Isenberg PhD Candidates Win Best Paper Award

Akshaya Pawar and Raju Gholap, doctoral students in the Hospitality & Tourism Management Department at Isenberg, received the Best Graduate Student Research Paper Award in November at the International Association of Hospitality Financial Management Education (iAHFME) Research Symposium in New York.

The paper, titled “Strategic Effect of Degree of Operating Leverage on Value Premiums of Lodging Firms,” delves into the ways the valuation of hotel companies is affected by their degree of operating leverage (DOL) and their degree of financial leverage (DFL), and how DOL and DFL can be used more effectively by the lodging industry in business decisions.

The impacts of DOL and DFL have not been widely studied in the specific context of hotel companies, which are unique—they often prefer using debt for funding investments because they find it less expensive than using equity, and the real estate and other tangible assets these firms hold can be used as collateral for raising capital.

The iAHFME Board recognized the research because of its fresh contribution to the theory and practice of strategic finance and financial management in the hospitality industry.

Akshaya and Raju accepted the award with their supervising graduate faculty member, Dr. Atul Sheel, associate department chair and associate professor of hospitality and tourism management at Isenberg.