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Ben Blackford

Ben Blackford

Email

Office

2660 Colden Hall

Phone

660.562.1282

Joined Northwest in 2009


Associate Professor

Director of the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business


Education

  • Ph.D.; University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2010
  • M.B.A.; Northwest Missouri State University, 2001
  • B.S. Business Management; Northwest Missouri State University, 1999

Courses Taught

  • 54-318 Entrepreneurship
  • 54-417 Organizational Policy and Decision Making
  • 54-628 Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • 54-662 Business Decision Support Modeling

Academic Interests

  • Strategy
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Human Resource Management
  • Globalization
  • Impact of interpersonal relationships and emotions
  • Marketing
  • Humor & violence in advertising/Marketing of humorous and violent content
  • Instructional methodologies

Scholarly Activity

Refereed Journal Articles 

Blackford, B. and Shi, T. (2015). The relationship between business simulations in capstone management courses and standardized test scores, The International Journal of Management Education, 13(1): 84-94.

Blackford, B. (2014). The role of CEO statements of aggressiveness and the competitive aggressiveness of firms: Is there a relationship? Journal of Behavioral & Applied Management, 15(3): 140-167.

Blackford, B., Gentry, J. W., Harrison, R. L. and Carlson, L. (2011), The prevalence and influence of the combination of humor and violence in Super Bowl commercials, Journal of Advertising, 40(4): 127-138. (Finalist for Best Paper in Journal of Advertising in 2011)

  • Reprinted in Current Controversies: Violence in the Media, Ed. Paul Connors, Greenhaven Press (2014).
  • Reprinted in Advertising and Violence: Concepts and Perspectives by Rifon, Ryone, and Carlson, M.E. Sharpe (2014).
  • Cited as the Stat of the Day by Harvard Business Review on February 3, 2012.

Blackford, B. and Sebora, T., (2011). Collegiate post-graduation venture creation: What is the impact of entrepreneurship courses? Regional Business Review, 30: 52-77.

Blackford, B., Sebora, T., & Whitehill, T. (2009). The effects of collegiate entrepreneurship education on post-graduation startup of new ventures: A first look. International Review of Entrepreneurship, 7(3): 1-26.

Textbook

Digman, L. and Blackford, B. (2014). Strategic Management: Competing in the Global Information Age. 10th Edition. Mason, OH: Cengage.

Book Chapter

Nelson, S.A, Wang, L., Smith, R.M., & Blackford, B.J. (2014). Corporate Persona and Optimistic Language in Annual Reports. In R.P. Hart (Ed.), Communication and Language Analysis in the Corporate World (179-197). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Research Grants

Bartik High-Performance Computing Cluster (2016). ($225,000). NSF.

  • Member of the team for a NSF funded grant to purchase a high-performance computing cluster for the analysis of big data

Development and Feasibility Analysis of the Organic Liquid Fertilizer Market for Hampton Alternative Energy Products (2015). ($40,735). USDA.

  • Member of the team for a USDA funded grant to provide technical assistance to Hampton Alternative Energy Products, LLC

The MORE Project (2011). ($37,000). USDA

  • Served as co-director of The MORE Project, a USDA funded grant to research the supply and demand of local meat in Northwest Missouri and Southwest Iowa

Presentations

Harrison, R., Blackford, B., and Carlson, L., (2019). ‘Consumer Responses to Sexual Humor Advertisements’, Paper Presentation at the 2019 Association of Consumer Research Conference, Atlanta, GA; October 18, 2019.

Smith, R., Blackford, B., and Beck, C., (2017). ‘Undergraduate Academic Psychological Capital (PsyCap)’, Paper presentation at the 2017 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL; October 21, 2017. 

Blackford, B. and Winchester, K., (2012). Collective bargaining: The 2011 National Football League Labor Negotiation, Presentation at 2012 Eastern Academy of Management Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA; May 10, 2012.

Blackford, B. and Combs, G., (2011). I would miss the people I work with: Do the quantity and strength of personal relationships in the workplace influence important workplace attitudes? Presentation at 2011 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, Omaha, NE; October 21, 2011.

Blackford, B. and Digman, L., (2010). The role of CEO aggressive statements and the competitive aggressiveness of firms: What is the impact on performance? Presentation at 2010 Decision Sciences Institute Annual Conference, San Diego, CA; November 22, 2010.

Blackford, B., Gentry, J., Harrison, R., & Carlson, L., (2009). How prevalent is the combination of violence and humor in Super Bowl commercials?

Paper presentation at Consumer Culture & the Ethical Treatment of Children Conference, Lansing, MI; November 2009.

Blackford, B., Sebora, T., & Whitehill, T., (2008). The effects of collegiate entrepreneurship education, Paper presentation at United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference, San Antonio, TX; January 2008.

Conference Panels 

Blackford, B. and Smith, R., (2019). Everything You Wanted To Know, but Were Afraid To Ask: The Shift from PhD Student to the Classroom. Professional development workshop at the 2019 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Omaha, NE; October 12, 2019.

Smith, R. and Blackford, B., (2019). Getting Involved Is So Easy That Choosing Might Be Difficult! Professional development workshop at the 2019 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Omaha, NE; October 12, 2019.

Blackford, B. and Smith, R., (2019). Considering Administrative Roles and Alternative Career Paths In Academia, Is One Right For You? Professional development workshop at the 2019 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Omaha, NE; October 11, 2019.

Smith, R. and Blackford, B., (2019). Everything You Wanted to Know, but Were Afraid to Ask: The Shift from PhD Student to the Classroom. Professional development workshop at the 2019 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Boston, MA; August 9, 2019.

Smith, R. and Blackford, B., (2018). Practitioners as Professors: Sharing Their Practical and Tactical Added Value. Professional development workshop at the 2018 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO; October 13, 2018. 

Smith, R. and Blackford, B., (2018). Experiential Exercise Exchange: The Triple E for Teaching Impact! Professional development workshop at the 2018 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO; October 12, 2018.

Blackford, B. and Smith, R., (2018). Everything You Wanted to Know, but Were Afraid to Ask: The Shift from PhD Student to the Classroom. Professional development workshop at the 2018 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL; August 11, 2018.

Smith, R., Blackford, B., and Juergens, S., (2017). Engage with us! Exploring experiential activities. Professional development workshop at the 2017 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL; October 21, 2017.

Matherne, B. and Blackford, B. (2017). Student Reflections on Management

Education. Panel presentation at the 2017 Academy of Management Teaching and Learning Conference, Atlanta, GA.; August 6, 2017.

Blackford, B. (2016). Matching teaching practices to workplace productivity. Presentation at the 2016 Academy of Management Teaching and Learning Conference, Anaheim, CA; August 7, 2016.

Blackford, B. and Maxwell, A. (2016). Watch out for the sharks: Shark Tank as an experiential exercise. Presentation at the 2016 Academy of Management Teaching and Learning Conference, Anaheim, CA; August 7, 2016.

Smith, R., Blackford, B., Martin, M., Nelson, S., and Wolfe, C. (2015). Swimming with the sharks – Use of ‘Shark Tank’ as an experiential exercise in the classroom. Presentation at the 2015 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, Columbus, OH; October 3, 2015.

Blackford, B., Brown, L., Jaffke, D., Juergens, S., Lauver, K., Schakett, T., Smith, R., and Wolfe, C. (2015). The rewards and challenges of students as small business consultants. Presentation at the 2015 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, Columbus, OH; October 2, 2015. 

Smith, R., Blackford, B., Wolfe, C., and Walters, A. (2014). Exploiting the Experiential Classroom across the curriculum. Presentation at the 2015 USASBE Annual Conference, Tampa, FL; January 25, 2015. 

Blackford, B., Smith, R.M., Jaffke, D., Wolfe, C., and Schakett, T. (2014). Students as small business consultants – The rewards and challenges. Presentation at the 2015 USASBE Annual Conference, Tampa, FL; January 25, 2015.

Blackford, B., Smith, R.M., and Fleig-Palmer, M. (2014). You can use experiential learning in class: A panel presentation. Presentation at the 2014 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN; October 3, 2014.

Blackford, B. and Lim, C. L. (2014). Simulations as an applied learning exercise in capstone courses. Presentation at the 9th Annual Conference on Applied Learning in Higher Education, Saint Joseph, MO; March 21, 2014.

Smith-Nelson, R. M., Nelson, S., and Blackford, B., (2011). The junior instructor’s dilemma: Designing your course and evaluating your students for the first time. Professional development workshop at 2011 Southwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Houston, TX; March 10, 2011.

Invited Presentations 

Blackford, B. (2017). The evolution of a journal article. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, January 12, 2017, January 20, 2015, January 8, 2013, and February 8, 2011.

Blackford, B., (2013). An overview of the MORE Project. Southwest Iowa Coalition. July 17, 2013.

Blackford, B. (2011). Encouraging creativity and innovation in organizations. Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO, January 21, 2011.

Other Professional Experience

  • 18 years of retail experience (15 years in management)