Business research at Gustavson

Government Intervention, Teacher Bargaining & the Charter

Ken Thornicroft’s commentary and analysis of the BC Teachers' Federation’s long-standing constitutional challenge to BC government legislation, first enacted in January 2002, that limited the scope of collective bargaining regarding class size and composition issues, will soon appear in the Education & Law Journal.  His article “Not a Day Late…Perhaps a Dollar Short? – Government Intervention, Teacher Bargaining & the Charter”, suggests that the recent Supreme Court of Canada​ decision regarding the legality of this legislation fails to provide governments and public sector unions with much needed guidance regarding the constitutionally permissible scope of government intervention in the collective bargaining process and what consultative duty is imposed on governments when they choose to intervene.  His position is that the scope of permissible government intervention continues to be uncertain and that governments do not have, but nevertheless require, clearly demarcated rules regarding what forms of intervention are legally permissible.

PhD students receive research grants

Graham Brown and his PhD student, Helena Zhu, have successfully received a Mitacs Accelerate grant for Helena's project "Entrepreneurial Delegation". This research project aims to explore how founder-entrepreneurs delegate to their first one or a few professional managers, such as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer and/or Chief Executive Officer, hence enhance or undermine venture growth. At a broader and theoretical level, through the Mitacs grant, she hopes to develop a comprehensive entrepreneurial delegation model, and to explore the particular look of territoriality in the context of entrepreneurship.

Congratulations are also due to PhD student, Patricia Misutka, for receiving a 2017 Sara Spencer Foundation award. The Sara Spencer Foundation awards are for graduate students who are undertaking research in the applied social sciences and related fields relating to the Capital Region District (CRD). Patricia's dissertation is a case-based examination of the CRD's wastewater treatment plan.

Gustavson hosts Service Operations Thought Leadership Forum May 2017

The Gustavson School of Business will be hosting the Service Operations Thought Leadership Forum May 9-10, 2017. This forum will bring together prominent scholars from a number of universities to discuss emerging opportunities for future research in service operations. The event program consists of a series of highly interactive sessions to foster collaboration among scholars.  The sessions cover a variety of timely research themes such as knowledge-based services, healthcare operations, sustainability and social impact, and behavioral science applications to service operations.  Leveraging the expertise of participants, the forum’s objective is to inspire thought for leading edge research in service operations. For more information, contact the Gustavson Services Management group via Liana Victorino at lianav@uvic.ca. 

Meet the Editors Series

In April 2017, Gustavson School of Business hosted three journal editors as part of Gustavson's Meet the Editors Series: Dr. Robert Palmatier (University of Washington) Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Dr. Gerardo Patriotta (Nottingham University Business School), Associate Editor of the Journal of Management Studies and Dr. Alan Meyer (University of Oregon), who has held editorial roles in many top management journals including Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Academy of Management Journal.

National funding agency funds Gustavson international business related research

Gustavson researchers Basma Majerbi, Ravee Chittoor, Huachao Gao and Linda Shi received $400,000 in funding from SSHRC, Canada’s national funding agency in the social sciences and humanities for international business related research. Basma Majerbi, Associate Professor in International Finance received a $200K SSHRC Partnership Development Grant for her project “A new framework for the study of financial system structure and macro-financial stability.” Basma, along with her collaborators at McGill University, University of Geneva, International Monetary Fund, and with partners at the International Research Centre on Cooperative Finance at HEC Montreal, hope to develop new stability measures that take into account the various sources of risk and vulnerabilities in the entire financial system. The team of researchers seek to help policy makers design better financial policies and regulations to  strengthen financial stability and resilience to crises and promote long term sustainable growth. Ravee Chittoor, Associate Professor in Strategy and International Business & Canada Research Chair in Global Economy, with his co-applicant from York University, has received a $104K SSHRC Insight Grant for his project “Global Institutional Change, National Policy Interventions and Firm Strategies: Evidence from the Textile Industry”. Their proposed research aims to identify a comprehensive set of resources in the institutional environment (institutional resources) that have the potential for additional value creation, the specific mechanisms by which such value can be created and the heterogeneity among firms in how they gain from or get affected by the institutional resources and environments. They hope to underline the importance of government intervention programs in global strategy of firms and the need for utmost care in their design and structuring. Finally, Huachao Gao, Assistant Professor and Linda Shi, Associate Professor, both in International Business, Marketing, received a $95K SSHRC Insight grant for their project “How Do Bicultural Consumers' Accessible Cultural Values Affect Luxury Product Consumption: Inconspicuous versus Conspicuous, Counterfeit versus Genuine?”. Huachao and Linda seek to discover how bicultural consumers with different accessible cultural values show different preferences for conspicuous versus inconspicuous and counterfeit versus genuine products and help companies decide which cultural values need to be activated when promoting genuine luxury products to bicultural consumers.

Exploring how aesthetic value is created in entrepreneurial processes

Sara Elias, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship, along with her colleagues at the University of Missouri and Wayne State University have recently published “The aesthetics of entrepreneurship: How arts entrepreneurs and their customers co-create aesthetic value” in a special issue of Organization Studies. On the basis of an ethnographic study of arts entrepreneurs, this paper explores how aesthetic value is created in entrepreneurial processes. Key findings include that customers, existing or imagined, play a vital role throughout the entrepreneurial creation process:  Their role goes far beyond their willingness to purchase a particular product or service; even absent customers continually enter entrepreneurs’ thoughts and imaginations to influence the development of entrepreneurial ideas and products.  In addition to its theoretical implications, this research gives practicing entrepreneurs a valuable look ‘under the hood’ at processes they can adopt to add value to their products or services, develop strong communities of devoted end users, and garner much needed (but often limited) support from key stakeholders.

International marketing strategy paper on counterfeit products accepted at Business Horizons

Linda Shi, Associate Professor in International Marketing, along with her collaborators at Vienna University, Macau University of Science and Technology and Stockton University, have recently had the following paper accepted in Business Horizons “Integrating consumers’ motives with suppliers’ solutions to combat Shanzhai—A phenomenon beyond counterfeit”. This paper looked at the emerging phenomenon of Shanzhai products (products that imitate the original brands through visual or functional similarities and offer additional product benefits). The study finds that consumers who purchase Shanzhai products are motivated by their innovative features, and the consumers who purchase counterfeit products are motivated by social status and material goods. The authors also offered solutions to original manufacturers to address the threat from Shanzhai products from both the consumer demand and the company supply sides.

Best Submission Award at Sustainability Ethics Entrepreneurship Conference 2017

Post-doc fellow, Dara Kelly's paper "Feed the people and you will never go hungry: illuminating Coast Salish economy of affection' was one of six manuscripts selected as a best submission out of 100+ manuscripts accepted for presentation at SEE 2017. The SEE Conference is an international venue for the top scholars and practioners in the area of sustainability, ethics, and entrepreneurship (e.g., social entrepreneurship, cause-based enterprises, B-Corps., impact investing, etc.), and was held in March 2017 in Puerto Rico.

The return of mandatory retirement?

Professor of Law and Employment Relations, Ken Thornicroft's work was featured on February 14, 2017 in the Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail article, "Might mandatory retirement come back with 70 as the new 65?" is based on research from his newest paper "The Uncertain State of Mandatory Retirement in Canada", published in Labor Law Journal. His findings show that there are still many legal exceptions providing for mandatory retirement across a wide variety of professions, from commercial pilots to police officers and firefighters.

Technical trading rules and effects of profitability in foreign exchange markets

Stuart Snaith, Assistant Professor in International Finance, has had the following article (with co-authors from Essex Business School, UK) accepted for publication in the International Review of Financial Analysis:  “FX technical trading rules can be profitable sometimes!” The paper investigates technical trading rules (TTRs) and effects of profitability in the foreign exchange market. The implications of these findings suggest a portfolio manager should draw from a larger universe of rules frequently updating their selection as the economy changes. A large number of outperforming rules are profitable over short periods, but no rule demonstrates predictability over a prolonged period. 

Long-term relationships through multiple ties essential to succeed in emerging markets

Associate Professor in international marketing, Linda Shi, along with collaborators from Shanghai Jiao Tong, Tianjin University of Technology, and Shanghai University have the following paper accepted, “Knowledge Transfer in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: The Role of Transactional and Relational Governance Mechanisms” in the Journal of Business Research. Main findings include mutual trust between two organizations are more effective than any other methods (i.e., contracts, personal connections between two individual executives, etc.) in ensuring the credibility of information. In order to succeed in the emerging market and receive credible information, firms need to invest in building long-term trustworthy relationship between two firms through multiple ties. Signing a contract and getting to know the key personnel is important, but not sufficient in emerging market environments.  

Successful Leadership and Values Enactment in Corruption Recovery

Rick Cotton, Assistant Professor in Cross-Cultural Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, along with Boston College co-authors, has the following paper "A way forward: Cascading ethical and change leadership, values enactment and group level effects on commitment in corruption recovery" accepted in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Researchers explored how employee perceptions of leaders' enactment of a core set of values and of CEO and business unit leaders' ethical leadership were associated with organization commitment during organizational change following multiple corruption incidents at a firm that the press predicted would go the way of Enron but was sold at a profit just four years after the corruption incidents.

Human and Social Capital Leading to Team Success

“Beyond Moneyball to social capital inside and out: The value of differentiated network ties to performance” has also recently been accepted in Human Resource Management special issue on Workforce Analytics. This study, co-authored by Gustavson School of Business researcher Rick Cotton, and his Boston University collaborator, highlights the value of internal and external experience ties to team performance and the importance of differentiating talent management practices based on strategic and support roles in different competency areas of pitching, hitting, and fielding. It also showcases how big data (here using 111 years of individual and team performance data and more than 3M experience ties) can be applied to human resource management to have value added impact on strategy execution as human capital and social capital measures predicted more than 40% of the variance in team winning percentage.

Journal of Management Inquiry Outstanding Scholar Award to be awarded to Gustavson researcher

Roy Suddaby, Professor in Organizational Theory and Strategy, has been awarded the JMI Outstanding Scholar Award. This award will be presented in March 2017 at the Western Academy of Management conference in Palm Springs, CA.

Service Management researcher publishes in top operations management journal

Associate Professor Liana Victorino, with her co-authors from Western University and Cornell University, has published “Surprise, Anticipation, and Sequence Effects in the Design of Experiential Services” in Production and Operations Management. 

Financial System Architecture and Stability conference held at UVic Gustavson School of Business

The 2016 inaugural meeting of the International Workshop on Financial System Architecture & Stability (IWFSAS) was held at the University of Victoria on August 26-27, 2016. This conference was jointly hosted by the Gustavson School of Business and the UVic Department of Economics, in collaboration with the European Union Centre of Excellence (EUCE) and the International Research Center on Cooperative Finance (IRCCF) at HEC Montreal. Read more. 

Basma Majerbi receives national grant to fund multi-disciplinary conference

Associate Professor in  International Finance, Basma Majerbi, is a co-investigator for a SSHRC’s Connection Grant to fund a multi-disciplinary conference centered around the European area financial crisis. This grant is in collaboration with other UVic professors in Political Science and Economics departments. This conference will be held at the University of Victoria in February 2017.

Gustavson Research Report now available

The first edition of Gustavson’s biennial research report, SEEK , has been published. SEEK highlights the last 5 years of research by Gustavson faculty, post-doctoral fellows and PhD students. Read the full report. 

Ravee Chittoor takes editor role for Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Ravee Chittoor, Canada Research Chair in Global Economy and Professor of Strategy and International Business, has been appointed as Associate Editor for International Business in Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, effective January 1, 2017

The effectiveness of utilizing customer training and education to improve customer readiness

Uzay Damali, Assistant Professor in Service Management and Operations, along with an interdisciplinary group of collaborators at Clemson University recently published “Co-creating Value Using Customer Training and Education in a Healthcare Service Design” in Journal of Operations Management, a top management journal.

Roy Suddaby receives visiting professorship

Roy Suddaby, Professor in Organizational Theory and Strategy, has been awarded the Otto Monsted Visiting Professorship at the Copenhagen Business School for 2017. This position is sponsored by the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy.

Stacey Fitzsimmons has paper accepted to Journal of International Business Studies

Assistant Professor in Human Resources/Cross-Cultural Management and International Business, Stacey Fitzsimmons, co-authored “From Crossing Cultures to Straddling Them: An empirical examination of outcomes for multicultural employees” with collaborators IESE Business School’s Yuan Liao and Simon Fraser University’s David Thomas. The paper has been accepted in the top international management journal, Journal of International Business Studies and looks at relationships between multicultural identity patterns and personal, social and task outcomes.

Journal of Business Venturing publishes paper from Brock Smith and Claudia Smith

Brock Smith, Professor in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, along with collaborators Claudia Smith and Eleanor Shaw from the University of Strathclyde, have published a paper in the Journal of Business Venturing on how entrepreneurs accrue social capital in the digital age, entitled, “Embracing digital networks: Entrepreneurs’ social capital online.”

Intersection of psychology and the workplace

“My workspace, not yours: the impact of psychological ownership and territoriality in organizations” has recently been published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Graham Brown (Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship) and Helena Zhu (PhD Student) are the authors of this paper focussed on territoriality and psychological ownership in the workplace.

Roy Suddaby paper wins at prestigious publishing awards

“Professions and institutional change: Towards an institutionalist sociology of the professions” by Roy Suddaby, Professor of Organizational Theory and Strategy, was selected as a winner by the prestigious Emerald Citations of Excellence for 2016. Criteria for this list includes the novelty, inter-disciplinary interest and relevancy in today’s world.

Yan Shen paper reaches finals at 2016 International Human Resource Management Scholarly Research Award

Yan Shen (Assistant professor in International Business and Organizational Behaviour)’s paper “Career success across 11 countries: Implications for international human resource management” published in the International Journal of Human Resource Management was chosen as one of three finalists for the 2016 International Human Resource Management Scholarly Research Award from the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management.

Federal grant funds Gustavson bi-cultural research

Together with collaborators Mary Yoko Brannen (Gustavson School of Business) and Jelena Zikic (York University), Stacey Fitzsimmons has received a $52,000 Insight Development grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their project “Organizing with the New Demographic: The Bidirectional Influence of Immigrant and Bi-cultural employees on their Organizations.” Read more. 

Roy Suddaby elected to Royal Society of Canada

Roy Suddaby, professor with the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, is one of the University of Victoria’s two newest members of the Royal Society of Canada’s prestigious College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Read the full story: Gustavson news | Uvic The Ring

Mary Yoko Brannen inducted to Academy of International Business fellows

Congratulations to Mary Yoko Brannen (Professor in International Business and Cross-Cultural Management) for being inducted as a 2016 Academy of International Business (AIB) Fellow. The AIB Fellows is a distinguished group of AIB members recognized for their contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business.

Assistant Professors, post-doc fellow recognised at 2016 Academy of Management Meeting

Stacey Fitzsimmons, Sara Elias, Josh Ault and Diego Coraiola were selected as best papers at the 2016 Academy of Management International Meeting. This represents the 10% of all papers submitted to the meeting. Read more.

Stacey Fitzsimmons receives emerging scholar award

Stacey Fitzsimmons was recognized with the inaugural Emerging Scholar Award from Women in the Academy of International Business at the 2016 AIB annual meeting high calibre work in international business in her early career. Read more. 

PhD student receives PICS Doctoral Fellowship

Saeed Rahman’s project “The Agri-Food Industry of British Columbia: Adaptation to Impacts and risks, and opportunities for climate change” received funding from the Pacific Institute for Climate Studies for the 2016-2017 year. The PICS Doctoral Fellowship are valued at $21,000 per year for PhD studies.

Copenhagen Business School awards honorary doctorate to Gustavson faculty member

Mary Yoko Brannen, Professor in International Business and Cross-Cultural Management, received an honorary doctorate from highly-ranked Copenhagen Business School. The ceremony took place on March 18, 2016 at the Department of International Economics and Management.

Gustavson recognizes top researchers

The Gustavson School of Business recognizes research excellence through its Gustavson Leader of Excellence (In Research) Award. The 2015 award is held for a three-year term, includes teaching release and research funds, and is announced annually at the School of Business’ Festival of Distinction Award in May. Read more.

Recent research authored by Dr. Graham Brown and his colleague Dr. Markus Baer (Washington University) indicates that claiming ownership of an idea will smother creativity. Read more.

Dr. Liana Victorino’s research explores scripting and the impact of different levels of scripting on customer perceptions of service quality in hospitality settings. Read more.

Dr. Wade Danis' research is centred on global strategic management, international comparative management, and international entrepreneurship, particularly in the context of emerging economies. Read more.

In 2015, Gustavson welcomed Dr. Ravee Chittoor as Canada Research Chair in global economy and associate professor of strategy and international business. His primary research is focused on the structure and strategy of business groups and the internationalization strategies of emerging economy firms. Read more.