Dear friends,

As we wind down the semester, our doctoral candidates displayed their research presentation skills during the 3 Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®), an annual research communication competition sponsored by the WSU Office of the Provost. Students have three minutes and just one slide to present a concise, compelling summary of their thesis, explaining its significance to a non-specialist audience. Each college holds its own challenge, with the winners advancing to the University competition March 28.

This year, six students competed from the following disciplines, with Yaou Hu taking first place and the People’s Choice Award in the Carson College:

Hospitality Business Management

	Yaou Hu: (1st Place – $1,000 prize/People’s Choice Award – $500 prize) Dissertation title: Reexamining Relationship Marketing in Service Context: The Role of Customers’ Attitude Toward Relationship Marketing
	Ruiying Cai: (Runner Up – $500 prize) Dissertation title: The Effects of Color Brightness of Food Picture on Consumers’ Food Evaluations and Purchase Intention

Operations Management

Aishajiang Aizezikali: Dissertation title: Pricing Decision Support Heuristics for Small Enterprises with Perishable Assets

Finance

	Guanzhong Pan: Dissertation title: Pre-Announcement Premium
	Yoshiki Shimizu: Dissertation title: Back to the Futures: When Short Selling is Banned

Marketing

Scott Connors: (Runner Up – $500 prize) Dissertation title: Fostering and Leveraging Consumer Brand Relationships: A Psychological Distance Perspective

I am also proud to report we have three top placements so far from this year’s graduating class; in fact, we have our first “aspirant” placement in about a decade (Ivey Business School). You will see these listed on the PhD Corner webpage, along with a profile on Ismail Karabas, a marketing doctoral candidate, who received the 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. Karabas was recognized for capturing students’ attention in an engaging way and for his overall approachability. Learn more about our outstanding doctoral students and programs in the August edition of eDividend.

Chuck Munson, PhD Program Director