2022 Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Recipients

Dirk De Clercq

Professor of Management

Departmental Researcher of the Year Award Winner for Organizational Behaviour, Human Resources, Entrepreneurship and Ethics

Primary research focus: Determining the various resources that reduce the risk of workplace bullying increasing other pervasive behaviours, particularly negative gossiping, in organizations.

Why are employees exposed to workplace bullying susceptible to participating in negative gossiping behaviours? When employees are threatened by workplace bullying, they experience a desire to shield themselves by allocating more time to activities that help them release their negative energy and feel better about themselves again. If employees are constantly ridiculed and put down by colleagues, they sense a lack of respect for their professional and personal well-being, so expressions of their frustrations, such as spreading negative rumours behind others’ backs, seem like viable ways to deal with the detrimental work situation.

What should organizations do to counter negative gossiping behaviours caused by employee exposure to workplace bullying?

Based on a sample of Canadian-based employees who work in the religious sector, the study findings indicate four resources that reduce the likelihood of employees spreading negative rumours about other organizational members in response to workplace bullying. The probability is lower when employees draw from their religious faith; are motivated to generate innovative ideas; derive meaning from their work; and have confidence in the trustworthiness of top management.

What do you hope your findings will achieve? This study helps organizations understand how workplace bullying can escalate into personal smear campaigns, which further deteriorate the organization’s internal functioning. It also informs organizations how this escalation can be subdued to the extent that employees can draw from resources that make a negative reaction in the form of gossip behaviours less desirable or necessary.

Magnus Hultman

Associate Professor of Marketing

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

Primary research focus: Significance of gathering and sharing information on social media and its positive impact on international ventures of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

How is social media a useful tool for small- and medium-sized businesses to strengthen their international competitiveness? Social media offers an alternative method of internationalization for firms that do not have the resources to use traditional methods such as conventional advertising and large-scale personal selling, which are both more costly and time-consuming. Research has shown that, because of these emerging communication technologies, the cost of internationalization is no longer such a large barrier, especially among SMEs that are often underresourced. As an example, Facebook provides a platform for over 50 million SMEs, representing a doubling in just a few years, with 30 per cent of the customer base being international. Therefore, it seems clear that social media has provided previously disadvantaged firms with access to global markets. At the same time, they benefit from low development and maintenance fees, regular online traffic, potential for high brand awareness and increased networking opportunities.

Should these companies prioritize collecting or dispersing information in foreign markets? Our findings from Kazakhstan-based SMEs show that using social media for listening (collecting information) and talking (dispersing information) appears to trigger different organizational outcomes. We found those that are good at listening via social media develop more effective promotional programs adapted to foreign markets while those that are good at talking via social media develop superior foreign market networks. Promotion adaptation and networking, in turn, improve international performance through new customer generation, customer retention and better customer service. Businesses that master both the art of listening and talking perform the best, thus we recommend devoting resources to each activity.

What inspired you to do this research? After studying drivers of international marketing performance among larger, developed market firms, I thought it might be interesting to discover what firms with less resources and institutional support from developing and emerging markets can do to compete internationally. These under-resourced businesses are interesting to study because they often have to come up with more creative, competitive solutions compared to their larger competitors in North America and Europe, who often rely on more traditional marketing methods. Also, by providing research insights to smaller businesses from emerging markets, we can hopefully contribute to levelling the competitive playing field in the global marketplace.

Eugene Kaciak

Professor of Operations Management and Business Research

Primary research focus: Investigating the influence of the business ecosystem on gender differences in entrepreneurial success.

The three levels of the entrepreneurial ecosystem are cultural, social and material. What are examples of resources in the threelevel ecosystem and how can they help diminish the gender gap in the success of entrepreneurs? Our research looks at the three levels of the business ecosystem to help determine how the gender differences in entrepreneurial success can be erased. Firstly, society’s attitudes towards entrepreneurship constitutes as a supportive (or unsupportive) cultural resource – family moral support being a prime example. These supportive relationships mean women entrepreneurs can count on or turn to family members who will help facilitate their business endeavours. Social attributes of entrepreneurship, in which social networks and investment capital play an essential role, are another type of resource in the ecosystem. Social networks help increase access to strategic tacit knowledge, including technologies, share scarce resources, and develop trust and connections among entrepreneurs as well as other key actors of the ecosystem, such as investors. Through these mechanisms, female entrepreneurs can gain a competitive advantage. Lastly, the geographical scope of the market when starting a business is a key material resource. The more female entrepreneurs are exposed to local markets at the start of their business, the more prosperous they are in terms of entrepreneurial success compared to their male counterparts.

Were there any surprises in your findings? We hypothesized that when women entrepreneurs have adequate investment capital at the start of their business venture, the initial gap in entrepreneurial success between male and female entrepreneurs will diminish. However, this conjecture is not supported by our results.

What is a significant challenge for female entrepreneurs that hinders their success? Work-family interface has predominantly been considered to be the concern of women rather than men. Female entrepreneurs tend to have limited control over broader, culture-related expectations that they, more so than men, should assign greater priority to family over work. As a result, women generally experience restricted access to relevant resources, such as human, social and financial capital. These limitations remain a frustrating reality in many countries.

Primary research focus: Corporate tax-related political activity through bribery and the resulting payoffs that businesses gain.

Through which actions do businesses participate in consumption bribery and what is the return of such practices? This paper investigates a unique type of tax-related corporate political activity (CPA) in China. Specifically, it examines how firms bribe government officials to establish a political connection by offering lavish business trips with first-class flights and six-star hotels, extravagant banquets, excessive entertainment and luxurious gifts. As a return, the corrupt tax officials selectively enforce tax policies to favour bribing-active firms. Evidence shows that firms with higher consumption bribery exhibit lower total tax burden and income tax burden. On average, a one-standard-deviation increase in consumption bribery decreases a firm’s total tax burden by 0.65 per cent, translating into tax savings of RMB 40 million (US$6.44 million), nearly a tenfold return.

What are some of the firm characteristics and regional factors that influence the likelihood, as well as payoff, of companies bribing tax officials? Firm size, political connectedness strength, local corruption level, economic development, marketization level, and industry competitiveness determine a firm’s bribery strategies and outcomes. Small firms, non-stateowned firms, state-owned firms with weak political connections, and firms in competitive industries engage in more consumption bribery, presumably because they have a stronger need to build political connections to clear bureaucratic obstacles and gain competitive advantages. The payoffs of tax bribery are more pronounced in more corrupt, less economically developed, and less marketized regions.

How can governments prevent consumption bribery to avoid detrimental effects on the country's overall development? In 2012, China launched an anti-corruption campaign, which led to a dramatic decrease in the revenues of restaurants, hotels, tourism, other recreation industries and luxury goods sales. This paper further documents that the returns on tax bribery declined by 45.4 per cent after 2012. This suggests that a political campaign does play a vital role in curtailing consumption bribery that adversely affects investment and economic growth, governance quality and the justice of legal systems.