Meet Our Faculty
Nancy Artz
- Title
- Professor of business, chair of the President's Council on Climate Neutrality
- Department
- School of Business
- Areas of interest
- Marketing, consumer behavior, sustainability; triple-bottom-line: managing environmental, social, and financial performance
What are the strengths of the business administration program?
The School of Business is accredited by the AACSB, which places us in the top 30 percent of business schools around the world. Also, we form strong partnerships with the business community, which result in a number of experiential learning opportunities for students.
Can you speak to the connection between climate neutrality and business education?
Right now, we’re undergoing a huge paradigm shift. We’re at the beginning of a movement as big as the Total Quality Management movement was a couple of decades ago.
Sustainable business has the same international buzz. It was a fringe topic a decade ago. Now it’s recognized as the future of business. Businesses will need to shift from increasing the productivity of people, to improving efficiency of resources.
My area within marketing is consumer behavior as it relates to Americans’ ecological footprint. Business leaders recognize that the same old, same old isn’t going to cut it anymore, with climate change and energy prices.
The other huge movement is accountability of business. Customers are demanding it. Stakeholders—stockowners, consumers—increasingly expect companies to be responsible. It comes together at what I call the triple-bottom-line—how businesses manage their environmental, social, and financial responsibilities.
What piqued your interest in environmental sustainability and business?
My husband [USM Sustainability Office director Dudley Greeley] and I share a strong personal commitment to the environment. For a long time, I’ve been conscious of the disparity between how I acted as an individual and what I teach as a professional. The triple-bottom-line focuses on that disparity.
What notable professional experience has influenced your teaching?
If I had an epiphany, it came shortly after I got my M.B.A. I was a marketing research consultant studying consumer behavior. I realized that business education neglected what happens at the end of the product’s lifecycle. I wanted to investigate: What are businesses’ responsibilities at the end of that cycle?
The millennial generation, our traditional-aged students, were brought up with a different level of awareness. The majority of students are concerned about the environment, or are at least conscious of the connection between business and sustainability, and most are interested in studying the connections. They’re interested in reducing the environmental impact of the products they buy. Students get excited to know how much companies can do to reduce the impact.
In our marketing leadership course, we look at ways businesses convince consumers to do the right thing, not the convenient thing, or what will yield short-term gain. In those classes I see an excitement I didn’t feel until my master’s degree work.
What surprises you about USM students?
There’s an openness and humbleness about them. They are open to ideas, and they’re not coming into class with the attitude that they know everything.
Think about some memorable students. What makes them stand out?
Their willingness to view their education as something more than an opportunity to collect facts. The memorable ones are the ones who are constantly stretching themselves, reflecting on what they’re learning, and thinking about how it reflects on themselves and society. They recognize the type of job they have is central to their career, and their career is very much a part of their identity. They’re conscious of finding a company, and a job, they can be proud of.
What local resources do you use to enrich students’ opportunities to learn?
Internships are an excellent resource. I was a founding faculty advisor of the Student Marketing Association. We work to make sure students have the opportunity to work with professionals. At the master’s level, in my consumer behavior class, we give students the opportunity to analyze the marketing communication plan of a company in the area, and then present those findings to management.
Where do you live and why?
West Cumberland. It’s important to me to be surrounded by nature. I try to car pool and ride my tandem bike when I can.
