Two University of Houston-Victoria assistant professors will use $10,000 summer grants from the university to advance their research about chemical company partnerships and immigrant entrepreneurs.

This year’s grant recipients are Ehsan Fakharizadi and Kaveh Moghaddam, assistant professors of management in the UHV School of Business Administration.

Jeffrey Cass

UHV has given the awards the past seven summers to junior faculty pursuing promising research projects. Junior faculty members are those who are on a tenure track but are not yet tenured. A committee of tenured UHV professors evaluates proposals and then recommends who receives the awards.

“Our assistant professors have made great use of this funding in the past, and I’m looking forward to hearing the results of Drs. Fakharizadi and Moghaddam’s research,” said Jeffrey Cass, UHV provost and vice president for academic affairs. “They both have intriguing projects that will be of great interest to management scholars and practitioners.”

Fakharizadi and Moghaddam each earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Sharif University of Technology in Iran and started teaching at UHV in 2013. Fakharizadi obtained his doctorate in strategic management from Drexel University in Philadelphia while Moghaddam received a doctorate in strategic management and international business from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

Ehsan Fakharizadi

Fakharizadi’s research looks at inter-organizational relationships, such a strategic alliances and the transfer of knowledge from one company to another. This project studies the prestige of chemical companies that have formed joint partnerships. He is examining how a company chooses a partner and how much prestige and geography have to do with the selection.

“The highly prestigious companies are more likely to form partnerships among themselves and they are reluctant to partner with less prominent firms,” he said.

Fakharizadi will insert geographical distance into the study to see how much company location makes a difference. He thinks the proximity will impact the amount company leaders care about other firms.

The data came from a ranking of global chemical companies annually published since 1985 in a chemical journal and from announcements of joint venture formations found in press releases and industry journals. Since the data already was collected during the last six months, Fakharizadi now is working on forming analyzable models.

Fakharizadi appreciates the university making funding available to junior faculty.

Kaveh Moghaddam

“These grants make it easier for junior faculty members to have the time and resources to get their research published, which provides many benefits to UHV,” he said. “Published work introduces the university to national researchers and increases our scholarly status.”

Moghaddam’s research project compares the survival and profitability of immigrant entrepreneurs with entrepreneurs native to the country where they operate.

“Little is known about how an entrepreneur’s origin may affect his venture’s survival and profitability,” Moghaddam stated in his grant application. “We also don’t know whether employment of native external institutional partners may lessen any possible disadvantages associated with immigrant entrepreneurship.”

The summer research grant could enhance the opportunity for Moghaddam to receive external funding. He said the results of the study may help immigrant entrepreneurs better manage their start-up businesses.

“Considering that immigrant entrepreneurship is strongly present in the Houston area, I am excited to share the results of my research with the local business community, as well as publish my study in high-quality research journals,” he stated.