Fall 2023 - Winter 2024

Open data initiatives, i.e., initiatives that aim at developing and managing data that are open for all and are free to use, re-use or redistribute, have recently multiplied thanks to the growing availability of digital technologies and trends such as open sourcing. Often, open data initiatives are spearheaded by large organizations and institutions - such as cities and governments – that have access to large pools of technical and financial resources. The potential for open data initiatives for conservation missions (i.e., for missions associated with conserving the environment in specific locations and enhancing the sustainability of the planet) is particularly high because open data can help target conservation practices, analyze environmental data, and share best practices and knowledge among conservation actors. Yet, so far, open data initiatives for conversation missions have been rare. The reason for this is that many critical conservation missions are spearheaded by environmental non-profit organizations that operate in parts of the world where conserving earth resources and protecting biodiversity is particularly important. Environmental non-profit organizations do not usually benefit from access to ample technical and financial resources for projects such as open data initiatives that can help their mission but are not directly their mission. The faculty fellows will participate in a review of open data initiatives by environmental non-profit organizations.

Fellow(s): Aurora Li and Nicole Tye are working with Prof. Emmanuelle Vaast of the Information Systems Area.

This ongoing project requires analyzing hundreds of already conducted interviews with C-Suite, Executives and CEOs to gain insights. Comparing the key insights with already existing literature to further broaden the implications for a written component.

Fellow(s): Esteban Ronsin, Xuefei Sophie Ren, Hanna Goh and Ali Eissa are working with Prof. Karl Moore of the Strategy Area.

The project is focused on understanding the barriers Gen Zs face when negotiating. The project includes various initiatives, including writing negotiation simulations and helping organize events.

Fellow(s): Zexian Chen and Sid Deodhar are working with Prof. Jean-Nicolas Reyt of the Organizational Behavior Area.

This research project has two components: 1) Analyzing the methodology behind international rankings and awards to understand the global ecosystem, current positioning of McGill's Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, and derive key insights into competitive advantages and opportunity areas for McGill. 2) Diagnosing McGill's Dobson Centre database of start-ups to summarize trends, diversity, growth and inform future international submissions. The Faculty Supervisor and the Fellows will work to landscape the international entrepreneurship scene, identify current trends, inform best practices, and critically assess the current position of the Dobson Centre. The students will work together to produce a final report for future international submissions of the centre. Students will work with the interdisciplinary Dobson team and have the opportunity to learn about our programs and shadow start-ups when appropriate.

Fellow(s): Emma Betty is working with Prof. Marie-Josée Lamothe of the Entrepreneurship Area.

There are two firms of legal status available to newly created firms in France: SARL (a "rigid" status that entrepreneurs cannot change) and SAS (a "flexible" status that entrepreneurs can customize). We study a 2009 reform that made it easier for entrepreneurs to use the flexible status. Our question is: is it a good thing to offer flexibility to entrepreneurs? Do entrepreneurs take advantage of this flexibility to make their firms grow more, or do they make mistakes when defining their legal status? This project will contribute to an academic paper that will shed light on the real effects of firm legal status, and on the financial literacy of entrepreneurs.

Fellow(s): Arno Ohlenbusch and Zexuan Deng are working with Prof. Paul Beaumont of the Finance Area. This is a joint research project with Prof. Adrien Matray (Princeton) and Prof. Johan Hombert (HEC Paris).

Provide assistance to write a book about how the corporate giants are using AI and technology to change our relationship with food.

Fellow(s): Lindsey Lei, Evelyn Nguyen and Abigail Lowe are working with Prof. Juan Serpa of the Analytics area.

This research project has two components: 1) Analyzing the methodology behind international rankings and awards to understand the global ecosystem in both sustainability and life sciences, current positioning of McGill's Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship in those two fields and derive key insights into competitive advantages and opportunity areas for McGill. 2) Diagnosing McGill's Dobson Centre new offerings in sustainability and life sciences while summarizing trends, diversity, and growth regarding current and past start-ups in database. The Faculty Supervisor and the Fellows will work to critically assess the new offerings of the Dobson in sustainability (Fall) and life sciences (Winter) at the dawn of renewal from funding partners. Together, they will landscape the international entrepreneurship scene, identify current trends, inform best practices, and future improvements for the programs based on key performance indicators. The students will work together to produce a final report for future international submissions of the centre. Students will work with the interdisciplinary Dobson team and have the opportunity to learn about our programs and shadow start-ups when appropriate.

Fellow(s): Sofia Tomljanovic is working with Prof. Marie-Josée Lamothe of the Entrepreneurship Area.

In an era in which professions are seeing a rupture of their credibility, some have argued that the architectural profession is in a state of crisis, locked in an ongoing struggle to establish professional legitimacy. This research project utilizes archival and ethnographic data sources to detail the threats faced by the Canadian architecture profession, and how the profession has evolved based on perceived threats. Specifically, this project will involve archival data collection, coding and analysis, along with topic focused literature reviews. The ethnographic data for this study is continually being collected, and the fellow may have the opportunity to observe meetings and experience the fieldwork process alongside the lead researcher. Additionally, the fellow will have an opportunity to gain skills in graphic representation, visualization, and system mapping. This research seeks to understand how mature professions evolve, or are deprofessionalized by the changing field that surrounds them.

Fellow(s): Edie Pearman is working with Prof. Samer Faraj and Gina Page of the Strategy & Organization Area.

Many inherently spatial questions in the social sciences are hard to answer because of incompatible data sources. Solving said incompatibilities involves solving both the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and the Zoning Problem; but the processes for doing so are complicated and rarely scalable. Our goal is to leverage the H3 libraries, originally developed by Uber, as a common translation standard between geospatial data sources. We will be developing several libraries for common statistical languages like R, which will speed up this sort of work by several orders of magnitude. This work could potentially drastically lower the barriers to entry for geospatial social science.

Fellow(s): William Declan John Perkins is working with Prof. John-Paul Ferguson and Prof. Roman Galperin of the Organizational Behaviour Area.

In resource-constrained contexts, technology has often been proposed as a way to do more with less or to improve efficiency and effectiveness. In healthcare, attempts to introduce technologies such as EHR, telehealth, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, have been welcomed and the promised digital transformation implicit in slogans such as “the hospital of the future” is well under way. Yet, these promised transformations have faced difficulties and the sector remains one of the least computerized of the economy (Jones et al., 2019). Indeed, technological change often does not unfold as planned. This project involves two in-depth longitudinal field studies to explore how AI technologies participate in efforts to improve the coordination of care delivery in two leading Canadian hospitals. The first study focuses on how AI and data technologies affect staffing and coordination of trauma care at a leading trauma center in Quebec. The second study focuses on the introduction of an AI-based schedule optimizing system to improve the coordination and throughput of Operating Rooms (ORs) at two leading Canadian hospitals.

Fellow(s): Hana Samad is working with Prof. Samer Faraj of the Strategy Area.

Digital technologies have been taking unprecedented salience in our everyday life but remain nascent in their ability to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people. This project embraces this opportunity through a multi-stakeholder Living Lab that will generate evidence-based, holistic, community-engaged, and digital-powered solutions for the vulnerable population in Montreal. Through a process of collaboration, co-creation and real-world experimentation, This Living Lab project will generate digital solutions that bridge the human and digital divide between health professionals, public health services, and community organizations, and that tackle the challenges that our partners face in addressing the evolving health and social needs of our most vulnerable population. This Living Lab project will operate within the broader Smart City-Health City initiative co-led by McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics. The fellows will get a unique chance to work with on-the-ground implementation partners, benefit from close faculty coaching and industry mentorships, and acquire professional skills that will enhance their job readiness. At the same time, the Living Lab will generate a better understanding of the determinants of Smart and Healthy Cities that can be implemented as successful, scalable and enduring solutions to many current and future challenges faced by growing and increasingly complex urban communities.

Fellow(s): Yajun Hui and Antonio Brunetti are working with Prof. Laurette Dubé of the Marketing area and Dr. Catherine Paquet of FSA ULaval and Dr. Raja Sengupta of the Bieler School of Environment and Department of Geography.

This research project aims to investigate whether and how the #metoo movement has changed the demographic composition of scientific and technological collaborations, especially focusing on the gender dimension. There is prior evidence that collaborations exhibit gender homophily, and we are interested in exploring whether events like #metoo amplify such tendencies or diminish them. This work will contribute to an academic paper that will contribute to better understand gender diversity in teams and its effect on subsequent output productivity both in terms of quality and quantity.

Fellow(s): Talia Moses is working with Prof. Sen Chai of the Strategy & Organization area.

Social enterprises aspire to achieve financial sustainability without compromising their social mission. Despite the growing interest in the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, many social enterprises struggle to survive in the competitive marketplace and have been exposed to various shocks and disturbances (e.g., economic recession, COVID-19 pandemic). The Fellows will participate in an ongoing field study of social enterprises that have been facing significant financial and other forms of challenges. Through an in-depth study of organizations that have ceased to exist, as well as those that continue to operate and thrive, the project aims to offer insights into building resilient social enterprises.

Fellow(s): Johanna Lau is working with Prof. Anna Kim from the Strategy and Sustainability Area.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from developing countries pursue increased sustainability as suppliers in global value chains. However, they encounter major financing barriers to implement sustainable strategies. Impact investors with social and environmental investment goals target investing in firms engaging in sustainable production in developing countries. This project explores the strategies of impact investors from the plural sector. We will examine the impact investing models and strategies that not-for-profit organizations use to support the sustainability strategies of SMEs in value chains.

Fellow(s): Vincent Barsalou is working with Prof. Paola Perez-Aleman of the Strategy Area.

To address a long-standing concern about racial and gender pay disparities, several U.S. state governments have enacted a pay transparency mandate that requires local employers to include information about the expected salary of the position advertised in all their job postings. However, little is known about the potential harm and pernicious consequences of the regulation. The objective of this project is to analyze the unintended impact of the price-focused disclosure mandate on the quality of workplace practices. This project aims to contribute to the literature by documenting a novel price-quality trade-off. Also, this project can provide important empirical facts and therefore advance our understanding of policy effects, both ex-ante and ex-post. In this regard, this study can inform policymakers in assessing the cost-benefits of the pay transparency rules and designing effective regulations in the future.

Fellow(s): Rachelle (Phuong) Dong and Guillaume Toulza are working with Prof. Yongoh Roh of the Accounting Area.

Parallel with growing stakeholder attention to human capital management (HCM), this research project investigates how companies approach the HCM disclosure. Specifically, it tackles two questions that remain underexplored in finance and management research: 1) what claims do companies make in addressing HCM details? and 2) what factors might account for the presence of such claims? This project benefits from recent amendments issued by the Securities Exchange Commission that include the requirement of the description of a registrant’s human capital resources. The research team will collect and analyze the 10-K and proxy statement filings to address those questions.

Fellow(s): Anne Khazzam is working with Prof. Kwangjun An of the Strategy & Organization Area.

This research project seeks to examine the unique dynamics of entrepreneurship in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa. Building on unique multi method data that involves GIS, photographic, and survey data and the potential to collect new qualitative data, we will work towards developing a paper for publication. This will be an inductive process that seeks to make sense of the data and iterate to identifying a promising gap in the growing literature on entrepreneurship in contexts of poverty and informality to contribute to. The fellow will play an active role in sense making in the data and beginning to craft a contribution to the field of entrepreneurship.

Fellow(s): Antonia Guo and Abhi Rai are working with Prof. Robert Nason of the Strategy Area.

Different types of data about consumers are collected and used by firms to make better business decisions. The goal of this project is to create teaching materials that will educate students about different types of consumer data that can be collected; data collection methods; data analysis methods; and using the results of data analysis to improve managerial decision-making. The deliverables for this project will be a report describing different types of consumer data and identifying teaching materials (e.g., cases, teaching notes, datasets with exercises, simulations, syllabi/best practices in other universities) to educate students about consumer data and its use in managerial decision-making.

Fellow(s): Angélique Dufresne is working with Prof. Ashesh Mukherjee a of the Marketing Area.

Although general public finds out the occurrence of financial misstatement at the point when the announcement is made by the firm, corporate insiders (i.e., CEOs, CFOs, board of directors, and audit committee members) normally become aware of the upcoming mishap way before the official disclosure of the negative event. This study aims to investigate what are the timely approaches taken by executives to prepare for the unfavorable incident which may have huge negative consequences towards the firm and also towards their personal careers. The faculty supervisors and fellows will try to find interesting answers to this question through examining (1) director turnovers, (2) change in general council, (3) legal expertise hiring, (4) window dressing activities (i.e., CSR), (5) compensation package, (6) purchasing D&O insurance, and (7) financial reporting behavior. This work not only contributes to academic literature, but also provides valuable insights to practitioners, investors, and regulators.

Fellow(s): Xuefei (Justina) Cheng is working with Prof. Peter Oh of the Accounting Area and Prof Jingjing Zhang of the Accounting Area.

Social network analysis (different from social media) is a tool to quantify and analyze relationships among individuals in a social system. It is a powerful tool that goes beyond individual-level analysis students commonly encounter in statistics classes. Most statistics is based on an assumption of independence. Social network analysis embraces interdependence. This tool can help reveal social processes that are overlooked by individual-level analysis. This project uses social network data and network analysis to understand processes that give rise to inequalities (gender, racial/ethnic, disability, and more) in workplaces.

Fellow(s): Yanjie Yi , Yinghan Tian and Yanfei Wu are working with Prof. Brian Rubineau of the Organizational Behavior Area.

The primary aim of this project is to explore the development of SMEs' online-based internationalization. This examination will research/study to learn about: i) The operation of large international online enterprises, including online platforms (e.g., Alibaba.com, Amazon.com, Shopify.ca, Spotify.com, etc.), ii) Online platforms’ supply chain of smaller enterprises, and iii) The characteristics of digitized small ventures and multi-sided platforms’ mutual interactions, including those as suppliers, buyers and intermediaries that facilitate their supply chain and process of their international relationships for achieving mutually beneficial international growth.

Fellow(s): Naureen Ahmed, Alp Gurer and Laura Baek are working with Prof. Hamid Etemad from the Marketing Department.

This project studies the effects of integrating ESG metrics in executive compensation packages. Using a novel dataset that compiles information about executive compensation packages and ESG metrics, the faculty supervisor and the fellow will seek to understand how ESG contracting impacts firm outcomes in terms of both ESG and financial performance. This work will contribute to an academic paper that will shine light on the effectiveness and implications of tying executive compensation to ESG data.

Fellow(s): Nikos Wildhaber-Riley is working with Prof. Begum Ipek Yavuz of the Finance area.

Metrics of Success: This project will conduct research into best practices related to the use of KPI's and metrics of success in the evaluation of EDI initiatives in North American post-secondary institutions. Given the potential implication of EDI efforts on university campuses, this project will complete research on best practices as well as develop functional measures of success for the Faculty of Management. This will be done in consultation with the EDI team and, potentially, the University's Equity Team. An assessment of the existing EDI Action Plan may also be undertaken based on the identified KPI's.

Fellow(s): Catherine Chen and Benedict Tan are working with Karrie-Noelle Plohman.

This project will research current practices and approaches to entrepreneurship pedagogy at the graduate and undergraduate level. This will involve benchmarking against leading programs, identifying particularly innovative courses, and brainstorming new entrepreneurship and innovation offerings. The ultimate goal will be additions and revisions to McGill's entrepreneurship and innovation course offerings.

Fellow(s): Darwin Niu working with Prof. Robert Nason and Prof. Niels Billou of the Strategy & Organization Area.

Picking up from the first phase in the IMSF 2022-23 cohort, in this exploratory project, we will look to researching, measuring, and defining how to develop an Analytics community for Desautels, McGill, Montreal and Canada. This project will have 3 parts: The 1st being a strategic measurement in developing an ‘Analytics Community CRM’ for those who want to develop their technical acumen over their careers. The 2nd is to quantify community members progression in their careers, and the 3rd is developing a Life-Long-Learning strategies for learning & growth streams. Students will work on elements of the project that complement their strengths and interest and should think about this as Phase 1-2 of a multi-staged project.

Fellow(s): Ruo Ying Qi and Chloé You are working with Prof. Shoeb Hosain of the Operations Management Area.

This research project is focused on determining “net green” opportunities for the clothing industry. This project will be centred on reducing the amount of clothing that reaches landfills in Quebec, with a focus on Montreal and the surrounding regions. The study will be on clothing that is not able to be re-worn or donated, looking at the feasibility of setting up a structure to recycle and/or reuse the materials for use in other clothing or items. This study will analyze the landscape in Quebec (with a focus on Montreal and its surrounding regions) and best practices in other regions in order to determine opportunities for improvement and develop actionable recommendations to take advantage of these opportunities. Note: “A business activity is net green if and only if it reduces overall environmental impact.” Zink, T. & Geyer, R. (2016).

Fellow(s): Anu Khanna, Shanrong Tang and Maya Pasut are working with Prof. Don Melville of the Finance and Strategy & Organization Areas.

This research project is focused on determining “net green” opportunities for the food industry. This project will be centred on reducing the amount of food that reaches landfills in Quebec from grocery stores, with a focus on Montreal and the surrounding regions. The study will be on food at grocery stores that is not sold, looking at the feasibility of setting up a structure to distribute that food in other ways to reduce landfill. This study will analyze the landscape in Quebec (with a focus on Montreal and its surrounding regions) and best practices in other regions in order to determine opportunities for improvement and develop actionable recommendations to take advantage of these opportunities. Note: “A business activity is net green if and only if it reduces overall environmental impact.” Zink, T. & Geyer, R. (2016).

Fellow(s): Myriam Manny, Ralph Hoyek and Audrina Law-How-Hung are working with Prof. Don Melville of the Finance and Strategy & Organization Areas.

This research project is focused on increasing community engagement in Quebec, with a focus on Montreal and its surrounding regions. The study will be on the positioning of community engagement in Quebec compared to Canada and the World, what drives individuals to be engaged, barriers to engagement, and opportunities to overcome those barriers. This study will analyze the landscape in Quebec (with a focus on Montreal and its surrounding regions) and best practices in other regions in order to determine opportunities for improvement and develop actionable recommendations to take advantage of these opportunities.

Fellow(s): Céline Moumou, Lise Tokam and Chloe Rozier working with Prof. Don Melville of the Finance and Strategy & Organization Areas.

The mission of the Laidley Centre for Business Ethics (LCBE) is to bring together and invigorate business ethics expertise at Desautels and McGill. The centre aims to foster multi-disciplinary research and discussions about business ethics across the university and our wider community. The fellow will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of business ethics programing at Desautels that engages students with critical business ethics issues of our times, such as global inequality; equity, diversity, and inclusion; and sustainability. The fellow will work on designing and implementing several initiatives which could include tasks such as research, event coordination and social media engagement. They will have the opportunity to design and implement initiatives of their own while also being able to work alongside the LCBE Business Ethics Ambassadors.

Fellow(s): Emma Clapp to working with Prof. Holmgren and Nikita Boston-Fisher of the Strategy Area and Nikita Boston-Fisher.

The goal of this research project is to develop a comprehensive picture of the environmental, social and responsible investing (ESG) landscape in Quebec. This project would focus on investing in not-for-profit and for profit organizations, and would aim to develop a strong picture of the present landscape across the various funding stages (ex: pre-seed, seed funding, various Series funding, Mezzanine…) as well as how this may evolve in the future (next 3-5 years). This project would include secondary research as well as interviews with key stakeholders.

Fellow(s): Esmeralda Chibane, Micha Abbas, Miriam Mikhaeil and Ina Zhou to work with Prof. Don Melville of the Finance and Strategy & Organization Areas.

Adapting Inclusive Curriculum: This project will conduct research into inclusive curriculum and pedagogical practices at other business schools in Canada. This research will consider decolonial, anti-racist and anti-oppression theories which is informing curriculum development and pedagogy in other institutions. This project will also evaluate and assess current practices within the Desautels Faculty of Management and will put forward a proposal for improvement.

Fellow(s): Yued Ong and Siyan Liu are working with Prof. Tatiana Lamoureux Gauvin and Karrie-Noelle Plohman.

Many factors contribute to consumer food choices, which subsequently have important health, social, economic, and environmental impacts. The overarching goal of this research is to develop a behaviorally informed, adaptive, and automated decision-support system to support consumer food choices at grocery stores. Leveraging a big dataset from prominent loyalty card program in Quebec, the goal of this project is to create an index that scores the healthiness of consumer grocery baskets over time. After developing the index, we will work toward building a personalized recommendation system to suggest products that guide consumers toward meeting established nutrition guidelines.

Fellow(s): Yudi Su and Julian Knight to work with Prof. Yu Ma of the Marketing Area and Prof Laurette Dubé of the Marketing Area, as well as Doctoral students.

According to the World Health Organization (2019), those exposed to loud sounds in social settings for a period of 20 years and over are more than three times at risk of hearing loss compared to those unexposed, and 5–10% of listeners are likely to develop hearing loss. Studies have shown that young musicians are particularly at risk. Thanks to a joint partnership between McGill, ETS and UdeM, an inexpensive, personal noise exposure set of tools, targeted at youths, musicians and others without a technical background, is now available, at the Marvin Duchow Library (McGill), to help counter the growing trend of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). The Hearing-Care Platform aims at raising awareness of, and promoting, hearing care in youths by applying cutting-edge research on the development of practical and accessible noise exposure self-assessment tools. The platform consists of three components: a listening-level measuring kiosk, a smartphone-based noise measurement app, and a companion web server. Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is permanent and irreversible, but generally progressive and preventable. By reducing NIHL, the hearing-care platform will have a positive impact on societal cost, especially given the negative effects NIHL has on social withdrawal, mental health and academic performance. Visit the Hearing Care website (Hearing Health).

This project aims at preventing noise induced hearing loss, first into the music community, McGill and finally at large. In order to make this sustainable, the long-term plan needs to be as accessible as possible. This will have to align with values such as equity, diversity and inclusion so the social and health impact is significant.

Fellow(s): Jacob Lloyd and Lara Landauro are working with Prof. Isabelle Cossette of the McGill’s Schulich School of Music and Prof. Jérémie Voix of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at ÉTS Montreal (École de Technologie Supérieure).

Become part of a dynamic team of researchers, community workers and public health actors to advance the labour rights of precarious status (asylum seekers, migrant workers, undocumented) workers. We will be engaged in a combination of data analysis (quant and qual), writing articles, and translating results into action via trainings, advocacy and media.

Fellow(s): Harry Brar and Onora-Carmel Nativ to work with Professor Jill Hanley, Professor at the McGill School of Social Work.

A research project that aims to analyze the investment strategies of Bankman Fried's FTX and its investment arm Alameda Research. Understanding the investment strategies and examining its implications for risk management is useful to understand the risks and fallacies when investing into digital assets firms. The goal is to eventually publish this case study in a journal like the Financial Analysts Journal or similar.

Fellow(s): Aymane Fadiga working with Professor Patrick Augustin of the Finance area.