A&M International Business Students Writing Innovative Academic Papers

Texas A&M International University students are developing their knowledge of the business world not only by attending lectures but also writing academic papers and sharing them with the business community.

Two such students are Laurie Trusky and Magdalena Marcu. Both are pursuing a master degree in business administration at the College of Business Administration. While Trusky presented her paper before the Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management, an institute comprised of academics and business representatives who work jointly to improve business practices, Marcu made her presentation at a Society for the Advancement of Management Conference.

Trusky's paper titled, Theoretical Techniques for Successful Corporate Welfare-to-Work Programs, presents a summary of corporate welfare-to-work programs, including a program conducted at Marriott International.

Trusky, who joined A&M International's master of business program in 1997 after having graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from A&M International University, said she started research on welfare reform before it was passed through legislation.

"I combined some of the information that I had found prior and put it in theoretical framework to make a more successful program possible," said Trusky, referring to her paper.

One reason Trusky continued with her research is because at the time of legislation, many had doubts and worries about how the reform could affect them, Trusky said.

"What the corporate welfare-to-work program does is it teaches skills to people who don't have any, and therefore, it helps them find employment. It is valuable for people with limited abilities and limited skills."

Trusky said she hopes local companies will also show an interest in reading her paper.

"The corporate welfare-to-work program is still very new. A few, limited companies are using it. A broad spectrum of companies are studying it. They are not sure how they can best apply it," Trusky said.

Marcu co-authored a paper titled, Manga and the Pirates Unlikely Allies for Strategic Growth, with three business faculty members, Dr. Alain Genestre, Dr. Jackie Mayfield and Dr. Milton Mayfield.

Marcu's paper presents a study on how Japanese manga (comic book) companies are forming business alliances with "pirates," organizations that previously appropriated intellectual goods from them. According to the paper, by establishing this alliance, both comic book companies and pirates promise to gain. While the comic book companies gain a partner who understands both the cultural norms and marketing practices of a foreign country, the pirates gain legitimacy and an uninterrupted supply of comic books to translate and sell, the paper states.

"We intend to continue our efforts and do more research and a statistical analysis of the comic book industry in Asia. At the same time, we try to apply this intelligent strategy to other businesses in an apparently closed market.A smart manager will always find a solution and the globalization and internationalization of an economy is a step to tomorrow," Marcu said.

Marcu joined the A&M International student body after having studied law as an undergraduate student at the Ecological University at Bucharest, Romania.

For further information, please contact Dr. Milton Mayfield at the College of Business Administration at 326-2534. He can also be reached by e-mail at mmayfield@tamiu.edu. University office hours are 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at pais@tamiu.edu