The Christian Business Academy Review is a peer reviewed publication of the Christian Business Faculty Association. The journal’s mission is to promote Christian business education through the publication of faith-based articles focusing on creative instruction, curriculum development, professional issues and research in business education.

 

Within its spring 2023 issue, five faculty members of Samford University’s Brock School of Business have had new works published.

 

Kevin Pan, assistant professor of quantitative analysis, and Nathan Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of sports business, partnered to write “Incorporating Biblical Motivations into a Business Analytics Course". The article, published in the volume’s creative instruction section, addresses how business schools have been developing data analytics courses to meet industry demand while discussing a major challenge is that business students lack motivations to learn analytics. In their article, Pan and Kirkpatrick suggest scriptural examples on how the Bible can be a rich source for Christian faculty to provide motivation for students to master the learning objectives in analytics courses as the development of a sound mind is deeply rooted in the Bible and God’s truth.

 

Pan and Kirkpatrick both acknowledged Samford’s Christian mission which provided them the opportunity to write their paper.

 

Pan said, “Samford and Brock School of Business’ Christian mission enabled us to write this paper. First, we leveraged our experience of teaching data analytics at Samford, where we are encouraged to integrate faith and learning. It is refreshing that Samford students are motivated by Biblical truths to further their learning. Additionally, Samford has created a collegial environment, which has made it easy to collaborate with Christian colleagues such as Nathan. Nathan's input was indispensable to the paper, as we brought together our analytics perspectives and Biblical worldviews in our collaboration.”

 

Kirkpatrick said, “It was a joy to work with Kevin on this paper and help unpack how business analytics and all knowledge come from God and His wisdom.”

 

Additionally, Howard Finch, professor of finance and former dean and interim dean; Chad Carson, dean and former interim dean; and, Jim Reburn, professor of accounting and former interim dean; collaborated to write “Commander or Caretaker? The Unique Role of an Interim Dean”. Their article, which was published in the spring edition’s professional issues section, addresses unique challenges an interim dean may face in areas such as strategic planning, faculty and staff development, programming and fundraising and public relations.

 

Finch said, “An interim dean plays a unique and critical role in the leadership of a school. The individual must maintain momentum established under the previous dean while upholding employee and student morale and academic program quality until the new dean in named. It is unlike any other leadership role in higher education, and our article draws heavily on the experiences all three of us have had serving as interim deans during our careers.”

 

These new works are evidence of the grounded Christian mission through which the Brock School of Business faculty teach their disciplines. In this regard, Kirkpatrick added, “It is such a blessing to be able to do scholarly work with other Christian faculty and collaborate to ground our work in God’s word and biblical truths which permeate all of life.”