project, opportunity or simple request poses a question: Is it time to branch out overseas?

Of the welter of questions to consider, the first and most important involves location: not just the physical location of the prospective expansion site, but the cultural differences between a firm’s home country and its new destination. Secondly, key company traits need to be considered in choosing the investment locations. Is your firm large or small? Young or old? Finally, of pivotal importance to companies outside the United States: Is your company privately held or state-owned?  

In a recent paper, Rice Business professor Yan Anthea Zhang looked closely at these three variables with Yu Li of the University of International Business and Economics Business School in Beijing, China and Wei Shi of the Miami Business School at the University of Miami. What, the researchers wanted to know, was the relation of these three features and firms’ location choices for their overseas investments? 

To find out, Zhang and her colleagues analyzed 7,491 Chinese firms that had recently ventured into foreign markets with 9,558 overseas subsidiaries. Because China now has become the world’s leading source of foreign direct investments, the sample promised to be instructive. Thanks to the large sample size, researchers could test hypotheses relating to firm size, age, ownership and the impact of geographical and cultural distance on their location choices. 

After studying the elements of geographic distance and cultural distance, Zhang and her colleagues uncovered a paradox. Companies that had an advantage in tackling one dimension of distance were actually disadvantaged — because of the same characteristic — in another dimension.

How, exactly, did this paradox work? Larger firms, with access to more resources, can “experiment with new strategies, new products, and new markets,” the researchers wrote. This large size makes geographic distance less of a concern, but it comes with a ponderous burden of its own. Company culture is directly influenced by the country of origin, Zhang wrote. Transferring that culture into a completely different environment can cause the kind of shock that could lead to failure, even with financial and physical resources to ease the geographical distance. Conversely, smaller firms may be more nimble and able to adapt to needed cultural changes — but lack the resources to make true inroads in a foreign market. 

A similar paradox exists for older and younger firms, Zhang wrote. A younger firm is more likely to adapt to a culturally distant country than an older firm might, even if that youth means that geographical distance is a greater logistical challenge. 

State-owned firms face a similar paradox, one that comes down to the balance of resources against cultural flexibility. A company with state-generated resources may be better equipped to move a caravan people, machinery and materials to a distant new location. However, state-owned companies often typically lack the internal cultural flexibility to handle expansion to a different environment. 

What does this mean for the average manager? Simply that going global demands meticulous weighing of factors. Does your firm have the practical resources to expand overseas? Does your staff have the personal flexibility and willingness to meld company culture with that of a different milieu? It’s a truism that major overseas expansions require money and heavy lifting. Less obviously, managers of successful companies must thread a very fine needle: ensuring they have the material resources to get their business overseas physically, while confirming that company culture is light enough on its feet to thrive in day-to-day life in a new place.

Yan Anthea Zhang is a professor and the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Chair of Strategy in the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University.

To learn more, please see: Li Y., Zhang Y.A., & Shi W. (2019). Navigating geographic and cultural distances in international expansion: The paradoxical roles of firm size, age, and ownership. Strategic Management Journal, 1-29. 

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business believes executive education should be available to all levels, not just senior-level executives.

That philosophy guides the school’s upcoming executive education courses this spring, which include the Corporate Innovation Certificate, May 11-13, and B2B Marketing Strategy: A Customer-Centric Approach, June 9-10. Both courses are grounded in scientifically proven approaches in an interactive learning environment to equip participants with comprehensive and practical frameworks to achieve their goals, program leaders said.

Executive education early in careers, before bad habits are formed, empowers business professionals to not only do their job more effectively but to see how their role fits into the bigger picture, said Michael Koenig, Rice Business associate dean for innovation initiatives and executive director of the school’s executive education program.

“Markets will always go up and down, but one investment always pays long-term dividends — investment in talent development,” said Koenig, who added that the Management Incubator program completes Rice Business’ executive education leadership portfolio, which serves the needs of first-time supervisors through senior executives.

All Rice Business executive education faculty members teach full time in the MBA and Executive MBA programs and have extensive business or consulting experience. These award-winning professors’ real-world understanding and practice provide a depth of comprehension that elevates the experience for their selectively admitted students.

For more information about Rice Business degree programs and executive education, go to https://business.rice.edu.

For more information about and insights from Rice Business faculty research, visit the school’s Rice Business Wisdom website, https://business.rice.edu/wisdom.

Based on research by Marlon Mooijman, Joe Hoover, Ying Lin, Heng Ji and Morteza Dehghani

• It’s possible to predict some violent public protests by tracking social media posts on moral outrage over a triggering event.
• Violence is more likely when social network discussions include groups of like-minded participants. It’s less likely when there is a greater variety of participants.
• Overall social network traffic discussing an event does not predict potential violence, but traffic focusing on the moral wrongness of the event does, especially if it’s not challenged.

Every grade school teacher knows that student conduct can get out of hand, fast, when a group of kids eggs on one individual. Time-outs are a testimony to the power of isolating one 10-year-old from a choir of buddies.

Social media plays a role similar to a gang of hyped-up grade schoolers, providing a community that can express collective disapproval of people or events. When this disapproval has a moral cast ⁠— for example, after a police shooting or the removal of a statue ⁠— the social network’s particular characteristics are key predictors about whether that disapproval will turn violent.

There is a word for the way group support of a belief system makes it seem worth fighting for: moralization. Tracking social network activity now makes it possible to measure the chances for an individual belief to become moralized by a group ⁠— a phenomenon known as moral convergence.

In a recent study in Nature, Rice Business Professor Marlon Mooijman, then at the Kellogg School of Management, joined a team that analyzed when and how violence erupts in protests. In a series of observation and behavior experiments that mixed psychology, organizational theory and computer science, they accurately predicted how violence is influenced by group discussion of moral views on social media. 

The researchers started by studying the number and content of tweets linked to the Baltimore riots in 2015, after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. The researchers then compared these tweets with the number of arrests in a given timeframe, using a methodology developed by Marlon Mooijman and Joe Hoover from the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.

To analyze the tweets responding to Gray’s death, they first separated them into two sets: Those with moral commentary and those without moral judgments.

Next, the researchers tracked whether tweets with moral content increased on days with violent protests. Violence was measured using the number of police arrests, which the researchers compared with the specific timeframes of moral tweets.

There was no major difference in the overall tweet traffic discussing Freddie Gray’s death on days with violent protests and on peaceful days. The number of moralizing tweets, however, clearly correlated with episodes of violent protests, rising to nearly double the moralizing tweets on days with no violence.

This raised a provocative question. Were morally-based tweets a response to the events of the day ⁠— or were they somehow driving the violence?

To find out, Mooijman and Hoover worked with computer scientists Ying Lin and Jeng Ji of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Morteza Dehghani of the University of Southern California to develop algorithms that could establish mathematical probabilities for the results.

For every single-unit increase in moral tweets over a 4-hour period, the researchers found, there was a .25 corresponding increase in arrests.

The researchers then tried to measure the effect of similar moral views ⁠— such as a social media page with self-selected members of a similar political affiliation ⁠— had on violence during protests.

To do so, they set up a second study, which measured participant reactions to the protestors of a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Participants ranked their level of agreement over the morality of protesting the rally.

There was a direct relationship between believing a protest action was moral, the researchers found, and finding violence at that protest acceptable. This relationship held true throughout the study, regardless of political orientation.

The researchers’ next goal was to identify the impact of exposure to people of like beliefs. To do this, participants rated their feelings when they were told that most people in the U.S. shared their views. While the intensity of participants’ moral views created the potential for violence, the researchers found, violence resulted when only actively validated by others with similar views.

Having one’s moral outrage supported by others on social media, the professors concluded, may explain the spike in violence in recent protests.

While respect for privacy remains critical, governments and law enforcement can use the social media trend to pinpoint the moments when moral outrage can turn deadly. Perhaps most importantly, however, the research also suggests practical tactics for calming violent tendencies before they get out of control. To reduce real-life protest violence, they wrote, it’s critical that social media sites include a variety of voices. It’s another reason, if any were needed, that a bit of judicious exposure to other views is healthy for everyone.

Marlon Mooijman is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior. He teaches in the undergraduate business minor program and MBA full-time program.

To learn more, please see: Mooijman, M., Hoover, J., Lin, Y., Ji, H., & Dehghani, M. (2018). Moralization in social networks and the emergence of violence during protests. Nature Human Behavior, 2, 389-396.