Assistant Professor Timothy Werner's book "Public Forces and Private Politics in American Big Business" (Cambridge University Press, 2012) has been named a finalist for the Academy of Management's Social Issues in Management division's Best Book Award for 2013. Werner's book is the first in Cambridge's new Business and Public Policy series

The BGS Department’s Business Law Group was just named the #8 undergraduate business law program in the nation. Bloomberg Businessweek asked undergraduate business students from this year’s graduating class to rate their school’s programs. This ranking nicely supplements the McCombs School’s #6 ranking in business ethics education.

On June 2, Robert Prentice gave a presentation about teaching accounting ethics to the Canadian Academic Accounting Association in Montreal. The talk was sponsored by the Centre for Accounting Ethics at the University of Waterloo. The talk was advertised as "your ticket to learning how to increase students' enthusiasm and interest in ethics topics."

On May 22-23, with the generous support of the Bates Family Foundation, the BGS Department hosted scholars from Harvard, Stanford Northwestern, Duke, and other top business schools at the 13th annual Strategy and the Business Environment Conference. BGS faculty members Brian Richter, Tim Werner, and Dave Spence participated in presenting and critiquing papers researching the strategic intersection of business activity and government regulation.

The McCombs School was recently named the sixth best business school in the nation for ethics education. A lot of that credit goes to the BGS faculty members who teach ethics to every single undergraduate business student.

How do we ensure sufficient supplies of electricity to meet expected demand? The third Annual Austin Electricity Conference (held April 18 and 19) took on that topic--‘resource adequacy’ as it is known in energy industry parlance--recently on the University of Texas Campus.

Christopher Meakin received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Mexico City EMBA class of 2013. He was selected as the professor who provided the class with the most memorable academic experience during the program.

The UT System has created an Academy of Distinguished Teachers. BGS Professor Robert Prentice is one of 12 professors from across the system's nine undergraduate academic institutions admitted into the Academy's inaugural class on April 23.

Power grid operators, in Texas and elsewhere, must make difficult decisions when the demand for electricity strains the system’s limits. They can add more electricity to the grid by turning on another power plant, but that can be costly and increases toxic emissions. Alternatively, they can lower demand for power by asking consumers and businesses to reduce their energy usage.

Brian Richter and Tim Werner presented several papers at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago. Their co-authored paper, "Campaign Contributions from Corporate Executives in Lieu of Political Action Committees," shows that when political candidates refuse money from corporate-linked political action committees, corporate executives step in and increase their personal contributions to those candidates. Richter also presented a paper entitled "Campaign Contributions over CEOs' Careers," and Werner presented a paper entitled "Incorporating Private Politics into Frameworks of the Public Policy Process."