Costello College of Business News

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed new small business size standards for 338 industry groups and industries. The Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University's Costello College of Business has developed a question guide to help industry stakeholders respond to SBA's request for public comments before the September 21, 2026 deadline. Because size standards directly affect small business eligibility and competition, the proposed changes could have significant implications for the federal marketplace.

Interning at Deloitte was on Iman Chaudhry’s radar ever since entering the Costello College of Business at George Mason University as a freshman and learning about the major firms in the area. As the president of the Mason Consulting Group, she’s very tuned in to what’s happening at Costello and the opportunities available.

Each month, the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting highlights federal acquisition policy signals GovCon practitioners should not miss. This is a practical readout on how policy movement may affect the way agencies buy, how contractors compete, and where acquisition judgment matters.

Jack Sorenson, a marketing major in the Costello College of Business, is one of the faces behind AARP's digital newsletters.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has proposed new small business size standards for 338 industry groups and industries. SBA describes the proposal published in the Federal Register on August 20, 2026, as a simplification of small business size standards to address the overall competitiveness with specific industry group subsectors. SBA estimates the proposed rule would result in a net increase of about 114,541 businesses classified as small. Additionally, this rule change will consolidate the number of size standards across industry group subsectors.

As a city, Barcelona balances a deep sense of history with a modern economy shaped by technology, global trade, design, and tourism. Its historical neighborhoods, rooted in tradition yet constantly evolving, sit alongside international companies and creative industries.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with the Senior Vice President for Contracts and Pricing at a major government contracting firm and her team about commercial buying. The conversation reinforced a point that is easy to miss in policy discussions: commercial solutions require commercial behavior. That means government must be willing to engage the market differently, and industry must be willing to explain, candidly and constructively, what commercial buying entails. Without that mutual adjustment, commercial acquisitions risk remaining a policy imperative rather than becoming a practical success for both sides.

When student Dominic Jones met the Bognet Construction team at one of George Mason's career fairs, he saw an opportunity to broaden his horizons.

Video recordings of the three-part virtual discussion on Resellers and Value-Added Resellers (VARS) in federal IT acquisition. Traditionally, these intermediaries have provided more than hardware and software distribution, adding integration, configuration, compliance, and lifecycle support. Yet policymakers continue to question whether reseller markups reflect genuine value or simply increase costs through pass-through pricing. The discussion focuses on the question: What does “value added” mean when government buys capability instead of products?

Given today’s short attention spans, how much could it really hurt a business to get caught attempting to manipulate their reputation on a platform like Yelp? George Mason University accounting professor Yi Cao has done the math, and it isn’t pretty for businesses willing to cross ethical lines.