UNIVERSITY NEWS - APRIL 2005

MEDIA CONTACTS: Melissa Dallas 561-297-3666, mdallas@fau.edu or Kristine McGrath 561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu

FAU To Host Small Business Research Forum

BOCA RATON, FL (April 12, 2005) - Over fifty researchers from across the world will participate in the inaugural Office Depot Small Business Research Forum to be held on Saturday, April 16 in Fort Lauderdale. FAU's College of Business and the Journal of Small Business Management, the premier journal focusing on small business research, are hosting the annual event which will focus on management issues particular to small firms. A gift from Office Depot to the college in 2002 provides the financial support for the event.

Researchers will present papers on topics such as bank lending, venture capital, private equity, business valuation, self-financing, internal capital markets, securitization, government financing programs and small firm governance. There is an emphasis on empirical papers that have practical managerial application or public policy related orientation.

"This annual forum will showcase the leading research in the field of small business management. It also offers an excellent example of industry and academia partnering to further a major business segment," said Chandra Mishra, the Office Depot Eminent Scholar Chair in Small Business Research at FAU.

Special guests and presenters from the Federal Reserve Board and ACCION International will participate, along with academics from institutions including Baylor University, Technical University of Cartagena and the University of Calgary.

FAU's College of Business is the only college in its seven county service area that is accredited at any level by the nation's preeminent accrediting agency for business schools, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International. The College is the largest at FAU, and one of the largest AACSB accredited colleges in the nation.

-FAU-