Smith’s Snider Center Launches Social Media and Market Dynamics Lab

The Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets at the University of Maryland’s Robert H Smith School of Business, in collaboration with the nonprofit Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), has launched an initiative to explore how social media influences financial markets to affect investor sentiment, trading behaviors and market volatility.

The Social Media and Market Dynamics (SMMD) Lab is supported through a generous donation from Narravance, a cyber-social threat intelligence and financial analytics firm. The lab will leverage technology from the company’s subsidiary, ChatterFlow, to analyze real-time social media data, providing insights into emerging trends and potential market disruptions.

The SMMD Lab will also offer students hands-on experience through internships and research projects, equipping them with skills in data analytics, trend forecasting and narrative analysis.

“The next generation of financial industry leaders must graduate from business school with a clear understanding of how open data sources can influence capital markets,” said Adam Sohn, chief executive officer and co-founder of Narravance. “By supporting the SMMD Lab, we are investing in research that will enable proactive responses to threats and opportunities affecting market integrity.”

Rajshree Agarwal, director of the Ed Snider Center and Rudolph Lamone Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, said this collaboration embodies the center’s commitment to research that informs academic understanding and practical policy solutions.

“By examining how viral narratives influence financial markets, we aim to equip our students, and industry, with the insights needed to effectively navigate this new frontier," she said.