Fresh Findings: A Fall 2025 Update on Gustavson Research & Grants

When Enemies Must Cooperate

In 1975, U.S. and Soviet engineers had one shot to dock two spacecraft in orbit. The stakes were sky high, political tension was intense, mistakes weren’t an option and there was no playbook for collaboration under rivalry.

Gustavson's Diego Coraiola is studying how leaders succeed when trust and politics collide. He looked at the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and discovered something striking. Collaboration under rivalry doesn’t happen in a single meeting or memo. It happens across two quite different spaces.

Supervised Space: The formal, politically controlled environment where caution dominates and openness is rare.

Free Space: Informal, off-the-record moments such as dinners, hallway chats, or social time where trust grows and real problem-solving happens.

The breakthrough? Leaders need to actively protect the Free Space through Boundary Work and then translate the solutions back into the formal system through Translation Work. When trust is built off the record, work on the record can succeed.

The lesson is clear. Whether in orbit or in the boardroom, collaboration under pressure requires intentional spaces for people to connect, think creatively and move forward together.

When Rivals Share Secrets

Thirteen oil sands companies in Alberta faced a shared challenge. Their environmental impact was under the spotlight. Acting alone was not enough. Normally fierce competitors, these leaders had to make a choice: protect their secrets or work together.

At Gustavson, Natalie Slawinski and her co-authors studied how cooperation can survive in a world built on competition. They found that the key was not to suppress rivalry. Instead, alliance leaders learned to lean into it.

They used natural competitive instincts like self-interest, peer pressure and ownership to drive collaboration. Public commitments and co-created goals turned resistance into investment. Competition became the engine for cooperation rather than the obstacle.

The insight is simple but powerful. Leaders do not need to eliminate tension to collaborate. They can harness it, guide it and transform it into progress that benefits everyone.

Identity Beyond the Office

After decades at the top of a Big 4 accounting firm, retirement should have been simple. Instead, many leaders found themselves asking a new question: who am I without the role that defined me for so long?

Takahiro Endo and co-authors studied how retired partners navigate this shift. Their research shows that professional identity does not disappear after the final day in the office. Many continue mentoring, advising and contributing to their fields while reflecting on what their work means in a new stage of life.

Retirement, they argue, can be more like a graduation than an ending. Even after stepping away, leaders continue to grow, contribute and shape the world around them. Supporting this process benefits both the individual and the organization.

Two Ways of Knowing, One Decision

A development proposal lands on the desk. At first glance, it seems straightforward, but every plot of land carries stories, water systems and cultures that do not fit neatly into a checklist. Decisions here are never simple. They touch overlapping laws, responsibilities and ways of understanding impact.

Across Canada, Indigenous communities are finding new ways to make their voices heard in these decisions. New research from Gustavson’s Matt Murphy and co-authors explores how Indigenous-led impact assessments (ILIA) create space for Indigenous and settler decision-making systems to work together. These frameworks centre Indigenous laws and knowledge while reshaping how governments and industry participate in assessment processes.

Rather than replacing existing systems, ILIA frameworks reconfigure them. Indigenous and settler decision-makers meet in what the researchers call an ethical space. In this space, both sides actively share knowledge, negotiate priorities and make decisions together. Indigenous governance guides the process while settler systems adapt to work alongside it, creating a collaborative environment where outcomes are shaped by dialogue, respect and shared authority.

The results are tangible and transformative. Indigenous decision-making authority is meaningfully included, relationships with government and industry strengthen and projects become more resilient. By including and valuing both Indigenous and settler perspectives, these frameworks provide a path for mutually beneficial partnerships and better decisions that respect multiple ways of knowing.

What Happens When the Planet Owns Your Company

The founder of outdoor apparel giant Patagonia and members of his family recently made a dramatic choice. They gave the company away. They didn’t sell it, nor did they take it public. Instead, they placed their $3 billion business into a novel structure designed to ensure that “Earth is now our only shareholder.” The company’s legal structure was fundamentally re-engineered, requiring all profits to be reinvested in fighting the climate crisis, making purpose its most lasting asset.

Gustavson’s Simon Pek and co-authors studied steward-ownership, the legal structure behind this bold decision.

Steward-ownership is changing the way management scholars think about business. By separating return from control rights, it challenges the long-held assumption that those who earn a company’s returns should automatically call the shots. This unique approach shakes up old ideas and opens the door to new research questions in areas like corporate governance, alternative business models and entrepreneurship. At the same time, it offers a clear path for studying how organizations can legally safeguard their mission and focus on long-term goals, rather than being pushed by short-term financial pressures.

When a $3 billion company declares "Earth is now our only shareholder," this research shows that the implications are both real-world and academically profound, providing a new framework for leadership in the century ahead.

Grant Success

Gustavson faculty are also leading major collaborative projects and earning recognition across their fields.

Matt Murphy is part of a team awarded a collaborative grant of $159,184 CAD called The Racial Justice Grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.

Looking Ahead

From high-stakes leadership in orbit to community-driven governance and innovation in business and health, Gustavson researchers are exploring questions that touch real-world challenges. Across disciplines, faculty, students and partners are uncovering insights that help people make better decisions, understand complex systems and navigate uncertainty.

Do you have a question about business, society, or the world that you wish someone would study? We would love to hear from you.