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Former MBA Graduate Student, Blair Nelson, Publishes Research in Academic Journal

Dr. Patrick Schultz, Professor in the School of Entrepreneurship & Management, promotes research collaboration with graduate students to provide enhanced experiential learning. “I try work with MBA students to develop ideas and work with them to get published,” says Schultz.

Schultz currently holds the Suda Karnik fellowship and through this is motivated to work with MBA students and increase research activity “This is a great outlet to help students make connections to theory,” says Schultz.

Blair Nelson, 2019 MBA Alumnus, had the opportunity to work with Dr. Schultz as a graduate assistant in the MBA program and was challenged by Schultz to try and find topics in the news that would inspire a research project. The “Tide Pod Challenge” had become viral in the news at that time and Nelson thought it presented concepts on ethical and social responsibility that could be explored.

In July of 2019, Nelson had the opportunity to travel to Nashville for a writer’s conference and have his work on this topic critiqued. “This was an entirely new experience,” says Nelson, “I was able to hang out with professors and review the paper.

When the paper was finally ready to be submitted it went through a review process and revisions and was accepted in December 2019 into the Journal of Case Studies, 2019, Volume 2.

“The MBA program isn’t typically as research intensive so through this experience I was able to pursue a topic I was interested in and conduct research,” says Nelson. “Dr. Schultz was super supportive and it was very rewarding, as not everyone can say that they have published something.”

Currently Nelson is working for Scheels in Fargo, ND as an E-Commerce Analyst.