Business Commons^™

Employees’ Response To Corporate Greenwashing, Jennifer Robertson, Wren A. Montgomery, Timur Ozbilir

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Research on corporate greenwashing has expanded rapidly in recent years. At the same time, emerging studies in related literatures have found that employees are seeking out firms that are social and environmental leaders, and employee activism within firms is growing. However, the effect of firms’ exaggeration and misrepresentation of environmental claims, or greenwashing, on their own employees has been overlooked. Accordingly, we investigate greenwashing from an organizational psychology lens, exploring the impact it can have on employees, and whether these effects differ for different types of employees. Using data collected at three separate time points from a sample of employees …

Portfolio Optimization Analysis In The Family Of 4/2 Stochastic Volatility Models, Yuyang Cheng

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the last two decades, trading of financial derivatives has increased significantly along with richer and more complex behaviour/traits on the underlying assets. The need for more advanced models to capture traits and behaviour of risky assets is crucial. In this spirit, the state-of-the-art 4/2 stochastic volatility model was recently proposed by Grasselli in 2017 and has gained great attention ever since. The 4/2 model is a superposition of a Heston (1/2) component and a 3/2 component, which is shown to be able to eliminate the limitations of these two individual models, bringing the best out of each other. Based …

The Effect Of Innovation Performance On The Pricing In Private Placement, Tong Liu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

We propose a research project examining the effect of firms’ innovation performance in the pricing of private equity placements, namely private investments in public equity (PIPEs). We investigate whether firms’ previous innovation outputs have been considered in the PIPE issuance. Innovative activities are important for firms to gain strategic advantage against their competitors. Firms with innovative opportunities frequently lack capital. However, financing innovation tends to be more difficult due to the uncertainty and information asymmetry (Acharya and Xu, 2017). Compared to public firms, private firms have the limitations to access the broader investor pool and higher cost of capital. Unlike …

Project Khepri: Mining Asteroid Bennu For Water, Erika Frost, Gowtham Boyala, Adam Gremm, Ahmet Gungor, Amirhossein Taghipour, Massimo Biella, Jiawei "Jackson" Qiu, Athip Thirupathi Raj, Arjun Chhabra, Adam Gee, Saanjali Maharaj, Erin Richardson, Julia Empey, Haidar Ali Abdul-Nabi, Lindsay Richards, Ariyaan Talukder, Aaron Groh, Brie Miklaucic, Jd Carlson, Kristina Kim, Maverick Cue

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Deep space asteroid mining presents the opportunity for the collection of critical resources required to establish a cis-lunar infrastructure. In specific, the Project Khepri team has focused on the collection of water from asteroid Bennu. This water has the potential to provide a source of clean-energy propellant as well as an essential consumable for humans or agriculture on crewed trips to the Moon or Mars. This would avoid the high costs of launching from Earth - making it a highly desirable element for the future of cis-lunar infrastructure. The OSIRIS-REx mission provided a complete survey of asteroid Bennu and is …

An Analysis Of Weighted Least Squares Monte Carlo, Xiaotian Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Since Longstaff and Schwartz [2001] brought the amazing Regression-based Monte Carlo (LSMC) method in pricing American options, it has received heated discussion. Based on the research done by Fabozzi et al. [2017] that applies the heteroscedasticity correction method to LSMC, we further extend the study by introducing the methods from Park [1966] and Harvey [1976]. Our work shows that for a single stock American Call option modelled by GBM with two exercise opportunities, WLSMC or IRLSMC provides better estimates in continuation value than LSMC. However, they do not lead to better exercise decisions and hence have little to no effect …

A Psychological Profile Of The Digitized Economy: Who Buys Cryptocurrencies, Nfts, And Meme-Stocks (And Why)?, Nicole Wolfe

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

As the global digital economy continues to grow in interest and financial worth, it is imperative to harvest data to gain early information on this nuanced economy. Already, we have witnessed billions of dollars in losses and wins at the blink of an eye, encouragement to invest from well-known celebrities and politicians, and high anxiety from the newness, power consumption, and potential outcomes of this nuanced system. Stemming from the lack of solid evidence in this emerging field, we hope to gain more insight on the early players and variation within the digitized economy. Similarly, we hope to identify specific …

Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond Replication, Si Zhe Yuan

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Description of the work that I did the summer and its respective outcomes.

The Rise Of Blockchain Technology In Businesses, Haiqiang Chen

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A blockchain is a digitally distributed and decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. Using this technology, transaction participants can confirm transactions without a need for a central clearing authority, making the technology a legitimate disruptor for fields like contracts, financing, and supply chain. Benefits of blockchain technology include immutability, efficiencies, and decentralization.

This project poster studied how blockchain technology influences supply chain, logistics, and supply chain finance through case studies. Particularly, this project examined Walmart's 2016 pork pilot program launch, the Haikou and Sanya Port hub in China, and the "We Chain" financing system in Tencent company.

A Qualitative Look Into Repair Practices, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research poster is based on a working research paper which moves beyond the traditional scope of repair and examines the Right to Repair movement from a smaller, more personal lens by detailing the 6 categorical impediments as dubbed by Dr. Alissa Centivany (design, law, economic/business strategy, material asymmetry, informational asymmetry, and social impediments) have continuously inhibited repair and affected repair practices, which has consequently had larger implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) on ourselves, our objects, and our world. The poster builds upon my research from last year (see "The Right to Repair: (Re)building a better future"), this time pulling …

A Meta-Analysis On Diverse Teams, Jeeyun Han

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A meta-analysis on the relationship between diversity and effectiveness in teams. This is a follow up to the Journal of Business Studies Decade-Award paper Professor Gunter Stahl & Professor Martha Maznevski published in 2010, applying new, advanced meta-analysis techniques developed by Professor Piers Steel to a much larger database of articles. We will examine all types of diversity in teams, including intersectionalities and their impact.

How Can Social Networks Impact Careers In Game Development?, Tongzhang Wang

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The game development industry is one characterized by young workers and fast worker turnover. The popularity of using twitter as a professional tool within the video games industry presents a potentially insightful view port into a professional's informal network. Investigating characteristics of the social networks of newly graduated students in the game development industry may reveal what factors contribute to fast worker turnover and how certain cohorts may face additional barriers.

Exploring Digital Transformation In Dentistry At The Ssmd Dental Clinic, Aliaa Abdelmeguid

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Digital transformation in healthcare includes an array of digital technologies that are rapidly transforming every domain of healthcare. Digital transformation has had a massive influence on Dentistry as common practices in the field continue to shift from traditional methods to digitally backed processes. This impacts not only dental practices but also dental education required to train dentists for a digital future. Regardless of this impact, adopting digital tools and techniques in healthcare practice and in education remains a significant challenge to accomplish successfully. This research aims to explore and tackle the barriers of adopting Intraoral Cameras within the SSMD Clinics …

Mentorship: A Powerful Tool For Ipg Success, Andrea Nelson

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Because Canada espouses principles of diversity and multiculturalism, many international pharmacy graduates (IPGs) immigrate to Canada expecting to find employment using skills for which they trained in their home country. Upon arrival, they often face challenges in credential recognition and licensure. Barriers include systemic discrimination, socio-psychological isolation, the precipitous decline in social status, and financial challenges of navigating the steps that bridge the training received in their home countries to the scopes of practice in Canada. The problem of practice (PoP) explored in this organizational improvement plan (OIP) focuses on the lack of opportunity that IPGs have to access clinical …

Building Human And Organizational Capacity In A Small Nonprofit And Human Service Organization Through A Culture Of Leadership Development, Adam A. Silver

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Nonprofit organizations are typically comprised of staff from different backgrounds and education, and with varying degrees of leadership experience. In many cases, underequipped staff members are thrust into senior roles without mentorship or development that would prepare them for increased responsibility, leading to operational challenges, depleted morale, and staff burnout. Furthermore, without developing future leaders, issues of succession planning become evident both at the organizational level, and at the sector level. These concerns, in part, can be remedied by embedding strategic and intentional leadership development into the organizational culture of small nonprofit human service organizations. The problem of practice (PoP) …

Three Essays On Irregular Entries To The End-Customer Market, Hamid Elahi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I study irregular entries to the end-customer market and the impact of such entries on suppliers, buyers, and customers. I am particularly interested in the irregularities of supplier encroachment and counterfeiting problems. This dissertation addresses these issues and proposes solutions in the form of three essays. In the first essay, I study a supply chain, consisting of a supplier and a buyer where the supplier can encroach on the end-customer market and keeps private information on its own production capacity. The supplier can decide on its capacity allocation and the buyer can order strategically, hoarding the supply capacity, to remove …

Moving Beyond The Status Quo: Building An Intersectional Student-Centred Culture In A Registrar’S Office, Darran A. Fernandez

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

With an increasing number of students with diverse and complex identities attending colleges and universities, higher education institutions (HEIs) need to adapt to better serve their intersectional lives. At the centre of service delivery at most HEIs is the registrar’s office (RO), often offering services from before a student’s arrival right through to graduation. This Organizational Improvement Plan (plan) explores building a student-centred service delivery model in an RO at a large comprehensive university in Ontario. Organizational structures in HEIs are commonly vertically based on the specialty of work of the staff member rather than the horizontal crosscutting needs of …

Can Financialization Save Nature? The Case Of Endangered Species, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Delphine Gibassier

Business Publications

The current biodiversity loss is dramatic. Over the past 50 years, more than 68% of the mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish on earth have disappeared, putting the planet's survival and its inhabitants – including human beings – at risk (WWF, 2020). Financialization, or the transformation of nature into financial assets, is increasingly proposed as a solution to the biodiversity crisis. Proponents of financialization believe that assigning a monetary value to nature will incentivize human beings to protect habitats and their species. This article offers a four-mechanism model of nature’s financialization, explaining why it is virtually impossible to financialize nature. …

Essays On Market Design And Auctions, Mingshi Kang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to redistribution-driven market design and sponsored link auctions.

Chapter 2 and 3 (co-authored with Charles Zheng) study redistribution-driven market design with endogenous buyers and sellers. In Chapter 2, we consider a large market environment with each individual endowed with equal shares of a limited resources and allowed to buy or sell the shares. We characterize the interim (incentive-constrained) Pareto frontier subject to market clearance and budget balance, and find that at most two prices are needed to attain any (interim) Pareto optimum. Under robust conditions of the primitives, the Pareto optimal allocation …

Gendered Language And Entrepreneurial Joiners, Mihwa Seong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the impact of gendered language in start-up job advertisements on the perceived attractiveness of start-ups among individuals (‘joiners’) interested in working for new firms. While entrepreneurship research has established the prominent role of entrepreneurial joiners in start-ups and the importance of building a gender-diverse team, we know relatively less about how start-ups can attract more women joiners. This dissertation seeks to investigate whether women’s ratings of the attractiveness of joining start-ups increases significantly when start-ups use more feminine language in place of male-centric gendered language. Compared to men, I theorize that women are more sensitive to the …

Digitizing And Cataloging A Corporate Annual Reports Collection: A Canadian Perspective, Alie Visser, Elizabeth Marshall, Joyce Cheung

Western Libraries Publications

Corporate annual reports provide a snapshot of a company's operations and financial status. Reviewing and comparing years of annual reports can provide a rich history of knowledge on a corporation. Preserving, storing, and digitizing Canadian annual reports has been a mission of the C.B. “Bud” Johnston Library in London, Ontario, Canada. In late 2019 when Western Libraries migrated to a new library services platform, Alma, there was a new opportunity to catalog and provide access to the digitized annual reports collection. This article describes a decade long plan to digitize the print collection by library staff and a subsequent project …

Effects Of Perceived Scarcity On Covid-19 Consumer Stimulus Spending: The Roles Of Ontological Insecurity And Mutability In Predicting Prosocial Outcomes, R. Bret Leary, Rhiannon Macdonnell Mesler, Bonnie Simpson, Matthew D. Meng, William Montford

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

In 2021, the United States government provided a third Economic Impact Payment (EIP) for those designated as experiencing greater need due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a particular focus on scarcity and ontological insecurity, we collected time-separated data prior to, and following, the third EIP to examine how these variables shape consumer allocation of stimulus funds. We find that scarcity is positively associated with feelings of ontological insecurity, which, interestingly, correlates to a greater allocation of stimulus funds towards charitable giving. We further find evidence that mutability moderates the relationship between ontological insecurity and allocations to charitable giving. In other …

Statistical Applications To The Management Of Intensive Care And Step-Down Units, Yawo Mamoua Kobara

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis proposes three contributing manuscripts related to patient flow management, server decision-making, and ventilation time in the intensive care and step-down units system.

First, a Markov decision process (MDP) model with a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to compare two patient flow policies: prioritizing premature step-down and prioritizing rejection of patients when the intensive care unit is congested. The optimal decisions were obtained under the two strategies. The simulation results based on these optimal decisions show that a premature step-down strategy contributes to higher congestion downstream. Counter-intuitively, premature step-down should be discouraged, and patient rejection or divergence actions should …

Application Of A Polynomial Affine Method In Dynamic Portfolio Choice, Yichen Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis develops numerical approaches to attain optimal multi-period portfolio strategies in the context of advanced stochastic models within expected utility and mean-variance theories. Unlike common buy-and-hold portfolio strategies, dynamic asset allocation reflects the investment philosophy of a portfolio manager that benefits from the most recent market conditions to rebalance the portfolio accordingly. This enables managers to capture fleeting opportunities in the markets thereby enhancing the portfolio performance. However, the solvability of the dynamic asset allocation problem is often non-analytical, especially when considering a high-dimensional portfolio with advanced models mimicking practical asset's return. To overcome this issue, this thesis presents …

A Descriptive Analysis Of Sport Nationalism, Digital Media, And Fandom To Launch The Canadian Premier League, Farzan Mirzazadeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In April 2019, the Canadian Premier League (CPL), a professional domestic soccer league, launched in Canada, making it the first top-tier league in North America to begin operations in the modern digital era. The CPL represents a unique and timely opportunity to examine how a new professional sports league cultivates ties with fan-consumers via sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom. As yet, there are very few academic works on the CPL, and there is also a paucity of scholarly publications on the launch of new professional sports leagues in the 21st century. For this study, two types of qualitative data …

Two Essays On Everyday Financial Decisions, Poornima Vinoo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Every day consumers make numerous financial decisions which have the potential to increase or decrease their wellbeing in the short-term or long-term. For instance, choosing to pay only the minimum due on a credit card bill can increase liquidity and wellbeing in the short-term, but increase debt and decrease wellbeing in the long-term. My work examines two such instances of everyday financial decisions which influence consumer wellbeing. In Essay 1, I use experiments to examine how the design of retirement savings investment plans can influence the choices consumers make, thus setting them up for comfort or hardship in their retirement. …

Systematizing Dark Personality Traits Within Broader Models Of Personality, Radosław Rogoza, Christopher Marcin Kowalski, Donald H. Saklofske, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Previous research has attempted to derive arguments for the categorization of traits as ‘dark’ without theoretical justification or rationalizations. We begin with a description of current conceptualizations of the darkness of traits followed by a new perspective on the catalogue of dark personality traits and the theoretical boundaries of different shades of darkness within the broader personality structure. Finally, we address the redundancy problem observed within the field on dark personality traits. Our analyses are offered as a guide to future research towards a more parsimonious and useful set of criteria (a “compass” of sorts) for inclusion within the “dark” …

The Motivations And Practices Of Impact Assessment In Socially Responsible Investing: The French Case And Its Implications For The Accounting And Impact Investing Communities, Diane-Laure Arjalies, Pierre Chollet, Patricia Crifo, Nicolas Mottis

Business Publications

This research note elaborates on the impact assessment practices of the French Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) industry. The research was conducted by the Scientific Committee of the French public SRI label based on interviews, participative observation, a survey, and documentary evidence. SRI is usually distinguished from impact investing in terms of investors’ different intentions (contributing to sustainable development in a financially savvy way for SRI vs. demonstrating a societal impact for impact investing). We show that, beyond this distinction, the meanings and motivations behind impact assessment in the SRI community are broadly different from impact assessment practices in impact investing, …

Prison Break From Financialization: The Case Of The Pri Reporting And Assessment Framework, Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Daniela Laurel, Nicolas Mottis

Business Publications

Purpose

This article seeks to unravel the mechanisms through which financial actors agreed upon a sustainability accounting standard without financializing social and environmental issues, i.e., assigning a monetary value to sustainability.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The article examines the Reporting and Assessment Framework created by the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI), the leading reporting sustainability framework in the asset management industry. It relies on a longitudinal case study that draws upon interviews, participant observation, and archival data.

Findings

The article demonstrates that the conception of the framework was a funnelling process of sustainability valuation comprising two co-constituted mechanisms: a process of …

The Choice Of Peers For Relative Performance Evaluation In Executive Compensation, Zhichuan Li, John Bizjak, Swaminathan Kalpathy, Brian Young

Business Publications

Relative performance (RPE) awards have become an important component of executive compensation. We examine whether RPE awards, particularly the peer group, are structured in a manner consistent with economic theory. For RPE awards using a custom peer group, we find that the custom group is significantly more effective than four plausible alternative peer groups at filtering out common shocks, lowering the cost of compensation, and increasing managerial incentives. For RPE awards using a market index, we find some evidence that firms could have selected a custom set of peers with better filtering properties at a lower cost with similar incentives. …