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Faculty investigate business management, AIDS and global economics under grants-in-aid
June 2, 2003 | |||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—IU Kokomo has awarded grants-in-aid of $4,000 each to support faculty research projects in Africa, Asia and Europe this summer and fall. Grant recipients include Assistant Professor of International Business Lucy Ojode, Ph.D., Assistant Dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs Allen Anderson, Ph.D., and Professor of History John Kofas, Ph.D. In June and July, Ojode will conduct field research of British American Tobacco (BAT) and its operations in Kenya. She will look specifically at BAT’s decision to pull out of the Kenyan market before the launch of the World Health Organization’s Framework for Tobacco Control Initiative in March 2003. “The project fits within my research agenda that focuses on firm competitiveness . . . [and], specifically, on decision-making and managerial practices that enable firms to earn profits in different environments,” Ojode said. “It is particularly intriguing how different sets of individuals in charge of companies can end up with different outcomes, even if the companies appear similar. For instance, why would Wal-Mart prosper where K-Mart would not?” Recent IU Kokomo M.B.A. graduate Catherine Odindo, who is also Ojode’s niece, helped inspire the summer project with her own class project on the topic. That research “has already resulted in a paper presentation at the International Academy of African Business and Development in London in April 2003 and a paper under review at the Journal of African Business,” Ojode said. Allen Anderson will travel to Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China, to continue his 14 years of research into HIV/AIDS transmission in that country. In 2001, Anderson worked with the Chinese Foundation for the Prevention of STD and AIDS, surveying hospital workers in the region about HIV/AIDS prevention and transmission. Survey results indicated that the healthcare workers held numerous misconceptions about the disease, and that the nurses and doctors in question might actually avoid dealing with HIV/AIDS patients. (The journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and Reuters Health news service both reported summaries of the 2001 survey this February.) This summer, Anderson and the foundation hope to bridge the information gap. “We have developed an HIV/AIDS training module that will be administered in July to a group of hospital workers,” he said. “We will do a pre-test and post-test of their knowledge, as well as a one month follow-up to gauge knowledge retention.” Even after a decade and a half of research, Anderson said he remains interested in the topic because of “the complexity of the dynamics of disease prevention and control.” He also received a $1,000 grant from SPEA-IU Bloomington for his 2003 trip. Under his grant-in-aid, Jon Kofas will spend this fall researching his 11th book. Its working title is Inequality and the International Financial System, 1950–2000.
The book will focus “on how U.S.- and European-based multilateral institutions have been managing the world economy since the 1940s,” Kofas said. He will conduct research in Europe and Washington, D.C., and at U.S. presidential libraries.
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