Business Commons^™

Three Essays On Market Dynamics: Counterfeits, Tipping Policies, And Probabilistic Promotions, Yongqin Lei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I study the complexities of market dynamics through the lens of investigating counterfeit goods, online platforms' tipping policies, and probabilistic price promotions. This dissertation consists of three essays that examine the strategic interactions between companies and consumers, aiming to offer insights into solutions companies can make to both better protect consumers' rights and enhance their profits. In the first essay, I investigate the issue of counterfeits in online marketplaces, focusing on credence goods such as nutritional supplements whose quality is hard to ascertain. I analyze a two-stage competition between genuine sellers and counterfeiters. I show that counterfeiters may utilize fake …

Learning And Growth: My Experiential Learning With Metatherapy And Western Heads East, Naomi So

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

This paper provides a reflective analysis of my experiential learning opportunities with Meta Therapy and Western Heads East (WHE). At Meta Therapy, I acquired practical and professional skills as a physiotherapist assistant, putting my scientific knowledge to the test and refining my clinical proficiency. The paper delves into the challenges faced, particularly navigating a workplace conflict, and discusses the strategies employed to overcome it. In contrast, my internship with Western Heads East took me to Rwanda for four months, where I played a role in enhancing community health, fostering economic development, and empowering women through probiotic yogurt production. The experience …

Polisci 3210f: Feasibility Of A National Disability Insurance Plan (Ndip) In Canada, Twana Hassan, Aditi Priya, Dylan Poole, Samantha Rubin, Ethan Chen

Community Engaged Learning Final Projects

This research report presents an overview of the feasibility and reliability of a National Disability Insurance Plan (NDIP) in Canada. Several Global North countries are leading the way in disability legislation and disability funding in comparison to Canada's inaction on the matter. A National Disability Insurance Plan in Canada will have social and economic benefits for everyone in Canada. The report concluded that Canada is capable of implementing a NDIP and doing so is the right choice.

Looking In The Mirror: Including The Reflected Best Self Exercise In Management Curricula To Increase Students’ Interview Self-Efficacy, Jennifer Robertson, Noelle Baird, Mathew Mclarnon

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Students often choose to pursue a business major during their post-secondary education to increase their chances of securing employment post-graduation. However, evidence suggests that many recent business degree graduates struggle with underemployment, highlighting the importance of examining how post-secondary institutions can better prepare students for the transition to work. In the current study, we investigated how including a personal strengths-driven intervention, the Reflected Best Self Exercise (RBSE), in management curricula may help better prepare students for securing employment by increasing students’ confidence in their ability to succeed in an employment interview (i.e., by enhancing interview self-efficacy). Using a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental …

Strategic Supplier Dynamics And Decision-Making In Supply Chain Management: Exploring Market Segmentation, Copycatting, And Encroachment, Shobeir Amirnequiee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, we explore the intricate dynamics of supplier relationships and strategic decision-making within the realm of Operations Management, focusing on the critical aspects of supply chain management. The research consists of three papers, each offering unique insights into supplier dynamics and their implications for manufacturers and businesses.

The first paper presents a robust framework for joint learning of consumer preferences and market segmentation. Leveraging ideas from machine learning and mathematical programming, this framework efficiently segments the customer base and accurately learns preferences without compromising consumer privacy. By optimizing assortment decisions, this approach maximizes profits and offers superior prediction …

Addressing The Lack Of Digital Literacy Learning At A Kuwaiti Higher Education Institution, Mariam Sarhan Alshammari

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan is an effort to address the lack of digital literacy learning at a Kuwaiti higher education institution. Digital literacy, and by extension, digital citizenship are critical skills to have in today’s world. Global College of Kuwait (GCK, anonymized) is a relatively new college in the region that is struggling to retain students, particularly after COVID highlighted the college’s lack of experience/preparedness with digital literacy. To tackle the problem, a reform committee was formed and tasked with finding a feasible solution to improve digital literacy learning in the college’s Foundation Program. A Foundation Program is a preparatory …

Understanding The Big Data Analytics Deployment Gap: Operationally Leveraging Big Data Analytics Capability For Value Generation In Healthcare, Hyunmin (Dan) Shin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the surge of big data analytics (BDA) deployments in healthcare, many organizations still struggle to successfully realize value from their investments. This has resulted in the phenomenon of BDA deployment gap, where relative to the interest and investments in BDA initiatives by the organizations, actual value generated from successful migrations of BDA models from data labs to in-practice environment deployments at the initiative level have been scarce. To leverage the growing repository of big data, organizations are required to develop the ability to collect, store, process, and analyze big data (BD); this process is referred to as big data …

Engaging Health Professionals Toward The Redevelopment Of A Continuing Competence Program, Salima Thawer

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Continuing competence is the combination of knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment of a professional, applied safely and ethically to their practice of the profession. Under the Health Professions Act in Alberta, health regulatory colleges must oversee the continuing competence of their registrants, ensuring they act in the public’s best interest. At Health Professionals Regulatory College (HPRC), over 3500 registrants are accountable to its continuing competence program (CCP). The current CCP, in place for over 15 years, has not integrated collection and analysis of diversity data that may influence individual competence, nor has it evolved with trends toward right-touch regulation that …

Equity And Inclusion For Leaders In The School District: Exploring Gender, Michele Radomski

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

There are increasing expectations that educational leaders attend to social justice. However, little attention is paid to their own experience of equity and inclusion, and there is an ongoing omission of gender from organizational discourse. This problem of practice identifies the lack of attention to the experience and implications of gender for leaders in a school district. The organizational improvement plan aims to prioritize gender on the organization’s agenda, bridge the gap between representation and equity and inclusion, and create a gender-inclusive leadership climate. Feminist frames for change establish the underlying change strategy and Lewin’s change model structures the change …

Canadians Redefining R&B: The Online Marketing Of Drake, Justin Bieber, And Jessie Reyez, Amara Pope Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a country that long failed to accept, include, and institutionalize R&B music as part of Canadian culture, musical artists Justin Bieber, Drake, and Jessie Reyez have successfully broken-down barriers by having successful careers as racially diverse Canadian R&B artists. This qualitative study surveys the literature on classifications of the R&B genre and of Canadian identities in popular media. The theoretical framework of discourse analysis is used to conduct a brief episodic history of Canadian R&B and to evaluate how the music genre “R&B,” is traditionally associated with people who have "Black" and "American" identities, and how a “Canadian” identity …

Cofounder Selection & Satisfaction: How Entrepreneurial Cofounders Come Together And Succeed Together, Audra G. Quinn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As many new ventures are created by teams, not solo founders, choosing a cofounder is an important decision for entrepreneurs. The individuals who mutually select into the founding team not only define and develop the concept, imprint the venture, and influence its chances of success, but also impact each other’s satisfaction and willingness to persevere. Yet despite these relationships’ crucial implications, the literature offers only scattered insights into how and why cofounders come together and succeed together.

With this dissertation, I advance theoretical understanding of what goes into forming and maintaining a quality cofounder relationship—a key resource that can neither …

Just Following Up: My Experience As A Summer Student Administrator For Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Llp, Bridget Leslie

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In this paper, I reflect on my experience as a Summer Student Administrator for Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP where I acquired skills such as proficiency in various software and data analysis as well as professional communication, confidence, and organization. I applied these skills daily to produce quality work, and I am still applying these skills to my academic and personal life almost a year later. The culminating experience of the summer was presenting my own data analysis to a group of executives, which helped me improve my presentation skills and foster confidence in my own abilities. In addition to …

Stories Of Words, Numbers, And Communities: My Usri Research And Speak Fluent Marketing Internship Experiences, Choi Sze Leung

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

This report illustrates my experiential-learning opportunities, which took the form of two internships. In the summer of 2021, I worked as a marketing intern at Speak Fluent Speech Services, a speech clinic that provides speech and communication training for adults. Aside from designing posters for the clinic’s social-media campaigns, I also had the opportunity to write creative and professional copy and compile a campaign's key performance metrics into a marketing report. In my second internship, I was a research student in the Undergraduate Student Research Internship (USRI) program in the Anthropology department. In this internship, I conducted linguistics anthropology research …

Sasah Experiential Learning Final Report: Fcff Marketing Internship & Creative Writing Mentorship, Ahsif Khair Mohammad

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In this report, Ahsif Khair Mohammad discusses his experiences as a marketing intern for the Forest City Film Festival in London, Canada, and undertaking a creative-writing project under the mentorship of a local writer.

Examining Corporate Litigation: Market Reactions, Resource Allocation, And Trial Outcomes, Nicole E. Makris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation aims to provide a preliminary examination of corporate litigation using a unique hand-collected sample of 262 corporate lawsuits involving 72 publicly-traded organizations listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The first set of studies explores how the market reacts when organizations go to court to resolve a lawsuit. Unlike previous U.S.-focused studies, no significant relation between abnormal market returns, the trial, and the subsequent court decision was found. These results suggest that the Canadian stock market, on average, does not perceive litigation as a significant event.

The second set of studies explores how financial resources, in-house litigation ability and …

Building A Platform For Advancing Women's Engagement In Sport, Swarali H. Patil

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Women are active participants in sport, as administrative leaders, coaches, and elite athletes, and it is important to understand and continue to advance their engagement and experiences in that realm. Women have made gains in leadership but their actual progress towards such roles continues to be slow-paced (Burton & Leberman, 2017), indicating that additional action is still needed. Further, women’s experiences in sport roles are critical to their performance in, and for the organization, and to their personal job satisfaction (Kanter, 1977, 1993). Yet, they may face several challenges in their work, that may reduce their autonomy in relation to …

Blockchain, Cryptos And Nfts In The Gaming Industry: A Tale Of Two Worlds, Harsheen Anand, Lakshay Kumar, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

The gaming industry is at a crossroads with Web 3.0. The ever-growing gaming industry is at a tipping point of mass blockchain adoption. Based on public and secondary data analysis, we show that the gaming industry is shifting toward Web 3.0, which could significantly affect its practices and business models. Aligned with this change, big gaming companies have launched new technologies associated with Web 3.0, such as NFTs and cryptocurrencies. The sector’s reaction could indicate the society’s response to including cryptocurrencies and NFTs in an increasing number of industries. Reluctant North American players. North American players have been unwilling to …

The Role Of Accounting In Conservation Impact Bonds: The Case Of Carolinian Canada, Western University, London, Canada, Julie Bernard, Bhavya Vora, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

This report begins by highlighting Canada's efforts at biodiversity conservation through various initiatives. Moreover, it underscores the vital role Indigenous communities play in protecting biodiversity and preserving traditional knowledge.

The report investigates the role of Conservation Impact Bonds (CIBs) as a potential solution to the biodiversity loss crisis. The CIB is a new "made in Canada" conservation finance instrument that enables collaboration and investment to manage healthy landscapes in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. The CIB model is a pay-for-success conservation finance mechanism driven by the partnership to reverse the trend of habitat loss by accelerating healthy landscapes, advancing …

International Business Is Contributing To Environmental Crises, Haitao Yu Dr, Pratima (Tima) Bansal Dr., Diane-Laure Arjaliès

Business Publications

All business contributes to environmental crises because of its focus on profit. We argue that international business (IB) contributes more than its fair share. IB's focus on cross-border arbitrage has led to the over-extraction of natural resources and the accumulation of waste. This is a problem, because natural resources are limited in quantity and embedded in their local environment. It is time for IB researchers to step up and substantially and meaningfully address IB’s contribution to environmental crises by embracing the principles of natural systems processes within its core assumptions and improving its theorizing of natural resources. In this paper, …

Advancing Regenerative Agriculture In Canada: Barriers, Enablers, And Suggestions, J.F. Obregon, M. Aguanno, M. Brooking, Diane-Laure Arjaliès

Business Publications

This report provides a systemic overview of the state and potential future of regenerative agriculture in Canada. Regenerative agriculture consists of farming that supports life on land – e.g., prioritizing soil health, planting native seeds, protecting faunae and flora, or avoiding harmful chemicals. The biodiversity loss and climate crises are realities that hit every Canadian. The impacts of these crises on agriculture are immense: from soil degradation, lower yields and exports, to food safety. Conversely, agriculture has a tremendous effect on biodiversity loss and climate change; as one of the largest carbon emitting sectors nationwide, the industry could contribute more …

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 …

Financial Wellbeing Of Working Canadians, Michael Ritacco

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The National Payroll Institute (NPI) conducts an annual survey to measure the financial situation of their members. Using this data, the Financial Wellness Lab (FWL) then analyzes and applies advanced machine learning techniques to gain meaningful insights on the respondents. Of the many areas the FWL investigates regarding this data, the primary focus is identifying similar groups of individuals (clusters), and how these groups differ from one another. Aspects such as financial residency, savings, spending, and debt all play an important role in differentiating between these groups, and also play a role in financial wellbeing. Since this survey has been …

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 …