ECU Wins Big at National Small Business Institute Conference

ECU College of Business faculty and students won big at the National Small Business Institute® (SBI) conference held in St. Pete Beach, Fla. from Feb. 11-15, 2015.

At the meeting, Dr. Joshua Bendickson and Drs. Phillip Davis and Michael Harris received Best Paper Awards for their respective research. Bendickson’s work focused on assessing attitudinal perceptions of business climate, while Davis and Harris explored philanthropy in small firm owners.  This makes four Best Paper Conference Awards from the ECU Department of Management within the last four months, including awards won at the Midwest Academy of Management and the Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Mike Harris, Bill McDowell, and Whitney Peake receiving the best paper award at the conference (missing Phil Davis, co-author of paper). Dr. John Batchelor, who was responsible for announcing the award, is an ECU grad who is now a professor at the University of West Florida.

In addition, an ECU student team won second place in the National SBI Competition Business Plan Division for its work with a Winterville-based business called Salsa a la Rita. This team consisted of Jasmine Berryman, Travis Blount, Dana Raper, Steffen Reith, Parker Smith, and Jasmine Vincent.

Another ECU student team won fourth place in the National SBI® Competition Specialized Division working with Fresh Keepers in Snow Hill. The students in this team included Eric Grainger, Mike Fanning, Chelsea Boles, Hillary Pearce, Linwood Hines, Detric Allen, and Kyle Appel.

Dr. Mike Harris receiving one of the plaques for the Project of the Year award from Patrick Walker.

The College of Business has enjoyed a long tradition of students winning top honors in the SBI’s Project of the Year Competition. Student teams from ECU have now placed in the top 4 nationally nine of the last ten years of this competition.

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. 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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