SFU Business BLOG

New research focused on human resources and organizational behaviour from SFU Business has been recognized with publication in the Academy of Management Review, one of the most prestigious journals in the management field.

The occasion is significant in that two SFU Business professors – associate professor Mila Lazarova and assistant professor Andrew Von Nordenflycht, who are part of a vibrant cohort of new scholars – have published separate articles in the journal’s January edition.

Lazarova published the article “Elucidating the Positive Side of the Work-Family Interface on International Assignments: A Model of Expatriate Work and Family Performance” with co-authors M. Westman and M.A. Shaffer.  Her work conceptualizes cognitive, affective and conative influences on expatriate work and family role performance.

Von Nordenflycht authored the article “”What is a Professional Service Firm? Toward a Theory and Taxonomy of Knowledge-Intensive Firms.” His research develops a theory of the distinctive characteristics of professional service firms and their organizational implications.

The mission of the Academy of Management Review (AMR) is to publish new theoretical insights that advance the understanding of management and organizations. AMR publishes novel, insightful and carefully crafted conceptual work that challenges conventional wisdom concerning all aspects of organizations and their roles in society.

As the global media descends upon Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, a new initiative conceived in partnership with SFU Business is helping international reporters give their stories about the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood more context, and a stronger sense of that community.

Keeping the Door Open Society and SafeGames 2010, which focus on risky behaviours, harm reduction and social justice issues, established the concept of telling the neighbourhood’s story in a responsible way at the 2009 SI2 (Social Innovation) Conference, hosted by Simon Fraser University’s Segal Graduate School of Business in downtown Vancouver.

“It is not obvious from the surface that the Downtown Eastside is a community, and we are hoping to give journalists the opportunity to go beyond the usual stereotypes,” said Gillian Maxwell of SafeGames 2010, whose group will facilitate media tours of the area and have reporters meet residents of the neighbourhood, one that is impacted heavily by poverty, addiction and mental illness. “One of the aspects that can easily be missed is the honesty and heart that exists there, so to meet them face to face is an enlightening experience.”

As the initiative rolls out in the days leading up to the Games, SafeGames 2010 is also working with business students from inov8.ca, an SFU Business social innovation initiative that is supported by the school’s CMA Centre for Strategic Change and Performance Measurement. Inov8.ca students will volunteer with SafeGames in a number of different roles.

The collaboration highlights the potential of interplay between social innovators, academics, students and other parties that was the core of the SI2 workshop. Presenters at SI2 were encouraged to explore the relationship between social innovation and social institutions in a wide range of ways. SafeGames 2010 welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with inov8.ca in this way.

According to Tom Lawrence, SFU Business professor and SI2 organizer, a primary goal of the SI2 event was to provide significant opportunity for new conversations to occur among participants from across disciplines and sectors, both through structured panels and roundtables, and through informal social interactions.

How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending February 4, 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

On January 21, 2010, Simon Fraser University Business co-presented the “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100” awards and summit at SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver.

Colleen Collins, SFU Business Associate Dean, co-presented the Top 100 awards ceremony along with Betsy Gibbons of Korn/Ferry International.

A highlight from the summit was a panel discussion that included award winners Christine Day, CEO of Lululemon Athletica, Annalisa King, VP & CFO of Best Buy Inc., and Jessica McDonald, former Deputy Minister to the Premier and Head of the British Columbia Public Service.

Under the leadership of the Women’s Executive Network, the Top 100 event annually honours and recognizes some of the most accomplished women across British Columbia. The summit creates an unmatched opportunity for participants to connect with, and learn from, leading women in business.

SFU Business has long championed the advancement of women in business and entrepreneurship. This commitment continues to be reflected in the composition of the school’s faculty and student body.

A unique, interdisciplinary research conference focused on innovation was held at the Segal Graduate School of Business on January 15, 2010.

As part of the “Segal Seminar Series on Organizations, Strategy and Technology” (SSSOST), the event included 35 members of the SFU Business faculty, as well as 12 PhD students from the school.

In total, 14 papers were delivered, focused on a broad range of business innovation subjects, from software development to consumer-generated advertising, and from health care technologies to organizational learning.

SSSOST was launched two years ago, with the intention of being a vehicle for faculty at SFU Business to further develop their research with input from a wide range of business disciplines.

According to Tom Lawrence, Weyerhaeuser Professor of Change Management at Simon Fraser University, the annual event is reflective of the business faculty’s interdisciplinary culture and its focus on innovation: social innovation, technological innovation, managerial innovation, and more. The event has also become a key forum for PhDs at SFU Business to present their research-in-progress.

The event concluded with a series of roundtable sessions, with researchers’ presentations followed by analysis and questions by table participants.

How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending January 29, 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Business Administration has established a new centre that will develop strategies and carry out research related to the changing needs of workforce management.

The Centre for Global Workforce Strategy was created in response to a growing need by companies to effectively manage workforce diversity. Ideally situated within the university’s collaborative and multidisciplinary research environment, the centre will draw from the expertise on global workforce management at SFU Business. The centre also has an extensive global network of individuals associated with ongoing research projects in the area.

“Leading companies have recognized that workforce diversity is not just a problem to be overcome but also a resource to be exploited to the benefit of the bottom line,” says centre director David Thomas. “This puts people into the competitive equation as never before.”

The competition for skilled people on a global scale is intense, and new attitudes toward work and careers present additional challenges about work-life balance, which further complicates the strategic management of today’s workforce, notes Thomas.

The centre’s research fellows span the globe and represent a wide range of specialties, including expertise in work-life balance, the development of cultural intelligence, comparative human resource management practices, managing expatriates, HR issues in mergers and acquisitions, and cross-cultural communications.

The centre’s activities will also include hosting public forums, workshops, and academic conferences, preparation and distribution of educational materials, media outreach and professional development programs.

[Full press release]

How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending January 22, 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending January 15, 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past 20 years organizations have been exposed to more new communications tools and technologies than they have in the previous half-century. This has challenged both managers and scholars to keep abreast of these changes, and to better understand their relevance to effective corporate communications.

SFU’s Leyland Pitt and Michael Parent, working with colleagues Pierre Berthon (Bentley University), Peter Steyn (Lulea University of Technology), and Arthur Money (Leeds University consider one such new tool, the Social Media Release (SMR), and its effect on bloggers, in an article accepted for publicaiton in the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. The Social Media Release (SMR) is best conceived of as a blend of the traditional press release, and digital social media. There are already a number of websites devoted to the SMR (e.g. http://www.socialmediarelease.org/; http://www.briansolis.com/2007/05/social-media-releases-everything-you.html; http://risetothetop.techwyse.com/internet-marketing/social-media-releases-smr-the-new-internet-marketing-buzzword/).

Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as their theoretical base, they seek to determine what factors will influence bloggers’ intents to use SMRs or their components in blogs. A survey of 332 bloggers from around the world supports their research model, which posits that bloggers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the SMR, and the use of SMRs by companies positively affects their decision to use SMRs now and in the future. Moreover, they also find that current use of SMR elements in their blogs influences decisions to continue using SMRs in the future. Implications on the use of SMRs as corporate communications tools are drawn.