Madison, pictured with her student research award at SOBIE
Author: Madison Settlage | Majors: Economics and Finance | Semester: Spring 2023
This past April, I had the opportunity to present my research at the 23rd annual Society of Business, Industry, and Economics (SOBIE) conference in Miramar Beach, Florida. The paper I presented was entitled Is There Really No Place Like Home? Tournament Bass Fishing and the Homefield Advantage. In my research, I complied and analyzed angler data from the two premier professional bass fishing leagues to deduce if there is a homefield advantage associated with angler hometown and angler performance at the various tournament lakes. After running descriptive statistics and an array of regressions, I found that there is in fact a statistically significant homefield advantage, with anglers living closer to the tournament lake performing better overall than those who live further away. This finding is significant in the field of sports economics, as a majority of the research in this field finds no homefield advantage associated with individual sports. My finding is unique as bass fishing is an individual sport that has a significant homefield advantage. Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been any research done regarding professional bass fishing and homefield advantage, making my research the first of its kind.
For this research I worked closely with my father, Dr. Dan Settlage, a professor of economics at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, to gather, analyze, and interpret my results. By working with my father, I was able to engage, in depth, with all aspects of the research process while being guided by an experienced researcher. I chose to attend SOBIE because it is a conference my father has attended before and was relevant for my field of research (economics).
While at the conference, I attended various research presentations that related to finance, economics, and pedagogy. In these sessions, I was exposed to various types of research that is being conducted in the business field and got an inside look at the quality of research done by professors. In addition to attending presentations, I presented my student research and got valuable feedback and suggestions from the audience. The audience was very engaged and interested in my research, signaling to me that my paper is relevant and something others would be excited to read. Based on questions and comments following my presentation, I got a few new ideas and directions I could take this research in the future.
In my time at SOBIE, I had many great opportunities to connect and network with various professionals in the business industry. I grew my professional network as I met many professors from an array of institutions as well as individuals with connections in the bass fishing industry that would aid in propelling my research forward.
Presenting my research in a conference setting was a very rewarding experience! It gave me the opportunity to share with others and learn about the academic world surrounding my majors. Additionally, it gave me the chance to compete against my peers from various schools in a student paper competition. At the conference, I was awarded the Student Research Award for my research paper. This was a very big honor and I was proud to represent the U of A in this academic setting. Moving forward in my research, I hope to turn my student paper into a published article in an academic journal. Additionally, I hope to continue this line of research and produce multiple other articles in this realm.
All in all, my time at SOBIE was very valuable and worthwhile! I would strongly encourage any students conducting research to present your findings at an academic conference. The experience of presenting and getting feedback from individuals in your field is very rewarding and a great use of your time. Additionally, be sure to take advantage of the honors college’s funding opportunities. In being awarded the Honors College Travel Grant, the burden of traveling to my conference was lifted, allowing this opportunity to become a reality.