Business Commons^™

Improving Networking Supports For Women In The Workplace, Karen E. Pennesi, Javier Alvarez Vandeputte, Zsofia Agoston, Rawand Amsdr

Anthropology Publications

This report describes findings from research on networking activities and strategies among women in executive and leadership positions in Canadian organizations. The project was carried out by graduate student researchers in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. Networking is defined as the creation and maintenance of a community of diverse interests, through in-person and online engagements, that can be mobilized for the benefit of oneself or other members of one’s network. We found that the shift to primarily online networking activities due to COVID-19 removed some existing barriers related to age, gender and location, while introducing others related to family …

Identity Salience Moderates The Effect Of Social Dominance Orientation On Covid-19 ‘Rule Bending’, Rhiannon Macdonnell, Bonnie Simpson, Jennifer Chernishenko, Shreya Jain

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Amidst the economic, political, and social turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting responses to government mandated and recommended mitigation strategies have posed many challenges for governments as they seek to persuade individuals to adhere to prevention guidelines. Much research has subsequently examined the tendency of individuals to either follow (or not) such guidelines, and yet a ‘grey area’ also exists wherein many rules are subject to individual interpretation. In a large study of Canadians (N =1032, Mage =34.39, 52% female; collected April 6, 2020), we examine how social dominance orientation (SDO) as an individual difference predicts individual propensity to …

Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond Project: On Conservation Finance, Decolonization, And Community- Based Participatory Research,, Diane-Laure Arjaliès

Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond Project: On Conservation Finance, Decolonization, and Community-Based Participatory Research

Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond Leadership Team (2021), The Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond Project: On Conservation Finance, Decolonization, and Community- Based Participatory Research, Western University, London, Canada, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5206/101121ipib, 114 pages.

About: This report includes elements of Indigenous and Western forms of knowledge to share a holistic story of the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond (DZCIB). The authors sought to write this report being guided by a “Two-Eyed Seeing” perspective1, bringing together Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, seeing, and being. As a reader, you are implored to reflect on the colonial legacy which continues to disempower Indigenous value …

Perspectives On Firm Strategies In The Non-Market Environment, Vittal Kartik Rao

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The non-market environment, which includes “the rules of the game” that govern economic interactions in the market, plays a central role in the ability of firms to create economic value and to sustain competitive advantage. This dissertation focuses on firms’ interactions with different elements of the non-market environment and is comprised of three essays.

Essay 1 examines the conditions under which firms reach agreements with environmental activists in regulatory agency proceedings to mutually settle disputes. The chapter argues that actions of firms will be dictated by the features of the regulatory decision-making process and the heterogeneity in the attributes of …

Three Essays On Corporate Sustainability Language, Nahyun Kim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My dissertation explores how public firms employ language in their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports to lengthen the horizons of their strategic decisions. The three essays included in my dissertation introduce and investigate the pursuit of temporal equilibrium in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Specifically, I compare the emphasis placed on the short versus long- future in the annual sustainability reports of public firms and derive three explanations for the increased emphasis of long-termism.

In Essay 1 (Chapter 2), I describe how firms seek and find temporal equilibrium after the Financial Crisis. Using topic modeling, I linguistically and …

Predicting Pro-Environmental Values And Behaviors With The Supernumerary Personality Inventory And Hope, Bonnie Simpson, Meghan Maguire, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This research examinesthe role ofpersonality traits beyond the Five-Factor Model (FFM) frameworkin predicting pro-environmental values and behaviors. A sample of 410participants completed personality scalesand reported both their environmental values and the extent to which they had engaged in a series of pro-environmental behaviors in the preceding 24 hours. Small positive correlations were found between environmental values and behaviors with integrityand femininityand negative correlations with religiosity. Overall, the results show limited evidence supporting the personality dimensions measured in predicting pro-environmentalvalues and behaviors.Implications of the findings are discussed.

Learning From Experience: Sasah Communications Intern And Osborne Holdings Intern, Andrew Fullerton

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

I certainly learned about communications as a communications intern, and I certainly learned about copywriting as an intern copywriter at Osborne Holdings. However, what resonates the most with me a year after completing my experiential learning credits are not job-focused skills. Instead, what resonates the most with me are the things I learned about responsibility, valuing my skillset, and leadership.

As an intern with SASAH, I learned that communication is not just a skill; it is a responsibility. I learned this as I ran the SASAH Instagram page through a school year that was cut short because of the COVID-19 …

Internships At The Walrus And Hive Media Group, Reese Berlin Bromstein

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

This report will reflect upon my experiential learning experiences of interning at The Walrus and at Hive Media Group. The opportunity to work with a company as revolutionary as The Walrus and gain experience in the rapidly changing online publishing industry was an honour. I loved being a Digital Intern at The Walrus as it combined my passion for storytelling, interest in web development and production, and content strategy. I also loved working for Hive Media Group as a Mergers and Acquisitions Intern. M&A allowed me to work within a large ecosystem of sales, operations, and project management, and move …

A Critical Realist Evaluation Of A Hospital Laboratory It-Enabled Transformation, Sampath Bemgal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Organizations embarking on information technology (IT)-enabled transformation still face struggles with their execution which offers an opportunity to develop better evidence. Substantial opportunity exists to explore how exactly a transformation as a process evolves over time and how organizational structures (mainly social and technological) interact with human agency to cause successful transformation. Focusing on generative mechanisms—the underlying causal powers driving such transformation process—this research performs an in-depth case study of a hospital laboratory unit involved in IT-driven transformation efforts. Using critical realism philosophy and Archer’s (1995) morphogenesis as a complementary perspective, this study conceptualizes the process of IT-enabled organizational transformation …

Coding Ivey Publishing: Building Sustainable Values For Tomorrow's Business Leaders, B. Pick

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A reflection on the future of sustainability in business as it pertains to Ivey Publishing's case collection and the coding system developed through the USRI program.

The Right To Repair: (Re)Building A Better Future, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The goal of this research project was to take a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach to research and examine the Right to Repair movement’s progress, current repair practices, impediments, and imperatives, and the various large-scale implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) stemming from diminished consumer freedom as a result of increased corporate greed and lack of governmental regulations with regards to repair and the environment. This poster exhibits the highlights of my general research project on the Right to Repair movement over the course of this four month internship, and aims to disseminate information about the movement to the wider public in an …

The State Of Ohio’S Auditors, The Enumeration Of Population And The Project Of Eugenics, Moe Faroukh

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research focuses on how state auditors and superintendents in the State of Ohio participated in the Enumeration process between 1800 and the late 1900s. It focuses around the unexpected nature of auditors carrying out this work. Normally, auditors would review financial statements not count people in such questionable circumstances. The project is essentially trying to piece together from fragmentary historical documents to understand as much as possible why and how these activities were carried out and the role of auditor’s in these processes.

Meta Diversiteam Summer Progress Report, Brian J. Chang Mr

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

Antecedents And Consequences Of Hospitals’ Responses To Institutions: Three Contemporary Essays Concerning Ontario Reforms, Gabriel J. A. Huppé

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation contributes new insights on the antecedents and consequences of hospitals’ responses to institutions. It consists in three essays that collectively explore why and how hospitals balance their technical requirement of providing high-quality and affordable healthcare with an evolving constellation of institutional demands. The collective findings provide a contemporary perspective on the reconditioning of decoupling as a multi-form process, and a nuanced conception of factors affecting the institutionalization and deinstitutionalization of practices within hospitals.

Extending research on institutional leadership, Essay 1 examines hospitals’ approaches to an external mandate for energy conservation and climate mitigation. Through a qualitative investigation, it …

Application Of Stochastic Control To Portfolio Optimization And Energy Finance, Junhe Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, we study two continuous-time optimal control problems. The first describes competition in the energy market and the second aims at robust portfolio decisions for commodity markets. Both problems are approached via solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) and HJB-Isaacs (HJBI) equations.

In the energy market problem, our target is to maximize profits from trading crude oil by determining optimal crude oil production. We determine the optimal crude oil production rate by constructing a differential game between two types of players: a single finite-reserve producer and multiple infinite-reserve producers. We extend the deterministic unbounded-production model and stochastic monopolistic game to …

How Affective Displaysand Self-Construal Impact Consumers’ Generosity, Rhiannon Macdonnell, Bonnie Simpson

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Nonprofit brands vary widely in their positioning to consumers, ranging from crisis and desperation, to joy and optimism.The literature, however, provides limiteddirection for the many nonprofit organizations that seek to align their brand with positive emotions. Herein, we examine the relationship between affective displays (sad vs. happy) portrayed in charitable advertisements and consumer self-construal in shaping consumer generosity.We employ one field study (study 1) and one lab experiment (study 2), using different charitable causes (i.e., Kiva.org[study 1] and a fictitious children’s cancer charity [study 2]) and currencies (i.e., lending money [study 1] and volunteering time [study 2]).Taken together, we find …

Individual Differences And Social-Comparative Feedback, Kabir N. Daljeet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the overall program of research was to investigate whether there are individual differences that facilitate the acceptance of, or preferences for, social-comparative performance feedback. In doing so, we aimed to establish how individual differences could be leveraged to mitigate the negative reactions that some individuals experience in response to social-comparative feedback (Feeney, Goffin, & Schneider, 2016; Roch et al., 2007). Likewise, we sought to determine whether individual differences were associated with a preference for social-comparative feedback. The results of the first study (N = 255) advanced a novel experimental design and found that, with limited exception, …

Opening Accounting: A Manifesto, Chandana Alawattage, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Mereana Barrett, Julie Bernard, Silvia Pereira De Castro Casa Nova, Charles H. Cho, Christine Cooper, Mercy Denedo, Caecilia Drujon D’Astros, Russell Evans, Amanze Ejiogu, Lex Frieden, Alessandro Ghio, Nicholas Mcguigan, Yi Luo, Erica Pimentel, Lisa Powell, Paula Andrea Navarro Pérez, Paolo Quattrone, Andrea M. Romi, Stewart Smyth, Joanne Sopt, Matthew Sorola

Business Publications

Because accounting needs serious #change (it must go way beyond the narrow focus on capital markets but also let go of 'old school' traditions and gatekeeping, and embrace progressive mindsets)... watch and read our #Manifesto to #Open #Accounting below. #Decolonize #IndigenousPerspectives #Africa #LatinAmerica #Asia #DefenseIndustry #Feminism #Queering #Disability #Labour #PrefigurativePoliics #Engagement #Impact #EarlyCareerResearcher #PhDStudent #Journey #MakeChange Many thanks to all contributors listed here: www.openaccountingmanifesto.com

Lean Supply Management In The Canadian Agri-Food Sector, Fernando Naranjo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines a novel conceptualization and operationalization of the lean supply management (LSM) construct and investigates its practical relevance for the Canadian agri-food sector. The thesis consists of three integrated essays, intended to advance the LSM scholarly theorization and managerial understanding. The first essay offers a systematic literature review to gain a better comprehension of the current state of research on LSM regarding its definition, practices, and frameworks, as well as context and contingencies related to its implementation. The second essay offers a conceptual development of the LSM construct presenting a new definition and a new contextual contingent model …

Trust And Bias In Peer-To-Peer Ratings: Why Peer-To-Peer Service Ratings Are Nearly Always Positive, And How They Can Be Fixed, Michael Moorhouse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transactions in the peer-to-peer sharing economy carry high risk and uncertainty. Consumers exchange with non-professional providers with whom they have no past history, and must rely on ratings and reviews for choice selection. However, there is a large positive bias in the ratings, making differentiation difficult, and causing some consumers to lose trust. Despite these concerns, little progress has been made to demonstrate the cause of the bias or how it can be fixed. I address this gap by demonstrating that consumers evaluate peer-peer experiences based on trust. This trust evaluation, in concert with network and social factors, contributes to …

Portfolio Entrepreneurs In China: A Mixed Methods Study, Tianjiao Xu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Entrepreneurs who found and manage at least two businesses simultaneously are portfolio entrepreneurs. Portfolio entrepreneurs have been shown to run fast-growing businesses and contribute significantly to wealth creation. Extant literature has examined how portfolio entrepreneurs differ from entrepreneurs who only run one business at a time and found differences in their demographic backgrounds, human capital, cognition, and other dimensions. However, extant research has treated portfolio entrepreneurs as one homogeneous group, when in reality, there is considerable heterogeneity within this group of entrepreneurs. In this dissertation, I aim to discuss one important distinguishing factor among portfolio entrepreneurs, namely the existence of …

Organizing And Sustainable Development Between The Local And Global: The Case Of A Tibetan Enterprise, Haitao Yu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I investigate how place and space guide organizations towards sustainable development. The current paradigm for business organizing seeks economic efficiency, whereas a sustainable development paradigm requires businesses to accommodate the ecological, social, and economic principles between the local and global. Yet, as organizations are increasingly globalizing and virtualizing, they are becoming increasingly placeless. The loss of local connection to place is one of the primary reasons sustainable development is so elusive.

I am motivated to understand better organizations' role between the local and global on sustainable development. To answer the question, I collected qualitative data through conducting …

Effectiveness Of Social Enterprises: Aligning Strategies And Supply Chains For Impact, Kelsey M. Taylor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social enterprises use market mechanisms to address social issues that are undesirable targets for intervention by conventional businesses. The pursuit of these goals comes with inherent operational constraints that must be mitigated for the organization to survive, but that are unavoidable without compromising the organization’s social mission. However, the assumption embedded in much of the SCM literature, that profit maximization is the ultimate goal, may lead to the implementation of practices that are inappropriate or even detrimental for social enterprises. This dissertation aims to address this issue through an investigation into how a social enterprise’s social value creation strategy (SVCS) …

General Manager Succession In Multinational Enterprise Subsidiaries, Liang (Arthur) Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation, based on interviews with over 40 managers and longitudinal data from over 1,900 foreign subsidiaries, develops new insights regarding subsidiary general manager (GM) changes in multinational enterprises (MNEs).

Essay 1 addresses whether GM successions accelerate or decelerate the momentum for further GM change, and improve or disrupt subsidiary performance. I show that MNE managers learn from prior GM change in order to appoint a right candidate, thus improving subsidiary performance and decelerating the momentum for further succession. But the reduced marginal costs of making succession decisions increasingly render GM change more likely. The accumulated shocks ultimately translate into …

Essays On Entrepreneurial Joiners And How To Recruit Them, Seung Hoon Chung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recruiting talent is arguably one of the most significant challenges facing entrepreneurs today. The ability to find and acquire high quality human resources is particularly critical for a start-up’s ability to survive and grow. However, start-ups are often disadvantaged in the labor market because they lack financial capital, reputation, and stability. While practitioners have repeatedly claimed that recruitment is one of the biggest challenges they face, little research has explored the question of how start-ups can better recruit employees. To understand how start-ups can better recruit employees, it is important to approach the question from both the employers’ and …

Exploring Institutional Dynamics: Barriers And Opportunities For Health Through Sport, Taylor N. Sutherland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explored how multisport service organizations (MSOs) have responded to the institutional pressure to incorporate health into organizational practice. A qualitative exploratory methodology underpinned by an institutional theoretical framework facilitated a snapshot understanding of the institutional environment within the Canadian sport landscape. Data was collected from online document and policy sources, and later analyzed using Hartwig and Dearing’s (1979) two-step exploratory data analysis process. First, institutional theory was applied to capture the institutional change, institutional pressure, and organizational response within the Canadian sport sector. In a second round of analysis, data was re-expressed using archetype theory. Organizations were classified …

Refining Adaptation And Its Onset: Signals Of Financial Innovation That Trigger Strategic Attention In Financial Services, Andrew Sarta

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Organizational adaptation is one of the most important concepts in strategic management. Historical conceptions suggest that without it, organizations are likely to succumb to inertia in dynamic environments and with it, organizations are likely to thrive. Despite its rich scholarly history, organizational adaptation continues to lack clarity and is often conflated with market entry, performance, or survival. More importantly, managers do not have a meaningful way to determine whether their organization is well-adapted or maladapted. Knowing when organizations begin to adapt to their changing environments subsequently becomes a difficult question to answer. In this thesis, I develop much-needed clarity to …

Entrepreneurial Action By Métis And First Nations Entrepreneurs In Saskatchewan: Similarities And Differences With Established Notions Of Entrepreneurial Action, Ketan Goswami

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Entrepreneurial actions, i.e., activities like hiring, marketing, financing, hustling (even bribing!), etc., requisite for building small businesses are less studied than antecedent opportunity recognition processes. The two most common form of contexts in which entrepreneurial actions are studied are opportunity-driven (Silicon-Valley type) and necessity-driven (poverty contexts). While there is a fair amount of research on community-based and band-driven Indigenous entrepreneurship, less is known about entrepreneurial actions by individual self-employed Métis and First Nations entrepreneurs in Canada/ Turtle Island. Métis and First Nations entrepreneurs face a differential set of obstacles in their pursuit for economic self-determination compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. …

Virtually Constructed Leadership: A Study Of Accountability In An International Non-Profit Organization, Kristopher Ph Tharris

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Through the eyes of a leader within a virtual non-profit organization (referred to as the Centre), this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores the lack of formal accountability amongst an international team of volunteers. The lack of formal accountability has the potential to hinder all interactions of the team, decreasing efficiency of the organization and ultimately decreasing its impact on beneficiaries. The relationship between the volunteer leaders and the Centre is described as organizational volunteerism, where organizations are voluntarily contributing their human resources to benefit the international community. This improvement plan examines a combination of complementary leadership approaches that form a …

Ideas Worth Spreading? Adverse Effects Of Information Load In Online Communications, Amir Sepehri

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What makes public addresses such as online talks successful vs. not? Across seven field and lab studies, I find that information overload hurts consumer adoption. The cause? Processing disfluency. Information overload makes a message more difficult to process, which in turn reduces liking and interest. The effect disappears among audience members with greater need for cognition, a personality trait marking a penchant for deep and broad information-processing. My empirical investigation concludes by documenting the counter-intuitiveness of the findings (i.e., how consumers mispredict which talks they actually (dis)like). From these results, I derive insights for (i) the psychology of adoption, and …