Current and Formers Ph.D. Students

ANJA FESSMANN

Expertise

Anja Fessmann joined the PhD program in Strategic Management in Fall 2019. Her research interests lie in the area of International Strategic Management and Corporate Social Activism (CSA). Currently, she is researching cross-fertilization between CSA, CSR, Social Marketing & PIC (Public Interest Communication). She has two children and still loves to read in her free time. as opportunity for Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility

Education

• Master of Business Administration (1999 – 2003)
• University of Applied Sciences Wildau, Germany
• Master’s Thesis: Tools of Risk Management as Part of a Global Expansion Strategy – A Siemens Power Generation Services Case Study; Chair: Prof. Dr. Rainer Voss
• Studies in German & International Law (1997 – 1999)
• Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
• Studies in Literature & History of Science (1995 – 1997)
• Technical University Berlin, Germany

Conference Presentations/Posters

• Fessmann, A., Bruyaka, O., & Dawley, D. (2021). Strategic Orientation of Firms’ CSR and Media Favorability: A Study of Point and Flow Signals. Strategic Management Society Conference.
  
• Fessmann, J., Fessmann, A. & Griffin, L. (2019). The spiral model of public interest communications. Proceedings of the 69th Annual International Communication Association Conference 2019 “Communication Beyond Boundaries”, Washington, DC.
• Fessmann, J., & Fessmann, A. (2019, March). The country expansion checklist as a risk management tool in strategic global MNC expansion. Proceedings of the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference 2019, Orlando, FL.
• Fessmann, J., & Fessmann, A. (2019, March). Don’t force Germans to smile - Crisis communications lessons from Walmart’s failed expansion into Europe. Proceedings of the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference 2019, Orlando, FL.

• Ø 2019, March. In MANG 360 (001) - International Business
  (Margrit Blakely), John Chambers College of Business & Economics,
  West Virginia University , Morgantown, WV
• Ø 2019, March. In MANG 360 (002) - International Business
  (Margrit Blakely), John Chambers College of Busin ess & Economics,
  West Virginia University , Morgantown, WV
• Ø 2018, April. In ADV4400 International and Cross-Cultural Advertising
  (Aqsa Bashir), College of Journalism and Communications,
  University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

• 2019, February. In STCM 215 Intro to Strategic Communications
  ( Dr. Jasper Fessmann), Reed College of Media,
  West Virginia University , Morgantown, WV
• 2018, February. In PUR 4800 Public Relations Campaigns
  (Jasper Fessmann), College of Journalism and Communications,
  University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

• 2011, Summer. NI 3015 International Logistics and Distribution Channels
  ( J asper Fessmann), Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) & Technical University of Berlin Summer Program

MINGANG (MIN) GEIGER

Expertise

Min Geiger joined the Management PhD program (Organizational Behavior; OB) in Fall 2017. Min defended her dissertation proposal in 2020. Her program of research focuses on explicit and implicit biases that may disadvantage stigmatized individuals in the workplace. Her work has been published in  Group & Organization Management and presented in several premier management and industrial and organizational psychology annual meetings. Min received the 2021 Lee Hakel Graduate Student Scholarship from the  Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the 2020 Management Department PhD Student Research Award.  

Education

• Ph.D Candidate, Management, West Virginia University
• MPA, Public Administration, University of Kansas
• B.A, Public Administration (minor: Sociology),  Magna Cum Laude , Ewha Womans University

Publications

• Field, J. G., Bosco, F., Kraichy, D., Uggreslev, K., & Geiger, M. K. (In Press). More alike than different? A comparison of cross-cultural models. Journal of International Business Studies.
• Geiger, M., Lee, J., &  Geiger, M. K . (2019). The power of negative disposition: An examination of trait and state negative affect with OCBI and OCBO,  Group & Organization Management, 44 (6): 1136-1172

Conference Presentations

• Geiger, M. K. & Langlinais, L. A. (2021). Accent speaks louder than ability: The effect of nonnative accents on trust repair. Academy of Management Conference.
• Geiger, M. K., Teodorescu, H. M., & Morse, L. A. (2021). Raising the volume on fairness in speech technology. Academy of Management Conference.
  
• Geiger, M. K., Oxarart, R. A., & Houghton, J. D. (November 2019). What school are you from? Stereotype threat due to institutional prestige. Southern Management Association Annual Meeting. Norfolk, VA.
• Field, J. G., Geiger, M. K., Bosco, F., Uggreslev, K., & Kraichy, D. (April 2019). Global effect benchmarks: Assessing culture, region, and country differences. The Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). National Harbor, MD.
• Geiger, M. K. & Geiger, M. (August 2018). Gender, justice, and trust in supervisor: A moderated mediation model predicting OCB. Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL.

Teaching

• MANG 422 Individual & Organization
• MANG 434 Business Research Methods

LUKE LANGLINAIS

Expertise

Luke Langlinais joined the PhD Program in Management in Fall 2017. His research specialization is in Organizational Behavior. He received his MBA from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and spent the last decade working in healthcare administration. His experiences in management inspired him to explore how social influence functions within the organization. Luke presently researches the antecedents and consequences of social networks in organizations, and his main research interests lie in leader-member exchange and interpersonal trust development and repair. When he is not on campus, Luke can be found adventuring with his wife and four children.

Education

• Ph.D. Student, Business Administration, Management (OB), West Virginia University
• M.B.A., Healthcare Administration, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, May 2012
• B.S., Business Administration, Marketing, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, May 2007

Conference Presentations

• Langlinais, L. A. & Tomlinson, E. C. (2021, July 29 - August 4). Sorry or Sorry You Got Caught? The Differential Mediators of Forced Versus Voluntary Apologies [Symposium presentation]. Academy of Management.
• Langlinais, L. A., Oxarart, R., Maykrantz, S. A., Nobiling, B. D., Houghton, J. D. (2020), August 7-11). Coping with the Crisis: The Effects of Psychological Capital and Coping Styles on Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic [Asynchronous presentation]. Academy of Management, OB Division COVID-19 Rapid Research Plenary, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
  
• Field, J., Geiger, M. K., Langlinais, L., List, S., & Bosco, F. (2018). A metaBUS analysis of gender differences in common I-O topics over the last 35 years. The 33rd Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago, IL.
• Tomlinson, E., Nelson, C., Langlinais, L. (2018). Causal Attributions and Justice Perceptions: A Cognitive Process Model of Trust Repair. 10th Annual Conference of the First International Network on Trust. St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Teaching

Luke currently teaches a 400-level Organizational Behavior class at the individual level of analysis.

RICHARD (RICHIE) OXARART

Expertise

Richard Oxarart joined the PhD program of Management in Fall 2018. His research interests lie in the area of Organizational Behavior / Human Resources. Specifically, he studies how to motivate employees in training and development contexts. He is interested in employee motivation pre-training, within training, and post-training. Currently, his research examines the connection between firm CEOs and industry competitive dynamics using cross-level research design.  Furthermore, he is researching connections between gamification (a possible training/development design tool) and self-leadership.

Education
MBA, Human Resource Management Focus, Illinois State University, 2014 – 2016

B.S., Psychology & Management, Illinois State University, 2013 – 2016

A.A., General Studies, Heartland Community College, 2011 – 2013

Publications:

Houghton, J. D., Oxarart, R. A., Heames, J. T., Buckley, M. R., & Carbo, J. A. (2021). “Leader Power and Agency-Communion Orientations as Moderators of the Effects of Organizational Characteristics on Workplace Bullying.”  Employee Rights and Responsibilities Journal, 33(2). 

Maykrantz, S. A., Nobiling, B. D., Oxarart, R. A., Langlinais, L. A., & Houghton, J. D. (2020) “Coping with the Crisis: The Effects of Psychological Capital and Coping Styles on Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Submitted to the Health Education & Behavior Journal.

Conferences (selected):

Oxarart, R. A. (2020). “Machiavelli CEOs and Competitive Aggressiveness: Using Upper Echelons Theory to Understand Competitive Dynamics.” Accepted and Presented at Strategic Management Society (SMS) 2020.

Oxarart, R. A. & Houghton, J. D. (2020). “Gamification and Motivation in Training Design: A Theory-Based Conceptual Model.”  Accepted and Presented at Southern Management Association (SMA) Annual Conference 2020.   

Geiger, M. K., Oxarart, R. A., & Houghton, J. D. (2019). “What School Are You From? Stereotype Threat Due to Institutional Prestige.”  Accepted and Presented at Southern Management Association (SMA) Annual Conference 2019.

Teaching interests

Richard has taught the capstone business course here at WVU (BCOR 460: Strategic Management) and a class focused on organizational behavior (MANG 422).  He is interested in teaching undergraduate or graduate-level courses that focus on human resource management, strategic management, and/or organizational behavior.

OLEKSANDR (ALEX) TSARUK

Expertise

Oleksandr Tsaruk joined the Ph.D. program in Management at West Virginia University in 2019. He studies the effects of corporate governance on a firm’s competitive behavior in different contexts. His research links CEO compensation to competitive aggressiveness by unitizing behavioral agency mechanisms. In this vein, he also studies executive and firm-level contingencies of competitive forbearance and escalation. Other research projects on the intersections of corporate governance and competitive dynamics investigate platform-based competition, decision-making of entrepreneurs and VCs. Oleksandr is also working on a research methods project on model selection bias in event history analysis. Before joining academia, Oleksandr had experience as a C-level consultant in international organizations. His recent research on research methods resulted in a U.S. patent.

Education

• Ph.D. Candidate in Management (Strategy and Entrepreneurship), West Virginia University
• MBA in Innovation Management, École des Ponts Business School, ParisTech
• Candidate of Science in Statistics, M.S. & B.S. in Accounting and Audit, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University

Conference Presentations (selected):

Tsaruk, O., Srivastava, A. (2023) Pitfalls of Discrepancy in a Time-to-Event Analysis and the Value of TTT Tests for Model Selection. Academy of Management Proceedings 2023 (1)

Tsaruk, O., Srivastava, A. (2023) Extending Survival Analysis in Organizational Research with Hazard Shape Analysis. 2023 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference

Tsaruk, O. (2023) Entrepreneurs Are From Mars, Venture Capitalists Are From Venus: Cross-Gender Mind Reading Biases in Decision-Making. 2023 Australian Center for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange Conference

Tsaruk, O. (2022) Entrepreneurs Are From Mars, Venture Capitalists Are From Venus: Gender Biases in Decision-Making. Academy of Management Proceedings 2022 (1), 13516

Tsaruk, O., Srivastava, A. (2022) Extending Boundaries of Time-To-Event Analysis with Bathtub Curve And TTT Statistics. Academy of Management Proceedings 2022 (1), 14944

Tsaruk, O. (2022) In the Moment of Weakness: Why and When CEO Dismissal Instigates Competitive Attacks. Academic Career Development Conference 2022

Tsaruk, O. (2021) The Emperor’s New Clothes: Competitive Dynamics Between Complementors and Platform Owner For Technology Survival. 2021 Strategic Management Society Annual Conference

Tsaruk, O. Srivastava, A. (2021). When Shape of Distribution Matters: Repercussions of Varying Hazard Rates on Robustness of Time-to-Event Analysis. 2021 Meeting of the Southern Management Association

Tsaruk, O. (2020). Changing Our Attitude About Errors in Decision-Making in R&D Teams. 2020 Midwest Academy of Management Conference

Tsaruk, O. (2020). Congruence and Strategic Ambidexterity Between Stakeholders, Strategies, and Business Models: Why Stakeholders Want Impossible From the Firm? 2020 Midwest Academy of Management Conference

Tsaruk, O. (2020). Reputation Complementarity Price Premium Effect in Platform-Based Markets: Conceptualizing Reputation Intra-Level Gap. 2020 Midwest Academy of Management Conference

Teaching

Alex has taught the capstone business course (BCOR 460, Contemporary Business Strategy) at West Virginia University face-to-face and online since 2021. In BCOR 460, he combines conventional strategy theories and frameworks with GLO-BUS business simulation game in which his students often get into the Top 100 global ranking. Since the Fall of 2023, Alex teaches an applied course in entrepreneurship for senior students (ENTR 425, Risk Assessment and Contracts). While his major interest is in teaching Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, he is also very interested in sharing his expertise in Quantitative Research Methods, Organizational Theory, Innovation, and International Business.

ALANNA HIRSHMAN

Assistant Professor of Management at Texas Tech University

Expertise

Alanna Hirshman graduated from the Management Ph.D. Program at West Virginia University in 2021. Theoretically grounded in sensemaking and sensegiving literature, stakeholder theory, and signaling theory, her research takes a behavioral approach to strategic management. Specifically, her research explains the behavioral and sociocognitive mechanisms that underlie stakeholders’ perceptions of firms’ ethical decisions and how firms manage these perceptions through interactions with key stakeholders. In particular, she studies ethical decisions associated with crisis management, corporate social responsibility, market re-entry, and competitive dynamics. Alanna studies perceptions such as social evaluations (e.g., social approval, organizational stigma, firm celebrity, and reputation), investor reactions, and the role of the media (e.g., social media, traditional news publications, and press releases). In terms of methods, she uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis, experimental vignettes, and event studies.

• Ph.D. Candidate, Strategic Management, John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University
• B.S., Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management, Frostburg State University
• B.S., Economics with a concentration in Business Administration, Frostburg State University

Conference Presentations

Bruyaka, O., Hirshman, A. M., & Philippe, D. (2020, October). Media Coverage of Firms’ CSR Initiatives: Interaction Effects of Point and Flow Signals. Paper presentation at the Strategic Management Society 40 ^th Annual Conference, London, United Kingdom. [virtual]

Hirshman, A. M. (2020, October). A Stakeholder Approach to Crisis Management: Stakeholder Sensegiving, Firm Sensemaking, and Crisis Response". Paper presentation at the Southern Management Association Annual Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL. [virtual]
                                     *** Best Paper in Strategic Management Track***

Hirshman, A. M. (2020, October). Selfless or Selfish? Firms' Strategic Motivation for Engaging in Different Types of CSR Actions. Paper presentation at the Southern Management Association Annual Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL. [virtual]

Hirshman, A. M. (2020, February). Ethics and Stakeholder Theory. Round table lead discussant at the Mid-South Management Research Consortium, Auburn, AL.

Hirshman, A. M., & Bruyaka, O. (2019, October). In the Eye of the Media. Firms’ CSR Actions, Signal Framing, and Receiver Bias. Paper presentation at the Strategic Management Society 39 ^th Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

Hirshman, A. M. (2019, August). A Stakeholder Approach to Crisis Management: How Stakeholder Sensegiving Influences Firm Sensemaking and Crisis Response. Round table presentation at the Experiments in Institutional Theory and Strategy Research, Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.

Hirshman, A. M., Dawley, D. D., & Zachary, M. A. (2018, September). A Stakeholder Perspective to Crisis Management: How Stakeholder Sensegiving Influences Firm Sensemaking and Crisis Response. Paper presentation at the Strategic Management Society 38 ^th Annual International Conference, Paris, France.

Hirshman, A. M., Bowers, L., & Houghton, J. (2018, March). Is Blood Thicker Than Water? How Crisis Type and Severity Influence Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention. Paper presentation at the Western Academy of Management, Salt Lake City, UT.  

Awards

Best Paper Award, Strategic Management Track, Southern Management Association - 2020

Ph.D. Project Management Doctoral Student Association Young Educator Award - 2020

John Chambers College of Business and Economics Doctoral Student Award for Outstanding Teaching - 2020

WVU’s Management Department Ph.D. Student Teaching Excellence Award - 2020

Alanna has taught six sections of the Strategic Management Capstone course at West Virginia University, via the face-to-face and online formats. Alanna received three teaching awards in 2020: the Ph.D. Student Teaching Excellence Award for the Department of Management at WVU, the Doctoral Student Award for Outstanding Teaching for the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at WVU, and the Ph.D. Project Management Doctoral Student Association’s Young Educator Award. While she has a great passion for teaching Strategic Management, she is also very interested in teaching Business Ethics, Organizational Theory, International Business, and Entrepreneurship.