Faculty Publications (Business)
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Item Insights and challenges for educational leaders supporting families in home reading practices(Education Sciences, 2025) Colgate, Mark; Colgate, OrlaEducational leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering effective home reading practices for families with children in kindergarten to Grade 2. This study examines the literacy environments of 135 families across four schools and includes in-depth interviews with 20 parents to identify key challenges in early reading development. The findings reveal that many parents struggle with supporting their children in decoding unfamiliar words, establishing consistent reading habits, and understanding the reading acquisition process. The research highlights the need for targeted guidance and structured strategies to enhance home literacy practices. School leaders and educators are essential in bridging the gap between classroom instruction and home reading support. By strengthening family–school partnerships, enhancing parental engagement, and implementing sustainable systems, educational leaders can empower families and improve early reading outcomes. This study provides practical recommendations for school leaders and administrators to create environments that support collaborative reading efforts, ensuring that children receive the necessary reinforcement both in school and at home.Item More deliberation, not debate(Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2024) Kennedy, Jeffrey; Pek, SimonDeliberation should supplant debate as the ideal that universities adopt for addressing the most pressing political and social issues.Item Expanding democratic employee ownership in Canada: Policy options(Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2024) Hemingway, Alex; Pek, SimonThis report examines policy options to expand democratic employee ownership of businesses in Canada. Whether taking the form of worker cooperatives, employee ownership trusts, or employee stock ownership plans, employee-owned firms have enjoyed considerable successes in jurisdictions like Italy, Spain, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. But they remain relatively rare in Canada, despite the fact that they tend to be at least as productive as conventional investor-owned firms and have significant benefits for workers, firms, and society.Item A global perspective on combating Shanzhai products: Cross‐cultural solutions(Thunderbird International Business Review, 2023) Qin, Yao; Song, Lei; Shi, Linda Hui; Tan, KangTo compete on the world market, companies from emerging economies often adapt their innovations to satisfy unique cultural needs. They do so, in part, by copying the products of their western counterparts with a degree of modification. This approach is referred to as Shanzhai, which is a Chinese neologism meaning “copycat.” In this article, we discuss the Shanzhai phenomenon and explain Shanzhai's development stages and threats to original brands across the globe. Then, we examine how cultural factors (i.e., power distance belief, face consciousness, and analytic vs. holistic-thinking style) influence consumers’ perception towards Shanzhai products. We further suggest that original manufacturers should adopt selected strategies to combat Shanzhai threats vis-à-vis three cultural drivers. One driver entails launching full product lines and developing new distribution channels in high power distance belief cultures but promoting brand originality in low power distance belief cultures. A second alternative involves embracing a sustainable and green brand image in low face-sensitive cultures but strengthening brand logo impacts and enhancing intangible brand benefits—such as social value (e.g., brand user profile, prestige)—in high face-sensitive cultures. The third entails communicating integrated product values in holistic-thinking cultures but highlighting an offering's most competitive and unique features in analytic-thinking cultures.Item Re-righting renewable energy research with Indigenous communities in Canada(Journal of Cleaner Production, 2024) Duran, Serasu; Hrenyk, Jordan; Sahinyazan, Feyza G.; Salmon, EmilyThe global call to address climate change and advance sustainable development has created rapid growth in research, investment, and policymaking regarding the renewable energy transition of Indigenous communities. From a rightsholder perspective, Indigenous Peoples' vision of sustainability, autonomy, and sovereignty should guide research on their energy needs. In this paper, we present a multi-method, inductive examination to identify gaps between Indigenous communities' expressed needs and rights, and the questions researchers and policymakers investigate in energy transition research conducted in the context of Indigenous communities located in Canada. We combine a systematic review of the extant literature, a scoping review of the grey literature on off-grid communities by Indigenous and non-Indigenous governments and non-governmental policy bodies, qualitative primary data collected via fieldwork, and an in-depth study of an Indigenous-led renewable energy transition study conducted by Haíɫzaqv Nation's Climate Action Team. We holistically examine these different perspectives and identify emergent themes to recommend ways to bridge the gaps between off-grid renewable energy research and stated Indigenous community priorities. Specifically, we recommend designing equitable research practices, understanding community worldviews, developing holistic research goals, respecting Indigenous data sovereignty, and sharing or co-developing knowledge with communities to align with community priorities closely.Item Getting tired of your friends: The dynamics of venture capital relationships(Journal of Financial Intermediation, 2024) Du, Qianqian; Hellman, ThomasWe empirically examine how venture capitalists adjust coinvestor relationships over time. We identify a fundamental trade-off where the benefits of familiarity are weighed against the opportunity costs of coinvesting with other syndication partners. Using US data, we find that venture capitalists dynamically adjust their relationship intensities by gradually disengaging from overly deep relationships. More centrally networked investors are more cautious with disengaging. In hot investment markets investors disengage more readily from existing relationships, but new relationships forged in hot market are less enduring. Perhaps surprisingly, we find a negative relationship between deeper prior relationships and investment performance.Item Examination of the adoption intention of new energy vehicles from the perspective of functional attributes and media richness(Heliyon, 2024) Zhou, Yuping; Li, Jizi; Guitoni, Adel; Liu, ChunlingDrawing on the theory of media richness, this paper aims to explore the impact of media richness on consumers' adoption intention through their perception of new energy vehicle (NEV) function attributes, and assess the moderation roles of brand familiarity and locus of control. A structural equation model is applied to analyze the data collected from 427 respondents. Empirical results demonstrate that consumers' perception of an electric attribute (i.e., charging efficiency) and two intelligent attributes (i.e., car networking and self-driving) are determinants of their adoption intention of NEVs. The other electric attribute (range) is trivial in consumers' perception. We also find that low, medium, and high-richness media significantly affect consumers' perception of NEVs' functional attributes. Compared to the high-richness, medium-richness correlates significantly with two types of NEV functional attributes. Regarding moderating effects, consumer familiarity with NEV's brand negatively impacts the relationship between media richness and adoption intention. Furthermore, low and medium-richness media effectively stimulate individuals with external control to adopt NEV, while high-richness media adversely influence individuals with internal control.Item Truly, madly, deeply: Strategic entrepreneuring and the aesthetic practices of craft entrepreneurs(Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2024) Elias, Sara R. S. T. A.; Peticca-Harris, Amanda; deGama, NadiaResearch Summary: Strategic entrepreneurship research has long focused on high growth and wealth maximization in the creation of primarily economic value. As such, it has largely overlooked craft entrepreneurs, who prioritize skill, materiality, and immersive action in creating broader forms of value. Deep engagement with materials, alongside daily aesthetic (sensory, tacit, embodied) practices are key to how craft entrepreneurs create unique value and strengthen competitive distinction. Drawing on ethnographic data from two craft-based settings, we abductively generated three dimensions and associated tensions by which craft entrepreneurs leverage aesthetics for strategic entrepreneuring: materializing, enchanting, empathizing. Our key contribution is to unpack the embodied—and very human—processes by which craft entrepreneurs imagine and give life to unique offerings while creating distinctive value for both themselves and their stakeholders. Managerial Summary: The focus of strategic entrepreneurship research is often on economic value creation, along with high growth and wealth maximization. By exploring the everyday practices of craft entrepreneurs, we unpack how creating broader forms of value (e.g., symbolic, artistic, social, cultural) through immersive and embodied actions contributes to stylistic and competitive distinction. For the craft entrepreneurs in our study, remaining competitive is about engaging in sensuous practices that result in meaningful and authentic offerings, for both themselves and their stakeholders. By capturing and exploring these daily practices, along with the tensions that undergird real-time exchanges with stakeholders, we provide fresh insights into how craft entrepreneurs create unique value while delicately balancing tradition with innovation to strengthen competitive distinction.Item Spatial pattern of urban-rural integration in China and the impact of geography(Geography and Sustainability, 2023) Pan, Wei; Wang, Jing; Li, Yurui; Chen, Shuting; Lu, ZhiUrban-rural integration (URI) is a global challenge that is highly related to inequalities, poverty, economic growth, and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing research has evaluated the extent of URI and explored its influencing factors, but urban-rural linkages are seldom incorporated in evaluation systems, and geographical factors are rarely recognized as the influencing factors. We construct a URI framework including regional economy, rural development, urban-rural linkage, and urban-rural gap. Based on a dataset consisting of 1,669 counties in China in 2020, we reveal the spatial pattern of URI and find a high correlation between the spatial pattern of URI and the relief degree of land surface (RDLS). Using structural equation modeling, we discover that topography has direct ( − 0.18, p < 0.001) and indirect ( − 0.17, p < 0.001) effects on URI. The indirect negative effects are mediated through the infrastructure, and the combination of localized advantages and modern technical conditions could mitigate the negative impact of topography. Finally, we identify 742 counties as lagging regions in URI, which can be clustered into eight types. Our findings could facilitate policy designing for those countries striving for integrated and sustainable development of urban and rural areas.Item Founder dynamic psychological ownership: Impacts on self and others at work(Applied Psychology, 2023) Zhu, Helena; Smith, Claudia; Brown, GrahamAs ventures grow, founders must decide between hanging on to control over venture decision-making or delegating authority to professional managers. This decision is challenging since founders are typically driven by strong feelings of ownership toward their ventures. Adopting a qualitative research design with a grounded theory approach, we investigate the psychological ownership impacts on self and others within the venture when founders delegate decision rights to professional managers. Our analysis draws on in-depth interviews with 30 founders and 14 professional managers hired by the founders. We develop the first process model of founders' dynamic venture-targeted psychological ownership and demonstrate how recalibrating psychological ownership is key to the successful delegation of authority to professional managers. Our conceptual model also outlines a novel relationship between recalibrated psychological ownership and founder identity work. We outline our theoretical contributions to psychological ownership and identity control theory and offer practical advice to founders and their professional managers to help with the successful recalibration of founders' venture-targeted psychological ownership in support of effective delegation and venture growth.Item Theorizing and researching contemporary organizations in contexts of crisis and extreme events(Revista de Administração Mackenzie, 2023) Oliveira, Cintia R.; Alcadipani, Rafael ; Isla Madariaga, Pablo; Coraiola, Diego; Mendes Teixeira, Maria LuisaItem How climate assemblies can help Canada tackle the climate crisis(The Conversation, 2023) Pek, Simon; Busaan, LorinItem Democratic organizations struggle with democracy, too. Here’s what they can do about it(The Conversation, 2024) Pek, Simon; Kennedy, JeffreyItem Platform cooperatives and the dilemmas of platform worker-member participation(New Technology, Work and Employment, 2023) Mannan, Morshed; Pek, SimonDespite the surge of interest in platform cooperatives, we have a limited understanding of the dynamics of platform worker-member participation in these cooperatives. Drawing on interviews with 21 senior leaders and founders of platform worker cooperatives, we investigate the dynamics of platform worker-member participation, finding that these cooperatives experience some successes and many challenges. We then build theory about how four distinct features of platform worker cooperatives—the facilitation of multihoming, the physically untethered nature of work, the relatively high importance of scale as a strategic imperative, and the relatively low importance of initial platform worker-member investment—influence these participation dynamics. We find that the platform and worker cooperative organisational models are in tension with one another when brought together within a platform worker cooperative, leading to positive and negative effects on participation.Item Spatial pattern of urban-rural integration in China and the impact of geography(Geography and Sustainability, 2023) Pan, Wei; Wang, Jing; Li, Yurui; Chen, Shuting; Lu, ZhiUrban-rural integration (URI) is a global challenge that is highly related to inequalities, poverty, economic growth, and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing research has evaluated the extent of URI and explored its influencing factors, but urban-rural linkages are seldom incorporated in evaluation systems, and geographical factors are rarely recognized as the influencing factors. We construct a URI framework including regional economy, rural development, urban-rural linkage, and urban-rural gap. Based on a dataset consisting of 1,669 counties in China in 2020, we reveal the spatial pattern of URI and find a high correlation between the spatial pattern of URI and the relief degree of land surface (RDLS). Using structural equation modeling, we discover that topography has direct (−0.18, p < 0.001) and indirect (−0.17, p < 0.001) effects on URI. The indirect negative effects are mediated through the infrastructure, and the combination of localized advantages and modern technical conditions could mitigate the negative impact of topography. Finally, we identify 742 counties as lagging regions in URI, which can be clustered into eight types. Our findings could facilitate policy designing for those countries striving for integrated and sustainable development of urban and rural areas.Item Collective action improves elite-driven governance in rural development within China(Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2023) Li, Yurui; Qin, Xiaofei; Sullivan, Abigail; Chi, Guangqing; Lu, Zhi; Pan, Wei; Liu, YansuiRural areas are at the forefront of achieving sustainable development goals, and elite actors tend to be the most influential local decision-makers in rural development. Nevertheless, improving the effectiveness of governance by elites and avoiding or redressing “elite capture” remain key challenges for sustainable rural development globally. This research integrates a large-scale quantitative dataset consisting of 604 villages in seven counties of Jiangsu province in China with qualitative data from eight villages in three out of the seven counties to examine whether and how collective action mediates the correlation between rural elites and rural development. Our quantitative analysis using multiple regression and path analysis indicates that collective action is a mediator, but it is more influential in linking governing elites than in linking economic elites with rural development. Our case studies with interviews further illuminate that collective action fuels rural development by improving resource real- location and resource-use efficiency with the participation of both elites and non-elites. Innovative collective action designs that leverage a reputation effect to foster reciprocity norms promote the participation of elites while discouraging elite capture. Additionally, this research contributes to longstanding debates in commons governance about the role of authority interventions: we find evidence justifying the benefits of authority in catalyzing and sustaining collective action while also corroborating the critical role of democratization in improving rural governance by elites.Item Management policy and practice: A guide to writing for AMP(Academy of Management Perspectives, 2023) Suddaby, Roy; Schulze, William S.; Wood, Geoffrey; Markman, Gideon; Weber, LibbyItem Verification of current-state opacity in discrete event systems by using basis coverability graphs(Mathematics, 2023) Zhu, Haoming; El-Sherbeeny, Ahmed M.; El-Meligy, Mohammed A.; Fathollahi-Fard, Amir M.; Li, ZhiwuA new approach to the verification of current-state opacity for discrete event systems is proposed in this paper, which is modeled with unbounded Petri nets. The concept of opacity verification is first extended from bounded Petri nets to unbounded Petri nets. In this model, all transitions and partial places are assumed to be unobservable, i.e., only the number of tokens in the observable places can be measured. In this work, a novel basis coverability graph is constructed by using partial markings and quasi-observable transitions. By this graph, this research finds that an unbounded net system is current-state opaque if, for an arbitrary partial marking, there always exists at least one regular marking in the result of current-state estimation with respect to the partial marking not belonging to the given secret. Finally, a sufficient and necessary condition is proposed for the verification of current-state opacity. A manufacturing system example is presented to illustrate that the concept of current-state opacity can be verified for unbounded net systems.Item On your marks, headset, go! Understanding the building blocks of metaverse realms(Business Horizons, 2024) Keegan, Brendan James; McCarthy, Ian P.; Kietzmann, Jan; Canhoto, Ana IsabelIn 2011, Business Horizons published the social media honeycomb article to help managers and scholars understand what was, then, a new form of media, its various platforms, and how to engage with it and learn to use it. Today, we face similar challenges and opportunities with the metaverse as we try to discover how to attract, enable, serve and capture value from users in some form of virtual world. In this article, we introduce the concept of a ‘metaverse realm’ (i.e., a specific type of metaverse space and community) and present the metaverse honeycomb model to explain the functionalities and affordances for different metaverse realms. We present two applications of the honeycomb model to show how different attention to immersive functionalities can characterize different metaverse realms. To conclude, we outline how the model could be used to strategically evaluate metaverse realms in terms of their external fit (i.e., the who-what-how of realms), internal fit (i.e., the trade-offs and synergies of realm functionalities), and life-cycles (i.e., roadmapping and directing realm evolution).Item Platform cooperatives and poverty eradication: Building on the legacy of Johnston Birchall(Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, 2023) Mannan, Morshed; Pek, Simon; Scholz, TreborJohnston Birchall made tremendous contributions to research on cooperatives, including the contributions cooperatives can make to tackling poverty. His work on this subject was largely carried out at a time when the Millennium Development Goals were the touchstone for global efforts to address the needs of the world’s poorest people. Since then, not only has the global economy been affected by digitalization, financial crises, climate change, and pandemics, the discourse on poverty has also changed due to the promulgation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. An example of this is the connection between digital inequality and poverty. Our objective in this essay is to distill the key contributions of Birchall’s work on cooperatives and poverty, position them within the evolving context of multi-dimensional global poverty and the platform economy, and chart a path forward for future research that can continue their development. We first identify Birchall’s four key takeaways from his research on cooperatives and poverty reduction. We then introduce the distinguishing features of corporate platforms and summarise prior research on the link between the platform economy and poverty. We then turn to the core part of our essay, which focuses on tracing the rise of platform cooperatives and assessing whether the four takeaways fit cooperatives operating in the context of the platform economy. We identify points of convergence, and areas for further refinement and future research. We hope that this will encourage research on the potential contribution that platform cooperatives can have in addressing poverty and other societal challenges.