Welcome Message

Welcome to the 2020 & 2021 Research Newsletter of the Schulich School of Business

We proudly present the 12th edition of Schulich’s Spotlight on Research. It is testimony to what Schulich really is: a research leader, dedicated to training a new generation of management professionals, built around a faculty that passes on their groundbreaking research every day in the classroom to the next generation.

After almost two years of the pandemic, most organizations have faced unusual challenges. We were no exception. With most of our ‘customers’ gone, we had to invent a completely new model of delivery of our service. On top of that, we had a change in leadership. This report then is a testimony to one great strength that has put Schulich always in the top echelons of business schools globally. Our exceptional faculty managed to keep us at the forefront of academic research in many contemporary subjects.

As you sift through this report, you will find that the school has taken head-on many of the contemporary challenges. The obvious challenge, healthcare, and the management of healthcare is a predominant feature of this report. Our faculty, most notably around our Krembil Centre for Health Management & Leadership, has excelled in putting us on the map in many of the issues that the pandemic raised over the last three years. Enjoy reading these pages within this report.

One of the surprising discoveries of the pandemic has been the vulnerability of global supply chains. Symbolized by the accident of the Evergreen container vessel in the Suez Canal, we are now very astutely aware of the fact that the world in which consumers enjoy affordable products, brought to us from all over the world, is indeed a rather fragile setup. Our George Weston Ltd Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains has done formidable work addressing these challenges.

The pandemic also has given rise to a new, still insufficiently understood, area of financial management. The rise of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain economy are phenomena that came up recently and are still in the phase where their emergent nature cloaks some of the real features of this new arena of business. Enjoy reading how Schulich faculty have taken on this challenge. Our colleague Henry Kim and his Blockchain Lab have done impressive work, most notably embedding Schulich research into the wider York University community.

A particular challenge for research in a business school is to make it relevant for wider society. It is an ongoing challenge. One of our proudest achievements, then, is that one of our professors actually made it onto the Hollywood circuit! Moshe A. Milevsky is featured in a 2021 released movie called The Baby Boomer Dilemma, produced and directed by Doug Orchard. For a mostly perceived dry matter such as finance and retirement instruments, this is an amazing achievement that makes all of us here in the School very proud. It points to a wider challenge of making our work as researchers relevant to broader, public audiences.

There are many more achievements to celebrate. As leaders in their respective fields, our faculty’s research enjoys widespread interest not only in the academic community, but also in the corporate community and in the public at large. In that regard, Schulich faculty have continued to launch successful partnerships and research collaborations that provide not only financial support for faculty research, but an important training ground for many of our doctoral students as well. Much of the School’s faculty research is published in top-tier journals, has important public policy implications, and continues to receive extensive coverage and attention in the media. Our faculty have achieved world acclaim for their long-term impact through their research excellence and through the quality of their contributions and their ability to inspire.

Our office takes great pride in securing our faculty members’ research grants, which are interdisciplinary in nature and foster collaborations with academics at other institutions, as well as with industry partners. This is certainly evidenced by our increased success in receiving external funding. Schulich researchers predominantly receive funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In 2020 and 2021, Schulich had phenomenal years in acquiring external funding. In particular, our SSHRC results were most impressive. We earned a remarkable 85 percent success rate. This is way above the Canadian average success rate.

The Office of the Associate Dean has undertaken several new initiatives in 2021 to showcase and disseminate the true prowess of the faculty members’ scholarly and research achievements, for instance, establishing a systematic way for the School to archive research successes and outcomes and share the achievements with the wider community. The Office has opened a dedicated email address (researchsuccess@schulich.yorku.ca) to which Schulich faculty members can send a formless email message with their recent research successes. The Office collects these messages, enters them into the databases, and by way of celebrating the success, the Office of the Associate Dean Research sends out an email to all faculty and PhD students sharing the successes and achievements on a regular basis. The Research Office also works with the media team on media releases about some forthcoming research where media coverage helps facilitate the mobilization of the faculty’s research. Furthermore, the Faculty & Research section on the Schulich website has been completely revamped in 2021 with new modules that include Spotlight on Research, Faculty Impact, Research Funding, a brandnew online Publications Database, Schulich’s Centres of Excellence and other research institutes and labs, and a breakdown of Schulich faculty by research area. These are all important, not only for knowledge mobilization, but also for impact.

We hope you enjoy reading about our exciting research work as much as we enjoy sharing it with you. And, most of all, we would be happy to hear from you. Please email any feedback, suggestions, or comments you may have to research@schulich.yorku.ca.

DR. DIRK MATTEN Associate Dean, Research; Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility; Professor of Sustainability

DR. FARHANA ISLAM

Research Officer

Office of the Associate Dean, Research

Features