ECU Wins Top Honors at National Small Business Institute® Conference

Dr. Mike Harris (left) accepts the Small Business Institute® Project of the Year award from Dr. Blake Escudier, National Vice President for SBI’s Project of the Year Competition.

The ECU College of Business won top honors at the National Small Business Institute® (SBI) conference held Feb. 11- 13 in New Orleans, with student teams taking first and second place in the Project of the Year Competition and Dr. Joshua Bendickson winning the Best Paper Award.

Students won first place in the Undergraduate Feasibility Plan Division for their consulting work with Coastal Plains Auto Park in Kinston, working directly with Laura Lee Sylvester in the Kinston-Lenoir Chamber of Commerce. Team members included Damien Brenard, John Daly, Shariyka Riley-Romero, Jennifer Stansell, and Trey Wade. Students took home second place for their work with Susan Bucci of The Painted Peacock in Greenville as part of the Undergraduate Specialized Division. Team members included Robert Bell, Alex Hobbs, Nichesa Jones, Brian Mitchell, and Thomas Warren.

Bendickson and his co-authors won the Best Paper Award for their research titled, “High Performance Work Systems: A Necessity for Startups,” which discusses the importance of attracting, selecting, and training employees for most new businesses. His co-authors included Dr. Jeff Muldoon of Emporia State University, Dr. Eric Liguori of University of Tampa, and Chelsea Midgett, an MBA student at ECU. It was Bendickson’s second consecutive year earning the Best Paper Award the national SBI® conference.

The College of Business has enjoyed a long tradition of students winning top honors through the SBI®. ECU student teams have placed 10 out of the last 11 years in the National Project of the Year Competition. This is ECU’s 5^th national championship within that span.

Each year, business students at ECU participate in the competition through Dr. Michael Harris’ Small Business Management class, which is linked at a national level with the SBI®.  The course teams students with local companies in need of assistance as part of a course project. While firms benefit from free business consulting, students apply lessons they’ve learned in subjects ranging from marketing to accounting.  In the end, the student teams deliver a comprehensive consulting document to their respective clients, along with an oral presentation.

ECU’s SBI® program has assisted approximately 600 clients since its inception in 1974, accounting for nearly 40,000 hours of fieldwork. At the national level, the organization serves as the premier organization dedicated to field-based student consulting and outreach to small businesses.

For more information about the SBI® at ECU, please contact Dr. Michael Harris at (252) 737-1057 or harrismi@ecu.edu.

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