Syracuse University Faculty Experts on Holiday Shopping Season

Syracuse University experts are available to speak to media on the numerous issues and topics related to the holiday shopping season. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Super Saturday, these Whitman School of Management faculty members have insight based on years of research and industry experience.

• Alex McKelvie, associate professor of entrepreneurship and chair of the department of entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at Whitman School of Management. His expertise is focused on how and why new firms grow, and how entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms pursue opportunities. His work has involved the strategic behaviors of entrepreneurs and how entrepreneurs deal with uncertainty. He teaches courses in entrepreneurship, strategic growth, family business management and corporate entrepreneurship.
• MaryAnn Monforte, professor of accounting practice at Whitman School of Management. Her expertise includes how to avoid overspending during the holiday shopping season, store credit cards, and financial health for people at all stages of their lives.
• Amanda Nicholson, associate dean of undergraduate programs and professor of retail practice at Whitman School of Management. Professor Nicholson has more than 20 years of experience in the retail management field before entering higher education. She began her career with Marks & Spencer in London and then moved to Chicago to work in a variety of department store management positions. Her expertise includes department stores, general retail and brand management, as well as online shopping.
• Julie Niederhoff, assistant professor of supply chain management at the Whitman School of Management. An expert in supply chain management and decision making and behavior, Assistant Professor Neiderhoff recently authored a report that examined how to find the fastest checkout line at a store. The paper, Humans Are Not Machines: The Behavioral Impact of Queueing Design on Service Time, was published in 2016 and found that when customers wait in one long line and go to the next available server, those servers work more slowly than when servers each have their own queue.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Kerri Howell, director of communications and media relations at the Whitman School, at 315.443.3671 or kdhowell@syr.edu or Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and public relations at Syracuse University, at 315.443.1897 or ejbmuqe@syr.edu.