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Stillman School of Business

Annual Bright Idea Awards Recognize Exceptional Business Teaching and Research by NJ faculty  

Associate Professor of Finance Hongfei Frank Tang

Associate Professor of Finance Hongfei Frank Tang received a Bright Ideas Award for his article which appeared in the journal International Review of Financial Analysis.

Each year, Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business works with fellow business schools to compile and publish abstracts of the scholarship of business faculty at New Jersey two-year and four-year colleges. As part of the effort of producing the annual Publications of New Jersey Business Faculty, a distinguished panel of deans and academic program leaders recognize authors whose publications — or "bright ideas" — have the greatest potential for business practice impact or for advancing knowledge in the discipline. 

"This will be the 21st year the Bright Idea Awards have been recognizing outstanding research, and we know that faculty have appreciated being recognized for their scholarship," said Stillman School of Business Dean Joyce Strawser, Ph.D.

Seton Hall’s Associate Professor of Finance Hongfei Frank Tang Ph.D., CFA, Ph.D. is a 2022 recipient of a Bright Ideas Award for his article which appeared in the journal International Review of Financial Analysis.

On November 18, Tang was presented with the Bright Ideas Award at the fourth quarterly meeting of the New Jersey Collegiate Business Administration Association (NJCBAA) for his article, "Are both managerial morality and talent important to firm performance? Evidence from Chinese public firms." It was co-written by Xiaozhen Pan, from China’s Hangzhou Dianzi University, who joined the Stillman School as a visiting scholar in the 2018-19 academic year. Here is an abstract of the article:

Morality and talent are two important factors to consider when selecting managers. This study examines the relation among managerial morality, talent, and firm performance by manually collecting morality data in a sample of non-financial Chinese public firms during 2008–2018. We find that both managerial morality and talent are important to firm performance. In particular, managerial morality is positively associated with firm performance regardless of ownership or legal environment, but managerial talent is associated with better firm performance only in non-state-owned enterprises and in a strong legal environment. On the other hand, managerial talent cannot improve or may even harm firm performance when managerial morality is low, but managerial talent can improve firm performance when managerial morality is high. (See full article here.)

Tang earned his Ph.D. in Finance from Purdue University and previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been at Seton Hall since 2009 and was recognized as "Researcher of the Year" by both the Stillman School and the University. His research interests include exchange-traded funds, corporate finance, derivatives, family firms, financial accounting, investments and mutual funds. 

Bright Idea Award Initiative 
This year, 144 article, book and book chapter abstracts were submitted to Publications of New Jersey Business Faculty, with the following universities represented: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Monmouth University, New Jersey City University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Rowan University, Rutgers University – Camden, Rutgers University – Newark and New Brunswick, Saint Peter’s University, Seton Hall University, Stevens Institute of Technology, The College of New Jersey, and William Paterson University.

Strawser noted she found it interesting to observe the trends in the focus of business faculty’s scholarly work, which were published in 2021. "We’ve recently seen increases in studies that explore entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education; diversity, equity and inclusion; and the impact of social media," she said. "One dean on this year’s panel of reviewers remarked on the high quality of this year’s contributions, noting that he was pleased to see that the pandemic had not derailed the important work of our business faculty scholars."

She added, "It is always so inspiring to see the impactful work that is being produced by our business faculty in the Garden State."

Categories: Business, Research