By Rick Cherwitz and Courtney Dillard
Office of Graduate Studies

Name: Daniel Laufer Department: Marketing and International Business Supervisor: Dr. Kate Gillespie

Dan Laufer's longtime interest in international business has led to a number of productive interchanges among those in academia, politics, corporations and the public.

Laufer

Laufer spent 10 years in Israel before becoming a manager at KPMG, one of the largest international consulting firms in the world. He went on to found his own international consulting firm in Houston (1996) before beginning his graduate work at The University of Texas at Austin in 1998.

One of the most fruitful academic ventures Laufer has pursued is the creation of a course at the university on the topic of the business environment in Israel. This course, the first of its kind in the United States, generated widespread media attention. As a result, Laufer was invited to lecture at universities throughout the nation, as well as in Sweden and Israel.

Laufer raised more than $30,000 from corporate sponsors to establish his Israeli business course at the university.

Prominent figures from government and industry were guest lecturers. These included the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria, Israel's economic minister to North America, Israel's consul general in the Southwest, Egypt's consul from Houston and senior executives from Motorola, Amoco, Bell South and KPMG. He has taught the course for five years on both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Laufer's work also has cross-disciplinary relevance. His study on Israel-Jordanian Joint Ventures was presented at the American Political Science Association annual conference because of the public policy ramifications of collaboration between Israeli and Jordanian firms. His presentation on the topic was then broadcast by National Public Radio (NPR) in Salt Lake City. He also has been an editorial adviser for the Journal of Accountancy (1999-2001).

Laufer’s dissertation investigates the influence of stereotypes on the assessment of blame in a marketing context. He will present his paper "Are Antecedents of Consumer Dissatisfaction and Consumer Attributions for Product Failures Universal?" at the 2001 Association of Consumer Research (ACR) Annual Conference. He recently turned the paper into a publication that will appear in a forthcoming edition of Advances in Consumer Research (2001).

Among Laufer's university honors is the prestigious A.D. Hutchinson Graduate Fellowship in 1999-2000.

NOTE: Nominations (including self-nominations) for ARETE should be sent to Associate Dean Richard Cherwitz at spaj737@uts.cc.utexas.edu