The Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) and the Krembil Centre for Health Management and Leadership announced a partnership to enhance and enrich Schulich鈥檚 executive/continuing education for the healthcare sector. The new partnership, announced Dec. 6, will create relevant, cutting-edge, evidence-based development paths for people in the healthcare industry at any stage in their careers. 

The , established in September 2021 and located at 91亚色鈥檚 Schulich School of Business, was made possible by a generous $5-million donation from the Krembil Foundation and Schulich graduate Robert Krembil (MBA 鈥�71, Hon LLD 鈥�00). The facility is a leading hub of education, applied research and industry outreach and will help expand Schulich鈥檚 reputation as an international thought leader in health sector strategy, transformation, and organizational leadership. 

SEEC has established itself as a leading provider of executive education programs aimed at the healthcare sector, with customized, needs-based executive education for physicians, dentists, clinicians, healthcare practitioners and non-medical staff in the healthcare industry. 

鈥淪EEC and the Krembil Centre share a common mission to cultivate and advance high-performance leadership,鈥� said Detlev Zwick, dean of the Schulich School of Business. 鈥淭his exciting new collaboration that will result in additional successful executive and continuing education programs for healthcare professionals.鈥� 

For more information on SEEC鈥檚 programs for healthcare professionals, visit:

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How does government coordination in the strategic sectors affect the impact of relational resources on firm intellectual property (IP) development in emerging economies?

A research team led by Professor Justin Tan of 91亚色鈥檚 Schulich School of Business attempted to address this question by investigating innovative performance in China鈥檚 high-speed train sector.

The research, reported in a new paper recently published in the Journal of International Business Studies, challenged some widely held conventional wisdom. For instance, contrary to prior findings that international joint ventures (IJVs) lead technological innovation in the emerging economies, IJVs under-perform in IP development in the context of China鈥檚 high-speed train sector, whereas government-affiliated domestic firms out-perform.

The authors argue government coordination in the strategic sector has escalated cross-border competitive tension but facilitated domestic collaborative innovation. Hence, IJVs face relational liabilities that hinder IP breakthrough, whereas government-affiliated domestic firms can leverage relational assets for innovation. The authors further examine the effects of ego-network density in the innovation network, which captures the degree to which a firm relies on partners to innovate. Consistent with this theory, innovation network density hampers IP development for the IJVs but promotes it for the government-affiliated domestic firms.

The findings, based on comprehensive proprietary panel data from 1993 to 2014, offer actionable insights for innovation managers and policymakers in the strategic sectors. Firm managers should consider the potential influences from government coordination when acquiring relational resources for innovation. Policymakers should keep in mind how government actions may influence both inter-firm collaboration and competition when building an innovation network. Given the significant role, Canadian companies such as Bombardier have played in the development of the Chinese rail transportation equipment manufacturing industry, and many other key suppliers who are customers, suppliers, research and development partners, and competitors, this line of research has profound implications for vital Canadian economic interests.

The research paper, titled 鈥淩elational Assets or Liabilities? Competition, Collaboration, and Firm Intellectual Property Breakthrough in the Chinese High-Speed Train Sector,鈥� was co-authored by Aurora Liu Genin (PhD, Schulich), assistant professor of management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the U.S.; Tan, professor of management and the Newmont Chair in Business Strategy at the Schulich School of Business in Canada; and Juan Song, professor of management at Central South University in China. It is part of a comprehensive research project about governance reform, innovation and technology development in the rail transportation equipment manufacturing industry. Another research paper from the project was also published in the Journal of International Business Studies in 2021 (鈥淪tate Governance and Technological Innovation in Emerging Economies: State-Owned Enterprise Restructuration and Institutional Logic Dissonance in China鈥檚 High-Speed Train Sector鈥�).

A copy of the study can be found聽.

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This is Scale AI鈥檚 first partnership with SEEC, a unit of the Schulich School of Business at 91亚色, and the funding amount is expected to grow in subsequent years.

SEEC鈥檚 Masters Certificate in Analytics for Leaders aims to provide participants with up-to-date learning in the areas of data, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). Scale AI is working to cement Canada鈥檚 foothold in the AI industry and train tens of thousands of professionals for the future, with a mission to accelerate the integration of AI across all Canadian organizations, large and small.

鈥淧artnering with Scale AI further enables the Schulich Executive Education Centre to offer career-transforming programs to professionals who need to acquire or enhance their digital, data and artificial intelligence acumen,鈥� said聽Rami Mayer, executive director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre. 鈥淪cale AI鈥檚 mission in advancing AI capability across Canada aligns with our own vision to offer cutting-edge training from coast to coast, in rural and urban areas 鈥� in essence, to all communities. With their financial support and our programs, we believe hundreds of Canadians can fast track their AI training, advance their career and have a positive impact on the Canadian economy.鈥�

This partnership will provide education and financial support from Canada鈥檚 top-ranked business school to help hundreds of Canadian professionals develop artificial and digital intelligence skills.

Julien Billot, CEO of Scale AI, said, 鈥淚magining and developing AI solutions to business problems is not enough. It is critical to have skilled professionals in the field to implement and give effect to these solutions on a daily basis. Enabling the development of a specialized workforce is therefore a key element of our industrial strategy whose goal is to help address current labour shortages, meet the needs of businesses and give Canadians access to interesting and well-paying jobs.鈥�

鈥淭he Masters Certificate in Analytics for Leaders is focused on addressing a current skill and knowledge gap in AI,鈥� said Murat Kristal, program director of the Centre of Excellence in Analytics at the Schulich Executive Education Centre and professor in the Schulich School of Business. 鈥淲e feel that a partnership with a Supercluster such as a Scale AI will truly accelerate upskilling in areas of artificial intelligence.鈥�

Interested participants can begin the application process by visiting . To be eligible, participants need to be employed in Canada by an organization with a registered office in Canada. Participants will need to supply a written attestation to the Schulich Executive Education Centre confirming they have not received nor expect to receive any other government financial assistance related to the tuition cost of the training program.

For more information on the Schulich Executive Education Centre, visit its .

For more information on Scale AI, visit its聽.

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Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to inform colleagues in the Schulich School of Business (SSB) and across the 91亚色 community that the search for the next dean of the Schulich School of Business has reached a successful conclusion.聽The search committee, chaired by Provost聽Lisa Philipps聽and comprised of members of SSB (full-time and contract faculty, staff, students and alumni) and myself, undertook an extensive national and international search, which attracted outstanding candidates for this key position in our University.聽On October 12, 2021, the Board of Governors concurred with my recommendation that 顿谤.听Detlev Zwick聽be appointed to the position of dean, effective July 1, 2021, for a five-year term.

As members of the 91亚色 community know, Professor Zwick has served with great distinction as interim dean of the Schulich School of Business since July 1, 2020. Prior to that appointment, he had served as the school鈥檚 associate dean academic with broad responsibilities for teaching and learning innovation and recognition, program development, academic policy, student services and international relations; and earlier as director of the school鈥檚 BBA/iBBA program. He had also represented the school on Senate and the Senate Executive Committee, as well as serving on the Joint Committee on Affirmative Action. He has been a member of the full-time faculty in Schulich鈥檚 Marketing program since 2002 and is also a member of the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture.

Professor Zwick holds a PhD in marketing from the University of Rhode Island, and master鈥檚 degrees from the University of Memphis and the University of Cologne/DSHS. His research encompasses areas of marketing and responsible business, including consumer behaviour, database marketing, consumer surveillance, and marketing and sustainability. His work has been published widely in marketing, communication, media culture and sociology venues, and his expertise is frequently called upon by the media. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on digital marketing, leadership skills, and the philosophy of knowledge in the social sciences.

As interim dean, Professor Zwick has been leading the school鈥檚 development at the forefront of technological innovation in management education. He has been working with colleagues within and beyond the school to advance its global brand and its reputation for excellence in research, teaching and delivery of an exceptional student experience. These initiatives have included the launch of a new Research Excellence Fellowship program and further development of experiential learning. He has engaged faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as external stakeholders, in articulating directions and priorities for the school going forward. His commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion is evident in initiatives to address systemic barriers for students, including collaboration with other leading Ontario business schools to provide enhanced mentorship and support; diversification of the curriculum; and the formation of the school鈥檚 DEI Working Group to consultatively develop recommendations to address Black and Indigenous racism.

I look forward to continuing to work closely in the coming years with Professor Zwick and his colleagues in the Schulich School of Business at this important time in the school鈥檚 evolution, as it builds on its significant successes and outstanding reputation to lead in innovation and transformation in business education in Canada and internationally.

Finally, I want to thank the members of the search committee for their contributions to this crucial process.

Sincerely,

Rhonda L. Lenton
President and Vice-Chancellor

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Leitch left an enduring legacy at 91亚色 and the Schulich School of Business, beginning in 1965 when he made his first donation toward the Founders Fund at 91亚色 during Schulich鈥檚 founding year. Leitch was close friends with James Gillies, the founding dean of Schulich, which at that time was known as the Faculty of Administrative Studies.

His support for 91亚色 and Schulich continued for decades, and he served as a member of the University鈥檚 Board of Governors for many years. Over the years that followed, Leitch championed and contributed to the success, growth and innovation of the Schulich School of Business and 91亚色 through his generous support of various initiatives, including: student awards, scholarships and bursaries; capital projects and University-wide campaigns; and the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance, among many others.

鈥淢y father had core values that he followed through his family and business life: empathy, honesty and courage,鈥� said Leitch鈥檚 daughter, Jean Vander Ploeg, when asked about her father鈥檚 enduring legacy. 鈥淓mpathy for others and what they were experiencing; honesty to stand up for what is right; and courage to act on his convictions.鈥�

The award celebrates Leitch鈥檚 generosity and the indelible mark that he left. It has been established at Schulich through a generous bequest of $250,000. The award will recognize and empower incoming MBA students who embody Leitch鈥檚 entrepreneurial spirit and acumen, and demonstrate experience in innovation, product design, leadership and entrepreneurship.

The application deadline is Friday, Oct. 8. For more information, contact finaid@schulich.yorku.ca.

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Appointed for one year, each of the recipients will work to enhance collegial capacity at an institutional level to advance the priorities of the University Academic Plan (UAP) in demonstrable ways. The Provostial Fellowships also provide an opportunity for a diverse group of tenured faculty to gain hands-on experience in university leadership.

鈥淚 am thrilled to have these four faculty members dedicating some of their time and energy to help lead the implementation of our UAP. The University will benefit from their expertise and ideas, and I hope they too will find this a valuable opportunity to grow and develop as leaders and institution builders,鈥� said Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps. 鈥淭he launch of Building a Better Future: 91亚色 Academic Plan 2020-2025 established six exciting and important priorities for 91亚色. As a community, we now look to work together in advancing these.鈥�

Fellows will work with the provost and relevant members of the senior leadership on a project or initiative intended to advance one of the UAP priority areas at an institutional level.聽Each project also seeks to enhance and intersect with the University-wide challenge to elevate institutional contributions to the聽United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Professor, Public Policy and Strategic Management
Schulich School of Business

Professor Eberlein鈥檚 project, 鈥�91亚色鈥檚 Journey toward Carbon Neutrality,鈥� seeks to identify and advance specific and impactful initiatives that the University can take to reduce its carbon emissions.

Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Faculty of Science

Professor Sharma鈥檚 project, 鈥淲orking Towards Equitable Access to Clean Water,鈥� looks to address the billions of people worldwide, including in Canada, who do not have access to clean freshwater. This project will seek student, faculty and staff collaborations across the University with a goal of raising awareness and identifying solutions to this critical issue, and will culminate with an event celebrating聽.

Associate Professor, School of Nursing
Faculty of Health
Associate Professor, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women鈥檚 Studies/Children, Childhood & Youth Studies Program.
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Professor van Daalen-Smith鈥檚 project, 鈥淢ore than Bees and Trees: Seeing the SDGs in our Curriculum 鈥� A Pan-University Community Development Initiative,鈥� seeks to track, weave, inspire and amplify curricular SDG initiatives and advance 91亚色鈥檚 commitment to interdisciplinarity.

Associate Professor
Faculty of Education

Professor Zha鈥檚 project, 鈥淩eimagining and Transforming Liberal Arts Education with a Trans-Continental Partnership,鈥� looks to explore a new model for practising liberal arts education in the current contexts of mass higher education, knowledge societies and globalization, including the prospects for infusing the concepts derived from the SDGs and promoting global competence.

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Even the smallest variations in the way people interact with one another and perform their jobs inside an organization can lead to significant institutional change over time, according to new聽聽published in the聽Journal of Management Studies.

, a professor of organization studies at 91亚色鈥檚 Schulich School of Business, co-authored the research paper together with Mary Ann Glynn, an associate of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, and Klaus Weber, a professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management.

The research paper puts forward what it terms the 鈥渢heory of institutional drift鈥� to explain how minor, under-the-radar changes to standard practices can lead over time to significant and unexpected changes in organizations. A classic example of institutional drift, says Voronov, is what happened at NASA regarding the Challenger disaster in 1986, when the NASA space shuttle suddenly exploded one minute after takeoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. 

A number of studies have shown that one of the contributing factors in the accident was the slow but steady tolerance from NASA engineers for accepting greater levels of risk, which in turn led to an erosion of safety standards within the organization 鈥� what the researchers describe as the 鈥渘ormalization of ever-greater deviations from routine practices.鈥�    

鈥淚nstitutional drift leads to institutional change by altering the repertoire of practices associated with certain roles, thus redefining the shared understandings of acceptable and normal practice,鈥� says Voronov. 鈥淲hen ongoing deviations from routine interactions between people within an organization are ignored or normalized, the result is institutional drift.鈥�

The key lesson here for organizations, adds Voronov, is that small practice deviations on the part of a large number of employees should not be seen as trivial 鈥� particularly when they build up over time.

Read the full study聽.

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Professor , the Scotiabank Chair in International Business and Entrepreneurship at 91亚色's Schulich School of Business, and his collaborator  from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (as well as a former doctoral student at Schulich) set out to answer this question.

The challenge for the platform entrepreneur in the early stage is to secure the commitment and resources of autonomous third-party contributors for a little-known entity that is yet to emerge in the form of an ecosystem around the digital platform. The contributors are vital for the digital platform, as they create complements that enhance the platform鈥檚 value to consumers but are only motivated to produce complements for a platform that offers attractive platform resources and provides access to a large base of consumers. With an ecosystem that is yet to emerge, digital platform entrepreneurs, who are typically both owners as well as sponsors of their platforms, have few resources and avenues to attract these complementors (businesses that directly sell a product or service that complement the product or service of another company by adding value to mutual customers) in the early stages.

In their new study published in the Journal of Management Studies, Murthy and Madhok study numerous platforms in the incipient stage and demonstrate that the choice of platform sponsor scope offers a way to overcome the early-stage challenge of the emergence of digital platform ecosystems. Platform sponsor scope refers to the sponsor鈥檚 choice of value creation activities to perform internally as well as their decision rights over complements, a choice that shapes the opportunities subsequently available to complementors. When such opportunities seem beneficial, the complementors and consequently consumers are attracted to participate, leading to the emergence of the digital platform ecosystem.

The study develops a problem-solving perspective of the emergence of digital platform ecosystems and contends that the platform sponsor should choose their scope in alignment with the nature of the problem to find valuable complements efficiently. Such an alignment between problem and platform sponsor scope signals to complementors attractive opportunities and thus attracts their participation and, in turn, brings consumers to the ecosystem. Using a data set of crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds to launch digital platforms, they identify pathways for the successful emergence of complementary innovation ecosystems, open-source ecosystems and information ecosystems.

鈥淭he study highlights a novel set of considerations 鈥� problem and platform sponsor scope 鈥� that shifts the emphasis away from the actors (who) to the problem at hand (what) to explain platform ecosystem emergence, a hitherto understudied topic,鈥� says Madhok.

Their findings suggest that aspiring entrepreneurs have agency in addressing this challenge and should focus on identifying the dimensions of the problem they confront and choose their scope accordingly to attract complementors and, consequently, consumers. Further, they demonstrate that multiple pathways exist for the platform sponsor to enable ecosystem emergence as long as the problem and their choice of scope are aligned. The underlying tenet is that the platform sponsor can shape attractive opportunities for the complementors when such an alignment is achieved.

Read the full study at聽.

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顿谤.听Patrick Safieh, a member of the hospital鈥檚 medical staff, is spearheading the project after his own experience in the Healthcare Leadership Development Program (HLDP) developed by SEEC in the Schulich School of Business at 91亚色. HLDP is an example of a SEEC聽.

An instructor with SEEC and a lecturer at the University of Toronto, Safieh was inspired to launch a training program for medical students in the hospital鈥檚 new Family Medicine Teaching Unit to help them better understand the non-medical aspects of delivering services in a time of budget restraints and disruptive change.

鈥淎s part of my own Healthcare Leadership Development Program course work [in 2019], I designed a Family Medicine Teaching Unit at Humber River Hospital, which provides full-time core teaching of University of Toronto medical school students,鈥� said Safieh, a facilitator in SEEC鈥檚 new . 鈥淗LDP helped with areas that I needed to accomplish goals, such as networking, presenting, negotiating and other essential skills.鈥�

Safieh鈥檚 success in creating a teaching unit at Humber River Hospital also comes from a partnership he fostered between Humber River Hospital, the University of Toronto and various hospital departments that worked together to achieve a successful result.

鈥淚 was privileged to be involved in the genesis of this Humber River project and am proud to say that the HLDP provided the tools to get this project started. The program was instrumental in getting this project off the ground, and will benefit the hospital, physicians, and ultimately patients through improved family and emergency medicine for the community. I was able to immediately apply my HLDP learning in helping to create Humber River Hospital鈥檚 Family Medicine Teaching Unit,鈥� said Safieh.

Safieh鈥檚 project also aims to position Humber River Hospital as a major health-care centre for the 850,000 people living in a relatively under-serviced section of northwest Toronto.

SEEC has worked successfully for more than 10 years with various health-care organizations across Canada by delivering custom versions of the Healthcare Leadership Development Program. It also offers several open enrolment leadership programs for physicians, dentists and clinicians under the Schulich Mini-MBA brand.

Participants in the HLDP receive a master鈥檚 certificate upon completion of 90 hours of study that includes:

• leadership assessment exercises;
• executive one-on-one and group coaching;
• knowledgeable faculty members that teach topics such as design thinking, complexity theory, negotiation, collaboration, and leadership and conflict resolution; and
• independent learning tailored to each participant鈥檚 personal leadership development needs.

For more on what SEEC has to offer, visit the聽.

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The research, undertaken by 91亚色 Associate Professor  (Schulich School of Business) in collaboration with Assistant Professor Thomas Derek Robinson from Bayes Business School, University of London, and Assistant Professor Ana Babic Rosario from the University of Denver鈥檚 Daniels College of Business, shows how time is a cultural consumption resource.

In this conceptual article, the authors introduce the concept of 鈥渃onsumer timework鈥� to capture how past experiences and future expectations impact consumer behaviour in the present.

鈥淭ime is a key structural component of our lives and of the universe,鈥� said Veresiu. 鈥淚t is therefore no surprise that consumers engage with the multiple orientations of time 鈥� the past, the present and the future 鈥� in their daily consumption choices and activities.鈥�

For example, some consumers treasure heirlooms from past family members and enjoy heritage-themed experiences, such as high tea at Toronto鈥檚 historic Windsor Arms Hotel. At the same time, other consumers engage in sustainable consumption like buying only second-hand clothing and installing solar panels on private homes to fight future-facing environmental degradation.

The co-authors argue that the increased speed and complexity of social change today creates multiple ways of interpreting how the past, present and future relate. In other words, it has become more difficult for individuals to anticipate their life trajectory from the past into the future. In response, the co-authors identify four strategies of consumer timework to regain control of time through consumption: integrative, disintegrative, subjugatory and emancipatory.

The scholars theorize integrative and disintegrative consumer timework respectively as harmonizing or rupturing the flow of time from the past into the future via consumption activities. As an illustration of the first strategy, consider how consumers now want to trace their own ancestry and genealogy through DNA databases like 23andMe. Alternatively, vaccine skepticism can also be understood through the second consumer timework strategy.

They theorize subjugatory and emancipatory consumer timework respectively as enforcing or disrupting temporal hierarchies of power through consumption practices. For example, self-tracking health apps, such as MyFitnessPal, SleepCycle and Fooducate, constitute a form of subjugatory consumer timework, since individuals pursue personal goals that are in actuality defined by an algorithm. Regarding the final strategy, using virtual reality devices to envision alternative futures and future selves is a form of emancipatory consumer timework.

鈥淥ur work directly responds to an observed decline in theoretical contributions in the marketing and consumer research,鈥� said Veresiu. 鈥淚n this paper, we not only realign existing ideas on time and consumption, but also offer detailed future research directions.鈥�

The full article is available聽.

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