Goodman: The Magazine, Winter 2022 - Vol. 4, Issue 2

Winter 2022 Volume 4 Issue 2

Distinguished researcher makes sustainability main goal

Meet our research scholars

Virtual reality teaches real-world ethics

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Dean’s message................................................................................................ 3 Goodman news: New and notable............................................................... 4 Making society better drives distinguished scholar.................................. 6 Meet this year’s departmental research award winners........................... 8 Co-op lets student travel world at home.................................................... 10 Distinguished leader helms First Nations power project......................... 11 Goodman facts and figures............................................................................ 12 New Associate Dean focuses on students................................................... 14 BDO gets an A+ as co-op employer of the year......................................... 15 Double Degree program awarded prestigious accreditation.................. 16 Dean's Advisory Council.................................................................................. 16 Distinguished grad combines passions to make impact.......................... 17 Goodman’s newest research scholars.......................................................... 18 Goodman sets standard for AR marketing courses................................... 21 First MBA/MPH grads ready to make a difference.................................... 22 Series lets students tap into alumni expertise........................................... 23 Accounting alum named to national CPA honour roll.............................. 24 Emerging Scholar has a nose for news and research................................ 25 Prof's Perspective: Using VR to teach ethics............................................... 26

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PUBLICATION MANAGER Susan LeBlanc EDITOR Kaitlyn Little ASSISTANT EDITOR Tiffany Mayer DESIGNER Kev Greene

FAYEZ A.

ISSN 2561-6706 (Print) ISSN 2561-6714 (Online) goodman@brocku.ca

PUBLISHER Goodman School of Business CONTRIBUTORS Erika Barbosa, Bill Huynh, Kaitlyn Little, Tiffany Mayer, Robert Steinbauer, Anh Mai To

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GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE

ON THE COVER Samir Trabelsi, Goodman's 2021 Distinguished Researcher and Professor of Accounting and Governance.

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PHOTOGRAPHY Fab Formisano, Dakota Unrau, Tara Walton PRODUCTION Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario

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DEAN’S MESSAGE I hope this winter issue of Goodman: The Magazine finds you and those close to you in good health.

In this issue, we focus on the incredible research being undertaken within our School. In all areas of business, the research our students and faculty are undertaking is making a profound impact and building sustainable change in our community and world.

From leading the international dialogue on sustainability standards, to driving forward the field of augmented reality marketing to learning how a CEO’s level of happiness impacts management and analyst forecast properties, Goodman research is raising the profile of the School at home and abroad.

The growth and strength of Goodman’s research program can be attributed to the external investment that it has received to address present needs. Goodman’s excellence in wine business research and professional development programming through Goodman Group fostered a relationship with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), which has led to the naming of the LCBO Spirit of Inclusion Research Scholar. You can learn more about it in this issue. Goodman’s experiential excellence with our United Nations Co-op program partnership led to the School receiving $250,000 in federal global mobility funds, supporting our students to study and research abroad.

This issue also profiles two leaders whom Goodman honoured this fall. Margaret Kenequanash and Cheryl Brandon (BBA ’04) inspired our community by sharing their pathways to personal and professional fulfilment, the challenges they faced along their journey and how they are making substantial impacts on issues about which they care deeply.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

Andrew Gaudes, PhD, ICD.D Dean, Goodman School of Business

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GOODMAN NEWS

NEW AND NOTABLE newspaper GOODMAN’S GLOBAL BUSINESS INITIATIVES GETS FUNDING

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aluable, career-boosting international experiences are on the horizon for Brock students thanks to $750,000 in federal funding awarded to the University as part of a new government pilot program called the Global Skills Opportunity (GSO).

The Goodman School of Business (GSB) will be responsible for allocating $250,000 of the money through its Global Business Education program. The School has already enabled more than 1,200 learners to experience global education with more than 50 globally accredited business schools in 22 countries spanning four continents.

The funding provided to Goodman will be leveraged to increase and sustain outbound mobility among

target learners beyond the funding lifecycle, with a focus on deepening engagement with School partners.

Programs receiving funding will include the BBA Co-op International Double Degree program, shortterm immersion, semester/annual exchanges and the UN co-op.

“For several years, GSB has integrated social impact, ethical business and responsible management as underlying themes within our global programs and learner services,” Dean Andrew Gaudes said. “The Global Skills Opportunity program levers up our capability to embed

a far greater number of GSB learners within global contexts where they can apply sustainability concepts and co-create inclusive and socially responsible solutions to real-world challenges.”

BUSINESS BREATHERS ADDS TO ITS ONLINE WEBINAR CATALOGUE

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oodman Group continued its Business Breathers series of webinars through the last half of 2021.

The 45-minute, free webinars started in May 2020 to provide online professional development programming during the pandemic.

The Goodman Group offered seven new sessions between June and December last year. They are available to watch any time on the Goodman School of Business YouTube channel.

The latest webinars are: • Reframing Negotiation: How to get better outcomes through the Art of Feminine Negotiation, featuring Cindy Watson, Founder of Women on Purpose and creator of HERsuasion.

• Data-Driven Decision-Making with Brock data scientists Anteneh Ayanso, Professor of Information Systems, and Filippo Dall’Olio, Assistant Professor of Marketing.

• Managing Yourself to Coach Others, featuring Caren Burt, Executive Coach at C Burt & Associates.

• Data Strategy and Governance: Leading the change with a female perspective with Sasha Ali-Hosein, Director of Data Science for Cineplex Digital Media, and Mitu Mann, Chief Data Officer at Phoenix IT. • Crisis Leadership with Niagara Health President and CEO Lynn Guerriero.

• Identifying the Best Light for and Revealing Your New Product Through it, featuring Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl, Goodman’s Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Programs, and Magnus Hultman, Assistant Professor of Marketing.

• Project Success Through Project Management with Amy Tomaino, Senior Administrative Officer at the Goodman School of Business, and Ken Klassen, Professor of Operations Management.

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Below: A virtual-format of Brock’s Grant Dobson Case Competition yielded a first place finish for Goodman graduate students Owen Angus-Yamada and Syed Zarif Samdani.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING GETS MORE ATTENTION IN FALL WEBINAR GOODMAN STUDENTS EARN TOP HONOURS IN BUSINESS COMPETITIONS

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oodman students earned some serious accolades during the Fall Term.

Owen Angus-Yamada and Syed Zarif Samdani, both graduate students, teamed up to dazzle judges and win the 2021 Dobson Case competition with “Plinko for the People.”

The competition challenged teams of Brock students to develop gamified marketing tactics and to drive sales for personalized candies amongst Gen Z consumers over the course of a year. Teams developed memorable campaign names and marketing plans using techniques such as targeting influencers, planning post-pandemic events, and creating augmented reality filters and interfaces on platforms with the strongest Gen Z base.

Angus-Yamada and Samdani capitalized on the nostalgic bent, social consciousness and social-media savvy of Gen Z by developing new, candy-centred digital and tangible versions of the classic game Plinko from The Price is Right, through which players might win discounts or drive corporate donations to fundraising campaigns of their choice.

Angus-Yamada also received the Mark Smyka Oustanding Presenter Award in what the judges described as a very tough field.

Jeffrey Dai

Mitchell Chan

Shuang Wang

Students Mitchell Chan and Jeffrey Dai won Canada’s Top Students 2021, hosted by Scotiabank last November.

Canada’s Top Students (CTS) is a two-day virtual competition for first- and second-year business and engineering students that’s all about bringing the best students across Canada together for exciting challenges, competitions, and a series of unique experiences.

Winners of the competition get a trip to Toronto, all expenses paid, and cash toward their tuition.

MBA student Shuang Wang placed in the Top 10 in the recent Stukent Mimic Pro Digital Marketing Competition.

She was the only Canadian student to place, succeeding in the competition thanks to her prowess in time management, budget allocation, best practices, keyword relevancy, ad writing, and bidding in a simulation exercise to generate the most revenue over two weeks and six rounds of competition.

Among other tasks, competitors created search, display, and shopping ads within the simulation. Wang was able to generate $172,985 in simulated revenue, placing sixth in the competition.

Winners get a share of $20,000 in scholarships from competition sponsor, HP Inc., a Buhi backpack, and the opportunity to interview with HP.

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he Goodman School of Business’s CPA Ontario Centre for Public Policy and Innovation in Accounting hosted a webinar last fall that took a deep dive into environmental, social and governance reporting.

The session built on a conversation last May about sustainability reporting standards that became Brock’s largestever online event, with more than 1,800 participants viewing the discussion live.

This latest event drew more than 675 registrants.

The webinar was moderated by Goodman Accounting Prof. Samir Trabelsi and featured Robert Hirth, Senior Managing Director of Proviti and Co-Vice Chair of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB); and Neil Stewart, Value Reporting Foundation’s New York-based Director of Corporate Outreach and the SASB Director of Corporate Outreach.

Panelists focused on the latest developments in the fast-changing world of environmental, social and governance reporting for investors. They also briefed attendees on the rapid corporate adoption of SASB standards based on industryspecific, financially material environmental, social and governance issues.

“Stakeholders are increasingly holding corporations accountable for sustainability and social values,” said Interim Centre Director Kareen Brown. “The CPA Ontario Centre for Public Policy and Innovation in Accounting, together with the Goodman School, is honoured to foster dialogue that demonstrates how these standards can help investors more effectively integrate environmental, social and governance data into their decision-making process.”

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GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE

soccer-ball

DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR DRIVEN TO MAKE SOCIETY BETTER

By Tiffany Mayer

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Samir Trabelsi, Professor of Accounting and Governance, once had ambitions on the soccer pitch until his father, Salah, convinced him otherwise.

amir Trabelsi remembers the day he won $100 playing soccer while growing up in Tunisia.

Trabelsi brought his winnings home and proudly shared them with his father, Salah. He’d made as much kicking a ball on the pitch as Salah, a farmer who never had the opportunity to go to school, made in a month.

It was meant to be a helpful gesture, but what Salah did in return would prove even more beneficial.

He burned Trabelsi’s winnings.

“He said, ‘I don’t want the money from soccer. I want you to earn it from education,’” Trabelsi recalled.

Now an accounting and governance professor at Goodman, Trabelsi is doing as his father told him — and then some. Trabelsi was named Goodman’s 2021 Distinguished Scholar.

It’s an honour Trabelsi said he dedicates to his late father.

And alongside Salah, he also gives a nod to his birth nation for giving him the chance to study abroad with government-funded scholarships that led to a fruitful career in academia.

“Without those scholarships, I might be a farmer or unemployed or sitting in a coffee shop,” Trabelsi said.

“Unemployment in Tunisia is 20 per cent.”

It’s because of that opportunity afforded to him so long ago by the people of Tunisia, and lately through research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and CPA Ontario, that Trabelsi focuses his work on holding corporations accountable to the taxpayer.

Trabelsi has made a name for himself researching corporate greenwashing, and most recently, coronawashing. He’s interested in the behaviours that lead to the selective disclosure of a corporation’s social or environmental performance to create an overly positive impression as businesses contend for consumer and government dollars, including subsidies provided during the pandemic.

Ideally, Trabelsi said he hopes his research will be used to help establish international reporting standards and enforcement to keep corporations honest — for the planet and for the people living on it. So being named Distinguished Scholar is an honour, he noted, but a responsibility, too.

“We can not undertake academic research without getting funding from taxpayer money,” he said. “If we’re using taxpayer money, we need to provide research that makes society better and spend those resources wisely. We don’t want to bail out Ponzi firms, or greenwashing or coronawashing organizations. The

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The world should not fund companies that do not care about society.

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Samir Trabelsi world should not fund companies that do not care about society.”

To help get his research out of academic journals and into the hands of change-makers, Trabelsi speaks at conferences and on webinars about the topic. Early in the pandemic, he led one of the Goodman Group’s most popular Business Breathers sessions, talking about governance and COVID-19. The online discussion attracted 600 viewers from around the world.

Last May, 1,800 participants from 100 countries tuned in online to listen to a panel Trabelsi organized featuring the world’s leading experts looking at issues surrounding corporate sustainability reporting.

Not one to forget where his path to doing meaningful work all started, he also takes every opportunity to speak when he returns to Tunisia.

It’s not to raise the profile of his work, he noted. It’s to position Goodman as a thought leader internationally and spark a similar purpose in others.

“I feel like I’m very lucky,” Trabelsi said. “There are many people who are smarter than me in underdeveloped countries who need opportunities. If you’re knowledge-hungry, Brock and Canada could be good places for you.”

Currently, Trabelsi is working on research about the CEO traits that drive greenwashing. He’s also studying the economic consequences of the pay gap between men and women CEOs. Trabelsi still finds time to kick around a soccer ball, too. But these days, it’s just for fun.

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2021 DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR AWARD RECIPIENTS

award

By Erika Barbosa

DIRK DE CLERCQ

Professor of Management Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Winner for Organizational Behaviour, Human Resources, Entrepreneurship and Ethics Primary research focus: Examining the connection between employees’ organizational disidentification and their reluctance to voluntarily change and improve the current organizational situation.

What is organizational disidentification and what is its relationship with an employee’s change-oriented, citizenship behaviour?

Organizational disidentification reflects the extent to which employees hold negative thoughts about their organizational membership and cognitively distance themselves from their employer. They feel ashamed of what goes on in their organization and try to keep the company they work for a secret from people they meet. These negative feelings may deteriorate their willingness to engage in change-oriented citizenship behaviours — that is, to enhance the organizational status quo on a voluntary basis.

How can managers encourage their employees to voluntarily contribute towards positive organizational change despite employees’ organizational disidentification?

Managers can benefit from recruiting and retaining employees who have a general interest in enhancing their organizational standing through productive work efforts; tend to focus on how they can contribute to their organization’s success instead of worrying about their own personal disappointments; and understand the value of going the extra mile in addressing organizational problems. Furthermore, managers should purposefully design jobs from which employees can derive more personal satisfaction.

What inspired you to do this research?

Employees who have distanced themselves from their organization may experience a negative spiral. Without realizing it, they feel some level of embarrassment about their organizational membership, and their complacent behavioural responses to this negative situation may compromise their ability to reverse the negative situation through their own actions. The primary goal of this research was to pinpoint how this negative process can be disrupted.

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GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE

FAYEZ ELAYAN

Chair and Professor of Accounting Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Winner for Accounting Primary research focus: New legislative changes within the mining sector and their impact on businesses.

What is the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA)?

The ESTMA came into effect on June 1, 2015, and requires businesses to publicly report certain payments they make to all levels of government in Canada and abroad in relation to the commercial development of oil, gas and minerals. The purpose is to deter corruption in the global extractive sector by making government revenues from natural resources transparent to the public.

What are the benefits and costs of ESTMA? The ESTMA’s success directly benefits firms from avoiding unproductive and unethical payments, thereby reducing operating, litigation, and social costs while protecting companies from reputational risks. The Act allows citizens to hold their governments accountable, which may reduce poverty and, in return, create a vibrant economy for firms to operate in. Mandatory disclosures also decrease information-gathering costs and improve the efficient measure of portfolio risk levels, benefiting investors. On the other hand, committing all Canadian extractive firms to highly transparent disclosures has costs, including potential conflicts with host governments and aboriginal groups.

Firms whose mandatory disclosures reveal undesirable and unethical practices experience political and reputational risk and obtain a poor competitive position.

However, some companies face an unfair disadvantage compared to those firms from more lenient jurisdictions. There’s also a possibility that increased transparency may potentially increase corruption.

How has the market responded to mandatory disclosures of extractive companies?

Study results indicate that market reaction to disclosures of ESTMA reports is negative.

Companies characterized by high levels of information asymmetry and those operating in countries with poor performance on the corruption index experience a more negative reaction. Market response can be largely explained by investors internalizing the costs and risks that ESTMA imposes and threaten firm reputation. These results are the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the equity market reaction to mandatory disclosures in the mining sector after ESTMA’s implementation.

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he Goodman School of Business Departmental Researcher of the Year Awards recognize research excellence among faculty in each of the School’s four departments.

The award acknowledges and celebrates the recipients’ scholarly contributions, showcased by the quality and quantity of refereed publications, grants, awards and other research-related activities accomplished between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 as documented in the annual report. Recipients receive a plaque and monetary award to support ongoing research.

LIANXI ZHOU

SKANDER LAZRAK

Primary research focus: How emerging firms pursue international opportunities by expanding current products and markets while simultaneously investing in new ones.

Primary research focus: Asset pricing and the performance of funds through investigating factors related to idiosyncratic risk, which affect stock prices and future returns.

Professor of Marketing and International Business Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Winner for Marketing, International Business and Strategy

What is product-market ambidexterity and why is it significant to international firms?

International firms need to pursue a variety of strategic choices surrounding product and market development activities across national borders. They must constantly maintain a dynamic balance for incremental expansion of existing products to new markets while undertaking innovative efforts on new product and market exploration.

This approach is called product-market ambidexterity. This ambidexterity strategy is significant to international firms because it’s about learning to adapt to change through leveraging and creating growth opportunities in foreign markets.

How can changing environmental conditions impact a firm’s capability to both expand existing and invest in new products and markets?

International firms must develop dynamic capabilities in response to changing environmental conditions. Our research highlights issues associated with exploration and exploitation at different stages of international expansion. There’s also a focus on the adaption of various ambidexterity dimensions (spatial, sequential, and contextual) for managing both expansion in existing and investment in new products and markets.

These dimensions, in relation to exploration and exploitation, dictate the ways in which firms shift structures over time and make judgments on how to allocate attention between conflicting demands.

Does the intended speed in which a firm develops on an international scale impact the growth strategies it enacts?

Our research shows the speed of internationalization seems to be highly relevant to international firms’ growth strategies. The results show that firms pursuing rapid international growth tend to be more proactive in seizing international opportunities.

They prioritize exploration of new products and markets before focusing on exploiting their current products and markets. In other words, these firms order their strategic ambidexterity to effectively cultivate their abilities for survival and growth in international markets.

Professor of Finance Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Winner for Finance, Operations and Information Systems

Which measures of idiosyncratic risk are relevant when examining stock prices and future returns?

To receive a return on their investment, investors want to be exposed to some risk when purchasing stock. There is both systematic (market-driven) risk and specific, or idiosyncratic, risk that doesn’t affect all assets in the market but only one specific firm.

Historically, research focused on idiosyncratic volatility, which measures the variation in returns not explained by the pricing model used. We extend the risk definition to include measures of skewness and kurtosis. Skewness compares the probability of high and low returns while kurtosis refers to the probability of rare and extreme events, such as COVID-19.

How do these measures of idiosyncratic or specific risk affect stock prices and future returns?

Specific risk affects expected stock returns and, hence, stock prices. We confirm the puzzling finding, presented in previous research, that high levels of idiosyncratic volatility reduce future stock returns. Furthermore, our research concludes that idiosyncratic skewness is negatively priced and, thereby, investors willing to pay higher prices or accept smaller returns prefer risky stock with higher-than-average returns.

Finally, we discover the specific probability of rare and extreme events, referred to as idiosyncratic kurtosis, does not impact stock prices.

How do you hope your findings will be used in the world of finance?

Overall, our findings shed new light on the debate regarding the importance of specific or idiosyncratic risk in explaining variation in stock prices and returns. Idiosyncratic risk matters. Investors in the stock market need to closely evaluate how probable high returns are compared to low returns. By considering the idiosyncratic skewness in their portfolio, investors may receive compensation for investing in stocks with a high chance of unfavorable returns or pay a higher price for lottery-like stock that poses a small chance of receiving a very large reward.

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HOW GOODMAN LET ME

TRAVEL THE WORLD FROM THE COMFORT OF MY BEDROOM

By Bill Huynh

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hen I began my search for a co-op work placement, I knew I wanted to do something that benefitted the greater good.

So I jumped at the opportunity to join an inclusive culture with world-class talent at a global company that moves society forward in complex areas such as tax, compliance, law, and media.

This past summer, I spent my second of three co-op terms as an Employer Branding Specialist intern at Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is a global organization with employees in more than 75 countries and regions. This gave me the chance to connect with colleagues all over the world, including the Mexico recruiting team, whose ongoing technology hiring I supported. I also did intake sessions with our Poland recruiting team to learn more about employee experiences, which I broadcast to job candidates. I participated in intern program events with other students throughout Canada and the United States. And I met our Chief People Officer in person while volunteering during Thomson Reuters’ Global Day of Impact to clean up a Toronto beach. Although most of my internship was done at home because of the pandemic, I also had the opportunity to work from our Bay Street headquarters throughout the summer.

Whatever the case, I was ready for each and every challenge during my work term thanks to my experience at Goodman School of Business.

Whether it’s in a classroom, walking the halls, or studying in the Atrium, Goodman is home to students from all over world. Because of this, every day at GSB is a chance to broaden your horizons. Each person at Goodman has a unique story to tell. Everyone’s opinions, experiences and perspectives nurture creativity and prepared me to work in an equally diverse environment at Thomson Reuters.

In addition, by taking opportunities as Vice-President of Student Engagement for the Goodman Business Students’ Association, and participating in DECA, JDCC, So You Think You Can Sell and the World Trade Center case competition, I’ve learned to think strategically outside the box. These extracurriculars have given me the chance to collaborate with students of all ages, ethnicities, business backgrounds and more, giving me greater understanding and perspective on the tasks at hand.

These experiences helped me become a better listener, learn from others and work collaboratively in a diverse environment like that at Thomson Reuters.

Every day at Thomson Reuters proposed new challenges. My Goodman experience enabled me to contribute fresh ideas and make an impact; for example, I created the hashtag #IchoseTR, which is now being used as the new employee onboarding hashtag on social media throughout the world.

My experience also let me combine my love of working with people and being creative. I can’t wait to see where everything I learned at Thomson Reuters and my Goodman experience takes me next.

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🌎

Bill Huynh is a fouth-year student in the Business Administration Co-op program concentrating in Marketing.

He has never shied away from taking on the next challenge and as he nears the completion of his undergraduate degree, he will continue to do exactly that.

Margaret Kenequanash is Goodman’s 2021 Distinguished Leader.

DISTINGUISHED LEADER HELPS FIRST NATIONS CREATE DESTINY WITH POWER PROJECT

By Tiffany Mayer

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ell Margaret Kenequanash she can’t do something and the prominent First Nations leader won’t quietly go away.

Tell Kenequanash she can’t do something and she’ll prove she can.

Case in point: Kenequanash led the charge to build Canada’s largest majority First Nations-owned infrastructure undertaking, the Wataynikaneyap Power Project.

It started in 2007 as an effort to connect a handful of northern Ontario Indigenous communities to the grid. It turned into rolling out more than 1,800 kilometres of transmission lines and working with 24 First Nations to bring clean, reliable electricity to 17 remote communities that had been powered by spotty diesel generators.

“There’s quite a few industry people specifically that told me I’m crazy and this is never going to happen,” Kenequanash said. “And that was more like a booster for me that it can happen.”

Kenequanash, who now serves as CEO of Wataynikaneyap Power, told the story of the project’s genesis and significance last Fall when she addressed the Brock community as the Goodman School of Business 2021 Distinguished Leader. The virtual event was supported by the Wilmot Foundation and is part of the D.G. Wilmot leader series.

The honour is given annually to a prominent Canadian business leader who shares their story during a fireside chat with Goodman Dean Andrew Gaudes.

They also connect with students about their professional experiences.

Kenequanash accepted the Distinguished Leader title on behalf of the communities and partners with whom she works.

More than a chance to prove anyone wrong, however, Kenequanash was driven to make the Wataynikaneyap Power Project a success because of the socio-economic benefits it will provide. The impacted communities have existed without reliable energy to power safe, everyday living. Industry growth has also been stymied until now.

“I understood the challenges that, without long-term infrastructure in the area, it would be very difficult for our communities to look at other opportunities, but even just to improve the quality of life in the community to provide safe water, shelter and food,” Kenequanash said. “Because of the number of outages we have, those get compromised very easily. And I often think about our children, our grandchildren and also the elderly people in the community when there were lots of power outages in the middle of winter. There’s so many challenges out there.”

She added the estimated $1.9-billion project, which created nearly 770 jobs for its construction, will forever better the fortunes of the communities connected to it.

“Our people cannot pursue socio-economic opportunities in business development because they’re restricted with the capacity of diesel (generators) in the community,” Kenequanash said. “Part of this project is the vision — the vision of how we are going to create

our destiny as Indigenous people. I believe in the vision of our people.”

No less important, she noted, are the undertaking’s environmental benefits. The project will spare the atmosphere an estimated 6.6-million tonnes of CO2 emissions over 40 years once it’s complete in 2023.

“We’re leaving behind … not only the benefits from this project but also the land we live on, the sacred responsibilities to the water, the animals, all those things. It’s important we maintain that for a very long time,” she said.

Still, the project didn’t come to be simply by calling the leaders of 24 First Nations and asking them to be part of it.

It was a precedent-setting, co-ordinated effort that required partnering with Fortis Ontario and other private investors who respected Indigenous cultures and autonomy.

It not only changed communities, enabling them to “live our purpose according to our creator’s plan,” it empowered Kenequanash, too.

It solidified her status as an Indigenous woman leader.

Listening is a key leadership trait, she noted. But so is speaking up at the right time.

“I would hope that I could provide information and knowledge to young women to take up challenges, make change for our people or for anything we do in life,” Kenequanash said. “It’s how we communicate and how we interact with people …. Always ask questions if you don’t know. You don’t just get smart all on your own.”

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FACTS AND FIGURES

REGULAR AND NEWLY CREATED RESEARCH FUNDING 2017-2020

$

$

248K

250K

23.58%

29.43%

money-check-dollar

$

hands-holding-dollar

454K

53.83% $

97K

11.56%

$ $

5.17%

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH SPENDING AMOUNT

BY ALLOCATION

REGULAR RESEARCH SPENDING 2017–2020 Conference Support Award

$

Education/Professional Development Grants

Research Grants

Luncheon Speaker Series

Research Scholars

Research Support Awards/Grants

Research Releases

ADDED RESEARCH FUNDING COMMITMENTS

435.31K 41.05%

circle-dollar-to-slot

EXTERNAL $

538,229

$

538.23K

BROCK $

50.75%

$

8.2%

SOURCE OF ADDITIONAL RESEARCH FUNDS External Brock Dean's Discretionary

12

87,000

DEAN'S DISCRETIONARY $

87K

GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE

530.08K 50%

280K

26.41%

44K

$

435,306

$

TOTAL

1,060,084

RESEARCH OUTPUTS ARTICLES

200

151

145

123

150

100

50

MATCH OF THE MINDS GRANT

89

84 2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

35

37

Goodman’s Master of Science in Management (MSc) program prepares students for careers in academia, research and industry.

31

30

22

25

Ali Anwar (MSc ’18), Marketing specialization, co-author of “Weathering a Crisis: A Multi-Level Analysis of Resilience in Young Ventures”, published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

24 17

20 15

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

201

213

Rahul Pandey (MSc ’14), Operations and Information Systems specialization, started new position as Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Memphis in August 2020.

101

150

Lemeng Chen (MSc ’16), Finance specialization, was promoted to Senior Associate at BMO Capital Markets Toronto in August 2021.

Nicole O’Brien (MSc ’13), Operations and Information Systems specialization, started a new position as Assistant Professor of Practice at Suffolk University in May 2021.

166

200

Fares Belkhiria (MSc ’19), Marketing specialization, was accepted into McGill University – Desautels Faculty of Management in 2021. Pursuing Doctor of Philosophy in Management.

Deepan Das (MSc ’19), Finance specialization, started a new position in December 2021 as a Risk Analyst for TD Securities.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 250

Congratulations to the Goodman faculty and their students who are the recipients of the 2020-2021 Brock’s Match of the Minds grant: • Samir Trabelsi with student Mohammad Maruf Hasan • Narongsak Thongpapanl with student Ardalan Eyni • Abdul Ashraf with student Cem Selcuk • Kai-Yu Wang with student Oanh Nguyen

MSc GRAD ACCOMPLISHMENTS

RESEARCH AWARDS 40

Brock provides access to funding for students interested in future employment in research to help them develop their research skills. Called Match of the Minds, the program provides successful applicants with a $5,000 employment honorarium and aims to improve students’ employability in their chosen field by providing research employment opportunities across all Faculties and non-Faculty units.

100

29

50

Zahid Rahman (MSc ’16), Organization Studies, started new position as Assistant Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Lethbridge in January 2022.

0 2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

BOOKS & CHAPTERS

Sepehr Sepehri (MSc ’20), Operations and Information Systems specialization, started a new position in May 2021 as Data Engineer at Gensquared Inc.

34 35

Hamza Warraich (MSc ’16), Accounting specialization, Postdoctoral Fellow as of July 2021 at the University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management.

30 25

21

20

Gaurav Rohilla (MSc ’12), Marketing specialization, CEO and Founder of Switch2Can Immigration Inc., an immigration consultancy firm, which he launched in October 2020.

17

15

16 7

10

Haiyue Xu (MSc ’15), Marketing specialization, co-author of “How Do Consumers React to Company Moral Transgressions? The Role of Power Distance Belief and Empathy for Victims” published in the Journal of Consumer Research in June 2021. Started new position as Assistant Professor of Marketing at Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, in January 2022.

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Accounting Professor Jennifer Li began her term as Goodman School of Business Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs July 1, 2021.

chart-line-up ACCOUNTING PROFESSOR NAMED NEW ASSOCIATE DEAN

By Kaitlyn Little

A

s Accounting Professor Jingyu (Jennifer) Li took on a new role at Goodman last summer, her focus was set clearly on students.

Li, who joined the University 18 years ago, was appointed as Goodman’s Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs July 1. In this position, she hopes to enhance the student experience and create innovative programs.

“Many of our students are first-generation university students, and I want to provide personalized support to help them navigate the maze of university programs and supports,” Li said.

“I want to contribute to student growth as much as possible and to do that, we need to be studentfocused. To focus, we have to be smart and innovative in developing programs that will help our graduates have a fulfilled career.”

Her previous experience includes serving as the founding Director of the CPA Ontario Centre for Public Policy and Innovation in Accounting, and as Director of the Confucius Institute at Brock University.

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Li has served as a member of the undergraduate program committee, CPA accreditation committee and the committee that established the Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAC) program. She was also a key contributor to attaining CPA Ontario accreditation for the MPAC program.

“I have a vested interest in the growth of the Goodman School of Business,” she said. “What I can do to contribute more to the School is bring my teaching and research excellence to this service role to make it the best place for both students and faculty.”

Goodman Dean Andrew Gaudes looks forward to seeing Li embrace this new role.

“I know Jennifer is committed to working with staff and faculty to ensure our undergraduate students receive the world-class experience they have come to expect in their business education as we position them for success upon graduating,” Gaudes said.

Li took over the position from Associate Professor Diane Miller, who had served in the role since 2015.

“

I want to contribute to student growth as much as possible and to do that, we need to be student-focused.

”

Jennifer Li

BDO GETS AN AS CO-OP EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR

By Tiffany Mayer

E

mily Buesnel could have applied for co-op work terms with different employers while she completed her Bachelor of Accounting at Goodman.

But after one term with BDO, Buesnel decided she’d found the right fit for her at the public accounting firm. So much so that Buesnel, who graduated in 2021 with her BAcc and MAcc, completed all four of her required undergraduate co-op work terms at BDO’s Chatham office without hesitation.

She even served as the company’s campus ambassador, representing BDO among her peers at networking events and CPA Day, selling her fellow students on the firm’s merits as a co-op employer.

“My biggest reason is the people there,” Buesnel said. “That is what kept me coming back. My co-workers, if I ever needed assistance, they were more than willing to help me.”

BDO also gave Buesnel the chance to use the skills she learned at school doing a variety of auditing and tax work. No work term was ever the same, which gave her the opportunity to try on many professional hats before choosing which career path to take after school.

As it turns out, it’s in auditing at BDO that helped her test and hone her abilities.

“I was very happy there, so I’m looking forward to returning,” Buesnel said. “I was getting the experiences I wanted so that’s what kept me going back. I wasn’t pigeon-holed in one area. Whenever something new came up, I jumped at the opportunities.”

It’s reasons like those that make BDO stand out among co-op employers that hire Brock students. That’s why BDO was named Co-op Employer of the Year - Large Organization by the University last spring.

BDO is the second recipient of the award in that category.

Brock’s Co-op Employer of the Year Award was established in 2019 to recognize organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the co-op program, including providing consistent employment and quality work experiences to students.

“BDO has been an exceptional employer and educational partner in the ecosystem to help cultivate and develop future talent that society needs through on-campus engagement and work term training and mentoring,” said Julia Zhu, Brock’s Associate Director of Co-op Programs. “It’s incredible that all co-op students who worked with BDO commented on the excellent corporate culture BDO strives for and quality work experience they have had, which make work terms and new grad employment with the firm highly sought after by our students.

We’re fortunate to have such a long-standing partnership with BDO and extremely grateful for the commitment and outstanding contributions BDO has made to student success.”

There’s good reason for that longtime relationship with Brock and Goodman, noted Lindsay Dale, BDO’s campus recruitment manager.

“We find the talent is very strong at Brock,” Dale said.

“We’ve had great success hiring Brock students. We’ve been able to establish great rapport on campus. It’s been a really great dynamic.”

Staff at the University’s co-op office and career centre have also done everything right to build and maintain a strong relationship with BDO by helping the firm engage with students, and being responsive and organized, she said.

Being named Co-op Employer of the Year only speaks to the strength of that relationship. So do stories like Buesnel’s.

“The first term, (students) are learning a lot but then they come back. They’re still learning but they’re able to perform at higher levels each time,” Dale said. “It’s a great way to give students experience and then if all goes well and they’ve been performing well, then we have them come back on a full-time basis. It’s always been fantastic working with Brock.”

Emily Buesnel is now employed full-time at BDO’s Chatham office after completing her co-op work terms with the firm. BDO was named a Co-op Employer of the Year last year.

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DEAN'S ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS JANUARY 2022 Mark Arthur (BAdmin ’77)

Executive Vice-President, CWB Wealth Management

Mishka Balsom

President & CEO, Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Julia Deans

President and CEO, Habitat for Humanity Canada

Mark Dockstator

Past President, First Nations University of Canada

Mark Goodman Bonnie Lysyk

Auditor General of Ontario

Manik Mair (BAcc ’15) Chair, Goodman Alumni Network

DOUBLE DEGREE PROGRAM AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS EFMD ACCREDITATION

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President & CEO, LCBO

Doug Wilkinson (BBA ’91)

Partner, Deloitte

TORONTO ADVISORY GROUP Deepak Chopra

President & CEO (Retired), Canada Post

By Kaitlyn Little

oodman has received accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) for one of its flagship offerings — the Bachelor of Business Administration International Double Degree co-op program.

The program, which grants students degrees from Brock and from a European partner university, while giving students work experience on both continents, was granted EFMD Programme Accreditation in October.

“I am immensely proud of our school for receiving this accreditation,” said Goodman Dean Andrew Gaudes. “This program is like no other in Canada and receiving accreditation is a reflection of the dedication our staff and faculty have placed in building a program that provides students with a unique global experience of the highest quality.”

Only five Canadian business schools, including Goodman, have received EFMD Programme Accreditation.

Barbara Sporn, Director of EFMD Programme Accreditation, said the organization was happy to welcome Goodman’s double degree program to the pool of EFMD accredited programs.

George Soleas

“We were very impressed by the school’s internationalization approach, from its faculty’s international background and experience to its robust international partnership network,” Sporn said. “This achievement illustrates the school’s commitment to the continuous quality improvement of their program, and we are looking forward to accompanying them on this journey.”

The three-year accreditation recognizes the quality of education at both Brock and the European partner schools and comes after a thorough analysis of the program by EFMD’s Peer Review Team, which included a virtual visit to the Goodman School in May. The newly accredited program at Goodman includes partnerships with Lancaster University Management School in the U.K., NEOMA Business School in France, Dublin City University in Ireland and the European Business School as well as ESB Reutlingen University in Germany.

The double degree program involves four to four and a half years of study and work experience with Goodman student tuition fees being paid to Brock.

Graeme Deans

Partner, Ernst & Young LLP

Dan McGrath (BAdmin ’85) COO, Cineplex Entertainment LLP

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY GROUP Greg Berti

Vice-President Global Markets & Industry Relations, Andrew Peller Ltd.

Lili Tomovich (BA ’89) Chief Marketing Officer, Barclays US Consumer Bank Members of the Dean’s Advisory Council are recognized leaders and influencers in their industries who offer diverse expertise, perspectives and advice to the Dean and faculty.

They enhance relationships between the School and the business community; assist Dean Andrew Gaudes in shaping the direction of the School; and help the School achieve its overall mission. Most members of the council are not alumni.

They have no affinity to the Goodman School of Business other than their belief in the School and its leadership.

DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE EXEMPLIFIES PASSION, PERSEVERANCE, PROFESSIONALISM

By Kaitlyn Little

F

or most people, co-founding a private equity firm with more than US$2 billion in assets under management would be more than enough to rest their laurels on.

But Cheryl Brandon (BBA ’04) isn’t most people. The co-founder of Waterton Global Resource Management has remained driven throughout her career, combining her passion for investing and building companies with her desire to give back to the community.

In recognition of her accomplishments, Brandon was honoured as the 2021 recipient of the Goodman School of Business Distinguished Graduate Award at a virtual event held last fall.

Brandon’s commitment to giving back has led her to start two charities and serve on the board of many others. After donating part of her liver to her niece in 2009, she co-founded Ashley’s Angels which has raised more than $2 million for SickKids Hospital, supporting research to improve the lives of organ transplant recipients. She also founded the Giving 2 Girls Initiative, which partners with and provides funding to charitable organizations focused on improving the lives of girls in developing countries.

When answering how she balances a high-profile investment career with her heavy involvement with building businesses and charities the answer was clear.

“The key to finding balance within your career and other interests is to prioritize things you enjoy and do them with like-minded people,” Brandon said. “I am passionate about everything I do, and I have been fortunate to find partners who are just as motivated to push boundaries every day.”

The common thread throughout her career, from working at hedge funds, private equity funds, being a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and venture capital investor, is figuring out how to effectively allocate capital.

“Capital allocation is at the forefront of everything I do today,” Brandon said. “It’s about evaluating returns against risk and assessing impact when deploying capital in both the for-profit and the non-profit sector. After many years of allocating funds and creating value, I fully appreciate the incredible things that can result from combining capital with highly motivated people, and innovative ideas.”

For Brandon, having a lot on the go is not new. During her time at Brock, she was captain of the varsity volleyball team. She was introduced to the investment sector at Scotia McLeod as a co-op student, completed the Canadian Securities Course, and formulated a business plan that resulted in the acquisition of her first business: a Muskoka yacht club she invested in and developed with her sisters. All this before crossing the convocation stage.

In 2020, Brandon received a Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award – a nod that celebrates the country’s top up-and-coming business leaders.

To further expand her charitable impact, she’s currently completing an MSc in non-profit management at Columbia University in New York.

Goodman Dean Andrew Gaudes says that Brandon exemplifies all of Goodman’s values of passion, perseverance and professionalism.

“We’re very proud to have Cheryl as a representative of our School,” Gaudes said. “Her success in business coupled with her philanthropic leadership is an inspirational example to recognize and share with our students on how business education is a force for doing good things in support of our community.”

Anyone wishing to hear Brandon’s insights can view the livestream of the Distinguished Graduate event on Goodman’s YouTube channel.

Cheryl Brandon (BBA ’04) is the recipient of the 2021 Goodman School of Business Distinguished Graduate Award.

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COLLECT THEM ALL: GOODMAN’S NEWEST RESEARCH SCHOLARS

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oodman School of Business professors are advancing industry with relevant and timely research — so much so the School recently launched a Research Scholars Program, announcing the winners of the inaugural awards last November.

Those named to the program receive grants from research funds created in conjunction with CPA Ontario, the International Partnership of Business Schools (IPBS), and Goodman. The funding will help to advance their work in critical business research.

In addition, a partnership with the LCBO saw the appointment of the Spirit of Inclusion Initiative research scholar. A Goodman professor was tapped to examine ways to increase opportunities for diverse women looking to enter, advance and thrive in the beverage alcohol industry.

Meanwhile, Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute’s latest research scholar — a Goodman assistant professor of marketing — will help the wine industry channel the power of augmented reality in telling its story.

SAMIR TRABELSI

CPA Ontario Distinguished Research Scholar The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a new verb: coronawashing. Professor of Accounting and Governance Samir Trabelsi explains it’s a feel-good, “caring,” #StaySafe trend many corporations are jumping on.

It’s like being stroked on the head while being stabbed in the back. Companies that avoid paying taxes, launder money, snuff out independent small businesses and cancel contracts purchase newspaper ads and donate supplies in the name of COVID-19 solidarity, he says.

Trabelsi defines coronawashing as being an opportunistic disclosure strategy where companies capitalize on the coronavirus crisis to leverage positive stakeholder impressions whilst failing to deliver ethical coherence.

Over the next five years, Trabelsi will research the dynamics of coronawashing in three areas.

Firstly, he’ll examine whether media coverage decreases or increases coronawashing. On the one hand, critical media reports hold companies to account on their sustainability reporting processes.

Yet, pressure to make profits in the short term might compel companies to practise coronawashing to make themselves look good.

Secondly, Trabelsi will analyze how CEOs’ personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism – influence coronawashing.

Thirdly, he’ll study the portfolio holdings of companies in 23 countries to see if and how coronawashing spreads from common law to civil law countries through the foreign institutional investments channel.

Trabelsi expects his research will yield new insights into the drivers and impacts of coronawashing so that bailouts and other pandemic supports won’t be given to companies indulging in the practice.

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SAMIR

T R A B E L SI

FAYEZ A. ELAYAN

CPA Ontario Transdisciplinary Research Scholar

Do human rights and corporate social responsibility play a role in financial reporting, auditing, and taxation? Professor of Accounting Fayez A. Elayan says a resounding yes and is doing transdisciplinary research in the areas of human rights and corporate social responsibility, corporate disclosures, auditing, and taxation in an effort to address accounting issues related to these issues.

Elayan’s first project examines the impact of the Canadian Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), legislation that requires mining, oil, gas and other companies to annually disclose payments made to both domestic and foreign governments.

He and his team, Profs. Kareen Brown, Parunchana Pacharn, and Jennifer Li, aim to provide evidence on how capital markets perceived ESTMA disclosures as a means to curb corruption in the extractive sector, and to inform debate about transparency measures.

The second project investigates implications of audit firms’ dominance, undue concentration and market power on audit fees, audit quality, and auditor’s independence related to mergers.

The novel aspect of this project examines auditors’ concentration and audit fees using a sample of auditee mergers. It will also provide evidence on how merger and acquisition of firms with common auditors can increase the market power and auditor concentration of auditors of bidding firms. In addition, this work will examine audit fees around merger announcements for bidders and targets, common auditors versus non-common auditors, and Big-Four versus non-Big-Four firms.

FAYEZ A .

EL AYAN

SHAWNA CHEN

LCBO Spirit of Inclusion Initiative Research Scholar

SHAWNA

CH E N

A mutual commitment to inclusion has fostered a strong partnership between the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and the Goodman School of Business.

The result is the Spirit of Inclusion Initiative, an effort to create more opportunities for diverse women and the historically underrepresented to enter, advance and thrive in the beer, wine and spirits industries.

As research scholar, Shawna Chen, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, will launch a series of projects over three years to determine baselines related to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the alcoholic beverage industry. The research will bring awareness of workplace conditions that can better advancement for women, members of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities, and intersectionality, such as economic, social, and political identities, in the industry.

Chen will examine the culture, leadership, and human resources practices, such as recruiting, promoting, and training related to EDI in the Ontario wine industry. She will investigate job satisfaction, turnover intention, and organizational innovation tied to various workplace conditions. She will also identify barriers for the underrepresented to enter and advance in the industry and where boundary condition exists – when gender, racio-ethnic, and sexual orientation penalty become a premium.

Chen’s strong research background contributed to her post. After working as a serial entrepreneur in information technology and as an investment banker in Washington, D.C, she returned to academia to empower individuals, particularly those overlooked and underestimated, with her research, teaching, and services.

MAGNUS HULTMAN

IPBS Research Scholar

MAGNUS

HULTMAN

Corporate social responsibility has incredible marketing potential, especially for international businesses with a global brand.

Magnus Hultman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, knows this thanks to the depth and breadth of his work and interest in global business issues. But he does wonder the extent to which firms export good sustainable practices across international borders. Or do they merely do the minimum based on local market expectations? He plans to find out as the IPBS Research Scholar, initiating a study of international standardization versus adaptation of sustainable marketing strategies.

Connecting such practices to international customer perceptions and long-term brand performance would potentially generate valuable managerial insights into how to improve sustainable marketing practices globally, Hultman argues.

At the same time, such research involving the internationals diffusion of CSR practices in marketing aligns with many of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development goals.

Hultman plans to spend at least the next year collecting and analyzing data before presenting it to the world through journals and conferences. The findings from his research will also help inform students of the latest sustainable marketing practices from real companies.

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WESLEY HELMS

GSB Social Innovation Management Research Scholar

If all goes according to the plans of Wesley Helms, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, the Goodman School of Business will be synonymous with social innovation.

As the social innovation research scholar, Helms will continue to build upon his extensive body of work in this and the social justice fields.

Over the years, Helms has focused his research on three themes: how private, public, and government bodies engage together to develop voluntary codes, industry standards, and rules to regulate the environmental and social responsibilities of firms to those stakeholders around them; how stigmatized communities and organizations overcome negative evaluations and sanctioning to succeed in marketplaces; and how emerging competition shapes perceptions of rivalry as well as the social, environmental, and economic practices and performance of social enterprises in the second-hand goods sector.

He’ll also begin the next phase of his research program by examining how social enterprises maintain the integrity of their social and environmental practices through growth. To do so, he’ll collaborate with Goodman and Brock faculty, external stakeholders and other social innovation centres to build consensus on research and partnership grants to fund a Centre for Social Innovation at Goodman.

The end goal? Build upon and promote the relevance of research on social innovation done at Goodman, increasing its impact on communities at both the local and global levels.

WESLEY

HELMS JOACHIM SCHOLZ

CCOVI Research Scholar

There’s something more powerful than words when it comes to crafting a narrative.

For Joachim Scholz, Associate Professor of Marketing, it’s augmented reality (AR), and brands need to consider it a real option when telling their story and creating positive customer experiences.

Scholz specializes in AR marketing, social media controversies, and branding in digitally infused and hyper-connected societies. As the CCOVI research scholar, he’ll collaborate with core researchers on studying consumer behaviour, including potential opportunities to work in the new AR, virtual reality and sensory reality consumer laboratory at Brock.

Although the wine industry has been an early adopter of AR to connect with customers, Scholz has found that much of the academic research to date has been focused on creating three-dimensional visualizations of products, such as a bottle, rather than creating branded experiences.

AR, he argues, provides more options to design content. Scholz will explore how to conceptualize different options and the types of AR they represent. Once it is safe to conduct studies in the lab again, he will empirically test the effect these different AR types have on consumers.

These studies will allow marketers, winemakers and AR creatives to make more informed decisions and leverage the technology more effectively.

JOACHIM

SCHOLZ

NATTAVUT (SIMON) SUWANYANGYUAN

CPA Ontario Emerging Research Scholar

A happy boss could affect more than workplace morale. Just ask Assistant Professor of Accounting Nattavut (Simon) Suwanyangyuan.

As Emerging Research Scholar, Suwanyangyuan plans to tackle how a CEO’s level of happiness impacts management and analyst forecast properties. He calls it Happy Forecasting. But this is more than emotional prognostication. Suwanyangyuan will also seek new ways to objectively measure managerial traits and facilitate the use of managerial happiness in different settings, which was previously difficult to achieve.

His second study will benefit the accounting profession by contributing to the broader question of how auditor choice is associated with the quality of a firm’s disclosure by providing evidence that choosing a Big Four auditor is associated with enhanced disclosure practices in 10-K reports.

Ultimately, this will suggest the auditor’s role in financial reporting is not limited to simply providing assurance concerning managements’ compliance with GAAP. This study will also highlight the extent to which a client’s choice of a Big Four auditor contributes to variations in disclosure practices in 10-K reports.

Given the regulatory concerns regarding corporate disclosure and the trend toward more detail, Suwanyangyuan hopes his study will provide useful insights into the evolving role of external auditors in the reporting process — of interest to both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

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NATTAVUT (SIM ON)

SUWANYANG YUAN

Goodman students in Joachim Scholz’s Augmented Reality (AR) Marketing course worked with Calamus Winery to conceptualize and produce Canada’s first AR wine label.

CAMERA-VIEWFINDER GOODMAN SETTING THE STANDARD FOR AUGMENTED REALITY MARKETING

By Kaitlyn Little

W

hen Goodman School of Business students teamed up with Calamus Estate Winery to create Canada’s first Augmented Reality (AR) wine label, it was a project partnership quite literally written in the stars.

The partnership, which was an experiential learning project in an AR Marketing class, used Calamus’s onsite observatory as inspiration to create an immersive experience where a scan of the label would transport the user to a starry sky on their phone to hunt for inspirational quotes in different areas of the sky.

“This project was a great use of AR as it fits both the brand and the situation,” said course instructor Joachim Scholz, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Goodman.

“It fits the brand as their observatory gave us something to work with and it fits the social environment because we are living in these uncertain times, and for thousands of years in uncertain times we have looked to the stars for assurance and affirmation.”

It’s this potential for storytelling that excites Scholz about using AR as a marketing tool. It’s possible to create immersive experiences for consumers that can’t be accomplished on other platforms.

At a time when brands are using AR marketing at a record pace, the Goodman School of Business has established itself as an industry leader in training students to respond to demand.

Goodman is the only business school in the world offering AR marketing courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. Chapman University in California and New York University both offer a course that looks at both AR and Virtual Reality (VR) marketing together but neither go in-depth in teaching students how to apply AR marketing principles.

“It’s going to be the biggest wave of marketing talent needed,” Scholz said. “AR is already taking off and more and more companies are realizing that they need to get in there or they might have a competitive disadvantage. With that comes the need for trained marketers who can do it well and that’s where Goodman’s programs come in.”

On the AR marketing research front, Scholz with colleague Abdul Ashraf, Associate Professor of Marketing at Goodman, are also leading.

Scholz published the first peer-reviewed, conceptual article on AR marketing in 2016 and has been a leader in the field since. His more recent work focuses on the e-commerce side of AR marketing and how AR can be used as a storytelling tool. He is also the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) Research Scholar and is looking forward to using the AR wine lab on campus for future projects.

Ashraf’s research looks at how digital technology like AR can help spectators unsure about attending events in person during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the upcoming Canada Summer Games in Niagara. His work includes developing a comprehensive survey instrument for measuring mobile AR application usability and testing the suitability of that usability in predicting AR usage intention, loyalty and fan engagement during the Canada Summer Games.

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FIRST MBA/MPH GRADS READY TO

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH

By Kaitlyn Little

W

hen the first cohort of students entering Brock’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Public Health (MPH) concurrent degree program started their studies in fall 2019, they had no idea they would be graduating during the biggest public health crisis of their generation.

On Friday, Oct. 15, the first five students from the program that prepares grads to be public health administrators received their degrees during Brock’s Fall Convocation ceremony, which was livestreamed for graduates and their families to safely watch from home.

Offered through the Goodman School of Business and Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, the two-year program develops health leaders by providing students with a strong foundation in both management principles and public health.

The graduates are already using their knowledge to make an impact in the field.

Beth Swenor (BPH ’19, MBA ’21, MPH ’21), who is currently working as a risk specialist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, said the program expanded opportunities to her that she previously thought were unattainable.

“Working as a risk specialist in a health-care field, I need to critically understand different aspects of health care while also carefully monitoring all aspects of enterprise risk within the hospital,” she said. “This program helped me develop my criticalthinking skills, leadership skills and problem-solving skills.”

Jacqueline Gates (BPH ’19, MBA ’21, MPH ’21) is applying her knowledge as a strategic projects co-ordinator in the Medical Division of Niagara Region Public Health.

Her work focuses on the co-ordination and execution of health equity-focused projects.

“Working in a public health unit, our work is inherently rooted in content taught in the MPH program, such as the social determinants of health and continuous quality improvement,” Gates said. “The MBA program has allowed me to integrate business concepts, such as those taught in business strategy and organizational behaviour, into my daily work.”

Gates recommends the program to any students interested in a career in public health or health-care administration.

“The combination of content within the program equips students for the changing field of health and allows for flexibility in future career paths,” she said.

In addition to Gates and Swenor, the first cohort of MBA/MPH graduates also included Joelle Deschâtelets (BSc ’19, MBA ’21, MPH ’21), Sean McCrorie (MBA ’21, MPH ’21) and Raahyma Ahmad (MBA ’21, MPH ’21).

The MBA/MPH program is one of three graduate programs that Goodman offers.

The School also offers international double degree programs including an MBA and Master in Management program at the KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux or Marseille, France and an MBA MSc program with the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France, leading to the awarding of two degrees.

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Jacqueline Gates (top) and Beth Swenor are two of the first graduates of Brock University’s new Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Health concurrent degree program.

A BIG ASK: messages-question

FIRST-OF-ITS KIND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CONNECTS STUDENTS WITH ALUMNI ByTiffany Mayer

R

honda Klosler admits that negotiating isn’t her strongest skill.

Still, it was an easy deal to make when the Brock accounting alumna was asked to lead an online session last fall about negotiations and persuasive communication for Goodman students.

Klosler, Chief Operating Officer for RSM, was keen to share her knowledge and experience with Goodman students, and help her alma mater in the process.

“I’m at a stage in life where it’s important to me (to do this),” Klosler said. “I’ve had a lot of people share with me and help me in my career so it’s important for me to pay it forward and give back.”

Klosler offered insight into the art of negotiating during ASK — Alumni-Student Knowledge (ASK) Exchange — an interactive experience in which students learn from alumni and apply that knowledge in the classroom and real-world situations.

ASK was developed for Goodman students to supplement the theory-based learning in the classroom with a focus on soft skills — communicating persuasively in the case of Klosler’s session — knowledge of industry best practices and the lessons alumni have learned from their years of career experience.

“Students are at a stage in life where they’re excited and making decisions about what the next steps will be,” Klosler said about the importance of learning to negotiate. “You learn all sorts of technical skills at university but not necessarily these life skills.”

The concept of alumni-led sessions came to be after feedback from students indicated they wanted to connect with and learn from graduates. Topics are chosen by students in this first-ofits-kind program at Brock.

“ASK Exchange provides alumni the opportunity to impact students directly,” said Kajsa Cirocco, Alumni Co-ordinator. “The

program provides students the opportunity to learn directly from alumni about relevant topics, like being an adaptive thinker or how to make decisions when you have imperfect information, which they can apply to not only their schooling, but also to their life in general.”

Goodman hosted six ASK webinars in 2021, kicking off the program in January with a three-part series on critical thinking followed by another trio of webinars on business communication, which included Klosler’s session. Other alumni who have hosted seminars include Jeff Park (BAcc’ 95), recipient of the 2020 Brock University Distinguished Alumni Award and chairman and CEO of WellDyneRx; Doug Wilkinson (BBA ’91) FCPA partner at Deloitte; Francesca Cardarelli (BBA ’11), senior director of digital strategy at McDonald’s Canada; Andrew Moses (MBA ’11), co-founder and CEO of Tenantcube; and Najlaa Rauf (MBA ’12), vice-president of people and culture at Spark Power.

“It’s an untapped resource,” Klosler said about alumni expertise. “I say this all the time around mentorship — people like to share their perspective and insights. It’s brilliant and a way for the University to stay connected with alumni.”

Using the tips Klosler shared about different negotiation styles and the importance of being openminded and willing to compromise during negotiations, third-year business administration co-op student Harvan Raghavan successfully finagled an $81,000 starting salary, 25 vacations days and insurance benefits during a mock scenario that Klosler created for students to test their newly learned skills.

The final deal was a win, he said, much like Klosler’s seminar and the entire ASK series.

“Alumni not only share their wisdom with us but the mistakes they’ve made,” Raghavan said. “It gives great perspective. A lot of us are scared of what’s after school but they share their experience and advice.”

Rhonda Klosler (BBA ’93) participated in a new webinar series, Alumni-Student Knowledge (ASK) Exchange, which gives current students the chance to learn from Goodman alumni.

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ACCOUNTING ALUM NAMED TO

NATIONAL CPA HONOUR ROLL

By Kaitlyn Little

W

hen Brock grad Andrew Filinski (BAcc ’20) got an unexpected call from a higher-up partner at his accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, he wasn’t sure what to expect. However, it ended up bringing him some of the best news of the year.

Filinski, a senior accountant who specializes in audit and public sector accounting, learned he finished in the top one per cent on CPA Canada’s Common Final Exam (CFE).

“It was a mix of shock, happiness and sheer relief,” Filinski said. “For me just passing it was the biggest deal.”

The results, released by the CPA on Dec. 3, indicated that of the 5,912 candidates who successfully wrote the exam across Canada in September, only 68 were named to the prestigious National Honour Roll.

The exam represents an important milestone for CPA candidates who face rigorous academic, practical and examination requirements before they can use the internationally recognized designation of Chartered Professional Accountant.

For Filinski, preparing for the exam included taking more than eight weeks off from his firm to complete a study program and do practice cases.

“I felt pretty good coming out of writing the exam,” he said. “I didn’t feel that there were any curveballs that I wasn’t able to handle but I was not expecting to score as well as I did.”

Looking back at his time at Goodman, his classes with Accounting Lecturer Glenn Skrubbeltrang stand out.

“I gravitated towards the way he keeps your attention through his enthusiastic and fun attitude,” Filinski said. “Sometimes students lose sight of the big picture and he helped us think outside of the box and put things in perspective.”

At Goodman, both the School and the Accounting department were extremely proud to hear of Filinski’s achievement.

“We’re delighted to learn of Andrew’s performance on the CFE,” said Goodman Dean Andrew Gaudes. “This is a culmination of his pursuit of excellence towards achieving his goals, alongside the commitment and mentorship from a community of instructors, advisers, Brock’s co-op program and employer Grant Thornton in Port Colborne, who saw promise in Andrew as a co-op student and retained him to become a senior accountant within their firm today.”

Fayez Elayan, Chair of Goodman’s Accounting Department, expressed how proud both he and his accounting colleagues are for having a Goodman grad reach this milestone.

“I want to extend my most heartfelt congratulations to Andrew for being named to the CFE Honour Roll,” Elayan said. “Andrew’s success is a reflection of his professionalism, hard work and perseverance, which are values we all share at Goodman.”

Goodman would like to congratulate all successful alumni who wrote the CFE this year.

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Goodman School of Business alumnus Andrew Filinski (BAcc ’20).

📚 EMERGING SCHOLAR HAS A NOSE FOR NEWS & RESEARCH

By Tiffany Mayer Sadia Jahanzeb is the Emerging Scholar of the Year.

S

adia Jahanzeb was a young girl in Pakistan when NASA launched the Challenger Space Shuttle with disastrous results.

It was 1986, and an era before the Internet was a household fixture. Jahanzeb found herself glued to the daily newspaper that came to her home, reading the details of the space shuttle’s explosion 73 seconds after lift-off that killed all seven crew members, including a civilian schoolteacher.

Her curiosity about the Challenger tragedy was triggered again years later when Jahanzeb came across a research study that pointed to employee silence as a reason for the mission’s failure.

“People knew that things were not right,” Jahanzeb said. “There were faulty O-rings but they kept quiet about it because there was lots of pressure to go ahead with the plan to launch the Challenger, which cost valuable lives. The dots connected for me.”

Those dots became Jahanzeb’s raison d’être academically. The Assistant Professor of Human Resources Management at Goodman has spent her career devoted to studying workplace issues, specifically employee silence, knowledge hiding and workplace mistreatment.

Her research hasn’t gone unnoticed. Jahanzeb has been named as Goodman’s 2021 Emerging Scholar, an honour that comes after being nominated by her colleagues at the School.

And it’s to her colleagues that Jahanzeb gives credit for helping to fine-tune her research, including her PhD thesis, which she completed while teaching at Goodman as sessional instructor between 2014 and 2018 before rejoining the School in 2020.

Goodman professors Dave Bouckenooghe, Dirk De Clercq and Usman Raja provided her with input on her thesis then and have become co-authors with Jahanzeb on several papers since.

“These people had a strong hand in helping me reach my research goals,” she said. “They were very generous with their time and resources. I continue to work with them on a regular basis.”

It all started, though, with that interest in employee silence. There are three reasons employees keep quiet about issues: resignation or the feeling that nothing will change if they speak up; self-protection and the fear they’ll lose their job if they do; and pro-social silence to protect the organization.

Jahanzeb looks at all three from the contexts of different cultures, including Pakistan and North America.

That curiosity led to an interest in knowledge hiding, specifically how interpersonal conflicts can lead to employees keeping information from each other and the effects on overall productivity.

Examining workplace mistreatment, including ostracism and bullying, was a natural progression from there.

Part of her work includes coming up with practical solutions, using 360 assessments, which include input from peers, supervisors and customers, to identify strengths, weaknesses and blind spots in organizations and individuals.

“A lot of times when coming up with human resources suggestions, if some of the things are applied, it might resolve the situation,” Jahanzeb said. “I have the conviction that if there’s some discussion around these issues, there will be considerable improvement.”

These days, Jahanzeb, along with her research group, is focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, the responses to it by observing the communication strength, distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus of the messages sent out by 33 participating universities across 15+ countries. Applying the attribution approach, she and her team are trying to see if the institutions either focused their response on student well-being, faculty well-being, or management well-being and how leadership dealt with the pandemic.

It was another research topic inspired by the news of day, much like her ongoing investigation of the pro-social “blue wall of silence” in police departments after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“That’s my typical way of identifying an area of interest,” Jahanzeb said about her news consumption.

“If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. That might describe me.”

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Prof’s Perspective is a Goodman: The Magazine feature that highlights the opinions of our researchers on timely topics.

PROF'S PERSPECTIVE:

USING VR TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR REAL-LIFE ETHICAL DILEMMAS

By Robert Steinbauer & Anh Mai To

T

ext and video-based cases are often used to teach accounting students and accountants how to solve ethical issues in managerial accounting. Reading cases lets learners critically reflect on case facts and social norms, which, on a first look, seems beneficial.

However, responses to dilemmas in text-based cases often represent what a person thinks they should do, not what they would really do. The careful and analytical reflection involved in studying text-based cases is not always a feature of real-world decision-making where

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professionals are under time and performance pressures and influenced by organizational cultures.

Enter virtual reality.

A review of virtual reality (VR) use in education found it increases students’ motivation to learn by gamifying learning and letting students experience situations virtually, including ethical dilemmas.

Presenting ethical dilemmas in a virtual environment can trigger emotional responses like those generated in real life. Managers, for example, are strongly influenced by emotions when they make tough calls in crises.

Decisions made in VR may more closely resemble those a person would make in real life than those they make following reflection on a text or video-based case, which may create the perception that it’s not difficult to make decisions in ethical dilemmas.

Either way, both of these traditional teaching options can provide an unrealistic view of how students would behave in such situations. Conversely, experiencing the process of making flawed decisions in VR can help students identify their own weaknesses and learn strategies to improve their ethical conduct.

That could make VR a powerful tool for educators, including those in accounting, for promoting and developing ethical awareness and good decisionmaking. Accounting educators who adopt VR now can benefit from the experience in the long run, increase the value that students perceive in their courses, and contribute to the development of ethical awareness and behaviour in the profession.

Additionally, as more reputable sources, including university-affiliated sites like Coursera, Udacity and edX, offer free or low-cost massive open online courses (MOOCs), university and professional educators can look to VR to differentiate their teaching.

The good news is one does not need to be a software developer or have large budgets to use VR as a teaching aid to excite and engage students, whether teaching them in person or online. Software-development costs for customized VR environments have fallen sharply over the years, and educators can harness grant opportunities that support the development of innovative teaching resources.

For accounting organizations developing internal training for employees, custom VR environments are an option that allows each aspect of the simulation to be controlled and can be more effective than text and video in alerting employees to deficiencies in how they respond to ethical hazards. Such VR environments can easily be adapted to address pressing or new issues for a company or industry and can be seen as a long- term investment in mitigating risks associated with unethical employee behaviour.

As educators in business and professionals look for ways to make their courses stand out, the superiority of VR in revealing decision-making tendencies makes it a potential differentiator. We encourage educators to explore their ideas for VR-based training by reaching out to software-development companies, teaming up with friends and colleagues to write scripts and grant applications for new cases, and investing in this highly effective way of fostering ethical standards in business and professional practice.

This piece is based on Steinbauer and To’s whitepaper for CPA Ontario titled "Virtual Morality: How business educators can use VR to prepare students for real-life ethical dilemmas."

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NEXT LEVEL THIS YEAR. Discover how Goodman Group’s Professional Development certificate programs can help you diversify your skills to reach your career goals.

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THE LAST WORD

“The Accreditation Board commends the Goodman School of Business for the quality of internationalisation achieved in its BBA Co-op International Double Degree Program.

It recognizes the delivery of a strong international study experience for students supported by the international backgrounds and experience of faculty and the School’s strong international partnership network.”

Susan Laurenson, Chair, EFMD Programme Accreditation Board

Brock University Niagara Region 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1

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