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research UPCOMING & ONGOING n REAL IMPACT OF REAL ESTATE Reims Management School in France has created a new research chair in Real Estate and Society which aims to explore social issues in the property sector. Directed by Nicolas Tarnaud and Sté- phane Fourneaux, the chair will promote research and teaching dedicated to the economics, finance, and man- agement of real estate. The position also will focus on issues related to real estate's societal, sociological, and environmental impact, includ- ing the costs of new con- struction, the financing and servicing of social housing, and the social consequences of aging populations. n PREVENTING HPV Dena Cox, a marketing pro- fessor and faculty fellow at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business in Bloom- ington, has received a two-year US$99,600 grant from Merck. Cox will use the grant to study factors influencing young women's adoption of the vac- cine that prevents human pap- illomavirus (HPV), a sexually 56 transmitted infection that can cause cervical cancer. Using a nationwide Internet survey panel, Cox will present informa- tion about the HPV vaccine's benefits and risks, in a variety of formats, to young women who have not yet been vac- cinated. With this study, Cox continues her investigation into how consumers make medical treatment decisions and how health-related communication affects their adoption of pre- ventive behaviors. n FORUM ON CAPITAL MODELING Global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings and Georgia State University's J. Mack Rob- inson College of Business in Atlanta have opened the Willis Research Network Economic Capital Forum in partnership with RiskLab Switzerland at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the Risk Management Insti- tute of the National University of Singapore. Co-funded by Georgia State and Willis for at least the next five years, the forum supports the develop- ment and use of economic capital models required under Solvency II, a set of regulations for insurance firms in the Euro- pean Union slated to go into effect January 1, 2013. It will collaborate with industry on a technology transfer program designed to shorten the time required to convert cutting- January/February 2012 BizEd edge research into commer- cially viable applications. n GRANT FOR NAVAL RESEARCH The U.S. Office of Naval Research has given a US$302,230 grant to Tyson Browning, associate profes- sor of operations manage- ment at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Chris- tian University in Fort Worth. Browning will use the grant to continue his development of a square NxN design structure matrix (DSM) that the U.S. Navy can use to better manage and improve Moscow School of Manage- ment Skolkovo have partnered to establish the Centre for Emerging Markets. Housed at SMU, the center will pro- mote research collaboration, case study development, and academic and business out- reach focusing on the fastest growing emerging markets. The center also will act as a regional research hub in Southeast Asia to provide executive education and train- ing to government and com- mercial organizations. its naval ship-building sys- tems. "If you tried to put all of the processes for build- ing a ship on a flow chart, it would take up hundreds of feet of wall space," explains Browning, who has spent 17 years creating the matrix. "With the DSM, you can fit it in a fraction of the space." n PARTNERS TAKE ON EMERGING MARKETS Singapore Management University (SMU) and the n EXAMINING SOCIAL NETWORKS The U.S. National Science Foundation has given two researchers a US$414,000 grant to study the effects of social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Donna Hoffman and Tim Novak, marketing professors at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the Univer- sity of Califor- nia, Riverside, will lead a two-year study examining whether these sites improve or impair people's lives and happiness. The study will include a worldwide survey of social networking users. The results, say Hoff- man and Novak, also may help identify which social media marketing strategies are most effective.