Pedada (Assistant Professor of Marketing and The Associates Fellow in Marketing and Inclusive Business), recently published a study in the FT50-ranked Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

The paper, “Rural women microentrepreneurs, consumer acquisition, and value delivery,” examines how recruiting women entrepreneurs living in rural India can aid in consumer acquisition and value delivery, finding that rural areas with more women than men microentrepreneurs experienced a 40.8% increase in consumer acquisition and delivered 64.1% greater value to consumers.

Undertaken with co-authors Aindrila Chatterjee and Amit J. Chauradia, Pedada describes the study as a highlight of his career so far, emphasizing how much the subject resonates with his own background.

“I personally came from one of these rural villages, and I witnessed many of the challenges that rural women face. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to work on this project because it is very close to my heart,” he explains.

Pedada and one of the entrepreneurs working with DEF.

Using data from the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a large NGO based in India that strives to empower rural villages with digital technologies, Pedada examined the work of rural women microentrepreneurs. With the support of DEF, these small business owners connect rural consumers to information about welfare programming offered by the government, bringing more consumers out of digital darkness and helping them access crucial resources.

Pedada studied the effects of recruiting more rural women microentrepreneurs for DEF and speaks with pride about the key findings.

“First, we found that the rural locations with more women microentrepreneurs delivered more value and consumer acquisition. The second finding is that these women can also deliver better value to women consumers specifically. The third finding, which we are very proud of, is that not only are these women creating more value in their own work, but it seems that their passion and commitment is contagious,” he notes.

To this point, the research shows that men microentrepreneurs working in these inclusive settings with more women microentrepreneurs delivered greater value to their consumers than those working in predominantly male work environments.

This research is a source of personal and professional pride for Pedada, as he explains that it combines his core research interests—emerging markets, digital environments, and the intersections of marketing and finance. He also hopes it can broaden perspectives and inspire more work that examines inclusive practices that might be taking place on demographic or geographic fringes.

“Given the increasing importance and interest in the UN Sustainable Development Goals—accessibility, gender equity—I think this kind of work is going to be more and more relevant. The most important thing is that we leverage our research toolkit and training rigorously in pursuit of underexamined areas,” he says.

Pedada’s work in this and, he explains, future research wants not just to rethink a concept like entrepreneurship, but instead strives to think bigger about what entrepreneurship is—who can become an entrepreneur and how that identity can be a source of personal and community empowerment and a compelling value proposition for businesses.

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Asper School of Business aims to expand global knowledge and engage in intellectual exploration to advance teaching, learning and research with an intent to advance and explore equity, diversity, and inclusion. Learn more about the Master of Science (MSc) and PhD in Management programs at the Asper School of Business.

By signing into a UM Libraries account, interested readers can access Pedada’s article here.

Since 2019, Asper School of Business researchers have secured over $2.1 million in funding from the Tri-Council agencies, which include SSHRC.

Xiumei Li (Assistant Professor, Business Administration) received an Insight Development Grant for her project “Entrepreneurial Success in Crowdfunding: The Art and Science of Sensemaking,” and explains, “these grants are crucial for transforming promising ideas into actionable research projects.”

Li also notes that funding alone is not the only path to success for researchers, emphasizing importance of a strong research culture.

“The research culture at Asper is both supportive and collaborative. I have benefited from formal support, such as funding programs, as well as informal opportunities, like stimulating discussions with my colleagues,” said Li.

She adds, “This SSHRC Insight Development Grant project is a collaborative effort with a colleague from my department [Jie Yang], reflecting the strong culture of teamwork at Asper.”

In addition to Li’s award, Namita Bhatnagar (Professor, Marketing), Muhammad Kabir (Assistant Professor, Accounting & Finance), and Jie Yang (Assistant Professor, Business Administration) secured Insight Development Grants, logging a 36% application success rate overall for the Asper School of Business and bringing in over $230,000 in funding from this program this year.

The Insight Development Grant Program supports research in its initial stages, enabling the development of new research questions, experimentation with new methods, and theoretical approaches or ideas. Funding is provided for short-term research development projects of up to two years.

Kabir’s work examines the Livent Case—a case that went before the Supreme Court of Canada after entertainment company Livent collapsed and took legal action against its auditor. His project assesses the impact of this case on Canadian firms and auditor liability.

He expresses why securing early-stage funding is an important achievement for researchers and how doing so empowers them to get innovative projects off the ground.

“Getting an external grant offers early-stage researchers a level of validation of their research, as they work to navigate the peer review and publication process in the first few years of their career,” he explains. “A short-term grant is also an excellent opportunity to learn how to manage a research team on your own. This learning often leads to successful future grants.”

Read more about Kabir’s “Auditor Liability, Firm-level Audit Quality, and Investment: The Effect of the Livent Case on Canadian Firms,” as well as Bhatnagar’s “Sensitive Women and Rational Men: Bridging the Gender Divide in Consumer and Employee Green Behaviours,” Li’s “Entrepreneurial Success in Crowdfunding: The Art and Science of Sensemaking,” and Yang’s “My Turf, My Rules: Investigating the Roles of Customers in Product Categorization” here.

In addition to Insight Development Grant success, the Asper School of Business has logged a 50% success rate for SSHRC Insight Grant applications in 2024.

Jieying Chen (Associate Professor, Business Administration) and Changqiu Yu (Assistant Professor, Accounting & Finance), each received Insight Grants, totaling over $170,000.

The SSHRC Insight Grant Program supports research excellence from emerging and established scholars in the social sciences and humanities and provides funding for research initiatives of two to five years.

Yu, whose work aims to offer insights into the role of environmental information in financial decision-making, describes how this funding allows her work to move forward.

“In order to advance understanding of how environmental factors are integrated into firm valuations, I need access to a large amount of data,” says Yu. “This funding promotes knowledge mobilization by allowing me to purchase datasets, hire research support, and participate in knowledge exchanges at Canadian and international conferences.”

Read more about Yu’s, “Carbon Emissions, Environmental Transition Risks, and Firm Valuations: Evidence from Financial Analysts,” and Chen’s, “Immigrants’ Proactive Socialization Tactics, Adaptation, and Career Success,” here.

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The Asper School of Business aims to expand global knowledge and engage in intellectual exploration to advance teaching, learning, and research. Asper researchers regularly publish in internationally renowned scholarly publications, partner with government and NGOs to advance positive societal impact, and convene with the Manitoba business community to build bridges between theory and practice.

Visit the Asper School of Business Research page to learn more about research programs, events, and contributions from Manitoba’s business school.

Kamatham, with co-authors Ramkumar Janakiraman, Sven Feurer, Rishika Rishika, Bhavna Phogaat, and Marina Girju, examines the effects of daylight saving time in “Spring Forward = Fall Back?” The Effect of Daylight Saving Time Change on Consumers’ Unhealthy Behavior.”

The article has been published in the Journal of Marketing, a prestigious FT 50 publication, one of the top journals in the field,  and a testament to the significance of Kamatham and co-authors’ research questions and findings.

In two studies, Kamatham and his co-authors collected data about consumption habits before and after the twice-annual time change to articulate two compelling findings: first, that the onset of daylight saving time in the spring increases consumption of packaged and processed snacks, and second, that consumers tend to decrease their visits to fitness centres following the onset of daylight saving.

For Kamatham, the topic piqued his interest as a researcher invested in policy analysis, marketing, and how individual consumers and firms respond to changes in policy. He points out that while researchers in other disciplines like medicine have examined the negative impacts of daylight saving’s springing forward, approaches focused on consumer behaviour and marketing were relatively sparse.

“That made us dig into this question: what happens to consumer behaviour around this timeframe? Each year, you lose an hour and basically nothing else seems to change, but we were interested to know what happens in the immediate day or two after we lose that hour. What happens to our behaviour when we make these choices in terms of—in this case—food consumption and visiting fitness centres,” he explains.

For Kamatham, whose doctoral research examined food consumption habits, this project allowed him to draw on expertise while uncovering new and compelling findings. He notes that the impact of daylight saving on fitness centre visits is particularly significant for the paper and the field.

“I think we have just scratched the surface there,” he says, referencing the finding and how the data showed that the distance consumers had to travel to their gym also played a role in how much they were impacted by the time change.

“Future research could build on this finding and examine many things including how habits affect results. There could be implications for businesses in this field, and there could be ways to help consumers that are prone to this effect adapt to the time change,” he suggests.

For consumers pursuing a physically active lifestyle, this work could provide insights into those that are more affected by the time change than others, creating in-roads into strategies to reduce disruption and support positive habits.

“We get used to the time change twice every year, because after that short period of disruption, we do adjust,” he explains. “However, though we adjust, there can still be negative consequences even in the shorter term, and we should be attentive to those effects.”

This attention is at the heart of how Kamatham approaches both his research and teaching. In undergraduate and graduate courses, he teaches digital marketing and emphasizes methodology, encouraging students to think critically about how they understand change and how they can be attentive to and responsive to all kinds of change in their careers, whether they pursue research or find themselves developing marketing campaigns and strategy.

“You have to have that curiosity and that ability to see that what you learn in one experiment or campaign might not be applicable in all settings. You have to develop this mindset of how to run experiments, how to analyze them, and how to draw insights from them,” he explains.

As a researcher, Kamatham offers more than compelling findings about a twice-annual time change that ranges from a mild inconvenience to a disruptive and frustrating policy; he also demonstrates the value of staying curious, seeing every change as an opportunity for new questions and further insight.

 As the clocks fall back, interested readers might well use that extra hour to read Kamatham’s compelling publication.

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The Asper School of Business aims to expand global knowledge and engage in intellectual exploration to advance teaching, learning, and research. Our researchers’ scholarly work is regularly published in internationally renowned publications.

Learn more about research at Asper and recent publications by visiting the Asper Research page, and learn more about research programs in management (MSc and PhD) at the Stu Clark Graduate School here.

Studying Patagonia’s business practices, supply chain and mission, Shourkaei observes how the brand fully integrates sustainability. “Patagonia has a holistic view of its operation, responsibility and impact,” he says. “Their initiatives are not piecemeal—all components fit and work together like a puzzle to create a unique, sustainable, global supply chain.”

In other words, sustainability permeates every facet of Patagonia’s supply chain—from the material (reducing textile waste), to the relational (developing mutually beneficial and trusting partnerships with suppliers, local NGOs and customers), and the discursive (sharing their pro-sustainability practices and mission internally and externally).

Shourkaei studied Patagonia, interested in how medium and large organizations can become more sustainable to create momentum for significant social change. While he demonstrates that large-scale change through medium and large corporations is vital, many of these corporations still pursue sustainability to maximize profit, which makes transformative change difficult.

He became interested in how small, local organizations might be able to take a completely different approach to sustainability and offer an alternative to profit-focused sustainable business.

A shift from global corporations to local organizations

Shourkaei’s thesis project explores how a holistic view of sustainability and placing people and planet ahead of profit can fundamentally change business structure, strategy and organizing. As such, his dissertation examines an alternative food network, initiated by Fireweed Food Co-op, a local nonprofit serving Manitoban food producers and consumers.

In his work with Fireweed, Shourkaei observes how the collaborative efforts of multiple actors engaged in the local food network can create an alternative food system. He is attracted to this case because the network resembles strong sustainability, which he defines as having three key features.

“Strongly sustainable organizations emphasize interconnectedness, which means that they seek collaboration over competition, and positive outputs to stakeholders rather than profits for shareholders,” he says. “They promote positive anarchy, decentralizing their operations and structure. And, they strive to work within the planetary boundary, recognizing that our resources are finite, pursuing sufficiency or ‘enoughness’ and seeking qualitative over financial growth.”

He explains how these features work together to create a supportive network of individuals working with nature to sustainably address a need. “It is not just the human actors who have agency; the environment—weather, plant and animal life—is an active part of this network,” says Shourkaei.

The decision to do a second PhD

Shourkaei is hopeful that sustainable business practices can aid in the protection and restoration of the environment. Growing up in rural Iran, he witnessed how unsustainable practices draw the life from once-green places. He found a passion for sustainability and hope that he could make a positive impact through his work.

While working on his first PhD at the University of Tehran, Shourkaei took this passion to industry, hoping to change large organizations from within. “I worked at a leading company in edible oil production,” says Shourkaei. “I suggested to the CEO that we should be more responsible for nature and minimize environmental damage but was told that this was not our role; that’s for the government to enforce.”

Pondering this inconvenient reality in the business world, he sought another way to make change and decided to pursue a second PhD focused on sustainability and business. He chose Asper as a school that prioritized this field and now works under the supervision of Bruno Dyck, Norman Frohlich Professor in Business Sustainability.

His former CEO’s response demonstrated a core issue in the pursuit of sustainability: if large organizations and government ultimately hold the most power, how far can individual efforts really go? Shourkaei rethinks this question, drawing on his role as an instructor at Asper and his hope to one day become a professor teaching business sustainability.

“Of course, change may not be possible with individual efforts alone; government and business should be responsible for making significant changes,” he says. “But, I think, ‘who will work in government, who will run businesses in the future?’ They’re students in my classroom or people that are reading my research. They will work in roles where they can make an impact. So, I believe that cultivating a sustainability mindset and sharing this knowledge can contribute to creating a better world.”

In his research and teaching, Shourkaei is documenting how a sustainability mindset prompts a reimagination of how businesses look, function and serve their communities. He is also observing how a holistic mindset rooted in interconnectedness allows us to rethink what it means to be an individual in the natural world, challenging the limitations of individualism and inspiring collective action.

The two-day conference took place on the University of Manitoba campus and explored the theme: Succession Planning in Family Enterprise—Align the Family and the Business will Follow. Expert speakers discussed the intricacies of succession planning, from management to ownership, and engaged with the audience about the challenges and potential of family enterprise.

This conference is possible thanks to the support and initiative of Rod Senft [BComm(Hons)/67, LLB/70],  accomplished entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, as well as a dedicated advocate of family business.

Senft opened the conference with a reminder of how essential family businesses are to the economy in Manitoba and beyond.

“Everywhere you go in this city, you’ll find family businesses. Stand on the corner of Portage and Main, and there’s the Richardson building right there. Then, go down the street, and you’ll find True North and the Chipman family.

“Family business is the backbone of every economy with 60 to 70% of any economy driven by family business and the employment that comes with it. Creating family business with succession plans that can transition into the next generation requires knowledgeable people and dedicated advisors. This weekend is about pursuing that goal and improving that knowledge,” said Senft.

The first day of the conference featured presentations and lively discussion about the importance of succession planning within the family enterprise sector. Lisa Cefali [BComm(Hons)/89] gave a thorough overview of how complex family business can be, from developing multi-generational business strategy to achieving and assessing how well family members will fit into their roles.

Joanne Sigurdson [BComm(Hons)/77], Eric Robert (BComm(Hons)/06] and Miguel Cure participated in a panel discussion about local family businesses and the importance of peer advisory networks such as The Executive Committee (TEC) Canada. The first day concluded with accomplished financial author Evelyn Jacks sharing insights from her book Defusing the Family Business Timebomb.

The second day of the conference brought together academic presentations and panels covering a range of subjects and family business contexts. Researchers from Asper presented alongside colleagues from across the world in these hybrid sessions.

Dr. Zhenyu Wu, Asper School of Business Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Research Programs, Canada Research Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and acclaimed family business scholar, presented alongside Asper PhD student Yuying Sun. Their paper explored reputational risk and firm performance.

Day 2 focused on academic approaches and research.

Asper post-doctoral researcher Dr. Zixu Zhang discussed family firm research and development with colleague Dr. Hanqing (Chevy) Fang, and Professors of Business Administration Dr. Jingnan Li and Dr. Jijun Gao considered crowdfunding performance and family involvement.

The conference explored succession planning and family enterprise broadly from both industry and academic perspectives with an emphasis on the growth of family businesses and their sustainability in a dynamic business landscape.

Dr. Bruno Silvestre, Dean of the Asper School of Business, speaks to the significance of bringing the business and research communities together at this annual event.

“The 2023 Rod Senft Family Business Conference was a great success! At the Asper School of Business, we remain dedicated to bridging the business and academic worlds, to better understand and serve the economy of Manitoba. I am so grateful for this opportunity to connect, share stories and collaborate to advance family business and business education.”

Please enjoy more event photos here.

Dr. Zhenyu Wu, Asper Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Research Programs, and Canada Research Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, helped spearhead the approval of the new stream.

“I’m thrilled by this new concentration of the Ph.D. in Management program at Asper, and confident that it will substantially broaden the scope of our research graduate programs and encourage more collaboration towards research excellence at our School,” said Wu.

As one of the first Ph.D. programs in supply chain management in Canada with a supply chain focus, there is a growing need for Canadian-trained management academics and increased market demand for trained supply chain professionals.  Within Asper, this demand is reflected in the rising interest for the supply chain major within the Bachelor of Commerce program. According to application statistics, supply chain is the fastest-growing major in the Asper undergraduate program, with an almost 40% increase in student interest in the last two years.

According to Professor S.S. Appadoo, Head of the Department of Supply Chain Management, the Ph.D. program in supply chain is for students interested in becoming professors and academic researchers in the field. Students admitted to the program will have the opportunity to work in an active research environment and while gaining knowledge in supply chain management’s theoretical and substantive areas, along with some teaching opportunities within the faculty.

“We will ensure that our faculty members collaborate with students throughout the program to make them great scholars and educators. We have a fantastic team of high-caliber research scholars in the department,” said Dr. Appadoo. “Based on our rich research publications record and research grant inputs, our objective is to make this Ph.D. program in SCM at the Asper School of Business among the best in the region. We are committed to working together to advance supply chain research and education.”

Students joining the Ph.D. program will benefit from two significant factors.  The location in Manitoba, a continental hub for transportation and logistics and the connection to the University of Manitoba Transport Institute.  Located at the Asper School of Business, the Transport Institute is a world-renowned research institute in transportation and logistics. Transport Institute researchers play a key role in undertaking outstanding collaborative scholarly research and publications, facilitating the transfer of knowledge to students to become competent scholars in transportation and logistics.

“One thing that excites me about the launch of our Ph.D. program in Supply Chain Management is the opportunity to pay it forward. Every researcher has benefitted in some way from the mentorship and support of more senior people in their field, either as teachers, collaborators, or advisors,” said Dr. Kelsey Taylor, Asper Assistant Professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management. “I look forward to being able to return the favour and provide that same support to our incoming Ph.D. students and cement the SCM department’s reputation as a place where high-impact research happens.” 

Dr. Bruno Silvestre, who began his official five-year term as Dean of the I. H. Asper School of Business on July 1, 2022, is thrilled about the growth of supply chain at the Asper School of Business.

Silvestre is a CN Professor in Supply Chain Management, former Director of the Transport Institute, and tenured professor in Supply Chain. He also spearheaded the development of the new Master of Supply Chain Management and Logistics at the Asper School of Business in 2021.

“Asper’s new offering is an extraordinary opportunity for students and faculty looking to fulfill the increasing need for Canadian-trained supply chain professionals,” said Silvestre. “Thank you to the tremendous efforts and contributions of all members of our SCM team for making this Ph.D. concentration a reality. We look forward to welcoming our first cohort of students in 2023.”

We started the year with the launch of our Pursuing our Asper-ations Strategic Plan. The values articulated in this plan grounded us in our mission while reminding us that adaptability and agility are essential in preparing for the future.

We also celebrated one of the best performances to date at the 2020 JDC West Competition, reinforcing Asper’s place as a top Canadian business school. Team Toba, won awards in a mix of categories including third overall as Academic School of the Year among 12 of the premier post-secondary institutions across Western Canada.

The Asper community also cheered on our Asper MBA and Asper MFin students as they competed in case competitions in early in 2020 and celebrated an outstanding performance from our MBA students when they placed second overall at the Ivy Haskayne East Meets West Case competition.

In mid-March, when the pandemic abruptly changed our course, we all demonstrated resilience and I am so proud of how all our faculty and staff came together in outstanding ways to move our entire teaching model to the virtual realm while still focusing on providing excellent student experience. We even made history by hosting the U of M’s very first virtual class and this trailblazing example set the tone for the entire year.

Our MSc and PhD students also quickly adapted to the new reality the pandemic imposed on researchers. Throughout the year, our graduate research students resumed active (virtual) participation on international conferences and seminar series where they presented their work and had significant success in publishing their work.

One of our first initiatives following the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic was prioritizing student support by creating an emergency student relief fund for Asper students facing financial challenges due to the pandemic. Through the combined financial support from faculty, staff, and the Associates, I am proud to report that the Asper School of Business created an emergency relief fund for our students. The aforementioned generous giving combined with a School budgetary reallocation allowed us to distribute more than $469,000 to undergraduate and graduate students in need.

To recognize our business connections and most importantly, give back — the Asper School of Business created the Small Business Consulting Course. Recognizing the urgent need within the community, this undergraduate course supported the Manitoba business community by providing students an opportunity to work with small businesses to help find solutions to their current challenges. The course launched in September with 26 students providing consulting work to the 12 local businesses that signed-up to participate. This class was an excellent opportunity for our School to give back to local businesses and we are proud of the interest the program received from the local and national media, from students, from the community, and even from the Prime Minister’s Office.

As a significant win for our school and our community, the proposal for an increased admission capacity for the Bachelor of Commerce Program was approved and applied this fall term. The Asper School was successful in obtaining approval to admit 110 more undergraduate students annually and as a result, the Asper School can admit up to 584 BComm students each year.

As we moved into the fall term, the Asper School of Business took a proactive approach to prioritize equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at our School. We established an Asper EDI Task Force, which will proactively address discrimination and foster a more inclusive learning environment for every single student that attends or interacts with the Asper School of Business. We also held the inaugural session on EDI as a part of the Asper orientation where five Asper students and alumni shared adverse experiences of discrimination and bias at the School. The personal experiences and insights shared by the panel participants will help inspire a cultural shift and raise awareness of the challenges facing our School. I believe this is an important turning point for Asper.

As we finish off the year, we are thrilled to launch the Master of Supply Chain Management and Logistics (MSCM) program at Asper’s Stu Clark Graduate School. We are excited to introduce this degree to the local, national and international community and to welcome our first student cohort in fall 2021.

I end the year on a note of gratitude. I am grateful to you – Asper students – who showed an incredible ability to adjust to the new (and hopefully short-lived) normal, while practicing agility, resilience, and hard work alongside compassion towards their family members, friends, peers, and Asper professors and staff. I am also grateful to the dedication of our faculty to creating new ways to engage our students and to the support of our staff to ensure we are providing you with the best student experience possible.

While we consider with compassion the suffering caused to many by the pandemic, we should also recognize the rare opportunity for personal growth that accompanied this human tragedy. This year brought opportunities for learning new insights about ourselves as individuals, about us as a community and a society, and about humanity. These insights make us better equipped for future self- and collective-improvement.

I wish you and yours the very best for the season and for safe winter break.

May 2021 bring good health, happiness, and success to all!

Dr. Gady Jacoby

Dean and CPA Manitoba Chair in Business Leadership

I.H. Asper School of Business