Dr. Ruby Lee has been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair award. Dr. Lee is currently Associate Professor of Marketing and will become Professor of Marketing in effect August 2016.  She is also Director of Master of Science in Marketing Program and Director of International Programs at the College of Business. 

The Fulbright Distinguished Chair Awards comprise approximately forty distinguished lecturing, distinguished research and distinguished lecturing/research awards ranging from three to 12 months. Fulbright Distinguished Chair Awards are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Candidates should be eminent scholars and have a significant publication and teaching record.

Dr. Lee's project is titled, Is Frugal Innovation a Solution for Nordic Firms to Maintain their Global Competitiveness? She had the following to say about her project and this prestigious award:

"In recent years, more firms have become aware of resource-constrained environments that we are facing. Natural resources such as wood, minerals, and water are growing more expensive and scarce. Firms are feeling a mounting pressure to “do more and better with less.” The term “frugal innovation” is a result of such rising worry of resource-constrained environments and the global concern of the bottom of the pyramid. Interestingly, although Nordic nations are known for their innovativeness and outbound focuses, we know little about how Nordic firms react to the climbing trend of frugal innovation.

This distinguished chair award will allow me to travel to Finland, where I will spend seven months at Hanken School of Economics interviewing managers of various companies there and collecting data.

The Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair award will enable me to broaden my understanding of firms from different economic regions in terms of their strategic choices in forming alliances and the factors behind the formation of alliances with firms from emerging economics as opposed to developed economies for frugal innovation.

I believe that to be a well round scholar in business, living and working in Finland will provide valuable opportunities for me to develop research questions and teaching materials from a fresh and novel perspective."