November 8, 2002

College of Business professor brings world of experience to students

by Joe Hughes, A'03, Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications

Brenda Joyner has done it all. She has worked in a small start-up company, as a banker, earned her Ph.D., and taught business in Australia. Her most recent accomplishment is her investiture as Stanford H. Rosenthal Distinguished Professor for Risk, Insurance, and Entrepreneurship. The professorship focuses on research, teaching, and service.

Joyner's research and teaching focus on new ventures, small business, and entrepreneurship, fields, which have a great significance to Loyola students for two reasons. First, "Entrepreneurship has increased in the last decade. As big businesses downsized, new jobs came from small businesses and venture start ups," she says. In addition, she notes "many of our students come from family-owned businesses. It's important to prepare them for issues they're going to encounter." This model of business has been an "avenue for upward mobility and a means of building a strong middle class," she adds.

Joyner's most recent research delves into ethics and entrepreneurship. She has several articles underway, including one set to appear in the Journal of Business Ethics. "Studying entrepreneurs who are strong in social responsibility and ethics helps us to understand how to build those things into a new company from day one. Small businesses encounter ethical issues everyday," she observes. "Students need to know how individual entrepreneurs set the tone for their companies." Currently on sabbatical, Joyner is examining environmental reporting as a new corporate practice. "It is important for companies to realize being environmentally responsible is good business," she says.

Joyner shares her research and articles with students, and arranges for speakers from companies involved in areas her students study. In her new ventures, corporate strategy, and environmental strategy classes, "students enter with basic knowledge of accounting, management, and marketing, but must integrate all these fields to work together. I want my students to have hands-on experience," Joyner says. This includes having students make business plans. In her Business Policy and Strategy course, students work with a computer simulation all semester, making decisions about production, human resources, marketing, etc.

Prior to teaching at Loyola, Joyner had the privilege of teaching at the University of Wollongong in Australia. "I loved it. Australians are wonderful people with a great sense of humor," she says. "Australia sells education to the entire Pacific Rim. The international students all wanted to take a class with the American professor. With students from Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Taiwan, it was a virtual United Nations in the classroom," Joyner notes. She found Australia to be an enriching experience. "The students were eager to learn about strategy and each other. At the end we all walked away with business knowledge and a better understanding of people from other cultures."

Passing up a full-time position in Australia, Joyner returned to the United States in 1995 to be close to her family. She decided on Loyola for several reasons. "I have always found New Orleans to be a fascinating city. While not a Catholic, I have always admired the Jesuit tradition of education," Joyner says. Three weeks after she returned, she found an open position for a professor in the business school, cinching the deal. She has been here ever since.

"I like the emphasis on the student here. It's the reason I got into education in the first place," Joyner asserts. "I like the size of the community, big enough to be important, yet small enough for people to know each other," she says. "I like the fact that I get to know my students, and make lifelong friends with them," Joyner notes. Coming from state school systems, she has found Loyola to be a place where she can be more involved, not just with her students, but with the university as well. Joyner has served on the Strategic Agenda Committee, which is in the process of setting goals to carry Loyola into the next century. "I am particularly proud to see the business school develop. We're now nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report. I like the collegiality here; it's a wonderful place to work."