Business Foundations: A Changing World

About the Author

O. C. Ferrell

O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethical Organizational Cultures in the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, Auburn University. He was formerly Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Business Ethics at Belmont University and University Distinguished Professor at the University of New Mexico. He has also been on the faculties of the University of Wyoming, Colorado State University, University of Memphis, Texas A&M University, Illinois State University, and Southern Illinois University. He received his PhD in marketing from Louisiana State University.
Dr. Ferrell is past president of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is past president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association and chaired the American Marketing Association Ethics Committee. Under his leadership, the committee developed the AMA Code of Ethics and the AMA Code of Ethics for Marketing on the Internet. In addition, he is a former member of the Academy of Marketing Science Board of Governors and is a Society of Marketing Advances and Southwestern Marketing Association Fellow and an Academy of Marketing Science Distinguished Fellow. He served for nine years as the vice president of publications for the Academy of Marketing Science. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Macromarketing Society and a special award for service to doctoral students Southeast Doctoral Consortium. He received the Harold Berkman Lifetime Service Award from the Academy of Marketing Science and the Cutco Vector Distinguished Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science.
Dr. Ferrell has been involved in entrepreneurial engagements, co-founding Print Avenue in 1981, providing a solution-based printing company. He has been a consultant and served as an expert witness in legal cases related to marketing and business ethics litigation. He has conducted training for a number of global firms, including General Motors. His involvement with direct selling companies includes serving on the Academic Advisory Committee and as a fellow for the Direct Selling Education Foundation.
Dr. Ferrell is the co-author of 20 books and more than 100 published articles and papers. His articles have been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, AMS Review, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, as well as other journals.

Geoffrey Hirt

Geoffrey A. Hirt of DePaul University previously taught at Texas Christian University and Illinois State University, 
where he was chairman of the Department of Finance and Law. At DePaul, he was chairman of the Finance Department from 1987 to 1997 and held the title of Mesirow Financial Fellow. He developed the MBA program in Hong 
Kong and served as director of international initiatives for the College of Business, supervising overseas programs in Hong Kong, Prague, and Bahrain, and was awarded the Spirit of St. Vincent DePaul award for his contributions to the university. Dr. Hirt directed the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) study program for the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago from 1987 to 2003. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Urbino in Italy, where he still maintains a relationship with the economics department. He received his PhD in finance from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, his MBA at Miami University of Ohio, and his BA from Ohio Wesleyan University. 

Dr. Hirt is currently on the Dean’s Advisory Board and Executive Committee of DePaul’s School of Music. He served on the James C. Tyree Foundation Board and Grant Committee from 2012 to 2016. Dr. Hirt is past president and a current member of the Midwest Finance Association and a former editor of the Journal of Financial Education. He belongs to the Pacific Pension Institute, an organization of public pension funds, private equity firms, and international organizations 
such as the Asian Development Bank, the IMF, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Dr. Hirt is widely known for his textbook Foundations of Financial Management, published by McGraw Hill. This book, in its eighteenth edition, has been used in more than 31 countries and translated into more than 14 different languages. 
Additionally, Dr. Hirt is well known for his textbook Fundamentals of Investment Management, also published by McGraw Hill and now in its tenth edition. Dr. Hirt enjoys golf, swimming, music, and traveling with his wife, who is a pianist and opera coach.

Linda Ferrell

Linda Ferrell is the Roth Family Professor of Marketing and Business Ethics in the Raymond J. Harbert College of 
Business, Auburn University. She was formerly Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Business Ethics at Belmont University. She completed her PhD in business administration, with a concentration in management, at the University of Memphis. She has taught at the University of Tampa, Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, University of Memphis, University of Wyoming, and the University of New Mexico. She has also team-taught classes at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand. Her work experience as an account executive for McDonald’s and Pizza Hut’s advertising agencies supports her teaching of advertising, marketing strategy, marketing ethics, and marketing principles. 
She has published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, AMS Review, Journal of Academic Ethics, Journal of Marketing Education, Marketing Education Review, Journal of Teaching Business Ethics, Marketing Management Journal, and Case 
Research Journal, and she is co-author of Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (thirteenth edition), Management (fourth edition), and Business and Society (seventh edition). Dr. Ferrell is the past president of the Academy 
of Marketing Science and a past president for the Marketing Management Association. She is on the college advisory board for Cutco/Vector and previously served on a NASDAQ corporate board. She is also on the Board, Executive Committee, and Academic Advisory Committee of the Direct Selling Education Foundation. She has served as an 
expert witness in cases related to advertising, business ethics, and consumer protection.