Updated from original post that was published on 12/20/2019.

It’s a big leap, applying for an MBA. While it’s a proven excellent return on your investment, it also poses a daunting question: which business school best suits your career goals?

With our small classes, top-ranked programs, tree-lined campus and collaborative culture, we deliver a truly distinctive MBA. And we stand out among MBA programs in Houston, offering a variety of formats (full-time, professional, executive, online and hybrid) to meet your needs. I’m excited to share these perspectives from current students and recent alumni about what sets Rice Business apart.

Samantha Lewis, Full-Time MBA
A native of New Mexico, Lewis is director of the GOOSE Society of Texas, a venture capital investment group that invests around $10M annually in early-stage startups. During her time at Rice Business she received the Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholarship, the National Association of Women MBA’s scholarship, and the Jones Citizen Award. 

"As a two-time entrepreneur, I went back to get my MBA to learn investing strategies and how to scale companies, and scale massively. Rice Business provided me a fundamental framework to be able to keep up in the fast-paced world of venture capital. The tight-knit program lends itself perfectly to the network-driven entrepreneur and student.

As a student, I was able to take advantage of every single resource Rice Business has to offer in the field of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Rice Alliance, the school’s nationally-recognized initiative to support technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies, put on major events that gave me exposure to startups and investors. It runs the world’s largest and richest graduate student business plan competition. Their venture forums bring 500 to 1,000 investors and startups to Rice to pitch, fund and network. Not only do you have access to these events as a student – you are encouraged to volunteer, which opens many doors."

Keri Sprung, Executive MBA
While earning her MBA, Keri worked as the vice president for communications and education at the Texas Heart Institute. She was the class representative of the Executive MBA program in her first year, co-chair of the student association for executives, Rice Business Board Fellow where she sat on the board of Children at Risk and board member of Emanu El Sisterhood.

"One of my goals was to enhance my critical thinking and decision-making skills. The case-based learning was a challenge for me at first, and by the end of the program, I was able to quickly digest the business cases, identify and summarize the central challenges and make recommendations based on business frameworks we learned in class. 

I am most proud of my extracurricular achievement as our cohort Class Rep and co-chair of our Jones Student Association for Executives. Effectively working with your peers at this stage in your career is a critical skill and this two-year experience provided the perfect leadership laboratory to explore concepts from our coursework and examine my leadership style. My co-chair, Luis Rodriguez, and I overcame many obstacles and challenges behind the scenes. Even though our approaches differed sometimes, we always arrived at a solution together. Many of the issues we tackled have helped me outside of school at work and in my personal life."

Mayank Gulati, Full-Time MBA
A native of Mumbai, Gulati was previously an associate professional at CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation) and is earning his MBA with concentrations in marketing and strategic management. He is treasurer of the Rice Business Marketing Association, vice president of the Technology Association, and an officer of the Rice Business Indo-American Association. 

"I had lived in various cities in India, and it’s a very diverse country to begin with, so I had interacted with people from very different backgrounds but never internationally. So I wasn’t completely confident or sure how that experience would be. But in the very first month at Rice Business I made really good friends — and before I knew it my class became like a family. I visited a friend at a bigger school and he didn’t know a coworker of mine from the same class. It was impossible to know everyone in a school that big. 

The specific factors that set Rice Business apart for me were first, its ranking and reputation [Princeton Review ranked Rice Business #1 in Entrepreneurship programs and #5 in Finance] and then its student-teacher ratio. The third thing that set Rice apart was its location in Houston, the 2nd most diverse city in the U.S. I want to be a global citizen instead of just being focused on my home country, and I think interacting with people from so many backgrounds sets me up for success."

Doug Fiefia, Full-time MBA
Originally from Salt Lake City, Fiefia was previously a manager of corporate sales development at software company Workday. At Rice Business, he is earning his MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and strategic management. He is president of the Jones Student Association and a Rice Business Board Fellow.

"What sets Rice Business apart is the close, tight-knit community. One example: recently a bad storm caused a power outage at an apartment building where many MBA students lived. Within ten minutes, the rest of the class came together and created a list of people willing to give rides and of students willing to host other students for the night. Community isn't something we just say, it’s something we live.

We have so many talented people from all over the world, who speak many languages, worked for top companies, represent many industries, received many awards and accolades, but are still very humble and willing to help anyone out if they are needed."

Adrian Dever, Professional MBA
Adrian, a Texas native, worked as the associate asset manager at EDF Renewables throughout his MBA program. He strived to transition to management consulting, and was very involved in the program. In addition to being a first year representative for Out and Allied and the Professional MBA liaison for the Arts Club, he was also a member of the Black Business Student Association, CleanTech Association, Consulting Association, The Adam Smith Society, Energy Association, Board Fellows and the Wine Club. 

“The professors at Rice Business are world-renowned, so I did not expect to have unlimited access to them. Whether it is to gain more insight into the lecture material, or just have a one-on-one chat to learn more about their background, the professors always find time to answer your questions.

I have met so many wonderful people in this program and I have developed life-long friendships that I will always treasure. Being in this program provides countless opportunities to engage and connect. Holiday parties, volunteering events and flag football competitions are just a few opportunities to bond. If you prefer a more casual environment to connect with your classmates, you can always make friends at Valhalla – the graduate student bar on campus.”
 

Stacy Fish, Full-time MBA
Born and raised in Houston, Fish graduated from UT Austin and previously worked as an operations project analyst at Houston Methodist Hospital. At Rice Business, she will graduate with a concentration in marketing and recently accepted a position with United Airlines in pricing/revenue management. She is president of the Rice Business Women’s Organization and an officer in the Marketing Association. 

"I went to a really big undergraduate school, where I was a small fish in a very large pond. I was looking for a graduate school experience that was more close-knit, where the professors knew who I was, and I knew my classmates. Having grown up in Houston I knew Rice Business was a great school. You know the resources and the faculty here are incredible. But what I didn’t know until I came here for an open house was how close and collaborative the program was and what that means in terms of your experience. 

Everyone has each other's back. I think in a really big school it’s easy to say something is someone else's problem or someone else will volunteer for things, especially with clubs and student leadership. Here, you’re really encouraged to take on leadership positions right away and you get a lot of support. One of the first things I did was get involved with the student-run Women in Leadership conference. After doing that and seeing how powerful and fulfilling it was I decided to run for president of the women’s organization. That is not something I ever really thought I would do. But here it's kind of all hands on deck. All of our voices are heard. They matter."

Pierre Aristide, EMBA
Pierre was born in Haiti and came to the United States at the age of 13. Prior to joining the Rice MBA, he attended Adelphi University for English and political science and Hofstra University for a degree in military science, and he served in the U.S. Armed Forces for 27 years. Despite being diagnosed with Leukemia during COVID, he managed to complete the MBA program and maintain relationships with his cohort through various zoom activities. 

“I always wanted to pursue an MBA, but it never seemed to be the right time, especially when one is attempting to raise a family. Upon setting up my business, it became obvious that I needed to have a better understanding of how to develop, scale and manage it. My military training taught me how to make decisions that require on-the-spot risk analysis, which, in our business, is the difference between life or death. As an entrepreneur, I was looking to develop similar abilities as in the military to make business decisions to better lead employees and grow my business. As such, I chose Rice Business because it had the right program and happens to be ranked, four years in a row, as the No. 1 Entrepreneurial studies business school in the nation.

However, after attending the program, I quickly realized there was more to the Rice Business program than just the ranking. The culture is different than I’d ever experienced. I met so many personal and professional life-long friends who supported me and my family during some of the health challenges I experienced during my two years in the program.”
 

Kendall Toarmina, Full-time MBA
Toarmina earned both her bachelor’s and master’s at Rice. While earning her MBA at Rice Business, she founded the school’s first-ever Diversity And Inclusion Conference, and she currently leads the university's LGBTQ alumni association. Toarmina was named a Woman of Power by Outsmart Magazine the year she earned her MBA. She is now a management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. 

"What I felt set the Rice Business experience apart from many business schools was how inclusive the atmosphere was of our families and significant others. As a business student, I couldn't have succeeded without my friends and classmates, but I also couldn't have done it without the support of my personal circle. 

The program created opportunities for that circle to understand my experience and be a part of it — through the partios [the business school’s signature afternoon courtyard parties], family day events and other receptions and programs. All of these allowed my significant other to meet my professors and classmates, see my classrooms and hear about what I was learning."

Ashley H. John, Full-Time MBA
A native of Missouri City, John graduated with a major in urban studies from Stanford University and previously worked as alumni coordinator at an educational nonprofit. At Rice Business, she is earning her MBA with a concentration in marketing. She is vice president of the Technology Association, officer of the Rice Business Black Business Student Association and Rice Consortium Chapter.  

"I did a lot of researching. I was looking for programs that had a strong community that were interested in social impact as well. And I was interested in financial aid. Coming from the education field, it’s not like I had a whole bunch saved up for school. Sometimes we don’t like to talk about finances, but it’s a really big investment to go back to school. Rice Business by far had the best scholarship package of all the schools I looked at. I know many of my classmates receive some form of aid too. 

Being from Houston, I know that even though Rice is in the middle of the city, it can seem out of reach. In fact, it is very down to earth: everybody here has been wonderful and very humble, even though they’re very accomplished. The Rice admissions department was transparent and seemed very invested in my growth and success. That was the driving factor for me. They have this tag line, “You belong here.” And it felt like I really did."

Yu-Cheng Hsu, Professional MBA
Yu-Cheng came to Houston from his hometown of Seattle, Washington. He transitioned his B.S. in chemistry to focus on the energy transition, and he used his MBA to further his education in that industry.Yu-Cheng was a member of the Asian Business Student Association, Energy Association, Board Fellows, and also led the very successful second annual Rice Cleantech Innovation Competition as a member of the Cleantech Association. 

“What I love most about Houston is the diverse food options available across the city from the Woodlands to Katy to Bellaire and other parts of town. Houston has been known as the energy capital, but what Houston is most known for is the southern hospitality – the warm, welcoming attitude to invite new citizens and tourists. Houston has been expanding at a rapid rate, and more cultural food options will be available for Houstonians. With a cultural awareness in Houston, the community is supportive of one another and will help during disaster events.”

As for his time working full time, managing family time and taking courses, Yu-Cheng was “surprised that I can manage my full-time job while studying and meeting up with my teammates on the weekends and attending other extracurricular activities. I believe this has pushed my limits above and beyond and realize the capabilities that I have to be successful.”

Explore Our Rice MBA Programs

Students and recent alums with “million-dollar ideas” are invited to apply for the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s business idea competition.

Applications for the 2020 H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge (NRLC) Startup Competition, which will award Rice-affiliated teams with $60,000 in prize money, will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. Jan. 20. Finalists, who will be announced Jan. 29, must submit a second application by Feb. 9. The top proposals will be announced Feb. 14, and final presentations will be given March 25.

At least one member of each team must be a current Rice student or an alum who has graduated in the last five years. The team member affiliated with must be an active contributing member to the team serving beyond an advisory role and must give the final presentation if selected as a finalist.

The competition is funded in part by a donation from Dacia and Lanham Napier and is named for Lanham’s father, Al Napier, one of the founders of the globally recognized entrepreneurship program at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Al Napier, professor emeritus of entrepreneurship and psychology, retired in 2017. He began teaching at Rice Business in 1982 and, together with the late Edward Williams, professor emeritus of entrepreneurship, is credited with introducing students to entrepreneurial skills through experience-based learning long before the academic discipline of entrepreneurship had been established and before most universities were teaching the subject.

Today, Rice Business has the No. 1 graduate entrepreneurship program in the U.S. according to rankings by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine, and the school offers more than 30 courses taught by professors with significant entrepreneurial experience.

Over the past decade, alumni have created 535 businesses and raised $7.1 billion in funding, according to the school’s surveys. More than 80% of those companies are still operating.

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is a cross-disciplinary initiative to provide students from across the university with an entrepreneurial mindset, which is increasingly critical to success. Lilie features a coworking space for students, entrepreneurship courses and a variety of co-curricular activities and resources supporting Rice students in entrepreneurial endeavors.

Contact Emily Messenger at emm12@rice.edu with questions about the application process or event.

The Rice Business Plan Competition, the world’s richest and largest student venture competition, had six of its recent alumni startups featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2020, an annual compilation of the most innovative and exciting young entrepreneurs in the United States and Canada.

Vita Inclinata was the top prize winner in the 2019 RBPC, winning a total of $550,000 from the competition and local investors. spotLESS Materials and Rhaeos were overall third and fourth place, respectively, and AeroShield and EnKoat, both cleantech companies, placed in the semifinal round.

A competitor from 2018, Sanguina (formerly Lunula Health), was also included in the list.

“I am thrilled that our alumni startups are being recognized for their achievements and that the RBPC has been a part of their entrepreneurial journey,” Santamaria said.

The RBPC is hosted annually at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Applications for the 2020 Rice Business Plan Competition, to be held March 26-28, are now open. Any interested graduate student startups are welcome to apply. Eligibility requirements are at www.rbpc.rice.edu.

About the Rice Business Plan Competition

The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest student startup competition. Forty-two startups from across the globe compete in front of over 300 investor and industry judges. The competition awarded more than $2.9 million in prizes in 2019 and is supported by more than 140 corporate, government and investor sponsors. Over the life of the competition, now in its 20th year, participating teams have successfully launched 229 companies and raised more than $2.3 billion in funding.

The RBPC is one of the many entrepreneurship programs offered by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, one of the country’s premier initiatives devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies. The Rice Alliance is led by managing director Brad Burke.

Since its founding, the Rice Alliance’s activities have benefited more than 2,400 startups that have raised more than $8 billion in funding. Over 52,000 investors and corporate and industry leaders have participated in Rice Alliance in Technology Venture Forums in energy and clean tech, digital technology and life sciences, and other programs.

Rice Business, home to the Rice Alliance, has the No. 1 graduate entrepreneurship program in the U.S., according to the 2020 rankings announced Nov. 12 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

Based on research by Erik Dane

• A cascade of literature attests to the power of mindfulness on performance.
• But the benefits of mindfulness depend on context.
• Because different aspects of mindfulness have built-in limitations, the practice can actually backfire in the wrong settings.

Much has been written in academic literature, the press and the media about the miracle of mindfulness. The benefits are said to range from simply feeling better to measurably doing better at work. Companies around the world have taken note: Cisco, Accenture and Microsoft, among others, have signed employees up for mindfulness training, and their managers have rhapsodized about the effects of digital-free brainstorming or “to be” lists. 

It’s not just a fad. Being more mindful, the literature shows, improves decision making. It helps us spot and circumvent risks or problems, and because it broadens perspective, it helps muffle internal bias, empowering us to see things from different angles. Former Rice Business Professor Erik Dane agrees with all this, but wants you to bear something in mind: Mindfulness has limits. 

In a recent article, Dane outlined a range of circumstances in which mindfulness can actually erode performance. Reviewing a broad spectrum of recent research, including his own, Dane divided mindfulness into three key components: being in the moment, being aware of internal as well as external stimuli, or “phenomena,” and being open and accepting. While each component offers clear benefits, there are also limits to their usefulness.

Consider, for example, the concept of focusing on the present. With high-risk, complex or volatile jobs or work settings, it’s critical to watch closely as events unfold in real time. On the other hand, during periods of downtime ⁠— even in these same jobs ⁠— the opposite is arguably true. 

Recent research shows the benefits of switching off and allowing the mind to wander, Dane notes. Daydreaming is a strong driver of creativity, a chance to ponder semi-completed or pending tasks and to plan for the future. When we’re doing routine or ceremonial jobs, or traveling from one appointment to the next, what Dane calls “mind-wandering” can actually enhance performance, especially for those people who need to manage multiple assignments or lead innovation within an organization. 

Then there is the second tenet of mindfulness: a combined focus on external and internal stimuli. In his own research, Dane has explored how this dual focus leads to greater breadth of attention ⁠— an asset for the likes of trial lawyers, university professors and others whose jobs involve integrating cues and inputs from an array of sources. A litigation attorney, for instance, needs to simultaneously process the responses of witnesses and jury members, while a professor needs to balance the progress of her lecture with feedback from her students. 

But what about when the lawyer needs to prepare case documents or courtroom exhibits? Or when the professor is marking her students’ exam papers? In these instances, Dane argues, a single-minded focus ⁠— free of pesky distractions ⁠— improves the ability to perform the task at hand.

Similarly, Dane argues, the third tenet of mindfulness ⁠— being open and accepting ⁠— can sometimes be less useful than being judgmental. Citing research into what he calls “moral judgments,” a type of decision that plays a key role in social or organizational settings, Dane notes that such judgments arise from experience. Switching them off through mindfulness practices may not only be difficult to do ⁠— it may squelch valuable, real-life insight. 

This doesn’t mean we should strive any less to understand or empathize with others. But, Dane says, it’s worth recalling that judgments carry “information distilled through experience and serve notice that discipline, training or mentoring may be needed.”

Embracing mindfulness as a blanket approach, in other words, is unlikely to change your performance across the board. Just be mindful, Dane advises, about when, where and how to cut your thinking loose ⁠— and act.

Erik Dane is a former professor and was the Distinguished Associate Professor of Management (Organizational Behavior) at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

To learn more, please see: Dane, E. (2015). Mindfulness and performance: Cautionary notes on a compelling concept. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8, 247-252.

A key decision companies face when expanding overseas is where to set up shop. Although businesses generally refrain from expanding to geographically and culturally distant countries, the importance of such considerations varies based on a company’s size and adaptability.

New research focused on Chinese companies conducted by Rice University strategic management expert Yan “Anthea” Zhang and colleagues shows foreign countries that seem to be good fits in terms of geographic distance may be cultural misfits, and vice versa.

Larger, older and state-owned companies are better positioned to absorb additional operating costs such as travel and transportation, but they’re less adaptable to foreign countries’ local environments than smaller, younger and non-state-owned companies. The researchers found the former are less deterred by geographic distance than the latter.

“We propose that size, age and ownership play paradoxical roles in how firms evaluate locations in their foreign direct investments location choices,” wrote Zhang and co-authors Yu Li of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and Wei Shi of the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School. “We test these arguments in the context of Chinese firms’ international expansion. Chinese firms, supported by a large home market, have recently become an important source of foreign direct investments.”

The study will be published in the Strategic Management Journal.

Using a large sample of Chinese companies’ foreign direct investment location choices between 2001 and 2013, the researchers found strong support for their theoretical arguments.

Far away locations may be less of an issue for larger, older and state-owned companies, but high organizational inertia can make them less adaptable to “culturally distant” hosts, the researchers said. Accordingly, cultural distance would be less concerning for smaller, younger and non-state-owned companies making foreign direct investment location decisions.

“Our study shows that firm size, firm age and state ownership can affect foreign direct investment location choices because these firm attributes are associated with distinct capabilities to cope with geographic and cultural distances,” the authors wrote.

“In addition, our findings have important practical implications for managers of firms that are new to international expansion yet aspire to go global,” they wrote. “Our findings can improve their understanding of how geographic distance and cultural distance may differentially affect their foreign direct investment location choices, so that they can better assess their firms’ relative advantages and disadvantages in dealing with various challenges in international expansion.”

Zhang is professor and the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Chair of Strategic Management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

For a copy of the study, “Navigating Geographic and Cultural Distances in International Expansion: The Paradoxical Roles of Firm Size, Age and Ownership,” email jfalk@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.

Follow Rice Business via Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Zhang bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/yan-anthea-zhang

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, one of the country’s premier initiatives devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies, hosted a special event Dec. 5 to unveil its new offices, the 3,000-square-foot Bill and Stephanie Sick Suite.

Located on the first floor of McNair Hall, the home of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, the space was made possible through a $1 million gift by Rice engineering alumnus William “Bill” Sick and his wife, Stephanie. Bill Sick was one of the first supporters and mentors to the Rice Alliance during the organization’s formation in 2000.

Speakers included Rice President David Leebron, Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez and Rice Alliance Managing Director Brad Burke, who is pictured below with Bill and Stephanie Sick.

Also in attendance were Reginald DesRoches, Rice’s William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering, and Rice Vice Provost for Research Yousif Shamoo.

(Photos by Jeff Fitlow)

Based on research by Haiyang Li, Xiwei Y and Geng Cui

• Emerging markets such as China are increasing their outbound foreign direct investment.
• Inbound foreign investment can help firms by boosting knowledge.
• Firms looking to expand globally need to ensure that their organizational resources are adaptable to new markets. 

When foreigners invest in emerging markets, the prospect for those markets’ local businesses looks bright. The payoffs for a country’s companies can range from injections of foreign capital to better managerial talent, technological sophistication and international know-how. But does foreign investment ever push local firms to venture into international projects of their own?

Rice Business professor Haiyang Li looked closely at the ripple effects of foreign investments, and concluded it all depends on the local businesses’ adaptability. That — and their appetite for risk. 

Together with Xiwei Yi of Peking University and Geng Cui of Lingan University, Hong Kong, Li launched a large-scale study of Chinese manufacturers to better understand how multinational investment in domestic companies influences the global market. 

The subject was ripe for analysis. Over the past decade, more and more companies in China and other emerging markets have been testing the waters of direct investment in other countries in sectors as varied as food and beverages, apparel, electronics and transportation equipment. 

Li’s team hypothesized that these emerging market companies were leveraging benefits that foreign investment had ferried into their home markets. This investment, the researchers theorized, had brought in useful resources and skills, which helped ease the local companies into international business markets. 

To confirm this, the team needed to test whether the converse was true: Might information gained from foreign investors actually dull a local firm’s interest in branching out overseas? Maybe the risks of that type of venture — which are higher for firms in emerging markets — would seem too stark. 

To find out, the researchers first vetted the literature on inward and outward investment activities. How, they wanted to know, did domestic firms interact with foreign players in the technology or product importing process? In equipment manufacturing? In franchising and licensing, mergers and acquisitions and activities such as setting up subsidiaries? 

Working with a global research company, Li and his colleagues next surveyed 1,500 Chinese businesses in the food, clothing, electronics and vehicle industries. (Firms in finance, banking, natural resources and business services were ruled out because of their government ties, and also because such organizations usually use fewer resources, which made them harder to evaluate.)

Each company that took part in the survey rated how much they engaged with foreign investors in activities such as importing products and services or forming joint ventures. They also indicated if dealing with foreign direct investment had brought them foreign capital, advanced manufacturing know-how, managerial experience or competitive insight into overseas business. 

The researchers also measured the “fungibility” of these firms’ resources — in other words, how easily could their organizational, cultural and technological resources be adapted to various geographical settings? 

Finally, managers rated how risk-prone they thought their firms were. 

After Li and his coauthors processed the answers, they found several links between foreign investment in domestic firms and local companies’ internationalization efforts.

First, there was a positive relationship between the local gains from foreign investment and a firm’s interest in internationalization projects. While this effect was indirect, it was amplified when foreign investment gave a firm new capabilities that made it more adaptable. In other words, the Chinese companies whose contact with foreign multinationals made them more adaptable in general were better positioned to prosper in ventures abroad.

This stands to reason, the researchers note. That’s because by its very nature foreign investment sparks awareness of new opportunities: Every business trip, plant visit or negotiation with foreign partners is a hands-on lesson in international trade.

But the researchers also uncovered a significant downside to foreign investment for local Chinese firms. When a project was considered high-risk, such as a merger or establishment of a wholly owned subsidiary, the local firms were less prone to venture abroad. This adverse effect was worse for firms that labeled themselves risk-averse, probably because exposure to foreign investors only made the risks of internationalizing clearer.

These findings add important detail to the way foreign investment can affect their local partners’ own international plans — for good and ill.  Already, businesses in emerging markets are used to optimizing resources, wrangling diverse idioms and artisans and adapting logistically to get their products to market. That nimbleness, Li and his colleagues propose, should also be seen as a globalization tool. For businesses in emerging markets, the researchers conclude, day-to-day technical ability is actually less important than cultural and organizational flexibility — and applying lessons learned from foreign investors to their own projects abroad. 

In other words, for firms in emerging markets, globalization is not just a path to new markets. It’s a way to study interactions with foreign firms while on their home turf — and learn how to apply those lessons abroad. 

Haiyang Li is a professor of Strategic Management and Innovation at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

To learn more, please see: Li, H., Yi, X. & Cui, G. (2017). Emerging market firms’ internationalization: How do firms’ inward activities affect their outward activities? Strategic Management Journal, 38, 2704–2725.

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, one of the country’s premier initiatives devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies, will host a special event Dec. 5 to unveil its new offices, the 3,000-square-foot Bill and Stephanie Sick Suite.

Located in McNair Hall, the home of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, the space was made possible through a $1 million gift by Rice engineering alumnus William “Bill” Sick and his wife, Stephanie. Bill Sick was one of the first supporters and mentors to the Rice Alliance during the organization’s formation in 2000. The Sicks will attend the event.

What: Unveiling and ribbon-cutting for the new home of the Rice Alliance, the Bill and Stephanie Sick Suite.

Who: Speakers will be Rice President David Leebron, Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez and Rice Alliance Managing Director Brad Burke.

Also in attendance will be Reginald DesRoches, Rice’s William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering, and Rice Vice Provost for Research Yousif Shamoo.

When: 1:30-2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5. The Rice Alliance open house and holiday party will follow the remarks and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Where: Rice University, McNair Hall, Suite 103 (first floor), 6100 Main St. Parking is available in the Central Campus Garage. For directions, see http://business.rice.edu/directions-and-parking.

Members of the news media who want to attend should RSVP to Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

About the Bill and Stephanie Sick Suite
A triptych by local Houston artist DUAL, commissioned by Rice Alliance for the 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition, greets visitors to the new suite and honors Rice Alliance with images from campus and pictures of its supporters. DUAL has been featured in a number of exhibitions by some of the top names in the Houston art scene, including Gallery M Squared, Cardoza Fine Art, Colton and Farb Gallery and Station Museum of Contemporary Art. Most recently, DUAL created a 4-by-184-foot mural at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark in Buffalo Bayou Park.

The new, modern suite is accented by soothing greens and inviting spaces for entrepreneurial-minded students to collaborate. A neon sign from Houston artist Tim Walker of The Neon Gallery adorns the entrance wall. Gensler is the architect and b. bell builders served as the general contractor.

As a nod to Houston’s history as a city supportive of entrepreneurship, mosaic tile flooring from the Blue Tile Project is also inlaid in the space. These custom tiles in the style of Houston’s historic blue street tiles connect Rice Alliance to its mission of promoting local business initiatives.

About the Rice Alliance
Since its founding, the Rice Alliance’s activities have benefited more than 2,400 startups that have raised more than $8 billion in funding. Over 52,000 investors and corporate and industry leaders have participated in Rice Alliance in Technology Venture Forums in energy and clean tech, digital technology and life sciences, and other programs.

The Rice Business Plan Competition is the world’s richest and largest student startup competition. Forty-two startups from across the globe compete in front of over 300 investor and industry judges. The competition awarded more than $2.9 million in prizes in 2019 and is supported by more than 140 corporate, government and investor sponsors. Over the life of the competition, participating teams have successfully launched 229 companies and raised more than $2.3 billion in funding.

Burke, who has served as managing director of the Rice Alliance since 2001, is also executive director of the Rice-based Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, which represents 250 university entrepreneurship programs around the globe.

Rice’s startup accelerator, OwlSpark, which is managed by the Rice Alliance, was founded in 2013 and offers an intensive summer experience that provides teams of students, faculty and recent alumni with the education, mentorship, space and networking opportunities required to launch their companies. OwlSpark is led by the Rice Alliance’s Kerri Smith and Jessica Fleenor.

Rice Business has the No. 1 graduate entrepreneurship program in the U.S., according to the 2020 rankings announced Nov. 12 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

Related materials:

Follow the Rice Alliance via Twitter @RiceAlliance.

Follow Rice Business via Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.