Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Dr Pepper Snapple Group and the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin have embarked on a novel program to grow one of the company's iconic brands.

Texas Business reports:  LUBBOCK—As economies struggle worldwide - including here in the United States - one Texas Tech University professor may have the answer.

Texas Business reports:  Leading Edge Aviation Services (LEAS), the largest commercial and military aircraft painting company in the world, converted the world’s last remaining Continental aircraft to the newly merged United livery. 

Texas Business reports: COLUMBUS, Ohio—The breakfast-lunch chain Sunny Street Café signed a 40-store development agreement for Texas with Cafe Management Systems. 

Texas Business reports: VICTORIA— First Victoria National Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) collaborated to award the city of Victoria a $245,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant to assist 35 low-income elderly and special needs homeowners with necessary home repairs and modifications through the city's Home Accessibility Program.

Texas Business reports:  CANTON, Mass.—Dunkin' Donuts signed a multi-unit store development agreement with three franchise groups to develop 25 new restaurants in Texas over the next several years. 

 Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—The Reliant Trinity River Wind Festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 12, and Reliant, an NRG company, is returning as this year’s title sponsor. The electricity provider brings a powerful efficiency boost to the festival, a one-day event which features all things wind-related, taking place on the Trinity River floodway in Dallas.

Texas Business reports:  IRVING—Panini America, the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company,  reached a long-term agreement with the National Football League and the NFLPA, granting the company domestic and international rights for up to 18 product releases annually. 

Texas Business reports:  San Antonio’s largest credit union is tapping the UTSA market.

Texas Business reports:  THE WOODLANDS—FleetPride Inc. the nation's largest independent aftermarket distributor of heavy-duty truck and trailer parts, opened a new location in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Paying $70 for a six-pack of Dublin Dr Pepper might seem a bit steep, but that’s apparently the price some are willing to pay to get their hands on the original Texas beverage. 

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Asure Software Inc. a provider of workplace management software, announced that it has self-certified compliance with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s U.S.-European Union (EU) and U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor frameworks. 

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—SPM Communications adde Austin-based Stubb's Legendary Kitchen, makers of Stubb's barbecue sauces, rubs and marinades, to its client roster.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Encon Safety Products reached a marketing agreement with Guard-Dogs, Aggressive Eyewear. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Global NuTech Inc. will change its name to Texas Gulf Energy Incorporated.

Texas Business reports: SOUTHLAKE—Sabre Travel Network announced a new strategic relationship with Regus, the world's largest supplier of high definition public video communication rooms.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Mission Pharmacal Company formed Alamo Pharma Services, which will provide pharmaceutical sales teams with operational and human resources support. 

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Slurpee drinks, Big Bite hot dogs, Big Gulp beverages and other convenient services are on their way to Charlotte.

Texas Business reports:  European CEO Magazine's 2011 Global Business Education Awards has named Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business the Most Innovative Business School for the Southern United States Region.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Last month, Latino daily deal site Descuento Libre acquired Mi Cupon Del Dia, a Miami based competitor, just a couple months after acquiring Los Angeles based deal site Groupacho.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Alliance Tech, an Austin -based business intelligence solutions provider focusing on technology and marketing metrics for trade shows, conferences and events, has been selected as a technology partner by the South by Southwest    Conference & Festival, March 9-18, 2012 in Austin, Texas.

Texas Business reports: STEPHENVILLE, Texas—The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently approved Tarleton State University’s request to offer additional bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at its outreach campuses located in Fort Worth and Waco. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—The Houston Dynamo and Sunbelt bank BBVA Compass announced they are entering into a multi-year naming rights agreement for the Major League Soccer (MLS) team's new downtown Houston stadium currently under construction.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Texas Instruments Incorporated is transferring its stock exchange listing to The NASDAQ Global Select Market from The New York Stock Exchange, effective January 1, 2012.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Rock Candy Media, an Austin, Texas-based design and marketing agency, has been hired by Baldirama Restaurant Group as its agency of record.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced a family of tiny, single-chip, power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for powering all the supply rails in solid state drives (SSDs), hybrid drives and other flash memory management applications. 

Texas Business reports:  EL PASO—Helen of Troy Limited, designer, developer and worldwide marketer of brand-name personal care, health care, home environment and household consumer products,  entered into a definitive agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company to acquire all of the assets related to the manufacturing and selling of products marketed under the PUR trademark, including all of the outstanding stock of PUR Water Purification Products Inc. 

Texas Business reports:  WACO—Dina Dwyer-Owens, chairwoman and chief executive of The Dwyer Group, will appear on CBS's hit reality show "Undercover Boss," on January 22.

Texas Business reports:  THE WOODLANDS—FleetPride Inc., the nation's largest independent aftermarket distributor of heavy-duty truck and trailer parts, acquired Greeley Truck Parts, a Greeley, Colorado based independent heavy-duty parts store.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has awarded Interlex a major contract for advertising, marketing and public relations. 

Texas Business reports: People with birthmarks, scars and other facial disfigurements are more likely to receive poor ratings in job interviews, according to a new study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Houston.

Auction hunters aren't allowed to enter this Uncle Bob’s Self Storage unit before bidding on it. They rely on their eyes and their instincts to guide them in their gambles. Photo by Ari Phillips.

AUSTIN — Like day laborers waiting for work, 30-odd people mill around outside Uncle Bob’s Self Storage early on a Tuesday morning. Waiting in blue jeans, ball caps and striped shirts, they aren’t hoping for a paycheck – they’re banking on a gamble.

Lisa Ruth

Texas Business reports:  Lisa Ruth, marketing director for Satterfield & Pontikes Construction  Inc. (S&P), has been selected by the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Houston to serve on its board of directors as the chapter’s new education director.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS-FORT WORTH— Mouser Electronics, Inc., a design engineering resource and global distributor for semiconductors and electronic components, reached worldwide distribution agreement with International Rectifier (IR), a provider of power management technology.

Texas Business reports: DALLAS—Republic of Texas Brands Inc.opened its Republic of Texas Food Company has opened its online store and is now taking orders at www.republicoftexas.com.

Texas Business reports:  It's the odd book by a marketing professor that examines one of the downsides of marketing. The book, Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don't Have in Search of Happiness We Can't Buy, examines consumerism and happiness.

 Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Here Enterprises Inc., a developer of wind energy, will host The Off-Road Championships (TORC), a short course off-road racing series, to its wholly-owned Cycle Ranch Motocross Park subsidiary at season's end.

Texas Business reports:  Forget your Wrangler's and your Levi's.  An ag coop in West Texas has created the first collegiate-branded jeans. The first university to get its own brand of jeans?  Texas Tech Red Radiers. 

Texas Business reports:  WATERLOO, Ontario—Descartes Systems Group announced Southwest Airlines deployed Descartes' cloud-based Air Messaging Service to its Cargo Customers.

 Texas Business reports: When a corporation draws negative publicity for an adverse event, its brand's reputation can suffer, even if the allegations are false.

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 - 620 bhp Porsche 997 GT2 RS. Photo by richard from West Sussex, England

Texas Business reports:  Does driving a Porsche make a man more desirable to women?
 

Texas Business reports:  Over the next few years, it is likely that daily deal sites will have to settle for lower shares of revenues from businesses compared with their current levels, and it will be harder and more expensive for them to find viable candidates to fill their pipelines of daily deals, according to Rice University associate professor of management Utpal Dholakia.

Texas Business reports:  Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business will host the 33rd Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Marketing Science Conference June 9-11 at the InterContinental Hotel & Convention Center in Houston.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—The Red Dog Company, a wholesale marketer of products for retail pet supply stores, introduced Red’s Sheds Antler Treats, a  chew treat harvested from the annual antler shedding of wild, free-range deer and elk.

Texas Business reports: Dallas—Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced a battery management integrated circuit that increases the life of rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs and maximizes available energy for hybrid and electric vehicles, power tools and uninterruptible power source (UPS) applications.

Texas Business reports:  In the first-of-its-kind analysis of Groupon's impact on a startup company, a new Rice University study found that the daily deal promotion was beneficial even though it had no material impact on the company's profits when unredeemed Groupons were not accounted for. When those unredeemed Groupons were factored in, the company had a substantial 30 percent increase in profits.

Texas Business reports:  Zix Corporation, a Dallas-based email encryption service, signed a three-year renewal agreement with Austin Bank Texas N.A., a 110-year-old Jacksonville, Texas financial institution.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—ClimbTech, a maker of safety products for the industrial, commercial construction, military, and mining industries, introduced a series of new products aimed at these markets that use the company’s patent-pending technology.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS BQ51013

Texas Business reports:  Dallas—Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced its next generation of wireless power technology, which is 80-percent smaller than TI's previous receiver chip.

Texas Business reports:  ExxonMobil launched what is becoming common in mobile marketing technology:  the Exxon Mobil Fuel Finder application for Android.

Texas Business reports: Irving—Novation, a health care supply contracting company, added St. Jude Medical  of St. Paul, Minnesota to its portfolio of agreements for Cardiac Rhythm Management products.

Texas Business reports:  Southlake—Geos Communications Inc., a digital content distribution company, provided an update on its investment in D Mobile  Inc. and D Mobile’s mobile content kiosk operations.

Texas Business reports:  Carrollton—U.S. Heelys Inc., creators of the shoe with a wheel in the heel, has always been popular with kids.

Texas Business reports:  Some of the thinkers and practitioners who are shaping the future of the advertising and branding industry will gather at the conference "And The Brands Played On" produced by the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—In a perfect world, law firms could guarantee complete efficiency from their in-house typist staff, economical use of them in both calm and peak workloads, and an assurance of sufficient staffing to handle any contingency but with no prospect of overtime pay, regardless of the circumstances.

Baristas Coffee Company employs "attractive females" to run expresso stands in costume.

Texas Business reports:  Baristas Coffee Company, which employs "attractive females" in costume for drive-through expresso shops, i signed its first franchise agreement for territories in Texas.

Texas Business reports:  A Katy firm is seeing potentially huge business from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex  caused by the March 11 9.0 earthquake and following tsunami.

Texas Business reports:  A Dallas company is marketing an “explosion proof” flashlight.

Texas Business reports:  Lewisville—Orthofix International said Breg, its Sports Medicine Division, introduced three new products, including the first post-op shoulder brace to off-load pressure from the neck, a rigid ligament knee brace made from lightweight aerospace-grade aluminum, and one of the industry’s only walker boots for pediatric patients.

 Texas Business reports:  Austin’s IronStratus,  chanced its corporate name change and launched its latest IronStratus product family.

Texas Business reports:  Fort Worth—Healthpoint launched of a new corporate identity featuring a new company name, Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, along with an updated brandmark and corporate tagline, “The Science of Healing”.