Focus on Faculty Research

Darrell Brown, Ph.D. and Scott Marshall, Ph.D.

Darrell Brown, Ph.D.

Darrell Brown has a B.S. in Forestry from University of Montana, an MBA from University of Montana, and an Accounting Ph.D. from University of Utah. Dr. Brown teaches accounting information systems and managerial accounting. His current research interests include the factors that affect decision makers' reliance on decision aids and the relationship between measurement issues and organizations' movement towards sustainable development. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Information Systems and the International Journal of Information Systems.

Scott Marshall, Ph.D.

R. Scott Marshall has a B.A. in business economics, Willamette University; an M.A. in international business, George Washington University; and, a Ph.D. in international strategy, University of Oregon. Dr. Marshall teaches business strategy, international management, and global strategy. His research is in the areas of international strategy, environmental strategy and trust in interorganizational relationships.

Grant Information

Drs. Brown and Marshall, together with a colleague from the University of Utah, received a grant from KPMG in 2003 to study the relationship between corporate voluntary environmental disclosures and the cost of equity capital. The study is based on environmental disclosure information collected from corporate sustainability reports, annual reports and 10-K filings by firms across five industries over a 3-year time period. The study arose from ongoing conversations about environmental and corporate responsibility issues between Drs. Marshall and Brown who share common interests in the area. KPMG's interests derive from an attempt to find and evaluate alternative measures of corporate performance that may be useful to their clients. Marshall's and Brown's hypothesis is that companies that disclose environmental policies beyond that which is required by law may be perceived as less risky by analysts and, thus, have a lower cost of equity capital than firms which do not. This lower cost of equity capital translates to reduced financing costs for a firm. In terms of their broad research interests, Dr. Marshall is focusing on the strategic aspects of corporate sustainability in areas such as methods for implementing environmental management initiatives, and reasons for and performance implications of adopting environmental related certifications while Dr. Brown is studying the accounting and financial impacts of corporate environmental reporting policies. The first draft of this study is projected to be completed by mid to late August.

Jesse Dillard, Ph.D., Retzlaff Chair in Accounting

Dr. Jesse Dillard received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, and his Master of Science Management and Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Clemson University. Dr. Dillard joins the faculty of the School of Business as a Professor of Accounting from the University of Central Florida where he served as the KPMG Professor of Accounting. His research, which includes more than 100 published articles, books and reviews, focuses on behavioral analysis of accounting practices, with specific emphasis on public interest responsibilities, ethical structures, and information systems in accounting. Dr. Dillard's research in these areas has been published in leading academic journals such as the Accounting, Organizations, and Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Journal of Information Systems. Dr. Dillard is also the founding editor of Accounting and the Public Interest. Dr. Dillard is the second recipient of the Retzlaff Chair in Accounting, which was endowed through a generous donation from the Estate of Herbert Retzlaff to support faculty in the area of Accounting.

Dr. Dillard's most recent work with in the area of corporate sustainability studies the effectiveness of using information systems to provide a framework for managers that includes environmental issues into decision making criteria. Computer based accounting information systems provide the information needed to manage organizational activities. Environmental risks and environmental stewardship are concepts receiving increased attention as progressively managed firms attempt to articulate and manage business risk and environmental risk. Accounting information systems must respond to these emerging environmentally related requirements in order to adequately support management's information needs. The purpose of the study is to identify the information sets associated with alternative strategies used by management for framing and responding to environmental issues over a range of decision impact horizons. The matrix provides a tool useful in identifying the information to be collected, stored, analyzed, and reported in developing environmentally attuned accounting information systems.

Melissa Appleyard, Ph.D., Ames Professor in the Management of Innovation and Technology

Melissa Appleyard Ph.D., Ames Professor of Management of Innovation and Technology, is overseeing PSU's participation in the innovative Lab2Market project. Initiated from an award from the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Innovation (PFI), it is the first such PFI program awarded in Oregon.

Lab2Market is a three-year $600,000 initiative that will facilitate the commercialization of novel technologies, forge networks between private sector business expertise and world class research at Oregon's universities, and foster innovation in the state. A Venture Mentoring component will encourage and guide start-up companies. Over 25 partners including business leaders, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon State University and University of Oregon, are participating in Lab2Market.

Appleyard holds a B.A. from UCLA and a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley. She is one of the first Ames Professors in the Management of Innovation and Technology, teaches technology management and strategy, and is an integral part of the MBA program's Innovation Management option. This option is aimed at producing business leaders educated in new product introduction, entrepreneurial activities, and commercialization of new technologies.

Appleyard also serves as a research fellow of U.C. Berkeley's Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Center, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her research focuses on how knowledge creation and diffusion catalyze economic growth and business longevity in technology-intensive industries. Over the past decade, she has concentrated on the global semiconductor industry's ability to achieve perpetual innovation in design, process integration, and manufacturing. Appleyard's work has been published in leading academic journals such as Industrial Relations, the Journal of Product Innovation Management, and the Strategic Management Journal. She also has worked with leading companies on business cases for MBA and Executive courses.

Published pieces include

"The Influence of Knowledge Accumulation on Buyer-Supplier Co-development Projects," (2003) The Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 20, No. 5: 356-373.

"Employment Practices and Semiconductor Manufacturing Performance," with Brown, C., (2001) Industrial Relations, Vol. 40, No. 3:436-471.

Sully Taylor, Ph.D. Director, Masters in International Management

Mary Sullivan Taylor, International Human Resource Management, has a B.A. from Southern Methodist University, an M.A.T. from School for International Training, an M.A. from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Dr. Taylor teaches international management, global human resource management, and women in business. Her research interests include international human resource management, global organizational learning, and the management of women expatriates.

In combination with others, Dr. Taylor received ICEDR-funded research money in the amount of $318,000 for the Organizational Competitiveness project. This project is designed to explore the roles played by organizational culture and human resource management practices in fostering competitiveness in multinational corporations. The proposed program involves a multicultural and interdisciplinary research team, encompasses two research phases, and employs a variety of techniques, including face-to-face interviews, survey administration, and feedback sessions. The sample for this study consists of 11 companies (35 research sites) headquartered in 8 countries across the US, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The primary research methods consist of semi-structured face-to-face interviews with line and HRM executives and administration of a written survey questionnaire to a random stratified sample of all employees. In addition to the interviews and survey questionnaire, extensive archival company research of these companies' histories, strategies, and operations will be conducted on each participating firm. Finally, a survey will be administered to industry analysts to assess outside experts' opinions on the current and expected long-term capability and performance of each company in the sample.

The researchers intend this work to be a bridge between theory and practice, as exemplified by the active participation of senior executives during the model building phase of the project and the testing of the model in fifteen multinational companies from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Ultimately, this project will not only develop theory and an empirical base to understand the roles of organizational culture and human resource management in the competitiveness of multinational firms, but also provide valuable feedback and analysis in a timely manner to help firms enhance their global organizational competitiveness.

Tom Gillpatrick, Ph.D., Juan Young Professor of Marketing & Food Management; Richard Sapp, Ph.D., Associate Dean for International Programs

Tom Gillpatrick, Ph.D. Juan Young Professor of Marketing & Food Management

With a Marketing B.S. from California State University, Bakersfield, an M.B.A. from Utah State University, and a Ph.D. from University of Oregon, Dr. Gillpatrick is the Juan Young Professor in Marketing & Food Management. He teaches courses on competition and strategy in the food industry, international marketing, new product marketing, and marketing strategy. His recent publications have been in these areas and market research and measurement methods. He is the faculty advisor for the Food Industry Management Program and for the SBA's summer program in Italy.

Richard Sapp, Ph.D. Associate Dean for International Programs

Richard Sapp, CPA, has a B.B.A. from University of Toledo, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Houston. Dr. Sapp's teaching interests include performance measurement, product costing, and managerial accounting. His research interests are strategic product costing and service costing. He is very interested in international student and faculty exchanges and serves on the Oregon/Baden-Wurtemberg Exchange Board. He also serves as the director of the SBA's study abroad efforts. Students who are interested in either study abroad or global internships are encouraged to contact Dr. Sapp. He has worked, lectured, or traveled in over 50 countries on five continents. During Winter and Spring 2003, he will be the resident business faculty member on the Semester at Sea ship. Dr. Sapp's hobbies include sailing, woodworking, photography and international travel.

Grant Information

Together Professors Gillpatrick and Sapp received FIPSE grant, #P116J70056, I-PIRL 2000: A TransAtlantic Project to Create a New Paradigm for the Development of International Business Skills. In total, they received $50,000.00. The grant came from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education FIPSE International Consortia Programs. The partners were Montana State University and Virgina Commonwealth University.

The program involved a partnership between PSU, MSU and VCU with the University of Galway, the Ecole de Superiore Marseilles, and University of Ulster to facilitate transatlantic student & faculty exchanges. They conducted a series of real time interactive video conferences and interactive classes between multiple partners, and sent more than 300 faculty and students abroad.

Robert Harmon, Ph.D., professor of Marketing; David Raffo, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Supply Logistics Management

Robert Harmon, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing

After earning his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Marketing, Psychology, and Information Systems and other faculty affiliations including Arizona State University, American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), and the Oregon Executive MBA Program, Dr. Harmon is now the Professor of Marketing and Technology Management at Portland State University. He has served two terms as Chairman of the Marketing Department. He teaches courses in technology marketing, marketing strategy and product development. Dr. Harmon is a recipient of the Oregon State Legislature's Faculty Excellence Award and the Earl Wantland Teaching Excellence Award at Portland State. He was an American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

David Raffo, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Supply Logistics Management

Following completion of his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Dr. Raffo currently holds the position of Associate Professor at Portland State University. He has a joint appointments in the School Business Administration (Information Systems and Supply & Logistics Management) and in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (Department of Computer Science). Dr. Raffo's research interests include: Software Process Design, Financial Analysis of Software Engineering Decisions, Process Simulation, and Value Based Software Engineering. Dr. Raffo has over thirty refereed publications in the field of software engineering and is co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Software Process: Improvement and Practice.

Grant Information

Dr. Harmon and Dr. Raffo received the Value-Based Software Engineering for Small Business grant sponsored by "Small Firm Collaborative R&D: Value-Based Software Engineering for Small Business", National Science Foundation, 1999-2002, in the amount of $250,000. The grant research seeks to link critical software architecture design decisions to the business goals affected by those decisions. VBSE brings together recent research in Customer Value Analysis (CVA), software architecture, and process modeling and improvement. The goal of the research is to develop and validate a set of lightweight analyses and software development processes that allow small-business software developers to move systematically from an understanding of strategic business goals to a software architecture that supports those goals over the long term. VBSE seeks to develop models of a systematic process for analyzing customer value, casting the results in terms of architectural quality requirements, and then developing architectural structures that satisfy those requirements. Work under this proposal has developed a process model and methodology for small business software development that integrates advanced product-line and architecture technologies from software engineering, with the business administration discipline of customer value engineering. The processes have been developed in collaboration with a small-business partner, Timberline Software of Beaverton, Oregon.