Undergraduate Students

Punitive tariffs more about political leverage than trade

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:14:37 +0000

On August 1, a 35 per cent US tariff on Canadian goods came into effect. But these tariffs are less about trade and more about political leverage, says Vivek Astvansh, associate professor of quantitative marketing and analytics at 91�� Desautels.

Companies are bringing employees back to the office, but over time, the trend could reverse

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:16:42 +0000

Large Canadian companies such as Rogers, RBC and BMO recently announced their employees will be required to spend more time in the office moving forward. Many employees aren’t happy about it at all. “Research tells us that employees are more productive when they can work the way they want to,” said Prof. Jean-Nicolas Reyt in an interview with Radio-Canada’s Les faits d’abord. When employees telecommute, they have a greater ability to focus and don’t spend so much time commuting to and from work.

Ambiversion can be a workplace superpower

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:18:57 +0000

Being an introvert or an extrovert isn’t an either-or proposition. People who fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum are called ambiverts, and ambiversion can be a beneficial trait in business leaders. Prof. Karl Moore estimates that about 20% of business leaders are true ambiverts. But ambiversion is a kind of superpower for a leader—it allows them to adapt with greater ease than people at either extreme of the spectrum.

Employees tend to own workplace successes, but blame external factors for failures

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 18:54:59 +0000

Nearly two-thirds of employees feel they’ve been ‘thrown under the bus’ by their colleagues—but an even higher number say they’ve never engaged in blame-shifting themselves. “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers,” says Jean-Nicolas Reyt, an Associate Professor of Organizational Management at 91�� Desautels. “When we hurt someone, we are quick to forget about it, but when people hurt us, we remember it forever. But there’s more to it than that, Reyt told HR Reporter.

Trump tariffs induce uncertainty

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 15:28:42 +0000

Canada fared better many countries when US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on his so-called Liberation Day. But in this time of tariff turbulence, stability is a rare and fleeting commodity. And we never know when we’ll end up in the crosshairs of a presidential tariff tantrum.

Announcing the 2025 Lionel Pelham Kent Scholarship recipients

admin — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:08:35 +0000

Congratulations to Harley Belfer (BCom’23), Isabelle Erb (BCom’24), Veronica Hall (BCom'24), Raphael Lafleur (BCom’24), Andrea Peck (BCom’24), and Dylan Winick (BCom’24) who were awarded the Lionel Pelham Kent Scholarship by the Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting (GCPA) program.

Clarity is key when passing control of a family business to the next generation

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:27:40 +0000

Even the most successful family businesses often don’t withstand the march of time. Just because one generation had what the right skills and temperament to run a business doesn’t mean their grandchildren will. But the Vancouver-based chocolate maker Purdys Chocolate bucks the trend, with a third-generation leader poised to take the helm.

Despite rise of chatbots, people still prefer human customer services

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 15:19:43 +0000

Until recently, the most common way that customers interacted with a company’s customer service was via human agents on the telephone, the web or a mobile app. But increasingly, customer service is being provided by chatbots. Even though chatbots offer instant availability, 24 hours a day, more than two-thirds of people still prefer to speak with a human agent, according to research by PWC, an accounting consultancy. Most companies use chatbots as the first line of customer service, writes Prof.

How U.S.-Canada tariffs could hit New York’s economy

admin — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 19:08:13 +0000

As U.S.-Canada tariff disputes escalate, New York’s economy faces serious risks, with over $42 billion in trade at stake. 91�� professors Preetika Joshi and Vivek Astvansh warn that rising costs on goods like aluminum, barley, and auto parts could lead to inflation, job losses, and disruptions across key industries.

Chinese tech firm DeepSeek shows smaller firms can compete with tech giants in AI

admin — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:49:19 +0000

When OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, the hype around AI began building to a fever pitch. Big money poured in to big tech, sending the stock of companies like Microsoft and Nvidia soaring. But a December 2024 AI chatbot release from a much smaller Chinese tech firm is showing that generative AI can be built a much more modest budget. “Deepseek shows that smaller companies with more limited resources can compete with tech giants,” Prof. Ruslan Goyenko told Benefits Canada.

Tariff uncertainty interferes with business investment

admin — Fri, 02 May 2025 16:26:03 +0000

Ever since Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement, stock markets have been volatile. The tariffs impact thousands of companies, and with the exact scale and scope of tariffs changing almost daily, the extent to which they will be affected is uncertain. “It makes it difficult for companies to investments,” Prof. Sebastien Betermier told TVA Nouvelles. “And as long as they don’t know what will happen over the long term, it will remain difficult.”

Mid-market brands to benefit from consumers’ renewed focus on the basics

admin — Wed, 21 May 2025 19:39:28 +0000

2024 was a rough year for retail in Canada, and 2025 doesn’t look much better, writes Charles de Brabant in Retail Insider. The Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management noted that the combination of high interest rates and high inflation has taken a toll on consumer pocketbooks, and they are expected to focus on the basics this year. That plays well for mid-market brands.

Leedana is bringing agriculture to the desert--and it got its start at Desautels

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:54:52 +0000

Egypt’s Nile River Valley has some of the most fertile land in the world. But most of the country is a barren desert where few plants can grow. Hassan Elrakhawy (BCom’24) wants to change that. The Egyptian-born entrepreneur founded Leedana, a startup that uses a technique called sandponics, which can reduce the amount of water needed to cultivate crops by up to 90%. The company already has farms in Egypt that grow cherry tomatoes, peppers, kale, lettuce and more. And other farms are under construction elsewhere.

Wide adoption of stablecoins could cause problems for Canadian banks

admin — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:25:37 +0000

For Canadian banks, stablecoins could be, well, destabilizing. These value of these cryptocurrency assets is tied to the value of a traditional currency, which makes them more practical to use than volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This year, Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify began accepting a stablecoin called USDC, but stablecoins are in a regulatory grey area in Canada, and our banking system is not prepared for their widespread adoption.

Minority business owners can benefit from guilt marketing

admin — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:46:07 +0000

A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that white consumers with higher levels of ‘white guilt’ were more likely to buy from a Black-owned business than from a white-owned one—even if the Black-owned business was more expensive or had lower customer ratings. “The marketplace is becoming increasingly shaped by ideology and values,” says Siddhanth Mookerjee, an Assistant Professor at 91�� Desautels and a co-author of the study.