Academic Plan
Prepared by the Faculty of the School of Management
Our Motivation and Rationale
The rapid convergence of technology into business has created demand for a new generation of business professionals, corporate leaders and academic scholars. Within its STEM-‐based academic environment, the School of Management is creating distinctive, high-‐ valued academic programs that are business-‐focused, technology-‐integrated and experientially driven to educate and prepare our students to be not only competitive in today’s business world, but also to excel and be leaders in the future.
Executive Summary
The School of Management (SOM) developed the 2015 Academic Plan to serve as a strategic roadmap toward the future goals and expectations of the school to clearly differentiate SOM’s programs, leverage strengths across the university, and align directly with the NJIT mission and 2020 Vision strategic priorities. The Academic Plan also provides important background information and a clear and compelling vision to share with others across the university and beyond.
The Academic Plan is bold and aggressive and begins with an expanded vision statement for the school, outlining new strategies and priorities for SOM designed to achieve greater integration into the university and to establish a clear, differentiated identity and market position. The vision section provides the transformative perspective and guiding principles for the overall SOM Academic Plan and includes new mission and vision statements with SOM core values; strategic research areas with clear rationale and justification; strategic priorities for the school; and guidelines for integrating technology into SOM’s academic programs. The self-‐assessment section describes and evaluates the current position and status of SOM in terms of the school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis provides the basis for constructing the five strategies and 21 initiatives that will lead SOM forward and achieve its vision. And, within each strategy, there are specific facilitating actions that will begin immediately to support the longer-‐range initiatives outlined. The resource section describes the need for new faculty and staff, expanded facilities and dedicated instructional and research laboratories for the School. Clearly, the resources to implement the overall plan are significant, but also necessary to realize the goals envisioned and create a strong and vibrant School of Management.
Additional sections of the Academic Plan are currently being developed, including a work plan and scorecard with metrics, targets and milestones to keep SOM on the pathway forward. These sections will be incorporated into this planning document as each is completed. In addition, throughout the Academic Plan an emphasis is placed on the synergies and alignment with the NJIT 2020 Vision strategic priorities: students, learning, scholarship, investments in facilities and faculty, and community.
Since the draft document with its vision statement, SWOT analysis and strategies and initiatives provide the context, direction and strategic priorities for the school, with a candid evaluation of our current status and trends, it is important to distribute this Academic Plan in draft form, to not only get feedback and input, but also to encourage others to share this vision and to engage in this journey together.
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*Note: The School of Management was named the Martin Tuchman School of Management (MTSM) in March 2016. This school naming is identified within the Academic Plan as a strategic priority and is one of the major milestones achieved during this first year.
I. BACKGROUND
The School of Management (SOM) at New Jersey Institute of Technology was established in 1988 as the School of Industrial Management. SOM offers an undergraduate program leading to the B.S. degree in business with concentrations in accounting, finance, innovation and entrepreneurship, international business, management information systems and marketing. At the graduate level, SOM offers three programs leading to M.S. degrees in management (MSM) with a variety of concentrations, business administration (MBA), and an executive MBA (EMBA). The School of Management is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), reflecting our commitment to the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide.
SOM is led by the dean and associate dean with the responsibility to manage all internal administrative matters, oversee its academic programs, and represent the school both internally and externally. Faculty members participate in various committees and share in the governance of the school. SOM’s students primarily are residents of New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, although there are a large number of graduate and undergraduate students from ethnically diverse countries all over the globe. The majority of undergraduate students work part time to defray their education costs, whereas most of the graduate students are working adults that return to upgrade their skill set for career advancement.
Over the past five years, total student enrollment in SOM programs has been flat at approximately 700 students, while overall NJIT enrollment has increased by 20 percent. Recent five-‐year trends show a decrease in the number of undergraduate business majors and a small increase in graduate enrollments, including 40 students enrolled in a new online MBA program, which began in fall 2013. SOM offers undergraduate students at NJIT the option to minor in business, economics, or innovation and entrepreneurship. Currently, approximately 180 students are enrolled as business minors.
The School of Management is developing this Academic Plan to serve as a roadmap toward the future goals and expectations of the School to clearly differentiate SOM’s programs, leverage strengths across the university, and align directly with the NJIT mission and 2020 Vision strategic priorities. With the five-‐ year window of the prior SOM strategic plan coming to an end, it is appropriate to conduct a thorough assessment of SOM’s current position, future directions and the strategies and initiatives necessary to move SOM forward toward its overall goals and vision.
The structure of the Academic Plan addresses basic strategic questions of who we are, where are we going, and how are we going to get there, and is modeled after academic planning efforts of other universities, including Ohio State University. The Academic Plan has six major elements, as follows:
- Vision and Mission Statement — A clear mission and vision statement to serve as a touchstone and guide for the School of Management.
- Candid Self-‐Assessment With SWOT Analysis — A detailed and candid assessment of current programs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) with comparative data from peer universities.
- Strategies and Initiatives — Specific strategies and initiatives to help move the school forward; Facilitating Actions are incorporated with each strategy to identify immediate actions that are necessary for the school to successfully implement the strategies and initiatives.
- Scorecard—Target benchmarks and metrics to help guide and monitor progress along the way.
- Resources— A clear understanding of the resources necessary to support this plan.
II. VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT: DIFFERENTIATING AND COMPELLING
The vision and mission section was prepared by the following faculty from the School of Management: Cesar Bandera, Yi Chen, James Cicon, Katia Passerini, Mark Somers (Chair) and Ellen Thomas.
2.1 Overview
This section of the Academic Plan addresses strategic issues and is focused on the school’s vision, mission and identity. Whereas prior planning efforts have been incremental, changes in management practice, the university’s strategic direction, and market forces warrant bolder initiatives and significant changes to SOM’s identity and direction.
Examination of prior strategic planning documents reveals consistent concerns about the school’s visibility and its resource base. Prior initiatives, goals and action items to address these concerns yielded insufficient results across several planning cycles. Challenges in both of these areas continue to persist with little discernable improvement. By changing the frame of reference and viewing these challenges as symptoms of larger problems, it becomes clearer why prior strategic initiatives have yielded mixed results. Careful examination of SOM’s prior planning efforts suggests broader underlying issues were not fully addressed so that strategic initiatives were directed toward symptoms of unresolved underlying problems.
The underlying challenges that SOM faces are elemental and fall into two broad areas. The first concerns the school’s role within the university — that is, its integration into NJIT. Specifically, as NJIT has evolved in terms of mission and identity, it has become less clear where and how SOM fits into the university’s core activities. Limited integration into the fabric of the university, in turn, has resulted in two related problems. First, SOM’s resource base has become constricted because assets in other academic units that would have benefitted SOM have not been fully leveraged. Second, investments in the school have been limited because the return on those investments with respect to the university’s objectives has not been clearly articulated.
The second challenge that SOM faces is differentiation. SOM must provide value to our students and capitalize on those characteristics that create a competitive advantage for SOM and our students. Initially established as a School of Industrial Management, SOM was differentiated by integrating business with technologies that were not prevalent in traditional business programs, such as those associated with production and process control. Significant changes in management practice based on the importance of technology to business, however, resulted in increasing emphasis on technological proficiency in traditional business schools. Thus, SOM must differentiate itself beyond just educating the “tech savvy” manager. The basic challenge to creating differentiation and achieving competitive advantage for SOM reflects back to its other major challenge of closer integration across the entire NJIT community. Simply finding a niche that differentiates SOM is not sufficient for the school to be successful or for our students to excel, without leveraging the technological strengths and advancing the strategic priorities of the university.
Limited differentiation is tied directly to limited visibility. It has been difficult for SOM to establish its unique value proposition because it is not adequately differentiated in terms of identity, mission or curricula. Prior strategic plans have called for significantly greater investments in marketing in general and advertising in particular to address the school’s limited visibility. Although increased funding in these areas is likely necessary, a clear and distinctive market position and value proposition are required before marketing efforts will yield results.
This Academic Plan represents our efforts to address the issues of integration and differentiation in setting a future direction for SOM. It begins with a discussion of SOM’s vision and mission, which serve as tools for addressing SOM’s role and value within the university. Next, strategic research areas are identified. Together the vision, mission and strategic research areas can act both to integrate SOM more closely within the university and to create value differentiators for SOM in the market.
2.2 Vision
The vision statement below captures the values and aspirations for the future of the School of Management. SOM’s vision is bold and aggressive, supports the strategic priorities of the university’s 2020 Vision Strategic Plan, and aligns with the overall mission of the university.
Within a STEM-‐based academic environment, the Martin Tuchman School of Management educates a new generation of business professionals with strong technology and leadership skills and integrates business knowledge into the university’s science and technology programs. Our graduates are not only prepared to succeed in today’s technology-‐driven business world, but also to excel and be leaders in the future. The School of Management creates this competitive advantage by being an innovator and thought leader among technologically focused business schools: delivering forward looking academic programs, providing a technology-‐rich, student-‐centered environment to stimulate learning and foster a passion for success, and conducting research that integrates business and STEM knowledge to address critical global business challenges and achieve strategic priorities of the university.
2.3 Mission
The peer review team at the last AACSB site visit requested a clearer and more targeted mission statement. To address these concerns and complement the new vision statement, a new mission statement is presented below. It is intended to define the school’s role within the university and to clarify the importance of integration and differentiation to establishing SOM’s identity and core values.
The mission of the Martin Tuchman School of Management (SOM) is to educate and prepare our graduates for life-‐long success as management professionals, corporate leaders and academic scholars in the dynamic, technology-‐driven world of global business. Embedded within New Jersey’s technological university, the School of Management integrates fundamental business principles with technical knowledge and critical-‐thinking skills and leverages strengths across the university from engineering and computing to architecture and social science. In this interdisciplinary business-‐technology environment, SOM delivers high-‐quality educational programs and experiential learning opportunities for our students, pursues scholarly academic research, and engages in innovation and entrepreneurship activities to serve the community and strengthen economic development.
Defining Characteristics of the Mission
The School of Management is committed to delivering high-‐quality educational programs and experiential learning opportunities for our students, generating scholarly academic research characteristic of a public research university, and promoting economic development through outreach activities, innovation projects and applications research. The revised mission statement has several defining characteristics that provide a framework for guiding the school’s future direction, developing differentiated, market relevant academic programs, aligning and leveraging its intellectual capital, and establishing its identity and value within the university.
At the most fundamental level, SOM acts as a boundary spanning unit operating at the domain nexus between business, engineering and the applied, design and social sciences. SOM’s view of boundary spanning and knowledge transfer is broad based. Thus, it is not restricted to highly focused domain areas, but rather serves to fully utilize SOM’s intellectual capital in academic programs, research projects, sponsored research initiatives, and economic development activities. Each of NJIT’s academic disciplines enriches management education, thought and research, and each is enriched by management knowledge. Further, there is a significant management component to the university’s Thematic Areas of Data Science and Information Technology, Nexus of Life Science and Engineering, and Sustainable Systems. SOM has the opportunity to play a leadership role in areas of big data, innovation and commercialization, sustainability and health care with others in engineering and science that is necessary to achieve NJIT’s objectives and aspirations as articulated in the 2020 Vision Strategic Plan.
The revised mission also emphasizes academic programs that are distinctive and differentiated from those offered by traditional business schools. Differentiated degree programs serve to meet the need for managers, professionals and leaders who understand and can utilize the critical connections between technology and business to address important societal and business problems.
2.4 Core Values
Core values reflect SOM’s principles and expectations. These core values define who we are and how we believe we should meet our responsibilities to our students, colleagues and other constituents with accountability to the entire university community. These are presented in a human voice free of jargon and platitudes:
Respect. We maintain a stimulating environment in which to work, learn and excel professionally — a place that is collegial and supportive, embracing the diversity of our colleagues and valuing everyone’s contributions to the school and our programs.
Candor. It is important for ideas and opinions to be expressed freely. We realize that passionate people engage in heated debates but that discussions are always collegial and professionally respectful, as constructive discussion is healthy and valued.
Excellence. We strive for excellence with the understanding that it will not always be achieved. We know that excellence comes primarily from sustained collaboration and cooperation and not from the efforts of any one person. Our successes are collective and together we will be accountable to our students and the entire university community to help SOM realize its full potential.
Integrity. Educators and researchers have a responsibility to understand and embrace professional and ethical standards and to meet them at all times. We realize that integrity comes into play when doing the right thing is neither expedient nor easy, and we are committed to acting ethically at all times. Further, we believe that fairness lies at the heart of integrity, and we apply standards uniformly to our students and our colleagues.
Innovation. We do new and interesting things in new and interesting ways whenever we can. We also help others to do so. While we find new ways to teach, to learn and to discover new knowledge, we are aware that innovations often fail. We celebrate the process of discovery and must critically evaluate our efforts to make sure they can withstand the scrutiny that distinguishes valuable innovation from fads, superficial thinking and hyperbole.
Diversity. We are extremely proud of the rich diversity of our faculty, staff and students and committed to the principle of inclusive excellence where strength comes from synergy and value is created from the diversity of our colleagues and students.
2.5 Strategic Research Areas
Strategic research areas represent domains in which SOM seeks recognition and strives for excellence. These areas do not reflect the full range of the school’s research efforts nor do they fully define our intellectual contributions. Rather, they act as focus areas that open a path to building partnerships in engineering and the applied sciences and to provide the school with an identity in the academic community and in the market. Thus, strategic research areas act as integrators and differentiators.
The prior SOM strategic plan included several broad domain areas that were identified as areas for collaboration. In this iteration of the plan, as part of the process of continuous improvement, the strategic research areas have become more tightly focused based on the following criteria:
- Consistency with NJIT’s strategic priorities and strategic assets.
- SOM’s skill base and Intellectual capital.
- Sources of competitive advantage in regional and national markets.
- Application and relevance to SOM’s academic programs.
Focus Area 1: Business Analytics and Systems
In the context of this Academic Plan, business analytics is defined as the application of advanced modeling techniques to foster better and smarter use of data to improve business performance. IT resources and business intelligence are used to share information and coordinate activities throughout the global network and exploit opportunities for success. Application areas are extensive and include strategic management, production and supply chains, marketing, finance and CRM, advertising and social media, human capital and human performance, operational efficiency and logistics, corporate sustainability and health care.
Rationale:
- Consistency with NJIT’s Strategic Priorities and Assets: Business analytics and systems by its nature involves the intersection of business and technology, thereby opening a window for partnerships between SOM and NJIT’s units in applied mathematics, industrial engineering, computing and information systems. The university has identified “information everywhere” as a strategic priority and big data as an academic competency, and NJIT has made significant investments in this area. This area also embraces the fundamental convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem into the business environment.
- SOM’s Skill Base and Intellectual Capital: SOM has significant assets that support business analytics that include expertise in data mining, econometrics, algorithm development, database and search optimization, machine learning and neural computing, decision support systems, supply chain management, forecasting, management science, business process management, market research and knowledge management. Research areas include finance, human capital management, health care management and supply chain management. SOM has already established two research centers that utilize sophisticated business analytics: Leir Center for Financial Bubble Research.
- Competitive Advantage: NJIT’s asset base supports a holistic approach to business analytics that integrates database management, algorithm development, advanced analytical techniques including data and text mining, and statistical methods that span expertise in computing, information systems and applied mathematics. SOM also has extensive access to sources of big data for health care and global sensing research. The depth of this asset base serves as a source of competitive advantage that is not readily available to more traditional business schools in the region, and that can be used in curriculum development and multidisciplinary sponsored research.
- Relevance to SOM’s Academic Programs: Business analytics is directly relevant to SOM’s academic programs and its position within a technological university. SOM offerings should be reviewed and shift focus as needed, as management practice has moved toward big data applications in business intelligence and business analytics. Shifting our focus to business analytics will provide a clear identity and direction for our offerings in the IT/IS domain while assuring currency with management practice.
Focus Area 2: Technology-‐Based Product Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Innovation and entrepreneurship have become critical focus areas for an increasing number of business schools. Within the technology-‐based segment, many business schools have a presence in entrepreneurship or innovation because there is a fundamental linkage between technological innovation, economic development and business. Successful technology-‐based entrepreneurship initiatives that begin in university settings are important factors in economic development, as are successful technology-‐based innovations that are developed in corporate settings. The State Strategic Plan and the accompanying report Building Bridges strongly encourages universities to collaborate closely with business and governmental organizations to accelerate the flow of research into the marketplace and strengthen New Jersey’s economy through innovation. SOM has the opportunity to be a leader for NJIT in this area.
Entrepreneurship and innovation are very broad domain areas, some of which fall outside the technology domain of NJIT. SOM lacks both the scale and scope to operate broadly in this area. Thus, SOM faces the strategic challenge of identifying a subdomain that is aligned with NJIT priorities and SOM’s asset base and sources of competitive advantage. While other areas may arise, one obvious focus area is the development of technology-‐based products and services because it operates at the nexus of design, business and engineering. Further, product development is consistent with our size, scope and skill base, advances our broad objective of better integration into the university, and opens up opportunities for interdisciplinary, sponsored research.
Rationale:
- Consistency With NJIT’s Strategic Priorities and Assets: Technology-‐based product development is an important component of NJIT’s commitment to fostering economic development. The university’s strategic thematic areas in data science and information technology, nexus of life science and engineering, and sustainable systems all emphasize the broad impact of development, innovations and new ventures for technology-‐based products and services. NJIT assets include augmented intellectual capital in these areas, the university’s Enterprise Development Center (EDC) whose selection criteria for start-‐up companies is also aligned with NJIT’s strategic focus, and academic and community outreach programs directed toward the commercialization of technology. In addition, NJIT has the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), which has attracted significant external funding in this area.
- SOM’s Skill Base and Intellectual Capital: SOM’s skill base includes faculty expertise in product development, technology platforms, new venture formation, marketing channels and innovation management. Areas for augmenting our intellectual capital include the design, validation, development and commercialization of technology-‐based products and services, and the management of regional innovation. SOM’s intellectual capital in business functions is also relevant as deficiencies in these areas are the primary causes of failure among technology-‐based, start-‐up companies.
- Competitive Advantage: As is the case with business analytics, NJIT can provide a holistic approach to the development of technology-‐based products by leveraging assets in engineering, the design sciences, computing, business and the EDC. Most of our competitors have some but not all of these assets, and no other university in New Jersey has as large a technology-‐based business incubator as the EDC. NJIT’s new Center for Undergraduate Research and Innovation and NJII are additional platforms intended to promote the interaction between technology and business research and education.
- Relevance to SOM’s Academic Programs: Expertise in product development, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking is aligned with SOM’s objective of offering differentiated degree programs. Experiential learning augmented with the university’s business incubator directly supports a strategic focus on product development. SOM is already using the EDC as a platform to provide students experiential learning and conduct its own research in entrepreneurship policy and education. Supporting coursework that integrates business and technical knowledge includes design thinking, validation (e.g., revenue models and regulatory requirements), product innovation and engineering and the commercialization of emerging technologies.
2.6 Strategic Priorities
Strategic priorities were derived from prior planning efforts, our aspirations and vision, market factors, feedback from our stakeholders including NJIT’s senior administration, advice from the SOM Advisory Board, and feedback from our AACSB Peer Review Team. The strategic priorities for the School of Management include:
- Students — Internal Partnerships
For SOM students to excel and for our graduates to enjoy a competitive advantage in the marketplace, increased collaboration with academic departments in engineering, computing and the applied, design and social sciences is critical. Partnerships include but are not limited to joint degree programs, joint development of hybrid concentration areas in SOM’s degree programs that meld business and technical knowledge, participation in research centers, sponsored research projects and interdisciplinary research, and greater participation in NJIT’s business incubator.
- Learning — Program Development
Program development encompasses curriculum revision consistent with our revised mission and vision statements as well as market planning. The latter requires detailed market analysis that drives realistic growth objectives that are grounded in data-‐driven information and knowledge. The MBA and online MBA programs have been identified as potential targets for enrollment growth.
- Scholarship — Augmentation and Alignment of Our Intellectual Capital
In order to effectively fulfill our mission and realize our vision, SOM requires an intellectual capital base that integrates functional area knowledge with mission-‐specific expertise. Alignment of intellectual capital refers to adding functional area experts with teaching and research interests related to technology-‐based firms. As noted in prior planning cycles, faculty resources are stretched. Our most pressing needs are in mission critical areas including entrepreneurship, innovation and product development and in core areas, such as accounting, operations management and marketing.
- Investments — Faculty Renewal and Dedicated Research and Instructional Laboratories Achieving excellence in teaching and research will require investments in new faculty and research and instructional laboratories. Due to recent faculty attrition, SOM will need to complement existing faculty strengths and develop a critical mass of faculty researchers in the strategic research areas identified above. The need for dedicated research and instructional labs is clearly a priority if SOM is to fulfill its mission of integrating business with technical knowledge in an experiential learning environment.
- Community — Partnerships With Industry
SOM is proud of the rich diversity of our faculty and students and is committed to inclusive excellence. Partnerships with industry are an important element in designing and delivering our curricula and in achieving excellence in our strategic research areas. Our priorities include establishing corporate advisory committees for our graduate degree programs, building relationships with New Jersey companies to create co-‐op and internship opportunities for SOM students and conduct applied research projects related to our strategic focus areas, and partnering with technology-‐based companies to gain access to the most advanced products and business practices related to business analytics, Business IoT and artificial intelligence.
2.7 Pedagogy
A critical element of our strategy is the development and delivery of high-‐quality, differentiated academic programs. By differentiated programs, we mean an educational experience that provides a knowledge base and skill set that is focused on managing technology-‐based companies. In so doing, we believe that curricula must be developed holistically such that business and technical knowledge are systematically integrated across courses to provide an educational experience that prepares graduates to develop and deploy technology to meet business objectives.
Although the specifics of how this task is to be accomplished resides with SOM’s curriculum committees, in order to meet our aspirations as recognized leaders in technology-‐based management education, the following principles are offered to guide degree program development:
- Vision: Each academic program will have a vision statement that clearly communicates what it seeks to accomplish in terms of the desired skill base and career opportunities of its graduates.
- Integration of Business and Technology: Each academic program will have a prospectus that explains to prospective students and other stakeholders how, where and why technical knowledge has been integrated into the curriculum, how that knowledge adds value to the educational experience, and how and where the program differs from those of competitors.
- Experiential Learning: Degree programs will offer significant and meaningful experiences for experiential learning that occur outside of the classroom. The opportunities will be focused on applications of technology to business, will be scalable to support NJIT’s growth projections, and will include hands-‐on experiences that build tangible skills consistent with the program’s vision.
- Application of New Learning Technologies: Curricula will be augmented with learning technologies that are systematically integrated in courses and course modules. Each degree program will include a statement of the role that learning technologies play in meeting the program’s vision, and an analysis of how and where learning technologies fit into the curriculum.
III. SELF-‐ASSESSMENT, BENCHMARKING AND SWOT ANALYSIS
This section was prepared by the following SOM Faculty members: Asokan Anandarajan, Michael Ehrlich, Jerry Fjermastad, Shanthi Gopalakrishnan , Rajiv Mehta (Chair), Junmin (Jim) Shi, and Ronald Sverdlove with reviewer input from Homer Bonitsis, Pius Egbelu, Kenneth Lawrence, and Stephan Kudyba.
3.1 Overview
In this section of the Academic Plan, the School of Management faculty has prepared a candid assessment of the current position and status of the school and an analysis of SOM’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT Analysis). When possible, comparative data from other NJIT colleges and departments, as well as data from other business schools at peer institutions are included in order to benchmark SOM performance, understand trends, and provide context for the key observations presented.
3.2 School of Management Faculty
The School of Management has a solid core of experienced and dedicated faculty, university lecturers and staff with a rich history of diversity and commitment to teaching excellence. Currently, the tenured/tenure-‐track faculty consists of one distinguished professor, nine professors with one serving as the dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College, five associate professors and six assistant professors. In addition, there are five university lecturers and one research professor who complement and strengthen the faculty in delivering the SOM programs and curricula. As shown in Figure 1, the size of the total faculty, including university lecturers and research professor, has declined since 2008 from 31 to 26, placing significant pressures on the school to utilize increasing numbers of adjunct instructors to deliver the curriculum. This concern was noted in the recent AACSB accreditation visit with a response from the senior NJIT administration to provide additional faculty lines for the school.
Figure 1 – Ten-‐year Trend of SOM Instructional Staff Showing Decline in Faculty Since 2008
Faculty Specialization and Research Areas of Interest: The SOM faculty conducts research in a wide variety of areas in the administration and allied disciplines that are tangential to business and technology, as can be seen in Table 1. The SOM has faculty members with expertise in business incubation, new ventures, new product development and innovation strategy, connecting entrepreneurship with marketing, finance and management. In health care, one of the strategic areas for the university, some of our faculty are involved in research at the intersection of data management, data analytics and mobile health care, whereas others study optimization of business processes in a variety of contexts, including supply chain management. The Leir Center for Financial Bubble Research studies a subject with increased importance since the recent crisis, and combines expertise in International Business, Finance, and Economics.
Many of these research areas extend well beyond the subjects included in our curriculum. In the future, we anticipate bringing this additional knowledge of the faculty into the classroom. We could eventually offer courses in such areas as business aspects of health care, supply chain management, behavioral finance, corporate governance and financial bubbles.
Faculty Research Publications and Scholarship Activity 2009-‐2014 (JS): The SOM faculty has a solid record of academic research, scholarly publications and project/grant funding and participation. Based on data submitted by the faculty at the request of the SOM Academic Plan SWOT working group on Oct. 28, 2014, the research publication and scholarship activities over the past five years are summarized below.
The scholarly contributions of SOM’s tenured and tenure-‐track faculty are as follows:
- 187 publications in total (8.13 on average) in a variety of peer-‐reviewed journals.
- 102 publications in total (4.43 on average) in conference proceedings.
- 208 presentations in total (9.04 on average) at conferences and meetings.
- 81 book chapters in total (3.52 on average).
- 21 books and monographs in total (0.95 on average) edited, co-‐authored or authored.
- 60 research grants or internally funded projects in total (2.61 on average).
The annual average journal publication rate of the SOM faculty is 1.62 per member per year, and the average number of publications including journal and conference proceedings is 2.51. Given that the nominal teaching load for SOM faculty is three courses per semester with limited research support, this collective scholarly output is commendable.
University lecturers are also engaged in scholarship and research. Through the past five years (from fall 2009 through summer 2014), the research productivity of SOM university lecturers is highlighted below:
- 11 publications in total (2.2 on average) in a variety of peer-‐reviewed journals.
- 5 publications in total (1 on average) in conference proceedings.
- 3 presentations in total (0.6 on average) at conferences and meetings.
- 1 book chapter in total (0.5 on average).
- 1 book in total (0. 5 on average).
- 11 research grants or internally funded projects in total (2.2 on average).
Table 1 – Faculty Specialization and Research Areas of Interest
Faculty | Field of Specialization | Research Areas of Interest |
Asokan Anandrajan |
Accounting |
NEED DATA |
Cesar Bandera |
Entrepreneurship |
Business Incubation, Mobile Health Care |
Homer Bonitsis |
Finance |
International Finance, Trade, Competitiveness |
Yi Chen |
MIS |
Health Care Data Management, Business, Web |
James Cicon |
Finance |
Managerial Reporting Styles, Corporate Governance |
Pius Egbelu |
Management |
Supply Chain Management, Operations Management |
Michael Ehrlich |
Finance |
Market Failures, New Ventures, Financial Bubbles |
Jerry Fjermestad |
MIS |
Business Intelligence, Virtual Teams, ERP |
Shanthi Gopalakrishnan |
Management |
Strategy and Innovation, Knowledge Management |
Stephan Kudyba |
MIS |
Big Data, Health Care Analytics, Data Mining |
Kenneth Lawrence |
Mgmt. Science/ Business Analytics |
Multicriteria Optimization, Forecasting, Data Mining |
Rajiv Mehta |
Marketing |
Global Marketing, Sales Management, Strategic Alliances |
Katia Passerini |
MIS |
IT and Project Management, Knowledge Management |
Hindy Schachter |
Org. Behavior |
Managing Diversity, Transportation |
Junmin Shi |
Management |
Optimizing Firm Performance, Supply Chain Management |
William Rapp |
Int’l Business |
Global Financial Institutions, Financial Bubbles |
Mark Somers |
Org. Behavior |
Employee Socialization, Job Performance |
Ronald Sverdlove |
Finance |
Fixed Income Securities, Corporate Finance |
Cheickna Sylla |
MIS |
Decision Support Systems, Business Intelligence |
Ellen Thomas |
Marketing |
New Product Development, Marketing Strategy |
Wei Xu |
Accounting |
Accounting |
Zhipeng (Alan) Yan |
Finance |
Empirical Asset Pricing, Corporate Finance |
University Lecturers | ||
Benjamin Chou |
Economics |
Game Theory, Coalition and Network Formation |
Jose Casal |
Management |
Management Ethics, Management Education |
Melodi Guilbault |
Marketing |
Marketing Education, Social Media, Sustainability |
Karen Schoenebeck |
Accounting |
Tax and Financial Statement Analysis, Education |
Diana Walsh |
Law & Ethics |
Internet Law, Innovation, Digital Information |
Faculty Teaching Load: The average teaching load in number of courses for tenured/tenure track SOM faculty since 2009, which is illustrated in Figure 2, shows an increasing trend. This is especially noteworthy given that whenever new faculty members are hired, the average load drops since newer hires are given a reduced load of two courses for the first three years. In addition, faculty who are given reduced loads for administrative duties also bring down the average.
Figure 2 – Five-‐year Trend in Average Teaching Load per Semester for T/TT Faculty
Figure 3 shows that there is also a rising trend in the number of courses taught by adjunct instructors. The practice of the previous SOM administrators has been to increasingly hire adjuncts to teach courses due to the smaller number of tenured/tenure track SOM faculty to teach the repertoire of course offerings. This suggests that the demand for SOM courses is increasing, which further reinforces the need to increase new faculty hires.
Figure 3 – Five-‐year Trend in Number of Course Sections Taught by Adjunct Instructors
Key Observation: SOM is in a critical situation with the attrition of faculty over the past several years, placing pressure on the school to deliver the curriculum in accordance with the AACSB accreditation guidelines and expectations. |
3.3 SOM Student Body and Program Enrollments
As of Fall 2014, NJIT enrollment has exceeded 10,000 students with a 20 percent increase in enrollment over the past five years. However, as shown in Figure 4, during this same five-‐year period the SOM has experienced an 8 percent decline in undergraduate enrollments with graduate enrollments showing an increase of approximately 15 percent. Also shown in this figure is the trend in SOM student-‐to-‐faculty ratio. As noted in the previous section, the attrition of tenured/tenure-‐track faculty has led to high teaching loads for SOM faculty. This attrition has also lead to a 30 percent increase in the student-‐to-‐ faculty ratio over the eight-‐year period from 2007 to 2014, putting additional pressure on the school to meet AACSB guidelines and expectations.
Trends in SOM Undergraduate Student Enrollment: From fall 2010 to fall 2014, undergraduate enrollment of business majors in SOM has declined 8 percent from 436 to 403 majors while enrollments at NJIT have increased by 20 percent. As presented in Figure 4, undergraduate enrollment was as follows: 441 in 2009, 436 in 2010, 437 in 2011, 450 in 2012, 410 in 2013, and 403 in 2014. In the last three years, undergraduate business majors have declined by approximately 10 percent. This decline is indicative of fundamental problems that SOM must address in order for the school to achieve its full potential. Clearly, student enrollment in SOM is a major weakness and threat to SOM in the long term.
Figure 4 -‐ Eight-‐year Undergraduate and Graduate Enrollment Trends With Student-‐to-‐Faculty Ratio
Trends in Graduate Student Enrollments: As shown in Figure 4, the graduate degree programs overall, including both the MSM and MBA, have experienced an increased enrollment; the average enrollment was 233 students per year. The trend over the eight-‐year period, though erratic, was generally upward with an approximate 20 percent increase. With respect to the Master of Science in Management degree (MSM) enrollment at SOM, the trend is considerably more robust, as reported in Figure 5. In 2009, SOM enrolled 59 graduate students, 60 in 2010, 67 in 2011, 66 in 2012, 92 in 2013 and 84 in 2014. The average enrollment was approximately 70 students per year. The trend in the five-‐year period was upward of 71 percent while in the recent three-‐year period the trend increase was 27 percent. In summary, the admissions to the MSM program appear robust while the undergraduate enrollments at SOM are stagnant. With respect to the MBA program (excluding the Executive MBA which is considered separately), Figure 6 shows the trend of approximately a 15 percent enrollment increase. The average student intake was 163 students.
Figure 5 – Eight-‐year Trend in SOM Graduate Enrollments
As presented in Figure 5, in 2007 the Executive MBA had a total enrollment of 79 students (including two cohorts) and the first year represents the highest number enrolled with a constant decline (65 students in 2008 to 29 students in 2014). This represents a declining trend of 55 percent in a seven-‐year period. Clearly, there is a need to review the EMBA program and curriculum to create a competitive program that implements the vision and directions presented in this Academic Plan. This represents an opportunity for SOM, but will require resources to aggressively engage in marketing to create brand awareness and recognition once the program is updated. Clearly, this is a weakness that must be addressed.
Key Observation: The stagnant undergraduate enrollments over the past several years, with declining enrollments over the past two years, is a clear symptom of a major fundamental problem with SOM’s pedagogical approach and delivery of management education and the lack of identity and direction |
Undergraduate Student Retention: For undergraduate students, the retention rate percentage of continuing students (students who did not leave the program) was 71 percent in 2009, 73 percent in 2010, 71 percent in 2012, 75 percent in 2013 and 83 percent for 2014. There has been a significant increase in retention in 2014 that may be attributed to the strategies recently implemented including:
- Implementation of university wide learning communities for first-‐time full-‐time freshmen (FTFTF), where MGMT 190 is linked with HUM 101 and the freshmen seminar. Among a number of research-‐based strategies, students are provided close advising and peer mentors.
- An active Business Club providing opportunities including networking.
- An increased focus on hands-‐on learning through project-‐based experiences and lab-‐based courses.
- A focus on ensuring all undergraduates participate in at least one experiential learning opportunity such as cooperative education, internships, research experiences and student competitions.
These research-‐based methods will continue to be pursued. SOM has a coordinator for co-‐ops to assist with improving student awareness, guidance and oversight. Overall, however, as shown in Figure 6, the SOM retention rate is lower than the other five academic colleges with the exception of the recent improvement from 2013 to 2014. In 2010 for example, the average retention rate among the six colleges was 81 percent with the College of Engineering the highest at 85 percent and SOM lowest at 73 percent. In 2011, the overall NJIT average was 82 percent. The College of Architecture and Design had the highest retention at 88 percent with SOM being the lowest at 71 percent. In 2012, the NJIT overall average was 82 percent with the College of Science and Liberal Arts the highest at 88 percent while again SOM was the lowest at 72 percent. In 2013, the overall average was 86 percent with the College of Engineering having the highest retention rate at 87 percent and SOM the lowest at 72 percent. In the latest year, 2014, the NJIT average was the highest in the five-‐year window at 84 percent, at approximately the overall NJIT retention rate of 83 percent though lower than the other colleges with the exception of the College of Architecture and Design.
Figure 6 – Trends in Retention Rates by College/School and Total NJIT Rates
The NJIT target retention rate is 90 percent as presented in the 2020 Vision Strategic Plan. While SOM has made dramatic improvement this year, improvements in mentoring and advisement must continue to enhance student satisfaction and support SOM’s ability to retain students.
Six-‐Year Graduation Rates by College: As revealed in Figure 7, over the past five years, SOM has a six-‐ year graduation rate average of 51 percent, but is trending upward with a current rate of 55 percent. When viewed on a relative basis with other colleges, SOM has been consistently lower than the other schools on average. In 2010, the graduation rate was 49 percent (NJIT average 55 percent); in 2012 it was 45 percent (NJIT average 54 percent); in 2013 it was 47 percent (NJIT average 58 percent), and in 2014 it was 55 percent (NJIT average 58 percent). The only year SOM‘s graduation rate was marginally higher than the NJIT average was in 2012. The target six-‐year graduation rate for NJIT is 65 percent, as expressed in the 2020 Vision Strategic Plan. This is a significant weakness that must be addressed.
Figure 7 – Trends in Six-‐Year Graduation Rate by College/School and Overall NJIT Rate
Key Observation: In both retention-‐ and graduation-‐rate metrics, SOM has made significant improvement over time. This is attributable to the new initiatives put into place to engage students more closely and provide stronger mentorship to our undergraduate students in a more proactive way. |
Business Minors and Support of Service Courses Across the University: SOM plays a major service role for the university. The minors enrolled in the undergraduate program and the cross-‐disciplinary nature of several of the engineering and information systems graduate programs require SOM to provide business courses such as accounting, finance, human resource management (organization behavior) and MIS courses to complete their respective undergraduate and graduate curricula.
In the undergraduate program, the SOM enrolls a very large number of minors where students take a specialization outside their home schools. The data for the last five years are provided in Table 2 showing that the number of business minors has increased 22 percent from fall 2010 to fall 2014. Although the SOM student enrollment has decreased marginally in 2014, the number of minors has increased in 2013 and 2014 demonstrating that the non-‐SOM students taught by SOM faculty members in their courses is increasing. This significant service role is not included in the SOM enrollment data above and constitutes a major instructional responsibility for SOM faculty.
To examine the impact of non-‐SOM student enrollments at the graduate level, all sections of four representative courses at the graduate level have been selected and evaluated in terms of the number of total students, the number of SOM students and the percentage of SOM students enrolled for the courses in fall 2013 and spring 2014. The four courses are ACCT 615, ACCT 615, FIN 600 and MIS 645.
Table 2 – Minors as a Percentage of Total UG Enrollment 2010 to 2014
Year | SOM UG Business Majors | Number of Minors Enrolled | Minors as a % of SOM Total UG Enrollment |
Fall 2010 |
436 |
134 |
23.5 |
Fall 2011 |
437 |
137 |
23.9 |
Fall 2012 |
450 |
180 |
28.6 |
Fall 2013 |
410 |
154 |
27.3 |
Fall 2014 |
403 |
163 |
28.8 |
As illustrated In Table 3, over the two most recent semesters in some courses (HRM 601, MIS 645 and ACCT 615) there are a significantly higher number of non-‐SOM students enrolled for the course. Except in FIN 600, the trend of non-‐SOM students is increasing. While this strains faculty resources, it also provides leverage for SOM to negotiate non-‐SOM courses that can be a part of our MSM and MBA curricula.
Table 3 – Non–SOM Students as a Percentage of Total Students Enrolled
Fall 2013 | Spring 2014 | |||||
Courses |
Total Students Enrolled |
Number of Non-‐SOM Students |
Non-‐SOM as a % of total |
Total Students Enrolled |
No. of Non-‐ SOM students |
Non-‐SOM as a % of total |
ACCT 615 -‐ Mgmt Accounting |
130 |
59 |
45.4 |
126 |
79 |
62.6 |
HRM 601 – Org Behavior |
181 |
110 |
60.8 |
111 |
76 |
68.4 |
FIN 600 – Corporate Finance |
111 |
38 |
34.2 |
82 |
25 |
31.5 |
MIS 645– Information Sys Principles |
56 |
34 |
60.7 |
58 |
37 |
63.7 |
3.4 Competitive Analysis
SOM’s market is highly competitive and is expected to continue to be so for the foreseeable future. New Jersey has a wide range of undergraduate business programs that spans both traditional and technological universities. Indeed, as information technology has become a vehicle for career growth, traditional business programs have added specializations or majors in technical areas such as MIS and business intelligence. It is especially noteworthy that Rutgers University has recently added a new degree program in MIS for business students on the Newark campus, located directly across the street from SOM. Also, Rutgers is advertising a specialty in technology management, which is relevant for students interested in industries such as pharmaceuticals.
The competitive environment is categorized into business schools that have a traditional focus, and business schools that are technology focused. Schools housed in universities with strong engineering/computer science programs attempt to exploit synergies by infusing a technology focus into their business degrees. Table 4 summarizes the competitive analysis according to two dimensions: The horizontal axis identifies schools in terms of private and public funding, and the vertical axis differentiates between traditional and technology-‐focused business schools
Our closest competitors are the public institutions that are geographically proximate such as Montclair University, Kean University, Rutgers University, Ramapo College and William Paterson University. On the other hand, we compete less for students at the private and geographically more distant universities such as Seton Hall, Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth and Rider. SOM faces an additional challenge regarding the differences between tuition and fees for the various undergraduate programs across NJIT. For example, the Science and Engineering school[4] requires labs and the College of Architecture and Design requires expensive studios; therefore, the costs of supporting these programs are higher. However, SOM’s business programs have the same tuition as NJIT’s science, engineering and architecture programs. Consequently, SOM must and should compete on value and not on cost, as our tuition is approximately 12 to 40 percent higher than competing business schools in the state.
Previous feeder schools to SOM’s graduate programs such as Kean University now offer their own MBA programs that compete directly with SOM. Currently, there are ten AACSB-‐accredited MBA programs in New Jersey and four non-‐AACSB accredited schools that also offer MBA programs. The non-‐accredited schools include Richard Stockton, Stevens Tech, Georgian Court and Kean University.
Key Observation: SOM must provide programs that are distinctive and differentiated from those offered by traditional business schools, with clearly recognized value and demonstrated competitive advantage for our graduates in the job market and workplace. SOM must offer high-‐value, not low-‐cost, education. |
Table 4 – SOM’s Competitive Frame
Segment 1: Private & Traditional | Segment 2: Public & Traditional |
Characteristics: High cost, traditional business focus with some technical courses – B.S. and MBA or M.S. only Examples: FDU, Seton Hall, Monmouth, Rider, Georgian Court* Competition: Low for BSM and moderate for M.S. and MBA
|
Characteristics: Low cost, traditional business focus with some technical courses – B.S. and MBA and M.S. only Examples: Montclair, William Paterson, Ramapo, Kean*, Richard Stockton * Competition: Strong for BSM and moderate for M.S. and MBA |
Segment 3: Private & Technology-‐Focused | Segment 4: Public & Technology-‐Focused |
Characteristics: High cost, technical focus on MOT and IT Examples: Stevens Institute of Technology* Competition: Low for BSM but strong for M.S. and MBA |
Characteristics: Low cost and technical focus on MOT and IT Examples: NJIT SOM, Rowan, Rutgers University Competition: Strong for BSM and moderate for M.S. and MBA |
(* Non-‐AACSB Accredited Schools) |
An analysis of the table above shows that there is fierce competition in every quadrant. The tech niche seems a little less populated, but with Rutgers advertising its links with science and technology, we believe that SOM needs to differentiate itself with respect to the quality of curricula and the delivery of its courses.
Figures 8 and 9 provide benchmarking data from the AACSB database for local area business schools on undergraduate and graduate enrollments for the last four years from 2010-‐11 to 2013-‐14, respectively. In addition to SOM, data is provided for Seton Hall, Rider University, William Paterson and Rutgers. While there are significant differences among these schools in terms of inclusion of computer science and information systems programs, the data is helpful to understand SOM’s competitive environment and growth opportunities. Also, the number of business minors or joint degree students for each school is not reported.
Figure 8 – AACSB Benchmark: Undergraduate Enrollments in Business Schools at New Jersey Colleges/Universities
Data Source: AACSB Datadirect
It is evident from these charts and previous data in Figure 4 that NJIT’s enrollment has become stagnate with a marginal decline in 2013-‐14. Other universities in the area like William Paterson (33 percent), Rutgers University (25 percent), Rider University (13 percent) and The College of New Jersey (13 percent) have experienced significant growth since 2010-‐2011. The data also indicates that all of the other undergraduate programs are significantly larger than that of SOM. Seton Hall University, the next smallest in undergraduate enrollment, has more than twice the enrollment of SOM.
As shown in Figure 9, most schools in the area have experienced an increase in enrollment in graduate programs with the exception of Rutgers University. In size, SOM is comparable to Seton Hall and Rider University, although both are significantly larger schools than SOM when considering both undergraduate and graduate enrollments.
Figure 9 – AACSB Benchmark: Graduate Enrollments in Business Schools at New Jersey Colleges/ Universities
Data Source: AACSB Datadirect
Key Observation: The extremely high demand for business school programs in this region suggest that SOM has significant potential to expand its undergraduate and graduate program offerings to meet the need for high-‐value technology-‐based business programs. |
Figure 10 provides benchmark information on enrollments and student-‐faculty ratios for 2013-‐14 for SOM and the four New Jersey business schools plus two peer schools: University of Massachusetts-‐ Dartmouth and University of Baltimore. As seen, SOM’s student-‐faculty ratio is in the mid-‐range for these programs.
Figure 10 – AACSB Benchmark: Student Enrollment and Student-‐Faculty Ratio ComparisonsData Source: AACSB Datadirect
3.5 SWOT Analysis
The School of Management strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) are identified and described in this section. Many of these SWOT factors relate directly to the key observations highlighted in previous sections of this document. The SWOT analysis summarizes issues and concerns that must be addressed and identifies areas for SOM to leverage its strengths to exploit opportunities to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The faculty members listed at the beginning of this section prepared a draft report providing further discussion and details of each of the elements and factors in the SWOT analysis presented here. The critical SWOT factors, which are identified in Table 5, are described briefly below:
Assessment of Strengths
- Solid Core of Dedicated, Richly Diverse Faculty With Established Record of Faculty Research and Scholarly Publications: SOM has a dedicated core of richly diverse faculty who have received several awards recognizing their contributions to research and teaching over many years of service to the school and university. SOM faculty have received major recognition and awards for research, acquired senior administrative roles, been designated as NJIT master teachers, and received annual teaching awards in the categories of undergraduate, graduate and special-‐lecturer categories. Another distinction is that multiple SOM faculty have been the recipients of the coveted Richard Van Houten Teaching Award that is given annually to only one faculty member university-‐wide.
- Attained AACSB Accreditation: The business programs offered by the SOM, that include a B.S. in business with concentrations in finance, accounting, marketing, management information systems, international business, and innovation and entrepreneurship, and the MSM and MBA programs, were initially accredited by the AACSB since 1997 with the most recent reaffirmation successfully received in 2013.
Attaining accreditation that has been granted by AACSB represents a much coveted recognition that the business programs have been vetted and certified as superior quality curricula in the advancement of business studies. Grounded in the notion of continuous improvement, the business program is periodically reviewed and revamped to reflect the dynamic changes of the environment internally by the faculty under the guidance of the dean, and an application submitted for maintenance of accreditation by AASCB. This AACSB “stamp of approval” represents a major strength as both students as well as the organizations are cognizant that their incumbent applicants have been immersed and educated at an institution that offers a rigorous, high-‐quality business program.
- SOM Resides Within A Well-‐Respected Technological University and Provides Options for STEM Majors to Minor in Business or to Pursue Joint Degree Programs: NJIT is the State of New Jersey’s technological university and well known and widely respected for its engineering, science and architecture programs. Being within a STEM-‐based academic institution, SOM serves a very powerful and strategic dual role as educator of business, management and MBA students in a technology-‐rich academic environment and as a partner in offering minors and joint degree programs in business to students in engineering, computing science and the other STEM disciplines. SOM has recently expanded the number of joint programs being offered; however, student interest is still being generated and additional emphasis is needed to nurture this opportunity further. With the rapid convergence of business and technology, being within NJIT is a clear strength that SOM must exploit in order to realize its full potential as a vibrant and strong technology-‐focused business and management program.
Table 5 – Summary of the School of Management SWOT Analysis
StrengthsLeverageOpportunities | |||
I
N
T
E
R
N
A
L |
|
|
E
X
T
E
R
N
A
L |
WeaknessesProblemsThreats | |||
|
|
- Broad Collaboration With the NJIT Enterprise Development Center: NJIT has a strong existing infrastructure that SOM can leverage to support innovation, entrepreneurship and the commercialization of technology. Current SOM faculty members from entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, strategy and organizational behavior are active teachers and researchers in this area. SOM also has extensive interaction with the Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey’s oldest and largest business incubator with about 90 high-‐tech and life-‐science companies. Many SOM faculty members have joint appointments and extensive relationships with faculty from Newark College of Engineering, Ying Wu College of Computing and the College of Architecture and Design that facilitates new venture development. This is a distinctive strength that differentiates SOM from other regional business schools.
- Diverse Student Body: NJIT, in general, and SOM, in particular, have both diverse students and faculty, which clearly represents a significant strength. Our student body has a multicultural mix with students from Latin America (Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina), Central America (Mexico and Costa Rica), Asia (India, China, Pakistan and South Korea), North America (Canada) Europe (Germany, Italy, Russia and Ukraine), Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Syria and Jordan), Scandinavia (Sweden and Denmark) and the African continent (Nigeria, Ghana, Mali and Ethiopia). This diversity is a great strength for our school and represents an opportunity for students to work in a multicultural environment and understand the cultural norms of other countries — a great asset especially with today’s global economy. Furthermore, Forbes1 magazine has noted that recruiting and retaining diverse employees is essential for a company to succeed in today’s environment. Forbes also notes that cultural diversity promotes innovation and creativity since it introduces individuals to new perspectives and ideas. Most notably, a diverse workforce is critical to driving the creation of new products and innovative services. Understanding cultural diversity creates synergy in thought, which translates to increased productivity.
- Located Within the Greater NYC Metropolitan Area: Located in the NYC metropolitan area, NJIT is surrounded by a range of corporations from Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial startup businesses — creating an enormous job market for business majors and engineers with management skills. In addition, with over 10 million people living in the region, our location is a major draw for students to easily access career opportunities while remaining close to home. This is especially important as NJIT continues to attract a significant portion of first-‐generation college students. Given that New Jersey is a center for business and industry, SOM has the advantage of location to reach out and provide executive, hybrid or on-‐campus programs that teach employees and professionals advanced technology-‐based management skills.
- Strong, Vibrant Corporate Advisory Board: The newly constituted SOM Advisory Board provides an active partnership and connection to today’s business community and a clear, broad perspective into future directions and priorities. The board is led by Raymond Cassetta, a dedicated and engaged chair who is committed to SOM’s success and moving the school forward. Clearly, the SOM Advisory Board is a significant strength that must be utilized and leveraged to fully implement this Academic Plan.
Assessment of Weaknesses
- Lack of Distinctive Identity and Value Differentiation for SOM Programs and Our Graduates: As described in the Vision section of the Academic Plan, there is a fundamental need to establish SOM’s identity that clearly differentiates our programs and strategic research areas, integrates and aligns SOM with the strategic priorities and strengths of the university, and provides a competitive advantage for our graduates. Addressing this critical weakness is the primary objective of this planning process. The
______________________
1 See: http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/06/13/diversity-management-... (Accessed 14 November 2014.)
SOM competes in an intensely competitive environment. As noted earlier, within a 50-‐mile radius of NJIT, there are 85 business schools. Consequently, to attract and retain students SOM must embrace its core strength as a management school deeply embedded in a strong technology-‐based university, and create programs with curricula that integrate business with technology and leverages STEM assets across the University; then, SOM can begin an aggressive marketing/branding program with a well-‐ defined and articulated focus and value proposition for prospective students.
- Lack of Technology Immersion Into SOM Curricula and Programs: Even though SOM resides within a technological university, a significant weakness is the lack of technology immersion into SOM curricula and programs both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. For example, knowledge and operational skill of Bloomberg terminals and databases are essential in today’s business workplace; however, SOM has only one terminal making student access and laboratory assignments impractical. This concern is directly related to the lack of instructional and research labs, another weakness described below. It is recognized that many SOM faculty members use technology, such as course management platforms (e.g., Moodle), PowerPoint embedded with digital multimedia, and podcasts to augment their lectures. However, greater efforts must be made to integrate technology into advanced business education and foster development of critical skill sets needed for today’s data and information-‐driven business environment.
- Concern for Faculty Collegiality and Active Engagement in SOM Leadership and Administration: An important weakness to recognize and address is the concern for collegiality and harmony at SOM. One concern is that there have been many leadership changes at SOM, which has fostered a lack of focus among the faculty and staff. Each dean has brought a new strategic focus, but there has been limited development in advancing leadership at the departmental or discipline level (i.e., no department chairs) that can help maintain continuity.
In short, there is an imminent need for more direct faculty involvement in SOM administration and program leadership, from associate dean and program directors to course coordinators. In addition, the SOM faculty is fragmented with some voicing concerns about the level of collegiality. While there are underlying causes, the SOM faculty must make every effort to work together to move the School of Management forward. The core values for the school described in an earlier section of this document are essential to developing the right environment so that everyone has the opportunity and encouragement to succeed. - Shortage of Faculty in Critical Priority Areas: Although SOM has hired seven new faculty over the past six years, the number of faculty in the SOM has declined due to attrition, as shown in Table 6 and earlier in Figure 1. The reduction of tenure/tenure-‐track faculty has been 20 percent at the same time that the number of students enrolled in the SOM undergraduate and graduate programs has increased by 10 percent. The result has been about a 40 percent increase in student-‐faculty ratio, from about 25 in 2009 to 35 today. There has also been a significant increase in the number of students from across the university who are enrolling in SOM courses and minor programs. This has resulted in an increase in the number of adjunct faculty teaching SOM courses, which is an issue for our continuing accreditation by the AACSB.
With the introduction of the two newest concentration areas in accounting and entrepreneurship, which are in very high demand, the SOM has been unable to increase our offerings in those areas because of the shortage of faculty. Although the largest drop has been in the area of management, faculty members in that area often also teach courses in other areas, e.g., marketing and international business.
The shortage of faculty also affects our research efforts because of a lack of a critical mass of researchers in strategic research areas. This has also impacted the ability of SOM to contribute to the priority thematic research areas of the university.
Table 6 – Number of Faculty and University Lecturers Within Each Disciplinary Area
Year (Fall) |
ACCT |
ECON |
ENTR |
FIN |
INTL BUS |
LAW |
MGMT |
MRKT |
MIS |
Total |
|
Lecturers |
T/T Track Faculty |
Res Prof |
2008 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
6 |
31 |
|
5 |
25 |
1 |
2009 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
1 |
5 |
30 |
|
6 |
23 |
1 |
2010 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
2 |
5 |
29 |
|
6 |
22 |
1 |
2011 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
3 |
5 |
28 |
|
8 |
19 |
1 |
2012 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
25 |
|
4 |
20 |
1 |
2013 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
5 |
26 |
|
5 |
20 |
1 |
2014 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
26 |
|
5 |
20 |
1 |
- Lack of External Research Funding: It is abundantly evident that only a few of SOM faculty members have been able to secure grants to fund their research output. It is important to note that SOM’s research-‐active faculty find greater success in securing funding by working in collaboration with other faculty across NJIT. This lack of funding, in turn, has possibly led to the lack of infrastructure development to support faculty research. With the exception of the Leir Foundation Bubble Research Center that has been established through the efforts and initiatives of Dr. Bill Rapp, there is an imminent need to establish additional research centers, and labs that can nurture and advance research output.
- Lack of Dedicated Instructional and Research Support Infrastructure and Research Assistants: With technology and information systems begin critical to business decision-‐making and operations, SOM students must be exposed to the latest software tools and big-‐data analytics in statistics and management information systems. With more and more courses becoming increasingly quantitative in nature, SOM students lack a dedicated computer lab that houses the latest computers, appropriate software programs and databases to develop their technological and software data management skills. Access to big-‐data systems and the dedicated technologies necessary to create business intelligence systems and analytics is essential for a technology-‐based management program. A dedicated business information research and instructional laboratory with access to Bloomberg terminals is critical for SOM to offer competitive programs to our students and our research-‐active faculty.
In addition to teaching a larger number of classes per semester relative to other NJIT faculty, SOM faculty members are also under pressure to conduct research and publish manuscripts in blind peer-‐ reviewed journals, and present papers at national and international conferences. Furthermore, faculty members are expected to make service contributions to the university and the profession. While greater workloads have widely become the norm, unlike at major research universities the SOM faculty is not offered student research assistants, which can be extremely low cost in conducting academic studies. This represents a major weakness that needs to be addressed, especially if SOM is to increase externally funded research and contribute to the university’s research mission The opportunity to establish a doctoral/Ph.D. program will provide the mechanism to provide graduate assistants to work with SOM faculty in support of research as well as teaching activities.
- Few Opportunities for Student Co-‐Op and Internship Experiences: It is well recognized that experiential learning opportunities are essential for success in today’s competitive environment. A tremendous void in the SOM curricula and programs are opportunities for student co-‐ops and internships that can provide business students the exposure to industrial work experience that many firms look for when screening prospective job incumbents.
Upon learning that undergraduate and graduate business programs require SOM students to participate in cooperative education and internships, more and more prospective students will actively seek admission, thus increasing enrollment. Moreover, co-‐ops and internships can help students jump-‐start their careers, while simultaneously helping students earn credit toward their degree.
Assessment of Opportunities
- Leverage and Strengthen Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration Across NJIT: As previously noted, some SOM faculty members have already forged research alliances with others across interdisciplinary lines to conduct investigations and submit grant proposals. However, faculty should be encouraged to embrace interdisciplinary research collaboration as a means to leverage strengths across the university to increase research funding, support strategic research areas at the university, and generate greater publication success in peer-‐reviewed outlets. Moreover, building interdepartmental bridges and cultivating research teams can further facilitate the development of joint degree programs and create new academic offerings in priority areas that were previously discussed.
- Establish a Doctoral/Ph.D. Program in SOM: To overcome many of the weaknesses and threats identified and take advantage of several of the opportunities cited, a strong and viable Ph.D./DBA program for SOM is strategically necessary. There are several major reasons to launch a Doctoral/Ph.D. program at SOM:
- Doctoral/Ph.D. program is one important factor to retain the AACSB accreditation for SOM, and AACSB accreditation is highly recognized among top business schools.
- Both academia and industry have an increasing demand for candidates with doctoral degrees focus on business intelligence systems, analytics and data sciences. It is one of NJIT’s strategic priorities for SOM to offer a Ph.D. degree, as described in the 2020 Vision Strategic Plan.
- NJIT is a research-‐intensive university and almost all the STEM programs have their own or joint doctorate program except SOM. To maintain a healthy disciplinary development at NJIT, especially for interdisciplinary cooperation between technology and management, it is imperative to launch a doctorate program.
- Importantly, SOM is well prepared for a Doctoral/Ph.D. program, in terms of the potential research problems stemming from surrounding industry, faculty’s research capacity and interest and faculty advisory skills, among other reasons.
Introduction of a doctoral program in the SOM will elevate the visibility and stature of the school in industry and academia. With a doctoral program, SOM will be more attractive and competitive, lead the faculty to be more productive, and hence contribute to the scholarly and academic reputation of NJIT nationally and internationally. Clearly, establishing a Ph.D. and/or DBA program should be a central strategy and priority of the SOM Academic Plan, which will help to overcome weaknesses and contribute to the overall success of the school.
- Expand Joint Degree Programs and Create New Academic Offerings in Priority Areas: SOM has begun to establish several new joint degree programs with other departments and programs across the university. There are additional opportunities, especially with engineering that should be considered, including an integrated engineering and business program similar to that offered by Lehigh University or a joint program with engineering management. In addition, SOM may offer highly customized business programs developed jointly with other educational units within NJIT and beyond, such as MBA programs in health care management, pharmaceuticals marketing, transportation management and financial engineering.
- Strengthen Relationships With the Regional Business Community, Including Close Partnership and Engagement With the SOM Advisory Board: It is important for SOM is to establish strong relationships with the regional business community. These relationships form the basis for creating co-‐op and internship opportunities for students, research partnerships and funding for our faculty, and critical guidance and advice from the corporate perspective. Fortunately, our location in the greater New York City region provides SOM with access to many important and dynamic businesses and industries. Within a few miles of NJIT, there are hundreds of small, medium and large companies that could benefit from closer integration with SOM as well. Within important industries, like pharmaceutical, finance, logistics/supply chain, marketing and others, closer collaboration with firms will provide many benefits for both the companies and the university.
- Update Curricula and Expand MSM, MBA and EMBA Programs: For the last several years, SOM has been expanding the concentration area offerings at the MSM and MBA levels. As indicated above, new concentrations in the MSM have been developed in collaboration with other departments at the university. Recently added concentration areas include business analytics, environmental management, architecture and business, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Students in these programs take a combination of courses in the School of Management and in other departments to enhance program offerings in these areas. Now, the curricula must be reviewed and updated to ensure that our students are exposed to the latest and most advanced techniques and software tools available.
The online MBA program was launched in the fall 2013 semester and is growing in both enrollments and recognition. We would like to expand the MBA program into new areas as well. Current concentrations for the MBA are limited to subjects within the SOM: management information systems, marketing and finance. However, within these areas, we also hope to incorporate courses from other departments as well as the real-‐world experience of people from companies at the Enterprise Development Center.
Likewise, the EMBA program curriculum and delivery format need to be benchmarked and updated to support SOM’s technology focus and identity. In addition, the EMBA delivery format, including the use of online courses, should be assessed. Once the reviews and benchmarking have been completed, SOM must examine the tuition charged for its EMBA program. There are four schools offering an EMBA in our vicinity, including Steven’s Institute of Technology, Ryder University, Fairleigh Dickinson and Rutgers Newark. While these competitor schools have increased their program costs significantly over the past four years, the last tuition increase at SOM was in 2009.
Meeting these challenges will likely increase our ability to not only grow our enrollments, but also to better anticipate and strategically respond to the rapid and ever-‐changing global business, political and social landscapes.
- Work Closely With Admissions and Enrollment Management to Target and Strengthen Enrollments: After the curricula have been updated to reflect the integrated business-‐technology focus and identity, SOM will be well positioned to realize its potential and increase both the number and quality of our students. SOM will work closely with admissions to identify and recruit candidates for our programs.
Forming closer coalitions with community colleges around the state can provide us with additional sources of students.
SOM is currently considering whether or not to move from offering “concentration” programs to one with “majors” that will be more attractive to students. In open house sessions where prospective students and their families come to campus, parents have expressed desire for more focused programs and real credentials for their students in specific areas of business. By providing such programs, SOM should be able to attract more and better students.
- Work With Senior Administration to Identify and Nurture Potential Major Donors for SOM, Including Naming of the School of Management, Student Scholarships and Faculty Chairs: The senior administration and university advancement officers at NJIT have been very successful in fundraising for the university. With a distinctive identity and clear alignment with NJIT priorities, SOM will be well positioned to seek major corporate sponsorships, foundation gifts and donor contributions to provide much needed resources and named recognitions to help realize its full potential and move the school toward its bold, new vision. These funds would provide opportunities for student scholarships, dedicated labs and business education centers, endowed professorships, and expanded facilities for SOM operations. SOM is prepared to work closely with the senior administration to identify and nurture relationships with potential major donors, such as the Leir Foundation, in the naming of the School of Management. Being a named management school, SOM will receive significant recognition and success in branding and marketing the school’s programs, attracting strong students, hiring new faculty, and supporting NJIT’s efforts to become a nationally recognized public research university.
Assessment of Threats
- Intense Competition From Area Business Schools, Especially Those Within Well-‐Known Technological Universities: The School of Management faces competition from at least 85 business schools within a 50-‐ mile radius. However, the competition is particularly intense from schools within the close proximity of Northern New Jersey and New York City. Approximately 40 of these 50 business schools in the greater NYC region have their information filed with AACSB. The competition can be categorized broadly as public vs. private universities, comprehensive vs. technology-‐focused schools, research vs. non-‐research-‐ focused schools and finally accredited vs. non-‐accredited institutions.
Four schools that are in close proximity pose a serious threat to SOM, in terms of both undergraduate and graduate enrollment. For example, Rutgers University is a large, research-‐oriented, public university that has comprehensive degree programs and is accredited by AACSB. Montclair and William Paterson are both public universities that are accredited by AACSB and offer multiple business specializations. They are our competitors in terms of geography and the kinds of students that they enroll primarily in their undergraduate programs. Stevens Institute of Technology is a private, non-‐accredited institution that offers a Ph.D. program and has a technology focus. Stevens is our primary competitor in the graduate space. Although NJIT is research focused, SOM does not currently have a Ph.D. program. One of the primary recommendations of this Academic Plan is to create a Ph.D. program so that SOM can begin to realize its full potential and be a vibrant and strong business school.
The intense competition is accentuated by the smallness of NJIT’s student enrollment in the undergraduate and graduate programs and very small number of full-‐time faculty. Student size, resource constraints and faculty size seriously threaten NJIT’s ability to compete effectively.
- Increasing Number of Online Business Programs: Academic institutions have rapidly embraced the use of the internet to offer online programs across many disciplines and domains, including arts, engineering, medical sciences, social sciences and business. Within the nexus of business programs, mimicking the success attained by the University of Phoenix and Strayer University, more and more national and international educational institutions and universities are aggressively exploiting the internet to offer a larger number of courses using a variety of distance learning and blended/hybrid formats. As indicated earlier, SOM has just launched a new online MBA program that has been successful in attracting students and recognition. To continue growing, SOM must continue to expand offerings and deliver high-‐quality courses.
SOM and NJIT must remain cognizant of the threat posed by this powerful information technology, due to its potential of reducing enrollment as students seek alternative, more cost-‐effective mediums to education. Utilizing experiential learning and hands-‐on experiences in concert with online lecture content will enhance the educational value of SOM’s programs and help to address the threat from online business programs.
- Inaction or Lack of Commitment to Change: While normally considered an internal weakness in most SWOT analyses, inaction or lack of commitment to change is presented here as a threat to emphasize the importance of implementing this Academic Plan. Clearly, the very future of SOM is at risk and inaction or lack of commitment is not an option. The SOM faculty has worked together to create this Academic Plan and have expressed strong commitment to continue moving SOM forward toward our shared vision. The strategies and actions described in the next section of the Academic Plan will require significant resources to accomplish — the commitment to providing these resources is critical to realizing SOM’s vision. This plan is bold and aggressive, but achievable if we all work together. We now ask others, including NJIT’s senior administration, deans, faculty, students, SOM graduates and corporate and academic partners, to join us in this extraordinary journey together to realize the full potential of the School of Management at NJIT.
IV. STRATEGIES AND INITIATIVES
The candid SWOT analysis, benchmarking assessment and key observations presented in the preceding section provide the basis for building on strengths and eliminating weaknesses so that SOM can take advantage of its opportunities and minimize threats. This rationale underlies the structure of the Academic Plan and the five fundamental strategies with facilitating actions to be implemented. These strategies are directly related to the strategic priorities in the NJIT 2020 Vision Strategic Plan:
STRATEGY 1: Deliver High-‐Value, Technology-‐integrated Business Programs to Educate and Prepare Students for Success. This strategy responds to 2020 Vision Strategic Priorities 1-‐Students and 2-‐ Learning and captures the fundamental identity and value differentiation of the School of Management within NJIT’s STEM-‐based academic institution by creating a technology-‐rich, student-‐centered environment to stimulate learning and foster a passion for success.
- Enhance the quality of the undergraduate and graduate programs and the overall learning environment by updating curricula and course delivery with assessment-‐driven improvements to assure that students are business educated and technologically skilled.
- Develop dedicated instructional and research laboratories with the latest technology tools and data-‐driven business analytics and management software systems.
- Expand joint programs with disciplines across the university to integrate business and management principles into STEM-‐based programs.
- Establish experiential learning opportunities for SOM students through internships, co-‐op experiences, research and innovation projects and hands-‐on laboratory environments.
- Implement a branding, marketing and recruitment strategy that focuses on SOM strengths and competitive advantages.
Facilitating Actions:
- Enhance the overall student experience from recruitment, freshmen advisement and continuous mentorship to experiential opportunities and graduation within a collegial and professional environment driven by a commitment to continuous improvement through student engagement.
- With the curricula updated to reflect the integrated business-‐technology focus and identity, SOM will be well positioned to increase both the number and quality of our students. SOM will work closely with the admissions and enrollment management offices to identify and recruit well-‐qualified candidates for our programs.
STRATEGY 2: Build an Outstanding Faculty With Commitment to Teaching and Research and Dedication to Our Core Values and Guiding Principles. The strategy responds to 2020 Vision Strategic Priority 4-‐Investments and creates a teaching staff of both tenured/tenure-‐track faculty and full-‐time university lecturers with specialized courses being taught by adjunct faculty. From a research perspective, developing a critical mass of faculty in priority research areas will increase externally funded research activities and strengthen research collaboration across the university and beyond.
- Increase faculty size in core business disciplines to assure fundamental AACSB requirements and expectations are met.
- Hire critical mass of research-‐active faculty in the strategic research thrust areas: business analytics, intelligence and data sciences, and technology-‐based product innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization.
- Provide an environment of collegiality and respect in which faculty and staff are encouraged to excel professionally and are recognized for their myriad contributions that enrich the School of Management and the experience of our students.
- Establish graduate student teaching assistantships allocated to the school to provide teaching assistance to faculty with large class sizes, support instructional labs, and work with research-‐ active faculty.
Facilitating Actions:
- Hire three new tenured/tenure-‐track faculty members in the following disciplines as part of the on-‐going searches for the 2015 new faculty cohort: accounting, marketing and entrepreneurship, and big data. In addition, one new senior university lecturer in accounting has been included as part of the 2016 budget request.
- Foster a collegial and encouraging environment for faculty, staff and students to excel professionally and to embrace the school’s core values: respect, candor, excellence, integrity, innovation and diversity.
- Establish concentration leadership teams of faculty to be responsible for curriculum development and teaching excellence in disciplinary concentration areas and individual courses
STRATEGY 3: Establish a doctoral or Ph.D. program. As indicated in the 2020 Vision Strategic Priority 2-‐ Learning, a doctoral or Ph.D. program in the SOM will elevate the visibility and stature of the school in research and teaching. With a doctoral program, SOM will be more attractive and competitive, lead the faculty to be more productive, and hence contribute to the scholarly and academic reputation of NJIT nationally and internationally. Clearly, establishing a Ph.D. and/or DBA program is a central strategy and priority of the SOM Academic Plan, which will help to overcome weaknesses and contribute to the overall success of the school.
- Develop a Ph.D. degree that provides a distinctive identity and competitive advantage for program graduates in academic and corporate careers, and satisfies an unmet need not only today, but also for the future.
- Prepare the documentation and supporting materials to seek NJIT and state-‐level approvals to offer the Ph.D. degree.
- Expand faculty size to assure the critical mass necessary to offer new graduate-‐level courses, advise Ph.D.-‐level graduate student research, and seek externally funded research grants.
- Create graduate research assistantships allocated to the school to support research-‐active faculty as part of a near-‐term strategy to support faculty development and the commitment to a hands-‐on learning environment.
Facilitating Actions:
- Establish an SOM faculty committee to explore opportunities and report findings and recommendations to the full faculty. Note: This committee has been formed and will report during the spring 2015 Semester.
- Expand the school’s administrative structure to include two associate deans: associate dean for administration and undergraduate studies and associate dean for research and graduate studies. The dean and both associate deans should be tenured professors in the school.
STRATEGY 4: Expand External Research Funding, Innovation and Outreach Project Opportunities and Broaden Support Base. This strategy supports 2020 Vision Strategic Priority 3-‐Scholarship. Research funding provides opportunities for faculty and graduate students to explore new management and technical knowledge and collaborate in interdisciplinary research with faculty across the University. If a new Ph.D. program is to be successful, SOM must increase its research funding and broaden the base.
- Establish research and innovation thrust areas and centers to align with NJIT thematic research priorities and strategic areas: business analytics, intelligence and data sciences, financial bubble research, technology-‐based product innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization, the New Jersey Innovation Acceleration Center.
- Expand relationship with New Jersey Innovation Institute for funding and student project experiences.
- Organize annual research conferences or workshops that bring together key researchers from academia, industry and government to create relationships and provide basis for collaboration and funding.
- Encourage and support faculty participation at research conferences.
- Create a School of Management newsletter that highlights activities, encourages collaboration, and attracts highly qualified applicants into the school’s programs.
- Explore additional international programs, including establishing a relationship with Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University.
Facilitating Action:
- SOM faculty members have become more active in university committees related to research and engaged with other faculty across the campus on funded research grants and innovation projects. These activities must be further encouraged, nurtured and supported, and include participation in forming major cluster research groups and new centers.
STRATEGY 5: Strengthen Relationships and Expand Partnerships With Industry to Become a Catalyst for Economic Growth in New Jersey Through Technological Innovation and Outreach. This strategy supports 2020 Vision Strategic Priority 5-‐Community. It is important for SOM to establish strong relationships with the regional business community. These relationships form the basis for creating co-‐ op and internship opportunities for students, research partnerships and funding for our faculty, and critical guidance and advice from the corporate perspective.
- Engage the School of Management Advisory Board for input and perspectives on SOM directions and programs, and nurture “industry and corporate champions” to leverage contacts and support new initiatives.
- Strengthen the SOM internship and cooperative education programs and project laboratory to expand collaboration between the school and corporate partners to enhance the hands-‐on experience for students and nurture innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Work with senior administration to purse naming opportunity for the School of Management, as well as scholarships and endowed professorships.
- Become a catalyst for innovation, entrepreneurship and outreach with business to help strengthen the state’s economy and job growth.
Facilitating Actions:
- Expand relationship with NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center to enhance student learning and create opportunities for innovation and outreach.
- Initiate an executive-‐in-‐residence program and business roundtable forum to strengthen relationships with corporate partners and provide experiential learning opportunities for students.
Figure 11 is a mapping showing the relationship between the strategies and initiatives and the School of Management’s overarching vision and guiding principle presented in the vision section.
Figure 11 – Strategy Map Showing Strategies and Initiatives for the Academic Plan
V. RESOURCES: AN INVESTMENT AND COMMITMENT TO REALIZE SOM’S VISION
The strategies and initiatives described in the previous section of the Academic Plan present a bold and aggressive pathway forward toward SOM’s vision. To implement these strategies and achieve SOM’s vision will require a range of resources from new faculty, staff, facilities and laboratories to the commitment of senior university leadership and institutional resources, including advancement, strategic communications, enrollment management and research and development. This section of the Academic Plan provides a summary of the resources SOM needs over the next five years to succeed.
5.1 New Faculty and Staff – The School of Management Five-‐Year Hiring Plan
The need for new faculty over the next five years is driven by three major criteria: the need to deliver the current curricula without having faculty teach overloads (as requested by the Provost); the additional instructional needs to accommodate the five-‐year enrollment growth as projected in the 2020 Vision; and the future teaching and research needs associated with SOM’s vision and strategic initiatives described in this Academic Plan, including establishing a new Ph.D. program[7] and creating a more research-‐intensive School of Management. In addition, to sustain the initiatives, all new faculty are assumed to be research active and will maintain a two-‐course teaching load during the five-‐year plan. Furthermore, it is assumed that these are all new faculty lines and that any loss of faculty due to attrition will be considered as replacements that are outside of the hiring plan presented here.
SOM is committed to maintaining accreditation by AACSB; consequently, SOM must continue to satisfy all of AACSB’s guidelines and expectations in order to avoid jeopardizing accreditation. One AACSB requirement that is related to faculty size and composition is faculty sufficiency. Faculty sufficiency is intended to assure that students enrolled in AACSB-‐accredited schools are taught primarily by participating faculty and not by adjunct instructors, referred to as supporting faculty. The AACSB faculty sufficiency guideline is set at 75 percent, meaning that 75 percent of all course sections offered are delivered by participating faculty, essentially considered as full-‐time SOM instructional staff, including tenured/tenure-‐track faculty, university lecturers and research professors. SOM also has a few adjunct instructors teaching multiple courses and having active involvement with committees and course development: They qualify to be considered as “participating.”
Delivering Current Curricula Without Teaching Overloads
Figure 12 shows the Excel spreadsheet used to calculate and analyze the capacity of SOM faculty to deliver the undergraduate and graduate program course sections offered for fall 2014 and the projection to fall 2015, assuming growth only in the online MBA program as necessary to offer the carousel of courses already committed. SOM is currently engaged in searching for three new T/TT faculty for the fall 2015 semester as part of the NJIT Strategic New Faculty Hiring Plan. The capacity analysis assumes that SOM is successful in hiring all three of these new faculty in the following disciplinary areas: accounting information systems, marketing and entrepreneurship and big data/business analytics.
The analysis shows that SOM will need to hire two new T/TT faculty, in addition to the three new faculty expected to join SOM in fall 2015, and one new university lecturer in order to have the capacity to deliver the current curricula within AACSB guidelines and without asking faculty to teach overload courses.
Figure 12 – SOM Faculty Teaching Capacity Analysis for Fall 2015[8]
Accommodating Course Demands Given the Five-‐Year NJIT Enrollment Growth Forecast
NJIT has forecast that overall enrollments will increase from 10,000 students today to over 12,000 in 2020. To accommodate this projected enrollment increase with greater expected growth for the online MBA program based on forecast by Pearson-‐Embanet, the number of additional course sections expected is extrapolated based on average class size and student average course loads. Then, the number of new SOM faculty needed to handle the increased demand is calculated assuming adherence with AACSB’s 75 percent faculty sufficiency requirement.
Supporting the New Ph.D. Program
For planning purposes, the nominal size of the Ph.D. program will be 25 students within five years of the program launch in fall 2017. For the five-‐year planning horizon of this Academic Plan, we assume that there will be 15 students enrolled in the SOM Ph.D. program by 2020, each with a 3-‐course load in addition to independent research. Unlike the undergraduate and master’s programs, all Ph.D. courses are to be taught by full-‐time T/TT faculty with no adjunct instructors. SOM faculty participating in the Ph.D. program will be expected to serve as dissertation advisors, dissertation committee members and graduate research seminars organizers, and to teach Ph.D.-‐level courses in addition to conducting scholarly research and securing funds for graduate assistantships and summer support. As noted earlier, all of the new faculty hired are expected to be research active and sustain independent research programs; consequently, all new faculty will be qualified to serve as -‐Ph.D. research advisors.
Figure 13 below shows the impact of both enrollment growth for SOM’s undergraduate and master’s programs, as well as the demands of a new Ph.D. program. As the analysis shows, SOM will need to hire seven new faculty members to accommodate projected enrollment growth and support the new Ph.D. program.
Figure 13 – SOM Five-‐Year Growth Projection and New Ph.D. Program Impacts[9]
Five-‐year New Faculty Hiring Plan
The following summarizes the new faculty hiring needs for SOM including new faculty searches currently underway:
- SOM is searching for and anticipates hiring three new T/TT faculty to begin with the fall 2015 semester: accounting information systems, entrepreneurship and marketing, and big data/business analytics.
- SOM needs two new T/TT faculty and one university lecturer to satisfy AACSB guidelines and have capacity to deliver the curricula without overloads.
- SOM needs seven new T/TT faculty members to accommodate enrollment growth projections and support the new Ph.D. Program.
The SOM five-‐year hiring plan involves the addition of nine new faculty members across SOM, in addition to the three new faculty hires anticipated for AY2015-‐16. The new faculty hiring plan supports core areas of academic disciplines and the strategic areas identified as critical to future directions and research and support of the new Ph.D. Program. Table 7 shows the disciplines associated with the current new faculty searches while Table 8 provides the disciplinary areas and hiring sequence recommended for the nine new faculty in the five-‐year hiring plan.
Table 7 – SOM New Faculty Hiring Plan for 2015 Cohort
Table 8 – SOM Five-‐Year Faculty Hiring Plan: 2016-‐2020
5.2 Faculty Offices and Graduate Student Work Spaces: Facilities and Space
The School of Management currently occupies the third and fourth floors of the Central Avenue Building (CAB). Within this current office space, SOM will repurpose and request repainting and furnishing for existing space that can accommodate four additional faculty offices. This space will be sufficient to accommodate the new faculty and university lecturer projected for the fall 2015 semester[10]. However, new space will need to be allocated to SOM to accommodate the nine new faculty members and 15 new Ph.D. students envisioned in this Academic Plan. In support of this Academic Plan, SOM will require additional space, preferably on the second floor of CAB, to accommodate this projected growth: 9 faculty offices and four graduate student office areas, each office accommodating up to four graduate student workspaces.
5.3 Research and Instructional Laboratories
SOM is in the process of establishing three dedicated instructional and research laboratories to support undergraduate and graduate programs:
- Business Analytics and Data Sciences Laboratory, with workstations networked to the University’s high-‐performance computing facility, and advanced Bring-‐Your-‐Own-‐Device cloud computing platform to provide state-‐of-‐the-‐art computing capabilities and a learning environment necessary to support instruction and research.
- Financial Analysis Laboratory, with a cluster of Bloomberg Terminals and trading floor environment to provide students with access to the financial analysis tools and corporate data essential for data-‐driven finance, marketing and entrepreneurship studies.
- Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Commercialization Laboratory, will provide an interactive experiential learning and creative studio environment in which interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty and industry collaborators can engage in innovation, entrepreneurship and realization of new products and business ventures.
The labs will contain workstations with connectivity to NJIT’s high-‐performance computing facility, including Hadoop clusters, virtual machines, and data centers to support SOM undergraduate and graduate programs, including the new Ph.D. program. Related software, such as SPSS Statistical Analysis, Structured Query Language (SQL) Server, R Programming Language, SAP, SAS, etc., and relevant databases for data-‐intensive research will be available. All three labs are in the design phase with the Business Analytics and Data Sciences Laboratory and Financial Analysis Laboratory expected to be operational by fall 2016. These labs will facilitate and support the Ph.D. program. In addition, space on the fourth floor of the SOM building has been renovated recently as a collaborative learning area for SOM students and will be available for Ph.D. program students.
Space Requirements
The school will require additional space to accommodate these new laboratories. Specifically, SOM requests that space on the first and second floors of CAB be designated and renovated to house the School of Management laboratories. The Business Analytics and Data Sciences Laboratory—which supports courses in MIS, business analytics, accounting, finance and marketing, as well as the new SOM Ph.D. program in business data science—would be located in existing space on the first floor of CAB adjacent to the atrium. The Bloomberg cluster would reside in the space currently identified as the Edward F. Weston Visitors Center, and the HPC workstation cluster and cloud cluster would be housed in adjacent space. This highly desirable location will be the cornerstone in SOM’s effort to raise its visibility on campus and to enhance its recognition and attraction to prospective students and potential corporate and foundation sponsors. The Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Laboratory is proposed to be located in space being requested on the second floor of CAB. And the Multipurpose Management Educational Learning Center is proposed to be located in newly renovated space on the fourth floor of CAB.
The Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Laboratory will be located in renovated space on the second floor of the Central Avenue Building (CAB) and will include:
- Interactive learning space for 30 individual workstations with modular, reconfigurable computer workspaces.
- Six large screen mobile digital displays and three smart boards.
- Three small 3D printers.
- Network connections and cloud computing platform.
- Financial databases, software and hardware support for two Bloomberg terminals.
- Vertical storage space for individual student projects.
Networking/Conference space for students, faculty and industry teams in the lobby of the second floor of CAB will include:
- Modular meeting space to accommodate up to four project teams.
- Large screen digital display.
- Virtual meeting capabilities.
Figure 14—Plan for Renovation of the Second Floor of CAB for SOM Office and Laboratory Space
Table 9 is a summary of the financial strategies supporting the strategic action items of the Academic Plan.
Table 9 – Financial Strategies Table
Strategic Priority |
Funding Required |
Funding Source |
Initial Cost |
Continuing Annual Cost With Timeline |
New Faculty Positions — Five-‐year faculty hiring plan |
9-‐T/TT faculty 3-‐Univ Lecturers / Prof of Practice |
NJIT |
FY2016: 2 T/TT faculty lines |
FY2017: 2 new T/TT faculty, 1 new Prof of Practice FY2018: 3 new T/TT faculty FY2019: 1 new T/TT faculty, 1 new University Lecturer FY2020: 1 new T/TT faculty, 1 new UL FY2016-‐2020: Continuation of all lines |
Financial Analysis Laboratory — cluster of Bloomberg terminals and Ultra-‐HD displays |
$700,000 |
NJIT & Gifts |
FY2017: $325,000 |
FY2018-‐2020: $125,000 annually |
Resources for Business Analytics Laboratory — 30 workstations, cloud-‐based platform and Ultra-‐HD displays |
$700,000 |
NJIT & Gifts |
FY2017: $325,000 |
FY2018-‐2020: $125,000 annually |
Renovation of space for faculty-‐student offices, collaborative learning space and conferencing |
$1,000,000 |
NJIT |
$1,000,000 |
|
Resources for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Commercialization Lab |
$200,000 |
NJIT |
$200,000 |
FY2018-‐2020: $50,000 annually |
Experiential Learning with internships, co-‐ops and corporate scholarships |
$300,000 |
Corp Gifts |
FY2016: 4 Avanade scholarships $60,000 |
FY2017-‐2020: 5 Avanade Scholarships $75,000 annually |
Strategic Communications — branding, marketing, recruitment & MTSOM newsletter |
$350,000 |
NJIT |
FY2016: $50,000 |
FY2017-‐2020: $75,000 annually |
Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships |
TAs: 5 lines RAs: 6 line Fellows: 4 |
NJIT, Grants & Gifts |
FY2017: 5 TAs & 1 RA |
FY2018-‐2020: 5 new Ph.D. supports annually |
Expansion of MTSOM Administrative Structure |
2 new admin staff lines |
NJIT |
FY2017: Assist. Dean of Admin |
FY2018: new position of director of enrollment management FY2018-‐2020: Continuation of lines |
Annual Research Conference and Symposia |
$100,000 |
NJIT & Corp Gifts |
FY2016: $15,000 |
FY2017-‐2020: $85,000 |
Institute for Business and Management Research with Business Data Observatory |
$5,000,000 |
Fnd & Corp Gifts |
FY2018: $500,000 |
FY2019-‐2020: Annual endowment proceeds |
Table 10 provides a summary of the strategic initiatives and progress achieved as of August 2016.
Table 10 -‐-‐ Strategic Initiatives, Outcomes and Progress
Initiative |
Outcomes/Progress |
Technology-‐Integrated Business Programs The objectives of this initiative are to link business and technology to increase business concepts in STEM courses, developing technology-‐integrated business courses enhanced with learning labs, and providing more opportunities for experiential learning. |
Outcome 1: STEM MBA concentration Progress: In development with expected launch with Newark College of Engineering in January 2017. Launches with the College of Computing and the College of Science and Liberal Arts to follow thereafter. Outcome 2: STEM-‐integrated BSB and MBA concentrations Progress:
Outcome 3: Revised STEM enhanced BSB core Progress: BSB core under review Outcome 4: New program development Progress: Interdisciplinary M.S. in business analytics in planning stage |
Faculty Composition, Expansion and Resources The initiative is focused on expanding faculty in core disciplines, creating a critical mass of faculty in strategic focus areas (business analytics and new product development), and enhancing resources to support teaching, learning and research. |
Outcome 1: Build expertise in business analytics and data science Progress: Fall 2016—Two faculty hires with expertise in data analytics, machine learning and algorithm development Outcome 2: Strengthen intellectual capital in functional business areas Progress:
|
|
and university lecturer Fall 2019-‐(2) Organizational behavior and professor of practice. Outcome 3: Enhance support for research, teaching and learning Progress:
$1.2 million.
|
New Doctoral Program: Ph.D. in Business Data Science The doctoral program in business data science serves to enhance the school’s stature and opportunities for externally funded research while reinforcing our focus on business analytics. |
Outcome: Program approval Progress: Program approval complete. Launch in fall 2016. |
Enhance Sponsored and Interdisciplinary Research Both sponsored and interdisciplinary research leverages business knowledge to help address important societal problems. This initiative is designed to better integrate MTSM into the university and to enhance impact and innovation by engaging faculty in large-‐scale, multidisciplinary projects. Further, sponsored research augments our resource base while generating basic knowledge. |
Outcome 1: Increase sponsored research Progress: As of the end of fall 2016, MTSM faculty has attracted four new/transferred NSF grants and one Google Faculty Research Award. Outcome 2: Foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research Progress: MTSM faculty serve as co-‐director of a new NJIT Center for Big Data and as PI and co-‐ PI on NSF and other research grants. |
Greater Collaboration with Industry Increasing our engagement and collaboration with industry through NJIT vehicles such as NJII and the Enterprise Development Center (the university’s business incubator) and through new corporate partnerships enhances our relevance and visibility. |
Outcome 1: Naming gift for the school of management Progress: School named in spring 2016. The generous gift provides funding for an endowed chair, scholarships and graduate fellowships. Outcome 2: Greater engagement of board of advisors Progress: During AY2015-‐16, the board of advisors conducted an outreach study to gather information on the expectations and perceptions of major employers in the region. This information is being used to assess AOL |
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learning outcomes and inform the overall AOL process. Outcome 3: Executive-‐In-‐Residence Program Progress: In discussions for implementation. Outcome 4: Events, programs and seminars such as the HealthIT Cluster Development initiative. Progress: Annual MTSM Business Conference with 2015 focus on the business of healthcare. |