College of Business and Economics News

Register for CoBE summer courses today!

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 5:12am by CoBE

The UH Hilo Summer 2021 Business and Economics Program takes advantage of our experienced and qualified faculty. The high quality of our AACSB-accredited curriculum, coupled with our small class sizes and personal attention to students, makes the CoBE Summer Program at UH Hilo a great way to keep your knowledge and skills up to date.

REGISTER for College Credit Summer Session

REGISTER for EXECUTIVE PROGRAMS

Session 1 May 24 – June 18

Session 2 June 21 – July 30

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CoBE alum lands dream job using Econ, Communication, and English skills

Thursday, March 25, 2021, 5:00am by CoBE

Seth Master graduated in December with honors with degrees in Economics and Communication and a certificate in Creative Writing.  These qualifications opened many different career paths to him, but he had a very specific goal.  He wanted to stay on Hawaii Island and use his education to help uplift families and community.

Master took a position as Employment Counselor for Goodwill Hawaii. Goodwill Hawaii is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit charity that helps people with employment barriers to reach their full potential and become self-sufficient.

“This position allows me to interact personally with clients and connect them to the help they need,” he says. This help can be skill-building, tuition assistance, job search support, help with acculturation, or other types of career-related assistance. “I get to use my experience from UH Hilo being the most culturally diverse university to my advantage as I interact with people from all over the world.”

Master says all three areas of study have come into play in his new position.

“I am thankful for my econ professors who helped me understand the flow and nature of money as I now counsel members of our society who are hurting,” he says, “and for the communication department for equipping me to communicate inter-culturally and effectively. My English professors will be proud to hear that I write  and personalized employment plans for families, in addition to completing tons of paperwork!”

For those still in school, Master advises focusing on the big picture, and looking outward and forward:

“Keep your heads up in the trying time of continued online class work. It won’t be like this forever. Find out what you can do to take steps towards a better tomorrow now and then take those steps! Be the leaders and the creative minds Hawaii deserves and let’s build up our local economy!”

Goodwill Hawaii’s employment services are available free of charge to eligible families.

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CoBE gets a kitten. Kitten gets a home.

Friday, March 12, 2021, 5:09am by CoBE

The UH Hilo College of Business and Economics building has been quiet during the pandemic. Faculty are conducting research and teaching from their offices, and staff are keeping things running. But courses are all online this semester, and visitors are not allowed on campus. The only sounds are the crowing and clucking of our campus chickens, and the occasional roar of a lawnmower or leaf blower.

But one day last month, when Sukhwa Hong, Professor of Data Science, was walking to his office, he found he had an unexpected companion. A tiny kitten with big  gray ears was following him.

Dr. Hong immediately brought his new friend to the office of his colleague, Amir Mohammadian, Professor of Economics. Dr. Mohammadian, as luck would have it, happens to be married to a veterinarian, Dr. Mashid Ansari. Dr. Ansari took the kitten to her workplace, Aloha Vet, for a checkup.

There they did an exam and some blood work. The kitten had a respiratory infection, some internal parasites, and fleas. Dr. Mohammadian and Dr. Ansari brought the kitten home, cleaned her up, and fostered her.

As soon as the kitten was recovered, she found a permanent home. One of Dr. Ansari’s colleagues at Aloha Vet adopted her and named her Roux (pronounced “Roo.”) Roux is healthy and thriving in her new home!

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CoBE Alum Leads March 8 Financial Literacy Workshop

Wednesday, March 3, 2021, 3:24am by CoBE

Ran Annim! Iokwe! Alii! Kaselehlie! Hafa Adai! Mogethin! Len wo! Talofa! Mālō e lelei! Bula! Kia ora! Ia orana! Halo! Fakaalofa lahi atu! Aloha!

Have you thought about making a budget or setting financial goals, but you are not sure where to start? College of Business and Economics alumna Siniva Pota  (BBA, MBA) will lead a free online workshop on financial literacy on March 8, at 5pm Hawai’i time. Learn how to budget, save, and make the most of your money for you and your family. In honor of International Women’s Day in Hawai’i and the Pacific. Sponsored by Pacific Island student clubs including Kuikapiko Anthropology club, T.O.S Samoan club, and Ngelekel Belau club. Open to all who are interested.

Register HERE

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People, Prosperity, or Environment? Location predicts business students’ attitudes toward U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

Monday, March 1, 2021, 1:47am by CoBE

What do business and management students think?

(more…)

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• Sustainability

CoBE student interns at high-profile business-news startup Morning Brew

Thursday, February 25, 2021, 12:01am by CoBE

Amidst the dire stories of media’s decline, business news startup Morning Brew is a rare success story.  Its daily newsletter, serving bite-sized business news, has a growing subscriber base and is making a profit.

CoBE student Mika Odaira started as a Morning Brew subscriber.  From reading the newsletter, she learned a lot about business news that she didn’t catch on TV or online. She was so impressed with the publication that she decided to apply for an internship. And she got it!

Ms. Odaira quickly found that in this fast-paced startup environment it was up to her to produce results, with very little hand-holding.

“At first I was a bit put off by this and I thought the experience wouldn’t amount to much,” she says. “But I realized that this is probably what work will be like once I graduate. No one will hold my hand and point me to the next step. It’s up to me to take initiative and market myself well.”

In CoBE we encourage and support internships for students who want them. They’re a great way to gain experience and forge a pathway to a job after graduation.  And not all internships are the same.

“Internships can come in all types from instruction-heavy ones to more open ended ones like this,” Ms. Odaira says. “My advice for my peers is to be ready for many types of work environments. For those like myself who are more introverted and find it hard to take initiative, try to keep in mind that as uncomfortable as some of these experiences may be, the personal growth we gain through this is key to success.”

Interested in subscribing? Scan the QR code above or visit https://brew-u.com/uhawaii

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CoBE Econ Professor Keisuke Nakao Honored for Research on Two-Front War

Monday, February 15, 2021, 2:28am by CoBE

Dr. Keisuke Nakao, Associate Professor of Economics, was selected to receive the 4th Walter Isard Annual Award for the year 2020’s best article in Peace Economics Peace Science and Public Policy (PEPS). PEPS is a scholarly journal whose aim is promoting and disseminating the study of peace economics. Walter Isard, after whom the award is named, was the journal’s founder. The journal’s editor-in-chief and associate editors voted unanimously to award best paper status to Dr. Nakao’s  “Rationalist Explanations for Two-Front War,” describing it as “brilliant theoretical work.”

Advancing our understanding of conflict among three or more states

While theorists in International Relations have developed a number of models of war fought between two states, they have devoted much less efforts to modeling war among three or more states presumably because of difficulties with modeling multilateral interactions. By focusing on a particular form of war—two-front war—where a state at the center is fought by two enemies at opposing peripheries, the article addresses why war can break out in one front and then spread to the other. Because a war in one front can affect the war outcome in the other through the shift of military balance, a peripheral state may preventively join the war ongoing in the other front to leverage its power (e.g., Napoleonic Wars), or the central state may preemptively initiate war in one front to establish its preponderance in the other (e.g., World War I). These findings echo the concern that a multi-polar system may not be so stable as the bipolar system that existing models of war commonly presume.

Economics is about more than just supply and demand curves

Dr. Nakao’s research illustrates the expansive reach of the economics field. Economics principles can be applied to business, government, education, international aid, and personal finance, among other things.

Economics, at its very heart, is the study of people. It seeks to explain what drives human behaviour, decisions and reactions when faced with difficulties or successes. ~ Dr. Yu-Hsiang Lei, London School of Economics

About Dr. Nakao

Dr. Keisuke Nakao is Associate Professor of Economics in the College of Business and Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Economics with an emphasis on Game Theory and Political Economy from Boston University. His research interests center on Positive Theory of International Politics. Dr. Nakao has published in such outlets as Journal of Peace Research; Journal of Theoretical Politics; Economics & Politics; B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy; Defence & Peace Economics; Peace Economics, Peace Science, & Public Policy; Review of Law & Economics; Economics Bulletin; Economics of Peace & Security Journal; and Asian Journal of Law & Economics. He is currently working on game-theoretic analyses of armed conflict.

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CoBE hosts international education conference, ICEDS 2021, March 9-11

Monday, February 8, 2021, 12:51am by CoBE

The submission date for papers and presentations has passed, but you can still sign up to attend the 2nd International Conference on Education Development and Studies, (ICEDS 2021) hosted by the College of Business and Economics at UH Hilo.

The International Conference on Education Development and Studies (ICEDS) is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of education. The ICEDS promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and professionals from Education, aiming. to build strong networks of leading researchers and pioneers in education worldwide.  The conference will be held online.  This allows people to attend without regard to travel restrictions, air and lodging expenses, or safety concerns.

Register to attend the conference HERE.

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Free UH Hilo online application workshop February 3 – $50 fee waived for Hawaiʻi residents

Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 5:45am by CoBE

To reach out to resident students during the pandemic, UH Hilo will host a virtual application workshop. This event is for all Hawaiʻi residents interested in applying for admission to UH Hilo for the Fall 2021 semester. The $50 application fee will be waived for applications submitted during the virtual workshop. This event is for undergraduate programs only.  This site has more info on graduate programs.

Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Time: 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Registration: http://go.hawaii.edu/9AJ

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo enrolls around 3,000 students and is the only four-year campus on the Big Island. It is a Minority Serving Institution, ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the most ethnically diverse campus among national universities.

UH Hilo’s College of Business and Economics offers one of only two AACSB-accredited business administration degree programs in the State of Hawaiʻi. The high quality of the program that this accreditation ensures, coupled with our small class sizes and personal attention to students, makes the B.B.A. program at UH Hilo a great choice for quality business education. We offer a BBA in Accounting, and a BBA in General Business with concentrations in Applied Economics, Finance, Health Care Management, Management, Marketing, Professional Studies, and starting in fall 2021, Agri-Business.

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For one CoBE grad, BBA in Healthcare Management is a springboard to the nursing program

Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 1:22am by CoBE

Chaden Shimaoka-Bello is a barista at Starbucks, a student office worker for the College of Business and Economics, and a Business Administration student with a concentration in Health Care Management. And as of fall, 2021, he will be enrolled in UH Hilo’s highly competitive Bachelors of Science in Nursing.

Why choose healthcare management instead of the traditional pre-nursing curriculum?

My introduction to CoBE was through my fellow classmates in my sophomore year. I started to take courses under my pre-nursing elective requirements and that’s when I started meeting people that were already in CoBE taking the same health elective courses for their Health Care Management requirements. My friends who were in the college of business would always talk highly of the faculty and coursework. They also shared how valuable a business background is and how prevalent business is in the world today.

I knew that having a background in business could allow me to look a lot more hirable and overall just a well-rounded and knowledgeable candidate in my future field of work.

Has your education affected your perspective on the pandemic?

With a background in business and health you are able to see exactly how things are interconnected and work. You begin to notice all the disparities that small rural communities face. With smaller and less advanced facilities in Hawaii, especially on outer islands, and with a huge blow to economies everywhere, Hawaii had to prepare for the worst. Our hospitals and local health facilities would be completely overrun and that to me was the worst scariest outcome that we could have faced, too many patients and not enough room or workers to treat these people.

Once travel is safe, would you recommend students get involved in study abroad?

If you have the opportunity to study abroad, and I cannot stress enough, you should go for it! Studying abroad helped me grow so much into who I am and helped me to understand who I wanted to be in this world. Experiencing other places and cultures and seeing things that you’ve only ever heard about really changes you and expands your horizons. If you are unsure of your career path studying abroad might just help you figure out exactly what you want to do. So many great opportunities lie in even the most seemingly mundane places!

What are your career plans?

Now that I have been accepted into nursing school I want to throw myself into the coursework and clinical practice. Once I graduate with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing and Bachelor’s in Business Administration Healthcare Management, I plan on developing a career and connections within my local community. When I am ready, I plan on going to graduate school and becoming an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, but I am now really just looking forward to what life has in store for me in the next two years.

Find out more about the Health Care Management BBA HERE. 

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