Sprott School of Business Research Review 2023

Carleton University

Sprott School of Business

Message from the Dean

It is a privilege to present the 2023 Sprott Research Review. This publication is a showcase of the research excellence at the Sprott School of Business. Sprott faculty and students are engaged in research that is expanding our knowledge into new frontiers of technological innovation, globalization, environmental sustainability, and social impact.

2023 has been a tremendous year for research at Sprott. For the second consecutive year, tri-council research funding exceeded $1M, demonstrating the importance and timeliness of the work being done by Sprott researchers.

The Sprott School continues to grow with the addition of new research faculty, including Qi Deng (Assistant Professor, Business Analytics), Nusa Fain (Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship), Dora Wang (Assistant Professor, Marketing), and Stelios Zyglidopoulos (Professor, Strategic Management).

Collaboration is core to our interdisciplinary research culture, and the Nicol Building provides an inspiring environment to connect, share knowledge, and exchange ideas. In 2023, we opened our doors to research events, such as the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub Symposium and the “Inclusion My Muse” art exhibit from Sprott’s Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work, as well as many research seminars.

I am proud of the research being done at the Sprott School of Business. I hope you will enjoy learning more about Sprott’s outstanding researchers and their impressive work.

Howard B. Nemiroff Dean, Sprott School of Business

Howard Nemiroff, Dean, Sprott School of Business

Welcome Message

As the Associate Dean, Research, I am particularly proud of this year’s Research Review, which showcases the continued growth of our community partnerships, the far-reaching social impact of our work, and our steadfast commitment to addressing global challenges through the lens of responsible business practices.

At Sprott, we recognize the importance of fostering strong connections within and beyond the university, and our research collaborators include engineering firms, national housing and policing associations, energy auditing firms, career management and life coaching agencies, accounting firms, and non-profit organizations. Through these partnerships, we strive to bridge the gap between theory and practice, ensuring that our research has real-world implications and contributes meaningfully to the betterment of society.

As you will see in the following pages, Sprott researchers are bridging that gap successfully— and not least by informing two large-scale federal initiatives. The first of these, the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, was launched at the end of 2021, and continues to deliver important knowledge, insights, and outcomes under the leadership of Gerald Grant (Professor, Information Systems). Then, this summer, the federal government launched the Social Finance Fund, a $755M investment program that is relying on research by Kate Ruff (Associate Professor, Accounting) to empower social purpose organizations to make their own impact-reporting decisions.

By way of conclusion, I’d like to extend my gratitude to all the researchers, faculty, and staff who contribute to the research culture that is so evident within this Review.

Shaobo Ji Associate Dean, Research

Shaobo Ji, Associate Dean, Research

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237 editorships

Corruption, social responsibility, reputation, and the environment: A philosophical infusion to non-market business strategies

There is something to say about living life following your heart. There is often a practicality that weighs on life decisions, but when one can weave their path despite that pressure, one can hope to find joy. Stelios Zyglidopoulos has done exactly that. A person who pursues a passion rather than settling for the banal, Stelios has made his mark as a leader in strategic management research; a pursuit that has taken him around the world—living, learning, and teaching in five countries, speaking three languages, and earning four master’s degrees, including one in Philosophy. And with a prolific publication record and proven academic excellence over almost twenty years, Stelios is just getting started.

In this next chapter of his academic career, Stelios joins the Sprott team as Professor, Strategic Management, ready to dig into emerging and highly impactful research in this arena—infusing unique and invaluable philosophical and sociological lenses into his research. Stelios’ research umbrella includes projects that explore the more intangible or non-market aspects of business strategies such as reputation, legitimacy, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Specifically, Stelios is intrigued with understanding how firms manage corruption and reputational consequences during corporate crises, how companies in developing

Stelios Zyglidopoulos, Professor, Strategic Management

countries can expand internationally and leverage CSR effectively, and emerging research that is aimed to help environmental entrepreneurship ventures succeed and thrive.

One vein of Stelios’ research examines the persistence of corruption in the Greek public sector—research that makes important contributions to the understanding of normalization theories that explain how and why corruption is “accepted” and ingrained into the routines and frameworks of organizations. This topic is close to Stelios’ heart. As a person born and raised in Greece, he understands the implicit complexities of corruption and its implications for limiting economic prosperity, and he has a passion to contribute to solutions.

Stelios’ findings provide unique insights into why members of organizations turn a blind eye to corruption, particularly when it happens overtly. Stelios and colleagues offer a novel “fourth pillar” to normalization theories: Tolerance. Non-corrupt players often know corruption occurs, but because of systemic malfeasance, feel nothing can be done, even though they strongly disapprove of it.

Stelios and his team termed this phenomenon “secondorder normalization”; it manifests and can be explained through both an agent-focused and structure-focused tolerance of corrupt behaviour. In other words, there is a learned helplessness by both those directly involved and bystanders that ensues because of entrenched structural and systemic problems. These insights provide new ways of thinking about social order within an organization and help decision-makers implement strategies and policies to mitigate corruption and help bystanders speak up against corrupt players.

What’s more, with the integration of digitization into public systems—processes that were previously pen-and-paper methods (and therefore easy targets for corruption)—Stelios is keen to understand its impacts; ongoing work that investigates if and how the implementation of digitization could mitigate corruptive behaviour.

Stelios’ concurrent research investigates how corporations in developing countries, looking to expand internationally, leverage their CSR to maximize success. With CSR, a mainstay and necessary pillar of strategic management, corporations must not only be authentically accountable for their environmental and social impact, but also leverage their reputation in

this area effectively. Conversely, when firms overlook important social values and desires and have a “blind spot” to decision making, these can negatively impact performance and profitability.

“Reputation is everything, especially now when CSR is so critical to management strategies. A “good foot forward” can improve legitimacy and reputation as firms expand into new countries where social impact matters.”

Stelios’ most recent venture is perhaps the one he’s most passionate about. Stelios recognizes that it is essential to incorporate sustainability into business strategies—a vision that aligns with Sprott’s core values of environmental practice and pedagogy. Moreover, he believes there are many opportunities to implement solutions within existing business frameworks that will help entrepreneurs capitalize on creating sustainable and environmentally conscious businesses. Stelios also believes it can be a win-win; innovators can profit, and so can the environment.

Stelios is keen to delve into the research that will reveal the barriers entrepreneurs face during startups of environmentally impactful ventures—and how they can overcome them and scale up effectively from proof-of-concept to next level growth. Stelios sees that sustainable entrepreneurship is not just about the owner and the consumer; there are relationships with other key constituents that will determine if the business can succeed.

“This will be very important when it comes to environmental entrepreneurship because there isn’t an established type of business model to help navigate start-up and growth processes.”

Sprott is thrilled to welcome Stelios as a member of the team—an academic passionate about research who injects a purest perspective and a breadth of experience and insights that infuse invaluable philosophical, sociological, and environmental perspectives to the research arena. A person and academic who stays true to his heart.

The best-laid plans: Finding opportunities in unexpected places

Hilary Becker had no intention of becoming an accounting professor when he embarked on his postsecondary studies in the 1980s. His interests lay in the biological and pharmaceutical sciences, but he changed course after a shortage of funds prompted him to launch a business that sold swag for company giveaways.

“I had way too much fun with that,” he says. “And made too much money.”

As a result, after completing his biology degree, Hilary switched his focus to business, earning a BCom and MBA at the University of Windsor, and then working toward Certified General Accountant (CGA) status at DuPont.

His plan was to work in the company’s pharmaceutical division, but when DuPont decided to spin the division off in a joint venture with Merck & Co., he pivoted and accepted an invitation to teach introductory financial accounting at Queen’s University.

“I thought I would do that for a semester while figuring out what to do next, and that was thirty-two years ago.”

Although he taught as an adjunct at both Queen’s and the University of Ottawa, Hilary felt most at home at Carleton, where he has taught since 1996.

Soon after his arrival here, he joined a project between Carleton and the University of Havana funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). This project launched his longstanding collaboration with various Cuban universities and organizations and inspired his decision to complete his PhD.

Research about Cuba remains central to Hilary’s exploration of the ways small business, community engagement, performance management, sustainability, and tourism contribute to economic development in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

His current work in this area focuses on Dark Tourism, the act of travel to places associated with death, suffering, or the macabre. Of particular interest to Hilary is the balance between the economic opportunities,

educational aspect, and ability for locals to tell their story that dark tourism provides versus the unique ethical questions that dark tourism raises—from the desecration of monuments to neighborhood intrusion or tourists who, say, take selfies of themselves and trivialize places like Chernobyl, the 911 Memorial, or Auschwitz. Moreover, revenues generated by local tour operators remain in the communities, while some earnings of large national tour operators do not.

Originally drawn to dark tourism because of its potential to enrich the Cuban tourist industry, Hilary has extended his exploration of the subject to develop a Strategic Management case study about New Orleans, arguably the epicenter of dark tourism, and a book chapter on Sensory Tourism.

Another branch of Hilary’s research program stems from Blue Ocean Strategy, a methodology for developing new market spaces. The Blue Ocean metaphor invokes the contrast between this strategy’s uncharted markets and the bloodied waters of traditional competition.

“An example of Blue Ocean would be Cirque de Soleil. People didn’t like the cruelty to animals, so Cirque eliminated animals and combined the acrobatic element of traditional circus with a theatrical storyline, creating something new.”

In “ The Ying and Yang of Blue Ocean/Red Ocean Strategic Management,” Hilary argues that companies need to embrace both management strategies. His other work in the area has been similarly bold and innovative: he challenged Cirque de Soleil on whether in simultaneously staging seven Vegas shows they were not creating their own red ocean, and he has pushed the boundaries of Blue Ocean thinking to include alternative uses in areas such as performance management and firm valuation.

A reciprocity of influence unifies Hilary’s research and teaching activities. He first learned about Blue

Ocean Strategy while preparing a course on Enterprise Development, and his interest in tourism extends naturally from a teaching career that has taken him to Hong Kong, Bogota, Shanghai, and Qeshm (Iran). Hilary even manages to translate arcane research experiences for the classroom.

“When I started working on dark tourism, I wasn’t expecting to encounter paranormal experiences while on tours or meeting with members of the Vodou/Voodoo, Witch/Wiccan, Vampire, Santeria, and Palo communities in New Orleans, Cuba, and Salem.”

Nevertheless, those experiences have equipped him to serve as a guest lecturer for FASS’s “Philosophy of the Paranormal” course.

Altogether, Hilary’s teaching dossier includes over 50 separate courses in Accounting, Strategy, Marketing, Enterprise Development, Finance, Statistics, Economics, International Business, the CGA Canada curriculum (for which he authored courses), and the CPA Canada curriculum (for which he was a subject matter expert).

Always looking for ways to engage his students, Hilary inspires lively class debates and has even employed magic tricks to demonstrate how companies can manage earnings, a pedagogical innovation that earned him recognition from the American Accounting Association.

In both his research and his teaching activities, Hilary displays a creativity and curiosity infused by Blue Ocean thinking. “Blue Ocean methodology looks for opportunities, and I’ve learned to pursue whatever’s possible.”

Wherever that pursuit takes him, Hilary’s far-ranging expertise will equip him to chart the waters successfully.

Hilary Becker, Associate Professor, Accounting

Shi Li, Assistant Professor, Finance

Mapping the origins of novel market phenomena: From meme stocks to climate risks

Shi Li is deeply interested in the incentives that drive new phenomena in the financial market. His diverse program of research is held together by his quest to understand how investors respond to new events in the world around them.

In one research project, for example, he seeks to generate knowledge about the factors that contributed to the recent “meme stock” frenzy. Meme stocks are a special category of lottery-like stocks. Most of the time,

these stocks lose money, but just like a conventional lottery, which sees participants pay a fee for the chance to win a jackpot-size profit, lottery-like stocks tempt investors with the potential for a large payout. Where meme stocks differ from traditional lottery-like stocks is in their connection to social media: their value skyrockets because they go viral on forums such as WallStreetBets.

In addition to contributing to the literature on social finance, a fairly new area of academic study, Shi’s work on the meme stock phenomenon has implications for retail investors (regular individuals who buy and sell securities and funds) and policymakers alike.

“Since retail investors have a relatively low level of financial literacy, they can be easily lured by social media influencers. They get excited by the juicy return posted by these people and mimic their investment decisions, believing that they’ll also get rich quickly. They hold extremely risky investments with their so-called ‘diamond hands’ long after more savvy investors have cashed out.”

The results can be devastating: “one retail investor risked his father’s entire pension and then committed suicide when he realized that he had lost it all.”

Low levels of financial literacy among retail investors also make such meme stock holders susceptible to losses brought about by fluctuations elsewhere in the stock market. Preliminary outcomes reported by Shi in “ Spillovers between Bitcoin and Meme Stocks” point to a unidirectional wealth transfer phenomenon from meme stocks to bitcoin. In other words, when bitcoin performs well, money flows from meme stocks to bitcoin; however, when bitcoin loses value, so too do meme stocks.

“The impact is asymmetric, making meme stock holders’ position dangerous. They may lose money because of loss from their meme stock holdings and good performance of other speculative assets.”

With such high stakes, Shi believes that regulators play a key role in mitigating the risks faced by retail investors. “One possible factor in the meme stock frenzy was the low interest rate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the central banks significantly dropped interest rates, allowing investors to finance their investments at much lower cost. I’m not saying central banks shouldn’t lower rates to stimulate economies, but when they lower rates, regulators should consider that low rates can boost excessive speculative behavior. They should

urge companies to disclose sufficient and accurate information, and to identify and control rumors and fake news in popular social media, in order to cultivate a more rational investment environment for retail investors.”

Apart from meme stocks, issues around firms’ climaterelated disclosures dominate other strands of Shi’s research program. As he notes in “ Firm-level Climate Change Exposure and Stock Price Crash Risk,” climate-related risk has recently emerged as a positive contributor to stock price crash risk, the phenomenon whereby a firm’s stock price drops precipitously, thereby increasing investor uncertainty and the firm’s financing costs.

Against this backdrop, Shi has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the relation between the climate-related information revealed in conference calls and future crash risk in an international context. Using a dataset that spans more than a decade and thirty-odd countries, he has found that climate-related conference call disclosures are of most value to investors in countries that are highly attentive to climate change with few regulations regarding environmental disclosure. He has also shown that such disclosure reduces crash risk regardless of whether the disclosed information is “good” or “bad” from an environmental perspective.

His latest project centers on the framework created by the Task Force on Climate-Related Finance Disclosures (TCFD) to help firms share information about their climate-related risks and opportunities. This framework will allow investors to improve the quality of their risk assessments by complementing existing reporting mechanisms: unlike current reports, which require firms to look outward to the environmental effects of their operations and practices, the TCFD requires firms to look inward to how climate change might impact their operations and financial status.

In addition to leading to the creation of a novel and comprehensive dataset, this project will examine whether and how TCFD reporting may alleviate concern about firms’ exposure to climate risk among investors and reduce the cost of equity capital for firms.

Beyond the domain of investment capital, Shi hopes that his research will inspire companies to develop innovative tools that will not only stabilize their operations, but also contribute to widespread climate mitigation and adaptation.

The story of a maverick researcher

Over the past two decades, Mike McIntyre has developed a program of research that is both idiosyncratic and expansive. Whether he is analyzing options pricing and deposit insurance reserves, informing legal proceedings against problematic investment professionals, reframing the discussion around sustainability, or developing new approaches to performance assessment and strategic planning in the policing sector, Mike navigates the research landscape with his sights set on two standards: “I have always wanted to choose topics that I like and to make an impact.”

Mike’s research program is also unified by an analytic methodology that he traces back to the sixteen years he spent in professional accounting and in commercial and corporate banking. “CPAs never just take orders. We’re always questioning, always finding proof or background or cause. And with banking, too: people think it’s a numbers game, but it’s largely a game of convincing narrative, and to have a convincing narrative, you have to get your facts right.”

The drive to get the facts right manifests throughout all of Mike’s work. In his early research, for example, Mike demonstrates an incongruity between option pricing theory, which suggests that certain trades should not be profitable, and stock price records, which show those trades net modest gains. Other projects have required an analogous distillation of narrative from numbers. As a legal advisor in fourteen cases against rogue investment professionals, for instance, Mike adhered to theory and fact to help investors who had suffered significant investment losses. He similarly targeted the core issue when he helped deposit insurance corporations determine how much liquidity they needed to back up their commitments.

For Mike, factual considerations are never far from ethical ones. In “ The Inescapably Ethical Foundation of Sustainability,” he invokes an object-predicate framework to get past the impasse created by conflicting scientific, or factual, priorities. Seeing “sameness” as an inherent aspect of sustainability, Mike and his coauthors demonstrate that the criteria used to determine sameness depend entirely upon value judgements.

“If all you want is a paperweight, and you don’t care about colour or shape, a black cube is the same as a white sphere. It all depends on what predicates you emphasize, so arguing about the science isn’t going to get us anywhere. Let’s just restart the discussion by deciding not to wreck certain parts of the planet.”

Mike likewise encourages his partners in the policing sector to view their world through a new lens—no mean feat given the documented resistance to change and innovation within police culture and organizational structure. “Police services can improve their management, and we know they can improve their management because we can examine what they are doing and compare that to objective standards, but there’s a real reluctance to consider change unless we first demonstrate all the failings of the current situation. I don’t think you need to prove you’re a basketcase to justify improving your management. Managing better is its own justification.”

This passion to foster better management in the policing sector inspired Mike and his collaborators to systematically review the strategic plans of 23 of Canada’s largest police services. As the researchers report in “Gold Standard Strategic Plans,” the quality of the plans varies widely. However, taken as a whole, police services’ strategic planning suffers from two principal weaknesses: “First, these large police services, with 50 to 80 individual units each doing different things, appear to generate only one omnibus strategy. The strategy literature suggests they should have individual unit strategies that reflect each unit’s particular challenges and experiences.”

The second weakness stems from the disconnect between what an effective organization-wide strategy should do and what Mike saw in the omnibus strategies he evaluated.

“Targets for apprehension of criminals, successful convictions, and service call response times belong in unit-level strategies. An organization-wide strategy needs to consider what management of a multiyear, multi-unit organization entails—managing the composition of the overall portfolio of units, assessing performance of portfolio members on an ongoing basis, and making decisions about which units to open and which to close.”

Working in partnership with a specialty unit from a large Canadian police service, Mike and his colleagues recently developed a new performance assessment

approach: the CIV (Capability, Importance, and Value) Tool. When unit supervisors implemented this framework, they experienced an increase in services provided, decrease in the number of repeat calls for service, and positive response from unit members. What’s more, they realized these gains within the existing budget and staffing levels. This case study suggests that even resource-tight police services can achieve significant improvement using the CIV Tool.

Whether focused on finance, sustainable development, or policing, Mike has always believed that a toughminded and methodical approach to research empowers a researcher to operate across disciplinary boundaries. After all, genuine curiosity can’t be silo-bound.

Mike McIntyre, Professor, Finance

Key Research Events

Inclusion: My Muse

October 16-18, 2023, Nicol Building

The Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work curated this exhibit, which showcased equity, diversity, and inclusion-inspired art in varied media.

Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub: First-year accomplishments

The Sprott School of Business celebrated the first year of active engagement of the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH). In partnership with the Dream Legacy Foundation and its founder, Isaac Olowalafe, BEKH is Sprott’s first-ever Knowledge Hub and our largest community-led, collaborative, multidisciplinary endeavor, including close to a hundred business partnerships and thirteen universities across Canada. It is led by Professor Gerald Grant (Principal Investigator), who is a strong advocate for the long-term success of the Hub and the ways it will reshape the social and business landscapes for Black communities across the country.

A critical pillar of Canada’s Black Entrepreneurship Program, BEKH serves as a collaborative, co-generated, and high-quality national data and knowledge platform that reflects the state of Black entrepreneurship in Canada. This large-scale endeavor is a critical contribution to Canada’s greater acceptance of and support for the challenges and gaps that Black entrepreneurs and communities face.

BEKH empowers communities to initiate and prioritize research areas that are further developed by academics and government agencies. Its Hub model creates a sustainable ecosystem where researchers, communities, government officials, and other valued contributors can collaborate on research to increase access to capital and resources.

In its first year, BEKH built the capacity of the six Hubs across Canada by establishing support to get the Hubs functioning and by facilitating planning and community engagement meetings to bring together entrepreneurs and academics in order to prioritize and direct research areas. It also hosted the first BEKH symposium.

“Our goal is for the coordinated network of regional Hubs to generate actions and outputs that will inform communities’ advocacy and policymaking needs to support and sustain self-sufficient Black entrepreneurs while creating an ecosystem that fosters health and well-being for communities from coast to coast to coast.”

–Gerald Grant, Professor, Information Systems, Sprott School of Business

In 2024, the Sprott Central Hub at Carleton University will continue to coordinate and align the regional Hubs’ research visions and foster co-creation of research ideas among community members and academics. BEKH will also deliver large-scale qualitative and quantitative research, including a mapping project that involves Statistics Canada, Business Development Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, and several academic institutions.

From left to right: Dr. Gerald Grant, Andrea Pierce, Daniel Stewart, Natalie Evans-Harris, Isaac Olowolafe Jr., and Charles Vincent.

Sprott’s Irene Lu and Ernest Kwan discuss how COVID-19 affects consumers’ purchase intentions

Environmentally friendly goods are growing in popularity for both producers and consumers. With the emergence of COVID-19, however, questions arose around how the threat of contagion could impact consumers’ purchases and motivations in relation to sustainable consumption.

Sprott’s Irene Lu and Ernest Kwan have published research in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services that highlights how businesses and producers can effectively market sustainable products, even during challenging times. We recently sat down with the pair to learn more about their findings.

Irene Lu, Associate Professor, Marketing, and Ernest Kwan, Associate Professor, Supply Chain Management

You were awarded two grants for projects related to sustainable consumption: an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and a COVID-19 Rapid Response Research grant from Carleton University. Could you tell us about these projects?

Ernest: The Rapid Response project focused on how concerns about COVID-19 and remedial measures designed to lessen those concerns were impacting sustainable consumption. The SSHRC support focused on a specific type of sustainable product—repurposed products, which are created by transforming old products into products of greater value that serve a different function.

Irene: We decided to merge the two projects by investigating repurposed products in the context of COVID-19. Evolutionary psychology teaches us that the human instinct to avoid disease can be quite powerful. When this instinct is activated, we often ignore less urgent threats to our safety. We wanted to determine whether people who normally view climate change as an existential threat and therefore make environmentally conscious consumer choices would change their behaviour when COVID-19 replaced climate change as the predominant threat. Would they forgo shopping sustainably (e.g., buying second-hand) due to fear of contagion? Would they select single-use products instead? We predicted that participants who were particularly worried about COVID-19 would evaluate sustainable products as less desirable compared to new products (i.e., products that are made from virgin material).

What did you discover about consumers’ reactions to sustainable products during COVID-19?

Irene: Our results were in-line with conjectures from evolutionary psychology. Disease threat—how anxious our participants felt about COVID-19—did affect how sustainable products were perceived. Specifically, as anxiety over COVID-19 increased, our participants were less willing to buy sustainable products. These results strongly suggest that sustainable consumption suffered during the pandemic. They also suggest that subsequent waves of COVID-19, or other disease outbreaks, will likely have a detrimental effect on sustainable consumption.

Given this consumer response, what were the remedial measures that you considered?

Ernest: One remedial measure, suggested by evolutionary psychology, involved including information about store owners in the product descriptions so participants would feel like they know the people selling the products. This measure sought to capitalize on our instinctual preference, in contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to interact with people we know over those we don’t. The rational is that someone from outside our social circle is more likely to be from a foreign environment and thus more like to carry a disease that we have not yet encountered.

Irene: The other remedial measure involved incorporating a sanitization message in product descriptions (e.g., “all products will be thoroughly sanitized or cleaned prior to shipping to consumers”). Such messaging may seem like a no-brainer, but evolutionary psychology warns us that it can, in fact, trigger the very concerns it’s meant to reduce. Why? Because our instinct is to overreact to signs of disease. Rather than interpreting such a message as evidence of a retailer’s good hygiene, for example, we might think that the retailer needs to sanitize products because of a recent outbreak. Consumers increase their chance of staying healthy (i.e., not catching COVID-19) if they accept the latter interpretation and avoid interacting with the retailer.

What are your findings with regards to these remedial measures?

Irene: Overall, when it came to the store owner’s identity, we found that when disease threat was high, knowing more information about the store owner led to a more positive evaluation of repurposed and refurbished intimate products (those used close to the body), which is good news for sustainable consumption.

Ernest: Interestingly, we found that the sanitization message had a counter-productive effect. When we included a sanitization message with repurposed pen holders, they received a much lower evaluation. The sanitization message may have reminded participants of contagion. It’s also possible that the source product of a repurposed product matters. The pen holders were made from wine bottles, an “intimate” source material. Thus, even though the repurposed product was itself non-intimate, the fact that it was made from an intimate source product may have increased contagion concerns.

Q&A with Sprott’s Nuša Fain

Nuša Fain had just submitted a grant application and begun teaching her fall courses when we connected to learn about her research program and the journey that brought her to Sprott.

What attracted you to a career in higher education and to Sprott in particular?

You might laugh at this, but I’m a geek. I’ve always loved learning, which is why I pursued a PhD. Then, the more immersed I became in academia, the more I appreciated how collaborative the space is: if you’re interested in a particular topic, there’s bound to be someone else whose interests or perspectives are similar or at least complementary to yours.

That’s what brought me to Sprott. Technology innovation management is where I began with my PhD, and I knew that the people in Sprott’s TIM program and I had similar interests.

The other piece is that academia allows me to work cross-culturally, which I value because different cultural perspectives enrich our understanding of the world. I grow by engaging with an international community, and Sprott offers that through students and faculty.

Could you describe your program of research? What unique opportunities have arisen from your particular career path?

Although I studied marketing in my undergraduate degree, I did my PhD in mechanical engineering so that I could explore cross-functional integration in product development. I worked in particular on designing processes that would facilitate collaboration between R&D and marketing. After a couple of companies in Slovenia implemented my work, I moved to Glasgow to help a heavy manufacturing business there develop an innovation space within their organization. I built capacity in knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange, and the integration of theory and practice, which I really like because it lets me see the impact of my research.

When my work with the company in Scotland led me deeper into the innovation space, I became fascinated by open innovation and responsible innovation.

What do you mean when you talk about open innovation, and how does it contribute to an entrepreneurial mindset?

Often when we talk about the entrepreneurial mindset, people think they need to start their own business, but that’s not the case. An entrepreneurial mindset is just a way of thinking and perceiving new—how do you generate new value for new or existing business environments? That can be done by launching a venture, but also by trying out projects that might bring new value to an established organization.

Open innovation is ultimately about the flow of knowledge across different organizations. No single company employs all the smartest people, so companies need to collaborate across the borders of the organization – to bring knowledge in from outside or take knowledge out to amplify the innovation effect. You need to be open to breaking the silos of your organization and to taking calculated risks. If you get stuck within your own walls, you may get left behind because the world is innovating with increased speed.

The most fascinating aspect of open innovation for me is sourcing the wisdom of the crowd. Organizations pose challenges on crowdsourcing platforms, and then the crowd works to solve that challenge. Open innovation recognizes and leverages the fact that whatever problem you may have, somebody has already attempted to solve it – the solution may, however, come from outside your own industry.

How do you characterize responsible innovation?

In principle, responsible innovation rests on four interconnected pillars – inclusivity, responsiveness, reflexivity, and anticipation – but it’s hard to assess in practice because we don’t yet have a way to demonstrate whether an innovation space is inclusive, responsive, reflective, or willing to change course as required by its likely impact. That’s the piece that’s interesting for me: how do we measure responsible innovation at each stage of product development? Each of the pillars has its own measurement scales, but I’m interested in exploring how we can integrate these scales and then implement them throughout the innovation process. Can we develop responsible innovation tracking in real time? It’s an urgent problem given the many crises we are facing.

What research project are you most excited about?

I have to mention two. My work on responsible innovation is vital because organizations are desperate for evidence-based knowledge they can apply in their innovation processes. The other project relates to the SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant proposal I just submitted.* I’ve partnered up with an executive from a career coaching firm who has developed a tool to help youth understand themselves and how they can position themselves within the world—it’s kind of like an updated alternative to career counselling, but one that considers identity and wellness beyond the career space. My role involves determining whether we can validate the model academically and supporting the gamification of the tool to make it appealing to its target audience.

*This proposal has now been funded

Nuša Fain, Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship

The Social Finance Fund and Common Approach come together to drive change in Canada

Announced in May 2023, the Government of Canada’s $755M Social Finance Fund will rely on research conducted by Kate Ruff so that social purpose organizations (SPOs) can access the fund’s flexible financing options without having to complete arbitrary impact measurement reporting.

Investors and SPOs will employ the Common Approach standards, the impact measurement framework at the heart of Kate’s research program, as they roll out and implement the debt and equity investments provided by the fund and matched by large institutional investors. These standards resolve a longstanding impasse in the realm of social finance: historically, investors have required SPOs to undertake impact measurement and reporting to meet their funders’ needs and objectives.

This kind of impact measurement was burdensome to SPOs, but the alternative – whereby SPOs would furnish funders with the data they were collecting to run their organizations effectively – was also inadequate since it failed to meet funders’ needs. Common Approach resolves this difficulty by providing a platform that allows SPOs to collect the data that is meaningful to them while making that data equally useful to funders.

How do the Common Approach standards bridge the divide between SPO and funder?

First, the “common foundations” ensure that SPOs are following best practices in terms of self-assessment. Then, the “common impact data standard” translates data from SPO computer systems into terms that the funders’ computer systems can understand, making it easier for all players to share, aggregate, and analyze the data. The “common form” collates basic organizational information (e.g., SPO name, address, mission statement) within a single form that can be shared among all players in the social purpose ecosystem. Finally, the “common framework” allows SPOs to align their discrete datasets with such frameworks as the United Nations Social Development Goals.

Its centrality to the Social Finance Fund is a clear coup for Common Approach, but Kate remains hopeful that the possibilities these standards offer will one day move beyond our national borders to facilitate SPO investment on an international scale.

Kate Ruff, Associate Professor, Accounting

Using the novel X-scale to gain a robust understanding of xenocentristic consumer behaviour worldwide

José Rojas-Méndez, Professor, International Business and Marketing

Within the world of business, xenocentrism refers to a preference for foreign products and brands and a corresponding dislike and degradation of their domestic counterparts. José I. Rojas-Méndez and his collaborators aim to better understand the impetus for xenocentristic behaviour and to create a scale to measure xenocentrism worldwide.

To this end, they have amassed a huge dataset of psychometric properties from twelve countries on four continents and have created the X-Scale—the most comprehensive, robust, and accurate scale to effectively measure and explain xenocentristic consumer behaviour worldwide. José continues to build the scope of the X-Scale by including additional countries and using different parameters to test the scale. His goal is to create a global index for consumer xenocentrism that allows for comparisons among countries.

Foreign brands could use this index to tailor their marketing to countries high on the xenocentristic scale, and domestic companies could use it to profile domestic products strategically so they can compete

more effectively. Marketing strategies are crucial in this context because xenocentristic behaviour is not objective. In fact, it is often irrational, as when the preferred foreign products and brands are more expensive and of lesser quality than similar domestic brands.

To make sense of such xenocentristic behaviour, José and his colleagues draw upon two theories. (1) System Justification Theory explains the desire to use highly coveted products and brands to signal high status to others (think Louis Vuitton handbags or Porsche sports cars). (2) Social Dominance Theory explains the desire not only to set yourself apart from the rest, but also to disassociate from those one deems of “lesser status”— to distinguish yourself, for example, through brands or vacation destinations.

Given the connection between xenocentrism and status, it is not surprising that xenocentristic individuals who cannot afford expensive imports also show a positive attitude and purchasing propensity toward counterfeit products or their look-alikes, further fueling and leveraging the power of this phenomenon.

Can within-country religious diversity influence large infrastructure project success?

Drawing on internationalization business theories, Frank Jiang has been studying the various factors and challenges that underlie the success of multinational enterprises’ endeavors. In one of his most recent publications, he explores how within-country religious diversity in foreign markets affects private participation in large infrastructure projects (such as roadways, energy frameworks, or public buildings) and how various project-level characteristics moderate this relationship.

In the context of large infrastructure projects that rely heavily on foreign investment, religious diversity can be an indicator of potential challenges due to the need for local government to cater to a large segment of a diverse and potentially conflicted population. “Competing interests can create tension that can be problematic to private investors in terms of extra costs associated with meeting compliance and adhering to local policies and expectations.”

“Religion is a fundamental determinant of how a society communicates and interacts; it is often associated with domestic conflict and unrest and can have a significant impact on how corporate culture evolves.”

Using a sample of over 8,000 projects in 33 different developing countries, Frank shows that within-country religious diversity is a critical predictor of success and failure for large infrastructure projects. The association between religious diversity and success is a negative one: When religious diversity is high, more projects fail. But why?

Frank’s research further demonstrates that the negative association between within-country religious diversity and project success is intensified when the lead investors are foreign—likely because of their inherent unfamiliarity with local customs, practices, and connections to government. On the other hand, the likelihood of project success increases when local governments invest alongside private firm partners.

At a time when developing countries face intense pressure to boost foreign investment in essential infrastructure projects, these findings suggest the benefits of a hybrid approach that combines incentives for foreign investors with active local investment and participation.

Guoliang Frank Jiang, Associate Professor, International Business

The black box of internal auditing in Canada’s public sector

Ouafa Sakka, Associate Professor, Accounting

Simultaneously watchdogs and advisors, internal auditors typically perform two separate but inter-related functions within organizations. In their assurance capacity, they evaluate and document the effectiveness of processes associated with risk management, governance, and control. Then, they draw on the breadth of their organizational understanding to advise top managers about areas they should target for improvement, streamlining, or growth.

Clear escalation and reporting mechanisms, coupled with abundant research in the area, help to clarify how internal auditing works within the private sector. Its operation within the public sector, on the other hand, is still an enigma—one that Ouafa Sakka has been trying to unlock.

Informed by extensive literature and public policy reviews, and by the qualitative interviews she has conducted, Ouafa has identified a number of factors that challenge the quality of the internal audit function in the Canadian federal sector. Ironically, some of the challenges stem from mechanisms designed to ensure transparency.

Other challenges stem from the way the internal audit function is structured in the public sector (which limits the extent to which auditors can perform their watchdog

“Because internal auditor reports are public, auditors are very careful about what they say— so much so that the reports don’t ultimately provide a lot of information.” The delays associated with ensuring that the reports are available in both English and French, and that they are accessible to people with diverse needs, also limit the urgency and impact of the reports, as management is unlikely to wait out the six or seven months between audit completion and report release before acting on identified problems.

role) and from the high level of turnover among internal auditors (IAs) and Chief Audit Executives.

Ouafa aims to share her final results with fellow researchers, the general public, and professional and regulatory organizations. She also plans to make her findings accessible to the general public, who would benefit from a better understanding of what IAs are –and are not – able to do within the context of our federal government.

Facilitating workplace integration of international student graduates

Daniel Gulanowski, Assistant Professor, International Business

Daniel Gulanowski is studying how we can facilitate the successful integration of international students within Canadian society. His work in this area synthesizes two strands than run throughout his research program: migrant integration and student success. For Daniel, integration in this context necessarily means workforce integration.

“It’s good to adjust culturally and know the language and everything else, but at the end of the day, if newcomers are going to integrate fully into Canadian society, they need employment. They need the economic means to sustain themselves and create a better life in Canada for themselves and their families.”

One particular project sees Daniel partner with Sprott’s Greg Sears and others to examine how online technologies can facilitate postgraduation employment integration of international students in Canada. This work builds upon a previous study that found a need for research that explores the “specific practices organizations and educational institutions can implement to reduce [the barriers to workplace integration faced

by international students] and enhance the workplace integration of international graduates” (International student graduates’ workforce integration).

The team hopes to pinpoint how technology can help graduates build networks, foster fruitful connections, and learn about opportunities and vacant positions. While it’s too early to discuss preliminary findings or working hypotheses, the project is well underway. Ultimately, Daniel hopes that the knowledge the team creates will result in policy recommendations that will improve employment outcomes for international graduates—something that is both urgently necessary and highly possible.

As Daniel reminds us, “these are people with Canadian degrees. They’ve had four to five years of acculturation. They speak the language. They’ve developed social networks. If we can’t help them integrate successfully, we’re losing out on a great opportunity as a nation.”

For his part, Daniel is working hard to ensure that doesn’t happen.

The researchers profiled in this section have all received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

2023 Carleton University Research

Achievement

Award

Linda Duxbury, Chancellor’s Professor, Management

Linda Duxbury is the Chancellor’s Professor in Management at the Sprott School of Business. Her research project Employee Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic draws upon extensive real-time data about fluctuations in people’s lives, circumstances, and wellbeing, from 2020 to 2022, in order to clarify the social and human costs of pandemics and the strategies used to manage them in Canada. By identifying such factors as the pandemic’s impact on workers’ mental health, the strategies workers used to manage that impact, and the ways employers contributed to or ameliorated employee stress, Linda is improving our understanding of employee wellbeing and thereby enabling businesses, employees, and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions.

This award is administered by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and International, and selected by a committee of past recipients. It provides ten faculty members across campus with funds in support of a research project.

2023 Carol-Ann Tetrault Sirsly Research Award

Luciara Nardon, Professor, International Business

Luciara Nardon is a Professor of International Business at the Sprott School of Business. Her interest in multicultural work environments is multi-faceted, including strategies to facilitate successful intercultural situations, the experiences of different kinds of migrant workers and students, and the ways technology can support individuals adjusting to a new cultural environment. Luciara uses innovative qualitative methods to support globally mobile individuals and identify solutions to unique challenges faced by these individuals.

This internal award is given to a faculty member in the Sprott School of Business who published in high quality peer-reviewed journals in the previous year.

Linda Duxbury, Chancellor’s Professor, Management

Luciara Nardon, Professor, International Business

2022-23 Fulbright Canada Distinguished Visiting Research Chair

Fulbright Canada has established a unique 25-year commitment with Carleton University to support collaborative scholarship between researchers from the United States and Canada. The Sprott School of Business will host one of four Carleton Visiting Research Chair opportunities through a series of one-year appointments from 2018 through 2043. The Sprott School of Business welcomed Kevin Boudreau as the 2022-23 Fulbright Canada Distinguished Research Chair in Entrepreneurship.

Kevin Boudreau, Professor, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Northeastern University

Kevin studies how to optimize business models and the organization of digital platforms and digital organizational infrastructure. Much of his work involves analysis of large data sets and working with platform engineers and data scientists to embed experiments within “live” working platforms. He has degrees in Engineering (Waterloo), Economics (Toronto), and Behavioral and Policy Sciences (MIT). His research has been generously funded by the Fulbright Foundation, G.E. Corp., Google, the Kaufmann Foundation, Microsoft, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, and the Sloan Foundation.

As his Fulbright tenure came to a close, Kevin talked to us about the journey that brought him to Sprott and the research he pursued here.

Q&A

Why did you decide to apply to the Fulbright program?

Even before I learned of the Fulbright opportunity, I had started to reflect on the research I had done throughout my career and to think about what I wanted the next twenty years to look like. Also, I was feeling that it was time to build new connections and find ways of contributing in Canada and the region where I grew up. About a month after these thoughts crystallized in my mind, I learned about the Fulbright in Entrepreneurship at Carleton. I spent some weeks talking to faculty within TIM (Carleton’s Technology Innovation Management program) and realized that my interests and theirs were indeed closely aligned. I have known Carleton University all my life and was excited to learn about the opportunities at Sprott.

Could you tell us about the book that you’ve been preparing during the tenure of your Fulbright?

There are three main sections. The first section focuses on the principles of business model design, beginning with the design and construction of a platform. It addresses questions about how people can create, capture, and deliver value with the operating models they are designing. The second section looks at the dynamics of competition and explores the question of how to grow your organization. The third section, which has become especially relevant this year, maps out

how we can integrate data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and machines into operating models alongside humans and processes.

It sounds like the book has a real-world practical component. How has your extensive industry experience shaped your program of research?

When carrying out management, economics, and social science research, I’m always thinking about what it’s like to live in an organization and how hard it is to build things and innovate. For me, it’s not just abstract analysis; it’s about understanding how the world’s changing. I don’t see a very big divide between what goes on in academic research and what goes on in real life. It’s just that we have the luxury in academic research to ask questions and then devote the time and resources to study them.

Has the Fulbright allowed you to make connections in Ottawa the way you had hoped?

It takes time to build trust, get a common understanding, and capitalize on aligned interests. I’ve certainly established relationships here that are continuing to take shape, and I’ve learned about the ways in which universities, government, and industry can learn and benefit from one another in the Ottawa-area innovation cluster. I have also enjoyed engaging with my peers in TIM.

Newly Funded Research Projects

Each year, Sprott researchers apply for external research support from a variety of funders, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Mitacs. Several of these funding opportunities include partner organizations outside Carleton University, who are directly involved in the research. Please see below for a list of research projects funded in 2023 by external funding agencies’ various programs.

External Research Funding (Partnered)

Principal Investigator(s)

Title Funding Agency Program Partner Organization

Linda Duxbury Media coverage of the police in Canada

Mitacs Accelerate Canadian Police Association

Nusa Fain Unlocking you 2.0: Empowering young adults through AI-enhanced self-discovery and career development

Ruth McKay Flood risk and new housing in Canada and Netherlands: Case comparisons of stakeholder dynamics as the climate and the maps change

Steven Muegge Development and implementation of an Edge AI IoT device with domain specific architecture to support multi-modal sensing in energy auditing

Jose Rojas-Mendez Reputation development and signalling in family business organizations

SSHRC Partnership Engage Brazen & Co

SSHRC Partnership Development Aveco de Bondt; Canadian Home Builders Association; Deltares; Insurance Bureau of Canada

Mitacs Accelerate Spectergy

SSHRC Partnership Engage Welch LLP

Kate Ruff

SSHRC Partnership Development Common Approach to Impact Measurement; 10 Carden

Flexible approach to impact measurementPathfinder pilot research project

Mohamed Al Guindy Dynamic networks in financial markets Ontario Research Fund Small Infrastructure Fund

Jinsun Bae Making sense of a new global supply chain reality: Climate change adaptation by apparel companies

Aron Darmody Understanding marketer behaviour, technology use and the digital marketing process

Qi Deng When emojis backfire: Understanding the effects of emoji schema incongruity in brand social media communication

Angela Dionisi Workplace mistreatment: The lived experiences of people with disabilities

Linda Duxbury Wellbeing of government employees working in refugee resettlement programs

Linda Duxbury Coping with work and childcare during COVID-19: Exploring employees’ ability to balance work and caregiving during a global pandemic

Samira Farivar Devising effective warning messages for healthy social media engagement

Samira Farivar Virtual influencer marketing: The role of anthropomorphism

Shi Li Can firms reduce their cost of equity capital by responding to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)?

Lindsay McShane Understanding chatbots: The role of threat and anthropomorphism

SSHRC Insight Development

SSHRC Insight

SSHRC Transfer

SSHRC Insight

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society

Research Agreement

SSHRC Sub-grant

SSHRC Insight

SSHRC Sub-grant

SSHRC Insight Development

SSHRC Insight Development

In addition, Sprott researchers have access to several research funding opportunities administered by Carleton University. These opportunities, which include SSHRC Institutional Grants (SIGs), are available through various branches of the Office of Vice-President (Research and International), such as Carleton International and the Carleton Office for Research Initiatives and Services. The Sprott School of Business research centres, such as the Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work (CRIW), also offer modest research grants to support members. Please see below for a list of research projects funded in 2023 by internal sources.

Research Funding (INTERNAL)

Principal Investigator(s) Title

Jinsun Bae Corporate responses to labor and environmental risks in global supply chains: a systematic literature review SSHRC Explore

Oriane Couchoux The financialization of motherhood CRIW Ignite!

Ahmed Doha The pursuit of breakthroughs: Trajectories, antecedents, and consequences in traversing the map of knowledge in Business and Management (B&M) research

SSHRC Bridge

Linda Duxbury A longitudinal study of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Canadian employees’ work, family and life Carleton Research Achievement Award

Ruth McKay Flood risk business and politics Carleton International Seed Grant

Luciara Nardon Embodied experiences of international students’ cultural adjustment and inclusion/exclusion CRIW Ignite!

Leighann Neilson Exploring the learning and teaching experiences of graduate students from equity seeking groups in management education

CRIW Ignite!

Isaac Otchere Serial splitters: Motivation and anatomy SSHRC Bridge

Q&A with PhD Student Harika Tuzcuoglu

Harika (Ozhalepli) Tuzcuoglu is a third-year PhD student. She received an MBA with a minor in finance from SUNY, Binghamton, and a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Koç University in Turkey. The first student to fast-track from the MSc to the PhD, Harika was instrumental in the creation of an accelerated graduate research program at the Sprott School of Business.

What attracted you to Sprott’s PhD in Management program?

I love finance. I love numbers, and I love how money works. My previous degree—the MBA—was not researchbased, though it does include a minor in finance. After completing my degree, I knew that I wanted to keep studying finance in a way that would draw on my MBA and engineering background. More specifically, I wanted to look into the role of technology in finance—FinTech. At that time, there weren’t many professors working in this area. I was able to narrow my search to just a few universities, and Sprott was one of them.

What is your research about?

It’s an investigation of how Bitcoin and cryptocurrency discussions have evolved over time. We have a database of tens of millions of Bitcoin tweets, starting from the inception of Bitcoin in 2008, and going until today. I will employ unsupervised machine learning algorithms, such as topic modelling, to trace the evolution of Bitcoin topics on Twitter. I want to determine whether there are any trends around issues like Bitcoin investment, environmental concerns, regulatory challenges, and illegal activities.

I also want to analyze how cryptocurrency discussions relate to global events and impact Bitcoin price return and volatility. For example, let’s say my algorithm produced a topic for this month related to the security of Bitcoin blockchain, and I find that whenever this topic is being discussed, Bitcoin price volatility jumps. I would then tell investors, “Security is the trend topic right now, and I found an association between security and Bitcoin price volatility. You may want to be careful because your Bitcoin may be more volatile at this time.”

I’m very fortunate to be at Sprott and to have access to Mohamed Al Guindy ’s Social Media and Finance Lab because running algorithms on datasets as large as mine is very computationally demanding. It actually requires a supercomputer, and Sprott is the only business school in Canada to have such computing power. Without access to this Lab, I wouldn’t be able to conduct this research.

Do you think you’ll find a connection between Twitter discussions and the markets, or between the topics and global events?

I may find a relationship or I may not. That’s the beauty of finance; it’s not really predictable. I just have to do my research and see.

Harika (Ozhalepli) Tuzcuoglu, PhD student

Graduate Student Research

The four main stressors of frontline policing

PhD candidate Sean Campeau has been working with Chancellor’s Professor of Management Linda Duxbury and with representatives from a national police organization to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on workplace stressors, work-life conflict, and coping mechanisms among frontline police officers. His objective is to determine how well theories about workplace wellbeing hold up in an extreme case of demanding frontline work conditions and to empower his partner organization to improve their management and service delivery. Surveys conducted as part of this study identify four key factors that exacerbate stress for frontline officers.

1. Multiple number one priorities

Frontline officers across the board attributed high levels of work stress before and after the onset of COVID-19 to multiple competing priorities. While the articulation of this stressor varied, it was common in all respondent groups, suggesting its systemic nature. The new and changing issues that emerged with the onset of the pandemic exacerbated the problem of competing number-one priorities.

2. Policing culture

Policing culture is a strong culture. Some of the negative effects of that culture have played out publicly and been captured by media, but other aspects are opaque to outsiders. For example, a low tolerance for bad decisions and misbehaviors leads people within police forces to be overly critical of each other and to refrain from seeking help when they require it—especially across organizational lines. The loss of social contact brought about by the pandemic may have exacerbated this problem by limiting the social support officers could receive from their colleagues.

3. Lack of resources

Lack of resources is a major issue, and frontline officers are affected by shortages within not only their respective organizations, but also the communities where they work. When closures related to COVID-19 curtailed community members’ access to vital resources (e.g., housing and mental health supports), the number of police calls pertaining to these issues multiplied.

4. Lack of training

Training is crucial to effective policing, both because it’s a difficult job and because it’s constantly changing. By presenting officers such new challenges as dealing with PPE for themselves and those with whom they interacted and learning to police the community while maintaining physical distance, COVID-19 shone a spotlight on the ever-changing nature of police work. Remarkably, when it comes to identifying stressors, officers focus less on the changes themselves than on their sense that they are not receiving—or do not have time for—the training that they require to do their job well.

These four stressors are not entirely within the control of police organizations, as much of the demand placed on frontline officers comes from the public. Nevertheless, research has repeatedly found that organizational stressors can be at least as important as operational stressors for police officers. Sean hopes that his research will empower his partner organization to curtail organizational sources of stress while encouraging local communities and government to identify clear policing priorities.

Sean Campeau, PhD student

Virtual influencers, parasocial relationships, and social media marketing

Ehsan Dabiran, PhD student

PhD candidate Ehsan Dabiran recently sat down with us for a Q&A about his program of research, which grew out of his interest in social media marketing and big data analytics.

Your research focuses on digital or virtual influencers. Could you define what you mean when you talk about a virtual influencer?

Traditional social media influencers are human influencers—real individuals with large numbers of followers on social media. Virtual influencers also attract large numbers of followers, but they are computergenerated characters. These virtual influencers mimic attributes of humans, to greater or lesser extents, and are increasingly being hired by companies to support their marketing campaigns.

You also talk about parasocial relationships. What is a parasocial relationship?

A parasocial relationship is a one-way relationship that a person has with a media personality. Think of a popular singer, for example. That singer may have millions of fans who like them and establish an emotional bond with them, but they don’t actually know any of those fans personally. The relationship is real in terms of the fans’ connection to the singer, but not vice versa. You see the same thing with children and, say, cartoon characters or toys. The children become invested in these things in a very real way, but the attachment only goes one way.

Can parasocial relationships develop between human followers and virtual influencers?

The short answer is yes. In one study, we found that some of the same mechanisms that exist between followers and human influencers work in the context of virtual influencers as well. These include parasocial relationships and a perception of credibility. I presented this work on Virtual Influencer Marketing at the ECIS-2022 conference, and the final paper is being reviewed by a leading journal.

How will your research impact real social media users?

It will clarify people’s reactions to virtual influencers, which will help virtual influencer designers create effective characters and help companies and marketing managers decide not only which virtual influencer to choose, but also how to use them most effectively in their campaigns to connect with their audience and drive desired outcomes. In a broader sense, for everyday social media users, it means they might encounter virtual influencers who feel more genuine and relatable, potentially enhancing their overall social media experience.

Exploring qualitative research: Catalyzing change through social insights

By Aanya Baindur, BComm (Marketing)/2025

As a dedicated Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing (Honours) student with a passion for research, I found Sprott’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SUSRE) program fulfilling and enlightening. The project that I assisted with, “Exploring the Learning and Teaching Experiences of Graduate Students from Equity Seeking Groups in Management Education,” identifies and analyzes barriers to success encountered by graduate students at the Sprott School of Business. Its findings will inform future improvements to classroom pedagogy and the overall university experience of graduate students.

In addition to showing me how researchers grow with their projects, my participation in the SUSRE program provided me with a new and nuanced appreciation of qualitative research, from the cultivation of research subjects’ trust to the co-creation of knowledge. In particular, I am grateful for three key take-aways about this research methodology:

1. Qualitative research facilitates the delicate art of studying people

Qualitative research requires meticulous attention to detail and a sincere commitment to representing peoples’ narratives responsibly. I thus began by conducting background research on ethical guidelines, reviewing the comprehensive informed consent process, studying recorded interviews to learn how to build trust, and implementing strict data handling protocols. The entire team cultivated a collaborative atmosphere throughout the project by maintaining ongoing communication with participants and treating them as co-creators of knowledge, rather than as subjects to be studied. Many participants we surveyed come from stigmatized groups, and their (often traumatic) experiences were poignant reminders of researchers’ weighty ethical responsibilities and privilege.

2. Qualitative research creates knowledge from words rather than numbers

While quantitative studies have their place, qualitative research can delve deeply into people’s psyche, capturing the richness and complexity that characterize the human experience. As a SUSRE intern, I developed skill in the subtle art of deriving knowledge from stories and ideas, rather than from raw numerical data. I learned how to conduct literature reviews, co-create knowledge with participants, and pinpoint recurring themes in their narratives. This skill set allowed me to identify and differentiate between causal and correlated factors, as well as dependent and independent variables.

More broadly, my participation in this project shifted my perception of research, reminding me that participants in a study are not just statistics or data points; they are individuals with unique personalities, appearances, and stories that deserve to be heard. It also showed me that research involves discerning the subtle interplay of latent factors that contribute to complex social issues. This insight prompted me to recognize nuanced perspectives and provided me with a foundation to formulate informed social interventions and improvements.

Undergraduate Research

3. Qualitative research is an odyssey: one project leads to another

The experience of delving into qualitative research as a SUSRE intern inspired me to embark on my own research project: “Exploring the Experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ Students at Carleton University through a Lens of Intersectionality and Using GBA+ Framework to Analyze the Impact of University Policies and Initiatives.” Delving into a community shrouded in secrecy and burdened by stigma, my project will identify how 2SLGBTQ+ students at Carleton University experience marginalization and what unique challenges they face.

The SUSRE program’s impact stretches far beyond the confines of the project duration, igniting in me a lifechanging interest in qualitative research and problem solving and launching me on a captivating research odyssey of personal and academic growth. With a heart full of optimism and a mind brimming with endless possibilities, I am excited to continue this journey, using the knowledge I gained through this internship in my studies and life.

We are pleased to support undergraduate student involvement in research projects through our faculty’s participation in the Internship-Carleton University Research Experience for Undergraduate Students (I-CUREUS) and the Sprott School of Business Summer Undergraduate Research Internship. Both programs provide research opportunities to engage students in their undergraduate years, which may inspire them to continue into graduate studies.

2023 I-CUREUS (Internship–Carleton University Research Experience for Undergraduate Students) Awards

• Mohammed Abdulrahman (Bachelor of Commerce)

Supervisor: Daniel Gulanowski

• Aanya Baindur (Bachelor of Commerce)

Supervisor: Rick Colbourne

• Anna Wang (Bachelor of Economics)

Supervisor: Shi Li

• Peter Zhang (Bachelor of International Business)

Supervisor: Daniel Gulanowski

2023 (SUSRE) Sprott Undergraduate Summer Research Experience Awards

• Aanya Baindur (Bachelor of Commerce)

Supervisor: Ouafa Sakka

• Joyce Lau (Bachelor of Commerce)

Supervisor: Leighann Neilson

Enhancing my skill set through the Summer Research Experience

By Joyce Lau, BComm (Accounting)/2025

As an accounting student going into their third year of studies, I participated in the Sprott Undergraduate Summer Research Experience, which gave me the opportunity to develop my research and analytical skills, and to be part of an interesting research project in the internal audit field that involves faculty from Sprott School of Business (Ouafa Sakka) and from University of Quebec at Montreal’s School of Management (Placide Poba-Nzaou).

The internal audit field has emerged as a means of ensuring transparency between organizations and the public. Internal auditors evaluate a company’s internal controls and provide objective reports based on their analysis of corporate governance, risk, and financial processes. However, their advisory role often presents them with dilemmas, as they must bear both the responsibility of reporting any violation of regulations and the pressure to comply as a member of the organization.

To help new accounting trainees acquire the specific skill sets that the internal audit job market demands, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) developed an Internal Audit Competency Framework that outlines the competencies that they must possess. Most postsecondary institutions follow this competency map to develop their curriculum for internal auditors. Four

sets of competencies can be found in the framework: Professionalism, Performance, Environment, and Leadership & Communication.

The question underlying my SUSRE research was: to what extent is the IIA Competency Framework a good representation of the job market requirements in Canada and the United States?

To answer this research question, I followed a threestep process: literature review, job ad coding, and data analysis. First, to get a better understanding of the internal audit field, I searched for articles related to the project research question. Throughout this process, I learned that search filters were helpful for quality assurance purposes and for narrowing down the results. For example, key phrases helped me ensure articles covered similar topics, and time filters (i.e., “since 2018”) limited results to recent publications. Articles were also chosen based on the quality of the journal in which they appeared. In the second (job coding) phase, I used websites like Indeed and LinkedIn to collect over 300 internal auditor job ads. A spreadsheet database was created to capture each ad’s key information and to code the level of competency required for each skill in the IIA Framework. Finally, I analyzed all the collected data and wrote a report to summarize the key findings.

All in all, this research project gave me the opportunity to delve into the research field and to gain a new appreciation of the effort professional researchers dedicate to the examination and testing of theories. Not only was I able to learn more about internal auditors’ competencies, but I also learnt how to code texts and develop a database that can then be analyzed to answer a research question. Overall, the SUSRE experience helped me improve my research, analytical, and organizational skills, which are instrumental to the accounting profession.

By way of conclusion, I’d like to thank my supervisor, Professor Sakka, for giving me the opportunity to be involved with this project and enriching this experience for me. I hope that the results from our research will be meaningful for internal auditors and help them as they prepare to enter the field.

2023 Publications

Afik, Z., & Zabolotnyuk, Y. (2023). Information effect of credit rating announcements in transition economies. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 89, 101878.

Al Guindy, M., Naughton, J. P., & Riordan, R. (2023). The evolution of corporate twitter usage. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting

Cai, S., Wang, Z., & Yang, Z. (2023). Does community attitude matter? The effects of local community environmental orientation on firms’ environmental practices. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

Colbourne, R., & Parhankangas, A. (2023). Indigenous entrepreneurship and venture creation: A typology of Indigenous crowdfunding campaigns. Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, 47 (5), 1617-1659.

Colbourne, R., Peredo, A., & Henriques, I. (2023). Indigenous entrepreneurship? Setting the record straight. Business History

Couchoux, O. (2023). Navigating knowledge and ignorance in the boardroom: A study of audit committee members’ oversight styles. Contemporary Accounting Research, 53.

Darmody, A., & Zwick, D. (2023). Theorizing the costs of self-service technologies and co-creation by design. Journal of Macromarketing

Deng, Q., Hine, M., Ji, S., & Wang, Y. (2023). What makes brand social media posts engaging? An integrative framework and future research agenda. Journal of Internet Commerce, 22 (1), 1-39.

di Tollo, G., Andria, J., Tanev, S., & Ghilardi, S. (2023). Integrating the gender dimension to disclose the degree of businesses’ articulation of innovation. Journal of Computational Social Science

Dionisi, A., & Dupré, K. (2023). Disrespectful colleagues, dysfunctional parenting: The effect of workplace incivility on parental attitudes, well-being and behaviors. Stress and Health, 39 (4), 912-926.

Dionisi, A., Smith, C. J., & Dupré, K. E. (2023). Weathering the storm alone or together: Examining the impact of COVID‐19 on sole and partnered working mothers. Journal of Community Psychology, 51 (6), 2408-2429.

Duxbury, L., Smith, C., & Halinski, M. (2023). The union participation construct: A mixed-methods assessment. Economic and Industrial Democracy

Farivar, S., Wang, F., & Yuan, Y. (2023). Influencer marketing: A perspective of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research

Firoozi, M., & Mohsni, S. (2023). Cybersecurity disclosure in the banking industry: A comparative study. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 20, 451-477.

Guo, F., Zhou, W., Wang, Z., Ju, C., Ji, S., Lu, Q. (2023). A link prediction method based on topological nearest-neighbors similarity in directed networks. Journal of Computational Science, 69, 102002.

Guo, P., Li, S., & Wang, Y. (2023). Asset pricing with dividend surprises. Finance Research Letters, 58 (B), 104353.

Guo, X., Li, S., Song, X., & Tang, Z. (2023). ESG, financial constraint and financing activities: A study in the Chinese market. Accounting and Finance

Han, Y., & Sears, G. (2023). Does leader-member exchange ambivalence hinder employee well-being? Exploring relations with work engagement and emotional exhaustion. Stress and Health

Hari, A., Nardon, L., & Zhang, H. (2023). A transnational lens into international student experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Global Networks, A Journal of Transnational Affairs, 23 (1), 14-30.

Huval, N., Darmody, A., & Smith, R. (2023). Psychological ownership and disownership in reward-based crowdfunding. Journal of Business Research, 158, 113671.

Illia, L., Colleoni, E., & Zyglidopoulos, S. (2023). Ethical implications of text generation in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 32 (1), 201-210.

Isabelle, D., & Westerlund, M. (2023). A topic modelling based bibliometric exploration of international business research. International Journal of Bibliometrics in Business and Management

Keddie, L., & Magnan, M. (2023). Are ESG performance-based incentives a panacea or a smokescreen for excess compensation? Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy, 14 (3), 591-634.

Kuzhabekova, A., & Nardon, L. (2023). Refugee students’ transition from higher education to employment: Setting a research agenda. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 21 (3)

Lanctot, A., & Duxbury, L. (2023). It may be urgent but is it important? A look at how employees evaluate their emails. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 40 (1), 18-32.

Leminen, S., Rajahonka, M., & Westerlund, M. (2023). Innovation in living labs: A quantum approach. Journal of Innovation Management, 11 (4)

Litalien, M., & Brouard, F. (2023). La philanthropie auprès des humoristes québécois. Sérieux? Humour: Savoirs et pratiques, (1) 2, 8-35.

Lu, H., Cai, S., Liu, Y., & Chen, H. (2023). How GHRM impacts employee OCBE: The role of emotions and value discrepancy. International Journal of Manpower, 44 (2), 318-333.

Lu, I., & Kwan, E. (2023). An investigation of two remedial measures for retailers to address the impact of disease threat on sustainable consumption: A moderated mediation model. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 72, 103254.

McIntyre, M. (2023). A characterization of the Lender’s position in the context of contractual loan conditions. SN Business and Economics, 3 (157)

McIntyre, M., Hodgkinson, T., & Caputo, T. (2023). Strategic planning practices in policing: Evidence from the field. Policing: An International Journal, 46 (5/6), 795-810.

McKay, R., & Uruthirapathy, A. (2023). Nontraditional teaching methods in a human resource management course: Delivery and effectiveness. International Journal of Digital Society, 14 (1), 1865-1861.

Mkansi, M., & Nsakanda, A. (2023). Mobile application e-grocery retail adoption challenges and coping strategies: A South African small and medium enterprises’ perspective. Electronic Commerce Research

Mohsni, S., & Mohammad, H. (2023). Corporate governance and firm risk-taking: The moderating role of board gender diversity. Meditari Accountancy Research, 31 (3), 706-728.

Neal, A., Bujaki, M., Durocher, S., & Brouard, F. (2023). Identity performances on professional accounting association magazine covers. Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal

Ofori-Sasu, D., Yindenaba Abor, J., Nana, G., Donkor, A., & Otchere, I. (2023). Renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions in developing countries: The role of capital markets. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 42 (1), 1407-1429.

Palic, D., Nardon, L., & Hari, A. (2023). Transnational sensemaking narratives of highly skilled Canadian immigrants’ career change. Career Development International, 28 (4), 392-405.

Papadopoulos, N., & Cleveland, M. (2023). An international and cross-cultural perspective on ’The Wired Consumer’: The digital divide and device difference dilemmas. Journal of Business Research, 156, 113473.

Puri, M., Lee, K. Y., Deval, H., Deng, Q., Gonzalez, P., & Song, Y. H. (2023). Mobile curated news readers’ intention to read full-length articles: Focusing on heuristic and systematic factors. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 15 (2).

Ramoglou, S., Zyglidopoulos, S., & Papadopoulou, F. (2023). Is there opportunity without stakeholders? A stakeholder theory critique and development of opportunity-actualization. Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, 47 (1), 113-141.

Rojas-Mendez, J., & Davies, G. (2023). A comparison of short form Marlowe–Crowne and “best friends” social desirability bias measures. Marketing Intelligence and Planning

Rojas-Mendez, J., & Davies, G. (2023). Promoting country image and tourism in new or underdeveloped markets.

Journal of Travel Research

Rojas-Mendez, J., & Khoshnevis, M. (2023). Conceptualizing nation branding: The systematic literature review. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 42 (1), 107-123.

Schweitzer, L., Lyons, S., & Smith, C. J. (2023). Career sustainability: Framing the past to adapt in the present for a sustainable future. Sustainability, 15

Shareef, M. A., Ahmed, J. U., Giannakis, M., Dwivedi, Y. K., Kumar, V., Butt, I., & Kumar, U. (2023). Machine autonomy for rehabilitation of elderly people: A trade-off between machine intelligence and consumer trust. Journal of Business Research, 164, 113961.

Shareef, M. A., Akram, M. S., Malik, F. T., Kumar, V., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Giannakis, M. (2023). An attitude-behavioral model to understand people’s behavior towards tourism during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Business Research, 161, 113839.

Smith, C., Zhang, T., Frangi, L., & Duxbury, L. (2023). Would you like to become a union leader? Analyzing leadership intentions through a generational lens. Industrial Relations Journal, 54, 425-444.

Tasnim, Z., Shareef, M. A., Dwivedi, Y. K., Kumar, U., Kumar, V., Tegwen Malik, F. & Raman, R. (2023). Tourism sustainability during COVID-19: developing value chain resilience. Operations Management Research, 16, 391–407.

Wang, Y., Neilson, L., & Ji, S. (2023). Mindfulness through agency in health consumption: Empirical evidence from committed dietary supplement consumers. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 57 (2), 871-905.

Wang, Y., Neilson, L., & Ji, S. (2023). Why and how do consumers use dietary supplements? A systematic review and thematic analysis. Health Promotion International, 38 (1), daac197.

Wang, Y., Yu, B., & Chen, J. (2023). Factors affecting customer intention to return in online shopping: The roles of expectation disconfirmation and post-purchase dissonance. Electronic Commerce Research

Wang, Z., Cai, S., Ren, S., & Singh, S. K. (2023). Green operational performance in a high-tech industry: Role of green HRM and green knowledge. Journal of Business Research, 160, 113761.

Wang, Z., Chen, Y., Ren, S., Collins, N., Cai, S., Rowley, C. (2023). Exploitative leadership and employee innovative behaviour in China: A moderated mediation framework. Asia-Pacific Business Review, 29 (3).

Wang, Z., Doren, C., Cai, S., & Ren, S. (2023). Enterprise level responses to environmental institutional pressure: Focus on legitimization strategies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 382 (1), 135148.

Wang, Z., Song, D., Ren, S., Rosenberg, B. D., & Cai, S. (2023). Team reflexivity, thriving at work and employees’ work-to-family enrichment: A multilevel perspective. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 38 (7), 465-479.

Wang, Z., Zhang, H., Cai, S., & Cui, T. (2023). How does exploitative leadership shape employee’s workplace venting? Current Psychology, 18 (3), 286–295.

Webb, A., Cloutier, A., & Brouard, F. (2023). Innovations in global sports brands management: The case of FC Barcelona’s Barça Museum. Managing Sport and Leisure

Xu, J., Lu, L., & Kumar, U. (2023). Consumers purchase intention in consumer-to-consumer online transaction: The case of Daigou. Transnational Corporations Review, 15 (3), 15-31.

Yang, Y., Jiang, G., & Konrad, A. M. (2023). From home to corner office: How work–life programs influence women’s managerial representation in Japan. Journal of Management

Ye, X., Cai, S., LI, X., & Wang, Z. (2023). How and when top management green commitment facilitates employees green behavior: A multilevel moderated mediation model. Chinese Management Studies, 17 (5), 970-990.

Zyglidopoulos, S., & Lilia, L. (2023). Beyond collective action: Heterogeneous stakeholders influence on firms in the digital age. Academy of Management Perspectives

Book Chapters

Bae, J. (2023). Formalizing foreign manufacturer status while deepening local embeddedness: Korean manufacturers in Myanmar’s export-oriented apparel industry. In Lee, J., Kwon, H., & Lim, H. (Eds.), Knitting Asia, Weaving Development: Globalization of the Korean Apparel Industry Palgrave Macmillan.

Brouard, F. (2023). Advancing the critical role of T3010 and civic data in community building. State of Canada’s Cities – At the Crosswords Maximizing Possibilities (pp.177180). Canadian Urban Institute / Institut Urbain du Canada, November.

Kwak, M., Lo, L., Pang, G., & Wang, Y. (2023). Between intellectual gateway and intellectual periphery: Chinese international student experiences. In A. Kim, E. Buckner, & Montsion, J. M. (Eds.). International Students from Asia in Canadian Universities: Institutional Challenges at the Intersection of Internationalization, Racialization, and Inclusion Routledge.

CONTACT US

Associate Dean, Research Sprott School of Business, Carleton University

Tel: 613-520-2388

Email: info@sprott.carleton.ca Web: sprott.carleton.ca/research