Bissett finance professor, Tashfeen Hussain has research papers accepted for publication
Congratulations to Tashfeen Hussain,PhD, for having his research recognized. The first paper titled, Total productivity and cost efficiency dynamics of US merging banks: a non-parametric approach (Jaml Ali, PhD; Nacuer Essadam, PhD, and Tashfeen Hussain, PhD), has been accepted to the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance.
Abstract: This paper investigates the productivity characteristics and cost efficiency dynamics of US acquiring banks over the period from 1992 to 2003. The findings show that large merging banks tend to have the same productivity scores compared to their peer banks. Small merging banks, on the other hand, experienced lower productivity than their peers. The source of the acquirers’ productivity seems to be the efficiency change rather than the frontier shift. Cost efficiency results show that small and large merging banks maintained higher cost efficiencies over their peers for the whole period motivated by higher technical efficiency scores, meaning that the large acquirers’ ability to maximize their outputs given fixed inputs is best relative to merging and non-merging banks of different sizes. The principal component analysis of the cost efficiency sub-components indicate that the merging banks principal cost efficiency components are mainly of technical and pure technical efficiencies but after the merger, allocative efficiency increased substantially at the expense of technical and pure technical efficiencies, while the peer banks cost efficiency remained totally dependent on technical and pure technical efficiencies.
Also, Tashfeen has recently presented his working paper, titled, Do credit default swaps impact lenders’ monitoring of loans? at the Academy of Economics and Finance Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month. Tashfeen received FDC funding to attend the conference.
Congratulations Tashfeen, the faculty looks forward to more of your research.
Bissett professor, Uthpala Tennakoon has chapter published and receives research grant
Congratulations to Bissett HR professor, Uthpala Tennakoon, PhD, on the recent publication of a chapter titled, Ideal Organizations for the New Ideal Workers: Exploring the Role of Life-friendly work practices in the book, The New Ideal Worker. Contributions to Management Science. (Edited by las Heras Maestro M., Chinchilla Albiol N., Grau Grau M.)
Abstract:The increased interest of modern employees to balance competing demands between work and life has driven organizations to rethink the profile of the ideal worker. Life-friendly work practices (LFWP), which commonly include flexible work arrangements, compressed work weeks, teleworking, job sharing, family leave programs, organizational support for dependent care, and other life-related benefits, have evolved as a means to create workplaces which appeals to this new breed of workers. With limited resources at their disposal, it is important for organizations to be intentional about the selection and offering of LFWP. This interview study with 16 HR executives and 16 post-secondary university students as future employees, explores the organizational reasoning behind LFWP and future employee attraction criteria in relation to LFWP. The findings reveal that most organizations are genuinely interested in creating an ideal organization for their ideal employees. It may be beneficial for organizations to be more expressive of the organizational LFWP initiatives in their employer branding message to create awareness and attract the future ideal workers. The multi-perspective examination of LFWP provided useful insights for practical applications, and directions for further research.
Also, the faculty extends their congratulations to Uthpala for receiving a research grant from the Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the in the 2020 Essential Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants competition for the project titled, “Pop Quiz with a twist: Assessing the Benefits of two-stage in-class quizzes in business courses”.
2020 BASS managerial case competition a success
- 1st- Linda Tran & Sohaib Abbas
- 2nd- David Koter & Garret McMullen
- 3rd- Mezha Sikandar & Aaesha Azhar
Networking Day 2020: A direct link to the workforce
January 30th seen the latest edition of the Networking Day 2020: A direct link to the workforce and it was a big success!
Focusing the workshops on building interpersonal skills to aid in effective networking, and providing a conduit to companies actively recruiting through the Career Expo, provided the experiential impact that Bissett School of Business offers our students.
On behalf of the Bissett and Communications Studies faculties, we thank the organization committee, the many faculty, students and staff volunteers as well as our valued alumni for their participation.
Bissett student, Mary Serafini receives Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year Futures Fund Scholarship
The Bissett School of Business is very proud to have selected Bachelor of Business (BBA- Finance) student, Mary Serafini as their successful candidate for Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year Futures Fund Scholarship Award. Bissett was one of 10 business schools across Canada chosen to award one of their best and brightest students for 2019. The selection was based on students who demonstrated exemplary academic and leadership skills in their extracurricular endeavors. Mary received a $7500.00 bursary and a trip to Toronto to attend the Awards Gala on February 12, 2020.
Mary’s academic success and record of service has been recognized with many academic awards including the MRU President’s Scholarship, Bissett Scholarship for Excellence in Business, Louise McKinney Scholarship and the CFA Program Awareness Scholarship .
In September of 2018 Mary was selected to represent Mount Royal University on the CFA Institute Research Challenge Team; after months of preparation, Mary’s team presented their valuation report to industry judges and was subsequently selected as a finalist in the Canadian Prairies Division. Mary cites this opportunity as one of the highlights of her studies at Bissett School of Business.
A passion for academics and a strong belief in service to others, led Mary to mentoring first year business students in the MRU MAPS Peer Mentorship Program and tutoring finance students through Student Learning Services. Her keen interest in academics and her passion for giving back, has had real impact on the students she has mentored as well as those peers she has worked collaboratively with throughout the first years of her degree .
After her graduation in June of 2020, Mary plans on pursuing her CFA designation and, thereafter, a career in Finance, but also plans to stay connected to Mount Royal through the university’s mentorship program.
Mary represents the very best of today’s Bissett students and tomorrow’s leaders: dedicated, passionate and committed to her community.
Congratulations Mary!
Bissett professor Melanie Peacock named to HRD Global 100
Congratulations to Human Resources professor Melanie Peacock, PhD, for being named to HRD Global 100, the definitive list of the best and brightest people practitioners of 2020. The Global 100 is an initiative of Human Resources Director. Only 20 Canadians are named to the list and Melanie is only one of two academics to have made the list!
Melanie is currently on leave from the faculty to serve as President of the Mount Royal Faculty Association. Melanie remains active on the Human Resources landscape often as a media commentator on all issues relating to HR.
Congratulations Melanie!
Chair and finance professor, Reza Chowdhury has papers accepted for publication
Abstract: By using individual-level survey data from 97 countries, we investigate the effect of informal institutions on external financing and its impact on entrepreneurship. We find that a culturally-driven entrepreneurial environment allows entrepreneurs to obtain more debt, equity, and venture capital financing, and this, in turn, increases entrepreneurial activities. We further find that a culturally-driven entrepreneurial environment is more critical in determining entrepreneurship than formal institutional arrangements (such as investor protection). Our results provide evidence that cross-country variations in entrepreneurship can be explained by differences in cultural support to new venture financing across countries.
Abstract: The objective of this article is to investigate the moderating role of national-based cultural attributes in the relationship between brand value and firm value. This article examines the topic in the context of different national cultural dimensions, including individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, power distance, and long-term orientation. We use brand values of the Financial Times’s Global 500 companies and national cultural values reported by Hofstede, GLOBE, and Schwartz. Results exhibit that brands are more value-additive to companies in highly individualistic cultures. In addition, a valuable brand contributes more to firm value in low uncertainty avoidant, high masculine, low power distant, and short-term oriented cultures.National cultural attributes are therefore important determinants in explaining the magnitude by which highly valued brands contribute to the firm value of the companies that own the respective brands. The evidence suggests that while a valuable brand contributes to firm value, the level of its effect on firm value varies by distinctive characteristics of each national cultural dimension.
Bissett International Business professors Cotae and Musabende participate in international conferences
Bissett professor, Collette Lemieux, successfully defends her doctoral thesis
Bissett School of Business would like to extend congratulations to Assistant Professor, Collette Lemieux on successfully defending her doctoral thesis through the University of Calgary. Collette’s area of study was Education with a specialization in Adult learning and Mathematics Education. Collette is currently teaching Statistics in our faculty. Congratulations Collette!
The Abstract for Collette’s Thesis: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an intervention, which uses stories to explore statistics, on post-secondary students’ understanding of statistics and their beliefs about the usefulness of statistics, and what features of the stories support meaningful learning.
A qualitative case study approach was used. In line with the case study approach, multiple data sources were used, which consisted of student and instructor class artefacts, pre- and post-intervention written response items, and post-intervention interviews. The participants in the study were 20 students from a single first-year post-secondary business statistics course in which the intervention was implemented. Data analysis entailed a thematic approach based primarily on open-coding to identify participants’ understanding of statistics, their beliefs about the usefulness of statistics, and what features of the intervention supported meaningful learning.
The findings suggest that the intervention supported participants development of various types of understanding of selected topics in statistics, development of understanding of the usefulness of statistics, and personalization knowledge as part of the process of developing understanding. Further, the findings indicate that the intervention served to support positive beliefs about the usefulness of statistics. Finally, the findings suggest that the features of the intervention and, in particular, the stories that impacted meaningful learning included the prompts embedded within the stories, the authentic real-world context presented in the stories, and the nature of the characters introduced in the stories.
Bissett professor Rajbir Bhatti appointed as grant reviewer by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Bissett School of Business wishes to congratulate Bissett Associate Professor, Rajbir Bhatti on being appointed as a Grant Reviewer for the second year in succession, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Rajbir will be reviewing applications made to a joint initiative application to the College and Community Innovation Program (CCI) – IE and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program is managed by NSERC in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) participates in the Innovation Enhancement (IE) Grants component of the granting agencies’ College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program in order to foster partnerships between colleges and the private sector that will lead to business innovation at the local, regional and national levels. This joint initiative allows colleges to apply for a comprehensive funding package supporting both research costs and research infrastructure (through the CFI’s new College-Industry Innovation Fund
IE Grants stimulate applied research that brings together necessary expertise from diverse fields such as natural sciences and engineering, social sciences and humanities, and/or health sciences to address business-driven challenges and opportunities. IE Grants provide funding to colleges on a competitive basis to support the growth of their applied research capacity leading to collaborative applied research and technology transfer activities with and to the benefit of companies—SMEs in particular. They thus increase company engagements and contributions throughout the term of the grant. These grants will focus on an area where the college has recognized expertise and that meets local or regional needs and where there is the potential to increase the economic development of the community.
The funding limit for these grants is $400,000 per year, (payable for five years) – capped at $2 million per application.