Thanks to my coauthors Gerry and Luis. Gerry’s wisdom, sage counsel, intellectual insights and friendship have greatly enriched my life over the past thirty years. Luis is the rare individual who combines intellectual firepower and quick humor. Anyone fortunate enough to spend time with Gerry and Luis are better people for having done so.
My dissertation chairman and friend Thomas Zorn along with Richard DeFusco continue to have a profound influence on both my personal and professional life. I learned a great deal from working with them. The most valuable lesson was that you could combine friendship and academic rigor. John Maginn and Donald Tuttle are consummate professionals and their influence has truly made me a better person. John and Don are each the embodiment of the gentleman-scholar.
Dean Anthony Hendrickson and my former colleagues in the Heider College of Business at Creighton University have supported this project. I was fortunate to work with individuals who recognize that business is an applied discipline—a simple concept that all too many business school academicians forget.
There are times in your life when you discover who your friends truly are. Thanks to Matt Scanlan and Jeff Lorenzen for their unwavering support during difficult times.
Most of all, thanks to my mother, Rowena, for inspiring me to continue learning throughout my life. She didn’t have the opportunities that I have, but instilled early in my life a thirst for knowledge. I wish she had lived to see the publication of this work.
Thanks to my parents, Bob and Marilyn, who instilled in me the importance of hard work and doing the right thing.
I am forever indebted to my coauthors for making this book project both intellectually rewarding and enjoyable. Bob and Luis are both consummate academicians and true friends.
I acknowledge the influence of three professors that had a profound effect on me and who I have tried to emulate throughout my own academic career, Manferd Peterson, Thomas Zorn, and Roger Stover.
Thanks to my coauthors, Bob and Gerry, for their trust, guidance, and example; and for sharing with me their sense of humor. Thanks also to Richard Pettway and Jeff Madura for their advice, and for becoming my mentors without realizing it.