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John Starkey and Erica Shelton (both Business) were instrumental in Starkey's spring BUS 103 class, Business Connections/First Year Seminar, raising $4,054.66 for the National Children's Cancer Society. Shelton, a freshmen business student, took charge and led the class of 21 students in its fundraising efforts. The students hosted tables around campus, spreading awareness and raising money for the cause. In addition, they hosted a fundraising event at Mandalay Bay and also raised funds individually. At the beginning of the semester, the students chose the charity for which it wanted to raise money. According to the is charity's website, since 1987 it has helped more than 40,000 children with cancer and their families by: Providing ongoing emotional support Distributing more than $63 million in financial assistance Educating thousands of survivors and their families with its educational resources

Rachel Farner, Muhammed Thabet, Drew Brunson, Wayman Wittman, Artur Maryamov, Daniel Vargas, Michael Philichi, (all Business), Brian Garrido (Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology), and Albert Antero (Computer Science) were honored at the recent 2017 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition. MBA students Farner, Thabet, and Brunson were named first-place winners in the graduate division. Their winning plan was based on their organization, RAD, which is a new technology to manage knee pain and replacements. Fellow MBA students Wittman, Maryamov, Vargas, and Philichi placed second for their idea called Window Magic, a new use for OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology that will alter the view from hotel guest room windows. In the undergraduate division, Brian Garrido (Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology) and Albert Antero (Computer Science), both of whom are pursuing minors in UNLV Global Entrepreneurship Experience (GEE), garnered second place. They envision their company, GameTrainer, as an esports website where users learn how to improve at video games, and get trained and coached by top-ranking players. Starting with a field of more than three dozen teams, UNLV had eight teams make the semi-finals before taking three of the seven awards at the finals — for a grand total of $55,000 in cash and prizes to be used to bring the ideas to market. The graduate teams were advised by Leith Martin, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, and the undergraduate team was advised by GEE coordinator Janet Runge. All three teams move on to the Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Competition to compete against teams from Nevada, Arkansas, and Oklahoma on May 31.  

Daniel Chi (Finance) is the author of  "The Dynamics of Performance Volatility and Firm Valuation," which was published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.This publication is considered to be an A+ journal. It is well known that riskier firms have lower valuation. But it is equally well known that smaller firms are riskier, yet have higher valuation. How could this be? In the article, Chi shows through a theoretical model (and empirical evidence) that smaller firms have invested in fewer available investment opportunities, that is, they are less diversified, and so more volatile or riskier. Yet, they also have more investment opportunities to invest in the future, and these investment opportunities are reflected by higher valuation. Thus, smaller firms are riskier, yet have higher valuation. 

Hans Rawhouser (Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology) recently had a paper published in Journal of Business Venturing Insights. The paper, titled “Horse and Cart: The Role of Resource Acquisition Order in New Ventures” uses agent-based simulation to give insight about the order in which entrepreneurs should acquire different types of resources. The simulation classifies resources according to their ability to promote search for opportunities or execution of existing opportunities. The simulation indicates that entrepreneurs that first acquire resources (e.g., hiring employees, buying equipment) to execute on a specific opportunity may waste time and effort before realizing the deficiencies of that opportunity, compared to those that acquire resources that enable opportunity validation (e.g., initial market testing). These effects are stronger when the environment is more uncertain and dynamic and it is harder to know whether opportunities are valuable. This research provides initial evidence supporting a recent widespread shift in entrepreneurial education from emphasis on business planning to the use of the lean startup methodology in testing business ideas. Rawhouser teaches both business planning and lean startups at UNLV.