Photo of a plane wing with text on top saying International Summer Experiences

Where in the World?

Lundquist College of Business Ducks—both students and faculty—found themselves flying to lands near and far during a summer packed with learning, research, and curriculum development. Italy, Japan, Austria, and Pakistan were just a few of the locales where they landed—with even more planned for coming weeks.

Crosscultural Collaborations in Eugene and Akita

Three Akita International University students joined four Lundquist College students for a four-week, four-credit course that started in Eugene, Oregon, on June 22 and continued in Akita, Japan, through July 17.

In both Akita and Eugene, universities are expected to contribute to the sustainable development of local business and communities, explained Jeff Stolle, Lundquist College senior instructor of management, who coordinated the curriculum for the course.

The aim of the exchange was for students to come away with intercultural observations (personal, team, or organizational), skills developed through the project, or deeper appreciation for the relationships of universities, business partnerships, and governmental organizations.

Researching Locavore and Organic Shoppers in Italy

Edwin E. & June Woldt Cone Professor of Marketing T. Bettina Cornwell and Department of Management head and Lundquist Professor of Sustainable Management Mike Russo began an interdisciplinary research project this Maywith Francesco Testa at Scuola Superiore Sant"Anna in Pisa, Italy, to study consumer behavior regarding organic and local supermarket products.

Working with an industry partner, they expect to explore how consumers make decisions regarding these two attributes of products, which frequently—and mistakenly—are aggregated in research.

"The research has a rich interdisciplinary base and offers the additional benefit of studying long-standing local preferences in Italy," according to Cornwell. "It may shed light on our own emerging local trend in the United States. The U.S. is seeing a renewed interest in local foods and this phenomenon is generalizable to many markets."

As part of the development of the research, Cornwell was able to meet with Testa and their industry partner while in Italy for a research conference.

"This type of personal exchange has always been an important driver of cross-national research," Russo said.

53 Ducks in Siena

Students worked on marketing plans, attended lectures, took in some of the region's sights, and even got a little love from the Italian press during their study tour in Siena, Italy, led by instructor of marketing Jessyca Lewis.

The curriculum entailed visiting multiple wineries to understand how they market their products, including how wine marketing is both different and the same in Italy and the United States. The intensive six-week program culminated with a marketing plan presentation to the winemakers themselves, complete with live feedback.

The Hills Are Alive

Guest speakers from the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Embassy Commercial Services, plus visits to OPEC, the Museum of Economics and Society, the Technology Museum, Wien University, Belvedere Palace, a chocolate factory, and Vienna Woods—these were just a few of the highlights for a large cohort of marketing students in Vienna and Salzburg, Austria, with instructor of marketing Frank Veltri.

Mirabell Palace and Gardens, Stiegl Brewery, Mozart's house, and Hangar-7—the restaurant and historic plane and Formula One car display owned by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz—were a few more stops in the packed six-week Austrian study tour schedule.

During the study tour, Veltri was even able to go behind the scenes of the U.S/Iran negotiation thanks to special clearance from a member of the U.S. Embassy who is married to a Duck.

Veltri noted that four of the five weeks in Vienna saw record setting heat coupled with a lack of air conditioning, but the students remained focused.

Scoring GOALS in LA

Four undergraduate students and one MBA student from the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center had the opportunity to attend the Fourth Annual Doha GOALS (Gathering of All Leaders in Sports) Forum in Los Angeles, California, July 25-27. The conference represented 80 countries and featured 120 speakers from the sports and entertainment industry, including ESPN, Microsoft, UNICEF, and the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Doha GOALS conference explored social issues and the power sports has to positively change our world. Among the speakers at the conference that student heard from were Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and soccer star Abby Wambach, fresh off the U.S. Women's World Cup victory. For more about the experience, check out the blog post from undergraduate student Sahar Petri.

Marketing and Entrepreneurship in Pakistan

With help from a grant written to help universities in Pakistan improve their educational experiences, Lynn Kahle, marketing department head and the Ehrman Giustina Professor, and Nathan Lillegard, program manager of the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship, worked with faculty, staff, and students at Karakoram International University (KIU)-Gilgit to develop its curriculum and educational opportunities in business administration.

For three weeks in August 2015, Kahle taught about marketing research and solar energy, while Lillegard took on entrepreneurship. Kahle also stopped in the KIU-Skardu campus, and he noted that several KIU faculty also visited University of Oregon.

All in all, as head of the marketing department, Kahle is thrilled with the increased international experiences taking place among faculty and students alike.

“Three years ago in marketing, we essentially had no marketing students studying abroad during the summer," he said. “We went from 17 in 2013 to 43 in 2014 to about 100 for 2015. At a time when international engagement is growing in importance, this progress is noteworthy."

Still to Come

We still have a few weeks before the start of fall term, and students are squeezing in even more international experiences before then. Oregon MBA students just arrived in Shanghai for the start of their annual hallmark Engaging Asia study tour, which takes place September 5-15. Follow their adventure on the Oregon MBA Facebook page and Twitter Feed.

In addition, a new initiative is seeing more than 30 undergraduate sports business students embark on study tour of the Netherlands and Germany September 8-25 along with Warsaw Sports Marketing Center Director Whitney Wagoner.