SABRE Cuts by Dr. Reid Cummings - April 2021
Posted on April 27, 2021 by Dr. Reid Cummings
Greetings and welcome to the April 2021 SABRE Cuts.
You may have noticed we are no longer calling our newsletter the Mobile Bay Economic Snapshot. This is because of some exciting, recently implemented changes.
My colleague, mentor, and friend, Dr. Don Epley, founded the Center in 2006 as the Center for Real Estate Studies to produce real estate market transaction reports, offer professional real estate education, and support the University’s new real estate major. The 2010 BP oil spill prompted the Center to complete a series of economic impact analyses of large-scale projects planned in response to the disaster, resulting in expanding the Center’s function and name change to the South Alabama Center for Business Analytics, Real Estate, and Economic Development.
Since then, while not abandoning our critically important real estate roots, over the last couple of years we have continued to expand our work by presenting analyses of a wider range of issues. Using “big data” and complex, interactive dashboards, Jana Stupavsky and her team have helped us deliver timely, topical content designed to answer some of the most pressing questions of the day. Most recently, our efforts zeroed in on some of the pandemic’s impacts on residential and commercial real estate markets, airport activity, intermodal movements of people and freight, mortgage lending, economic development, and COVID-related intensive care hospitalizations.
Just as we are expanding our work, things were also growing on the academic side here at the Mitchell College of Business. Last year Dr. Joe Hair, our Ph.D. Program Director, successfully petitioned the Alabama Commission for Higher Education for the addition of business analytics to our current management and marketing doctoral tracks. Earlier this year, when we learned that applications for our first business analytics cohort were far exceeding all expectations, a really “big data” idea unfolded.
The confluence of our expanded use of “big data” analysis and Dr. Hair’s move toward initiating the highest level of business analytics education here at South, prompted us to consider another logical expansion of the Center. Specifically, our plan would increase our emphasis on “big data” analysis and expand our business resource capabilities. We proposed that by also aligning our Center with the new Ph.D. concentration, we would serve as a conduit for Mitchell College of Business professors and doctoral students to collaborate on an expanded menu of cutting-edge business services, data analytics, and research opportunities, and offer a broader range of business resource skills and capabilities to industry, nonprofits, and government.
We then spent time brainstorming about a new name, an expanded menu of business resources, research paths, and key personnel. Jana Stupavsky, who joins our new business Ph.D. analytics cohort, would continue her work for the Center on dashboard visualization development, implementation, and support. We would work more closely with Dr. Joe Hair, an absolute rock star in the marketing research world (Look him up…he is literally an academic and research superstar!). We would also engage Mitchell College of Business economist and our very own resident Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Ermanno Affuso, as Chief Scientific Officer.
As we consulted with internal and external stakeholders and worked to submit our proposal, our new name also became obvious. We are delighted to report that in late January, President Waldrop approved the expansion of the Center’s function and our new name. Today, we are proud to announce the Center is now the South Alabama Center for Business Analytics, Real Estate, and Economic Development, to be known by its new acronym: SABRE.
SABRE will continue to produce timely, accurate real estate transaction and mortgage lending market analysis. In addition to our annual real estate conference, which we hope to be able to again host on campus in early Spring 2022, plans are underway to host a regional business analytics conference, hopefully in early November 2021. While continuing to support the growth of the undergraduate real estate program, SABRE will also oversee USA Jaguar Realty. This new, first in the nation, university-sanctioned real estate company for real estate students currently has 12 future real estate professionals pursuing their Alabama real estate salesperson’s license. We have positioned USA Jaguar Realty to serve as a bridge between the regional real estate industry and the next generation of real estate professionals by placing educated, fully licensed real estate students with participating area real estate companies. SABRE will also welcome new business analytics students in May and will begin to highlight opportunities to sponsor their work for area firms and institutions on complex business issues, problems, and analysis projects. Finally, SABRE will promote and foster new opportunities for USA students to become leaders in service learning and community engagement through a program designed to teach undergraduates how to help improve financial literacy across our region.
It has been a busy couple of months, and we think the best is yet to come. We cannot truly express how much we appreciate all the support from our Partners, Clients, and Advocates. Please know we stand ready to assist in any way we can. Until next time, from everyone at SABRE, we wish you and yours all the best.