The study, 鈥�,鈥� looked at whether the growing availability of generative AI has changed who enters the video game market and how developers use AI in the creative process.

Kim and his co-authors analyzed more than 66,000 developers whose first game was published on Steam between 2014 and 2025. They found that more indie developers entered the platform in 2024 and 2025 than earlier trends predicted, while new non-indie developers remained within the expected range.

Key findings

• More indie developers entered the market after generative AI became widely available. The increase was greater than researchers鈥� models predicted based on previous trends.
• Images were the most common use of AI. Both indie and non-indie developers most often reported using AI to generate images, while use for music, voice and coding was lower.
• Indie developers used AI differently. Compared with non-indie developers, indie developers were more likely to use AI for music and coding.
• AI was associated with shorter indie games. The researchers say this may reflect AI鈥檚 usefulness in helping developers quickly develop and test ideas.
• The study shows an association, not causation. The researchers do not conclude that generative AI caused more indie developers to enter the market.

Kim plans to bring the research into his business analytics courses.

鈥淚 will use this paper in class to demonstrate the positive role of AI in facilitating human creativity by enabling individuals to quickly prototype and implement their ideas,鈥� Kim said.

The research was published in ACM AI Letters by the Association for Computing Machinery and co-authored with Seonbin Jo and Woo-Sung Jung of Pohang University of Science and Technology and Jisung Yoon of the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.

Kim joined 福利亚洲国产精品 in Fall 2023 from Boston University. His expertise includes business analytics, innovation, misinformation, and computational social science. He is currently the director of the Center for Applied Analytics and AI at Elon.

He started over.

Taylor was leading about 1,200 employees when he told company leaders he eventually wanted to run a business. Their response: He needed to learn how to build brands. So the engineer and plant manager moved into marketing, working alongside colleagues who were much earlier in their careers.

鈥淚t was a wonderful lesson in humility,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淚t was a great chance to learn and to be in the learning mode, not the knowing mode.鈥�

That willingness to keep learning became a recurring theme on Sept. 10 in LaRose Digital Theatre at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.

The conversation was moderated by Jack Ryan P’17, founder and principal of Jack Ryan Advisory and chair of the Love School of Business Board of Advisors.

Taylor spent more than 40 years with P&G, with assignments across the United States, Asia and Europe before eventually becoming chairman, president and CEO. Today, he serves as senior operating adviser to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, chairman of the supervisory board of Opella Healthcare Group and non-executive chair of Delta Air Lines鈥� board of directors.

When Ryan asked what advice he would give students preparing to enter the workforce, Taylor pushed back on the idea that there is one ideal first assignment.

鈥淢any people ask me, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the right first assignment? Do I need to start in marketing or sales?鈥欌�� Taylor said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter. What matters is what you do with the first assignment. Do you come into whatever you鈥檙e asked to do and do it with excellence?鈥�

He said that strong work creates the credibility to take on larger challenges and eventually influence the organization itself.

鈥淚f you really want to change the system, be successful at wherever you are,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭hat gives you a platform to be able to change the system. You build credibility that you can accomplish outcomes, and once you do that, the willingness for others to listen to you grows.鈥�

Taylor said one of the strongest differentiators he has seen among successful leaders is their ability to bring out the best in the people around them.

鈥淭he greatest differentiator I鈥檝e seen in my time with P&G, my time at Delta and now working with a private equity company is often their ability to unleash those around them,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭hose that have relatively little ego, but a high level of achievement, a high level of personal accountability and a high level of empathy for others.鈥�

That combination, he said, creates something leaders cannot achieve on their own.

鈥淲hat happens is they generate followership,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭hat creates wonderful outcomes, especially when you get to mid- and higher levels, because the group amplifies the results.鈥�

Students later turned the conversation toward artificial intelligence, asking Taylor what skills they should focus on as AI changes marketing and business.

Taylor said AI is already helping companies create and analyze content more quickly, but technology does not replace the need to understand the people a business serves.

鈥淲hen we go to markets, the first meeting is in homes,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淲e鈥檇 get to know the person. We鈥檇 learn about their life, their kids. 鈥楾ell us what you do each day.鈥欌��

He said those visits allowed teams to observe what consumers actually did, not just what they said they needed.

鈥淵ou find there鈥檚 a lot of compensating behaviors consumers have,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l say, 鈥楾his is not an issue,鈥� but you see they do an extra step because something doesn鈥檛 work the way they think it should.鈥�

Taylor shared examples from P&G鈥檚 work in markets around the world, including observing how consumers washed their hair in rural China and how a consumer in Japan used Febreze on furniture she wished she could wash.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 see that looking at a sheet of paper,鈥� Taylor said.

For Taylor, AI can accelerate the work once a company understands the problem it is trying to solve.

鈥淎I will let you have faster, better answers once you know what to work on,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淲hat mountain do you want to climb? And that often comes from a better consumer insight and empathy.鈥�

For the final student question, Taylor was asked whether there was one piece of advice he had used as a filter when making major decisions throughout his career.

His answer brought the conversation back to learning.

鈥淧robably the simplest one is: Can I make a difference, and can I learn?鈥� Taylor said.

He encouraged students to consider those questions as they evaluate their own opportunities, rather than getting caught up in salary, job titles or whether an assignment appears prestigious.

鈥淧ick a place that you鈥檙e happy to walk in the door every day, you can hold your head up, you can learn and you can make a difference,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淵ou have talents and the ability to do a ton of things. You get to choose how you use those.鈥�

福利亚洲国产精品 Lessons from Leaders

Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small group discussions and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program helps bridge classroom learning to real-world decision-making and strategy, and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and meaningful career insights.

This marks the tenth consecutive year that Elon鈥檚 chapter has been honored with either a Merit or Superior Merit Award by the national Society for Human Resource Management, highlighting the organization鈥檚 commitment to professional development and its strong presence on campus.

Elon鈥檚 chapter is advised by Professor Brian Lyons and led by a dedicated executive board of students who are passionate about advancing their skills and engaging with the HR community.

鈥淲e are incredibly proud to receive the Superior Merit Award for another year, as it reflects the hard work, dedication, and passion our members bring to the SHRM chapter. This recognition highlights not only the initiatives and professional development opportunities we have created, but also the strong community our members have built together,鈥� said Isabelle Cross 鈥�27, a human resource management major. 鈥淎s we look to the future, we are excited to grow our presence on campus, strengthen our connections with HR professionals, and create meaningful opportunities that help our members prepare for successful careers.鈥�

The SHRM Student Chapter Merit Award program encourages student chapters to develop more effective operations and promote the value of the human resource profession through outstanding activities and projects.

鈥淓arning a fourth consecutive Superior Merit Award from national SHRM is a remarkable accomplishment and speaks to the sustained commitment of the club鈥檚 student leaders and members,鈥� said Brian Lyons, professor of management and the club鈥檚 faculty advisor. 鈥淲hat makes this recognition especially meaningful is that it reflects years of students building upon the work of the executive board leaders who came before them, while continuing to find new ways to create engaging professional development opportunities, strengthen connections with the local and national HR community, and promote the HRM major and minor on campus. I鈥檓 incredibly proud of Isabelle鈥檚 leadership and the strong culture of engagement and excellence that our students have sustained over time.鈥�

Investors often look at past performance when deciding where to put their money. New research by Morillon and his co-authors examines whether retail and institutional investors respond to the same measures of fund performance.

The co-authored article, 鈥溾��, looks at several ways of measuring real estate mutual fund performance, from straightforward returns and Morningstar ratings to more complex measures that account for investment risk.

Using real estate mutual fund data from 1995 to 2022, the researchers compared those performance measures with subsequent fund flows to better understand which measures appear to be associated with investors鈥� allocation decisions.

Key Findings:

• Retail-oriented funds were most responsive to past returns, or how much the fund had gained or lost.
• Institutional investors appeared to look beyond simple returns and consider how much risk a fund took to achieve them.
• More complex ways of measuring fund performance appeared to have limited influence on the investment decisions of either group.
• The findings suggest retail and institutional investors may look at different information when evaluating real estate mutual funds.
• The research also considers how those investor preferences may affect the decisions fund managers make to attract investment.

鈥淪tudents who see risk-adjusted performance measures for the first time reasonably ask whether anyone actually uses them. This paper is a useful answer,鈥� said Morillon. 鈥淚nstitutional money does look past raw returns, retail money largely does not, and the more complex measures move very little capital either way. A measure only matters if someone is trading on it.鈥�

The article was published in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics with co-authors Ryan G. Chacon at the University of Denver, William G. Hardin III at Florida International University and Pratik Kothari at Oakland University.

Morillon joined 福利亚洲国产精品 in 2019. His research interests include real estate, mergers and acquisitions, international finance, corporate governance and emerging financial technologies. His recent work has also explored the use of artificial intelligence and large language models in commercial real estate.

He received the Love School of Business Dean鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2022 and has earned multiple awards for his research, including the American Real Estate Society鈥檚 Best Practitioner Research Prize and two Emerald Literati Outstanding Paper Awards.

He quickly learned just how many steps that takes.

As a quality engineer co-op, Coughenour is supporting the launch of ALTA Rounds, a new plastic-free coffee pod. Working with the quality team, he has contributed to product trials, data analysis and quality checks on the manufacturing floor.

鈥淏eing in the plant has shown me that a product launch is not just one big step, but a lot of smaller steps that all must come together,鈥� Coughenour said.

He was drawn to the opportunity because it paired hands-on manufacturing experience with a product designed to reduce environmental impact.

鈥淣o week looked exactly the same as we prepared for the launch,鈥� Coughenour said. 鈥淚 collected samples and interpreted data during quality and R&D trials, led two associates at the end of the production line, and worked with outside companies to calibrate and test equipment.鈥�

The experience also changed how he thinks about quality in manufacturing.

鈥淨uality is not just about inspecting a final product,鈥� Coughenour said. 鈥淚t is about understanding the process, identifying opportunities for improvement and helping ensure consistency from start to finish.鈥�

One of his most meaningful responsibilities was helping coordinate, establish and lead end-of-line quality checks. The work gave him a direct role in determining whether the product consistently met quality standards.

鈥淚 was trusted with a responsibility that directly tied into the quality of the product,鈥� Coughenour said. 鈥淚t helped me see how my work fit into the bigger picture of the ALTA Rounds launch.鈥�

Coughenour also worked on improving the calibration process to make it more automated and efficient.

Together, those projects gave him hands-on experience in operations, problem-solving and production while showing him how much coordination goes into maintaining product quality.

The internship also helped clarify the kind of work he wants to pursue.

鈥淚 want to do work where I can see the impact of what I am doing,鈥� Coughenour said. 鈥淏eing at KDP has shown me that I enjoy the hands-on side of supply chain, especially when it involves operations, problem-solving and production.鈥�

He also wants that work to contribute to environmental sustainability. Supporting the development of a plastic-free coffee pod showed him how supply chain and manufacturing roles can connect day-to-day operations with a broader purpose.

鈥淜nowing that my work could contribute, even in a small way, to environmental sustainability gives me a greater sense of purpose and motivation,鈥� he said.

His advice to other students is to stay open to unfamiliar work and bring consistent effort to the experience.

鈥淏e open, persistent and dedicated,鈥� Coughenour said. 鈥淏e open to asking questions and taking on new challenges. What you put into this experience is ultimately what you will get out of it.鈥�

Kaitlyn Niestoeckel 鈥�28, an accounting and public policy major in the Business Fellow and Odyssey Program, earned first place in the Project Run With It competition as part of a team composed of students from different universities. Together, the students completed a consulting project for a nonprofit organization in the Baltimore area. Niestoeckel will receive a plaque, and Elon鈥檚 Beta Alpha Psi chapter will receive a $1,000 award.

Izzy Butler 鈥�28, an accounting and business analytics major in the Business Fellow Program, and Dylan Rogers 鈥�27,聽an accounting major in Elon鈥檚 Accelerated 3+1 Business Dual-Degree Program, also represented Elon during the meeting鈥檚 Chapter Operations session, where they delivered a presentation to fellow Beta Alpha Psi members.

Patty Cox, assistant professor of accounting, serves as faculty adviser for and accompanied the students to the annual meeting.

Beta Alpha Psi is an international honor organization for students and professionals in accounting, finance and information systems.

鈥淚 wanted something that would challenge me even more,鈥� Keicher said. 鈥淪omething without the training wheels.鈥�

His manager responded by turning over a raw-material sourcing project that had originally been part of his own workload. Keicher researched potential suppliers, analyzed sourcing options and developed a strategy that he later presented to senior leaders in supply chain management and engineering.

The project became one of the most meaningful parts of his internship.

鈥淚 asked for another project because I wanted to push myself,鈥� Keicher said. 鈥淏eing trusted with that level of responsibility gave me the chance to work through the strategy independently and present my recommendation to company leaders.鈥�

The opportunity also connected Keicher with an interest that began years earlier. He took flight lessons throughout high school, developing an early passion for aviation and firsthand familiarity with the industry.

He soon realized, however, that 鈥渘o one likes a creative pilot who wants to test the conventions of flight mid-air.鈥�

Instead, Keicher found a place for that curiosity in aviation manufacturing.

鈥淚 love the aviation industry,鈥� he said. 鈥淣othing is cooler than being able to say you help build jets for a living.鈥�

Keicher, a supply chain management and data analytics major from Sycamore, Ill., worked with Honda Aircraft鈥檚 procurement team at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C.

His internship included production meetings, supplier visits and regular walks through the manufacturing floor. He learned more about sourcing strategy, the purchase-order life cycle and the role procurement plays in keeping aircraft production moving.

One of his first visits to the production floor gave him a closer look at Honda鈥檚 鈥済o to the spot鈥� philosophy. When a part had a quality issue, Keicher went directly to where it was being used and spoke with the technician working with it.

鈥淚 was able to understand what was wrong, why it was wrong and what information the supplier needed to fix the issue,鈥� Keicher said.

The experience helped him see how procurement decisions connect to the work happening on the production floor and how communication among technicians, buyers and suppliers can help resolve problems.

Throughout the summer, Keicher contributed to projects involving sourcing, workload analysis, process improvement and employee training.

He helped develop a Power BI dashboard for the procurement team, created tools intended to streamline internal approval processes and documented procedures for onboarding new suppliers. He also led training sessions for incoming associates.

Keicher took the initiative to propose several updates to the company鈥檚 internship program. His recommendations included resources to help interns set goals with mentors, transfer knowledge to future interns and provide more useful feedback at the end of the experience.

The range of assignments allowed him to work across data analysis, supplier relationships and internal operations while seeing how each area supports a larger manufacturing process.

His coursework at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business helped prepare him for projects that combined supply chain strategy with data analysis and communication.

In Introduction to Supply Chain Management with Coleman Rich, associate teaching professor of operations and supply chain management, Keicher learned tools including RACI matrices and critical path analysis. A course with Vinayaka Gude, assistant professor of business analytics, helped him strengthen his skills in data visualization, dashboard development and communicating findings clearly.

The internship confirmed Keicher鈥檚 interest in building a career in aerospace. It also reinforced the value of asking for the opportunities he wanted rather than waiting for them to appear.

鈥淵ou have to ask the question,鈥� Keicher said. 鈥淎sk for what you want the experience to be. That will define what you get to do.鈥�

The program paired undergraduate students with faculty members to support AI-related projects across the school. Student fellows helped develop and deliver workshops, interview faculty and build materials for future courses and boot camps.

Sakura Kawakami 鈥�26 worked with Scott Oakes, assistant teaching professor of management, and fellow students Julia Amodeo 鈥�26 and Katie Geraghty 鈥�26 on workshops for Gateway classes.

The team visited eight classes and reached approximately 240 students through 20-minute sessions with hands-on exercises. The workshops introduced students to Gemini Pro, available through Elon, and focused on practical skills such as improving prompts through iteration and added context.

鈥淭he primary goal was to establish a baseline of AI fluency among Gateway students, who are primarily first-year business students,鈥� Oakes said. 鈥淲e also wanted to test whether a short, bootcamp-style training session could effectively introduce students to practical AI skills within a classroom setting.鈥�

Faculty established the project鈥檚 overall objectives before the students joined. Kawakami, Amodeo and Geraghty then helped develop classroom activities, learning objectives, presentation materials, pre- and post-session surveys, and the rollout plan. The students also led the workshops and helped analyze the resulting data.

鈥淢y role as an AI Fellow was to act as a bridge between students and faculty, advising students on how to use AI to enhance their learning, not replace it,鈥� said Kawakami, a Business Analytics and Project Management major from Rotorua, New Zealand. 鈥淭he goal was to make sure students felt confident using these tools in ways that supported them.鈥�

One focus was helping students understand that effective use of AI often requires refining a prompt rather than accepting the first response.

鈥淥ne of our biggest teaching points was the importance of iteration when prompting AI,鈥� Kawakami said. 鈥淏y refining and tailoring your prompts to your own needs, you get far more accurate and useful responses.鈥�

Oakes said the student fellows strengthened the project by bringing their own experiences with AI into the classroom.

鈥淧eer-to-peer learning is incredibly powerful,鈥� he said. 鈥淔irst-year students often feel more comfortable asking questions and exploring new technologies when they see successful upper-level students demonstrating how they actually use those tools.鈥�

Another team worked with Kem Zhang, associate professor of business analytics, on projects designed to support more advanced AI use in business courses.

Thomas Case 鈥�26, a supply chain management and business analytics major from Atlanta, G.A. and Oliver Lorraine 鈥�27, a project management and business analytics major from Red Bank, N.J. gathered input from faculty and developed materials for future workshops. One project focused on Associate Professor David Jiang鈥檚, Bring the Venture to Life entrepreneurship course, where students develop and launch venture ideas.

Based on the needs identified for the course, the team created materials for an 鈥淎I-powered entrepreneurship鈥� workshop covering topics such as prompting for code, e-commerce, payment integration and deployment.

Case led the workshop design and drafted presentation materials. Lorraine documented the development process and built reusable coding templates for future workshops and boot camps.

鈥淭he transition from AI users to AI builders or AI architects is an important distinction because knowing how to use a tool generally is much different than knowing how to use a tool to innovate,鈥� said Case.

Lorraine also created Google Colab notebooks with coding templates for future use.

Zhang said the goal is to help students move beyond basic familiarity with AI tools.

鈥淔or business students, knowing how to use an AI tool is expected,鈥� Zhang said. 鈥淭he real advantage comes when they understand how these tools can be used in problem solving and to create concrete, AI-based solutions.鈥�

Several projects from the spring semester are expected to continue during the 2026-27 academic year, including the entrepreneurship workshop, an AI Boot Camp for incoming students and additional work on AI integration.

The spring 2026 AI Student Fellows were Brandon Boudreau 鈥�27, Thomas Case 鈥�26, Oliver Lorraine 鈥�27, Dylan Stone 鈥�28, Julia Amodeo 鈥�26, Sakura Kawakami 鈥�26, Lindsay Balick 鈥�27, Katie Geraghty 鈥�26, Katrina Papierman 鈥�26 and Tristan D鈥橝damo 鈥�28.

She has had plenty of opportunities to find out.

As a commercial sales operations intern with Labcorp鈥檚 Southeast Division team in Tampa, Fla., Green has worked on projects involving client communication, sales data, finance and presentations. No two assignments have looked exactly the same, which has become one of her favorite parts of the experience.

鈥淚鈥檝e had the opportunity to try a little bit of everything, in both finance and sales, which has helped me discover what I enjoy and what I want to continue exploring,鈥� Green said.

Green was drawn to Labcorp by its mission to improve health and improve lives. She saw the internship as a chance to gain corporate experience while contributing to a company whose work has a direct impact on others.

Throughout the summer, she worked on multiple projects. Some required her to reach out to clients and gather information. Others involved analyzing sales data, creating graphs and tables, and presenting her findings in a way that could help leaders better understand performance.

One assignment challenged Green to make sense of a spreadsheet containing thousands of data points. She built pivot tables to organize the information, identify relevant patterns and answer specific business questions.

鈥淎t first, the volume of data felt overwhelming, but working through it taught me how to organize complex information and use it to answer specific business questions,鈥� Green said.

The experience strengthened more than her technical Excel skills. It showed her how analysts determine what information matters, identify patterns and present their findings in a way that can guide decisions.

鈥淭he project helped me understand how data analysis turns a large amount of information into insights that can support business decisions,鈥� she said.

Another project required Green to translate large amounts of sales data into graphs and tables that leaders could review quickly and use to assess performance.

鈥淚t was rewarding to create something that helped make the data more accessible and gave leaders a clearer view of where the team stood,鈥� Green said. 鈥淭he experience showed me how important it is not only to analyze information, but also to present it in a way that supports decision-making.鈥�

The range of assignments has helped Green build technical skills while also learning more about the kind of work that interests her. She has enjoyed moving between data analysis, problem-solving and collaboration with colleagues across different areas of the business.

Although she has not settled on a specific career path, the internship has clarified what she wants her future work to involve.

鈥淚 want to pursue a career where I can use data to solve problems, contribute to business decisions and do work that has a meaningful impact,鈥� Green said.

Green credits her Elon coursework and professors with helping her arrive prepared to contribute. She specifically recognized professors Feng Dong, Brandon Sheridan, Julie Swanner, Lakeisha Vance and Drew Peabody for helping her build the knowledge and confidence she has relied on throughout the summer.

鈥淟ooking back, every class I have taken at Elon has helped me in one way or another, whether I realized it at the time or not,鈥� Green said. 鈥淭hey gave me the foundation and confidence I needed to walk into my internship ready to learn, contribute and make the most of every opportunity.鈥�

Her days are full. As a member of the Elon women鈥檚 soccer team, Green is often up around 5:45 a.m. for practice before beginning her workday. But between the early mornings, new software and varied assignments, she has learned the value of remaining curious and open to unfamiliar work.

Her advice to other Love School of Business students is to ask questions and take advantage of opportunities outside their comfort zones.

鈥淓very opportunity is a chance to learn something new,鈥� Green said, 鈥渁nd you never know what experience might end up shaping your future career.鈥�

The Love School of Business is one of 208 schools included on the unranked annual list, which is based on surveys of business school administrators and MBA students.

The program earned its for faculty teaching and availability. Students gave Elon a 97 for the quality of its professors as teachers and a 96 for faculty accessibility outside the classroom.

鈥淥ur faculty set a high standard for teaching while remaining deeply invested in each student鈥檚 success,鈥� said Haya Ajjan, dean of the Love School of Business. 鈥淭hey bring strong academic and professional experience into the classroom, challenge students to grow and make themselves available beyond class. That combination is central to the Elon MBA experience.鈥�

The Princeton Review selected the programs using data collected in 2025鈥�26 from administrators at 245 schools offering on-campus MBA programs and more than 24,250 students. More than 60 data points were considered, including academics, faculty, career services, technology, campus life and student satisfaction.

The Princeton Review鈥檚 of the Love School of Business highlights the MBA program鈥檚 flexible format, small class sizes and supportive environment. Students surveyed for the profile praised the program鈥檚 leadership focus, accessible professors and options for working professionals.

Students also noted that professors are willing to meet outside class and bring professional experience into their courses.

福利亚洲国产精品 the MBA program

The Master of Business Administration program is designed for professionals who want to strengthen their business knowledge and leadership skills while continuing to work.

The program offers full- and part-time options, small classes and close access to faculty. Students also receive advising and career support throughout the program.

Applications are reviewed throughout the year for fall, winter and spring enrollment.