Haskayne School of Business Research & Publications

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Open Access
Absolute and Conditional Discharges in Canadian Criminal Law
(Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA), 2014-09-05) Bowal, Peter; Callbeck, Sean; Lines, Brian
Open Access
The Abuse of Criminal Record Checks
(Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd. (LRC), 2010) Bowal, Peter; Brierton, Thomas D
In 2007, the City of Ottawa awoke to the value of criminal record checks, at least for its fire department. It required new applicants for firefighter positions to consent, as a precondition of employment, to the City accessing the police department to obtain any criminal records. It also required such written consents from specific employed firefighters on a case-by-case basis justified on reasonable grounds. The firefighter union only objected to the third leg of the policy that compelled consent by firefighters to a criminal record check every three years. The City of Ottawa claimed that this was part of management rights in the collective agreement. The union grieved, saying this was an unjustified invasion of the firefighters' privacy. The arbitrator concluded there was a significant distinction between the initial hire and the ongoing employment relationship. The considerations that apply to an applicant for employment did not apply to the same extent to ongoing employees who have been observed by the employer over time. Firefighters, despite their governing legislation, the arbitrator continued, are "essentially indistinguishable from a myriad of trades persons and professionals whose work would involve the normal attendance at a variety of premises." One cannot conclude that "the duties and responsibilities of firefighters are such as to require or justify such blanket invasion of privacy." He allowed the grievance and struck down the fixed periods of the policy, but left open the practice of the employer obtaining consent where reasonable grounds justify it even without compliance with the process set out in the Privacy Act. The checks may falsely reassure the employer because they may have gaps in them. Many police forces produce a simple letter-like document called a "Police Information Check." The document will only be as good as the identification information offered and the convictions screened. If names or other subject information such as previous locations of residence are inaccurate or incomplete, the report may be useless. The report may not contain information on current charges or convictions from other jurisdictions. Regulatory convictions - such as licence violations - which may be highly relevant to some employers, are generally not listed. Accordingly, a horrendous driving record would escape this level of scrutiny.
Open Access
Accommodation in Employment
(Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd. (LRC), 2007) Bowal, Peter; Silovs, Jim
After a testy conversation with an employee about her absence and tardiness due to an alleged medical condition, the employer finds itself defending a human rights case of failing to accommodate the employee's medical condition. The employer discovers that it has a "duty to accommodate" the employee's medical condition to the point of "undue hardship". Accommodation requires establishing the needs and capabilities of the affected employee and then considering the range of possible accommodation, short of undue hardship, available to the employer. If the employee seeks accommodation for medical reasons, sufficient medical disclosure should be provided to allow the employer to assess the employee's condition. The Supreme Court of Canada in Renaud v. Okanagan School District (1992) said the employee "must do his or her part as well," which may mean accepting the employer's reasonable plan of accommodation. Most accommodations are a minor inconvenience or expense for the employer. Undue hardship is reached when the accommodation becomes unreasonably onerous or excessive, such as major financial expense or business disruption. Justice Sopinka in Renaud wrote: "the term 'undue' infers some hardship is acceptable; it is only "undue" hardship that satisfies this test."
Open Access
An Accounting Model for Social Sustainability
(2017-05) Ambrosie, Linda M.
The aims of this study are: • To define operationally, measure reliably and monetize relevantly social sustainability. • From the model developed, measure the current state of the Banff-Canmore Corridor’s (BCC) social sustainability. • From the results, determine the impediments to improving social sustainability in the Banff-Canmore Corridor such as offering workers’ living wages. • Last but not least, identify the long-term community benefits of a living wage to workers in a locality.
Open Access
Acquisitions as entrepreneurship: asymmetries, opportunities, and the internationalization of multinationals from emerging economies
(Wiley, 2012-02-13) Madhok, Anoop; Keyhani, Mohammad
We investigate the rapid internationalization of many multinationals from emerging economies through acquisition in advanced economies. We conceptualize these acquisitions as an act and form of entrepreneurship, aimed to overcome the ‘liability of emergingness’ incurred by these firms and to serve as a mechanism for competitive catch-up through opportunity seeking and capability transformation. Our explanation emphasizes (1) the unique asymmetries (and not necessarily advantages) distinguishing emerging multinationals from advanced economy multinationals due to their historical and institutional differences, as well as (2) a search for advantage creation when firms possess mainly ordinary resources. The argument shifts the central focus from advantage to asymmetries as the starting point for internationalization and, additionally, highlights the role of learning agility rather than ability as a potential ‘asset of emergingness.’
Open Access
Active Learning in an Undergraduate Management Science Course Through the Use of a Mobile Computer Lab
(Inderscience Publishers, 2009) Bischak, Diane; Eliasson, Janice B.; Snider, Brent R.
Our business school’s undergraduate degree program includes a required spreadsheet management science course taught at the third-year level. Employers, faculty, and students consistently indicated that this course was not successful in teaching management science or even basic spreadsheet modeling skills. To improve students’ understanding and retention of the course content, we purchased and implemented a “mobile computer lab” that could be set up in a regular classroom. We discuss how the lab supported a change to active learning, in which informal student groups would “discover” management science techniques, and we provide some examples of the exercises we have incorporated in the course. For instructors who are interested in implementing a mobile lab, we also provide details on the infrastructure of the lab, costs, software and hardware security, and classroom logistics.
Open Access
Added Value and Pricing with Information Technology
(MIS Quarterly, 1995-12) Nault, Barrie R; Dexter, Albert S.
The extent to which the added value to customers from a supplier's application of information technology is manifested through premium prices of a traded good is evaluated. It is demonstrated that IT can add value to an otherwise undifferentiated good, and it is shown how these benefits accrue to customers from the adoption of IT. Analyzing a case in which the traded good is a homogeneous commodity - commercial fueling - it is shown that the critical impacts of IT are convenience and control - that is, convenience that provides improved access to fuel and control that reduces problems of delegating purchasing authority for the customer. The value of this additional service is exhibited in premium prices customers are willing to pay for the IT-enhanced traded good, relative to the same good without IT. Compared to the price without IT, statistical analysis of the supplier's pricing history demonstrates that the application of IT to commercial fuel yielded price premiums of between 5% and 12% of the retail fuel price.
Open Access
Adoption of Electric Trucks in Freight Transportation
(2019-10-15) Alp, Osman; Tan, Tarkan; Udenio, Maximiliano
Transportation sector is the largest contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. Disruptive technological changes in this sector, such as alternative fuel vehicles, are crucial for emission reduction. We analyze how a cost-minimizing strategic transition plan can be developed for a transportation firm that aims to adopt electric trucks in their fully diesel fleet, over time. We consider the case in which the firm needs to invest in charging infrastructure required to support this transition, as the public charging infrastructure is currently inadequate. The congestion effect at the charging stations, the charging times, and the potential loss of productive driving time due to detours to reach charging stations are explicitly considered. By developing an independence property, we are able to model this problem as a linear integer program without any need to explicitly specify origins and destinations. We illustrate the resulting transition plan with a realistic data set. Our results indicate that a transportation firm that operates with high demand density over a given service region significantly benefits from adoption of electric trucks, while also enjoying substantial carbon emissions savings. High demand density also favors smaller battery capacity with shorter ranges under the optimized charging network capacity, even though larger battery capacity would increase productivity with extended ranges. Our analysis also offers insights for governments and regulators regarding the impact of several influential factors such as carbon cost, content of renewable energy in electricity mix, diesel engine efficiency, and subsidizing the charging infrastructure.
Open Access
Adoption, Transfers and Incentives in a Franchise Network with Positive Externalities
(INFORMS, 1994) Nault, Barrie R; Dexter, Albert S.
Franchising arrangements that allow franchisees with exclusive territories to own their customers are studied. This permits franchisees to benefit from positive externalities in the franchise network through inter-franchise transfers based on the purchases by their customers at other franchises on the network. Using the structure of a single franchisor and many franchisees, its is shown that interfranchise transfers between franchisees and incentives for franchisee investment in the expansion of their customer base are critical both to the size and to the benefits derived from the franchise network. Specifically, it is found that when individual franchisees make investments in marketing effort to increase their customer base, the franchisor's setting of the inter-franchise transfer trades off the positive effects on network size with the negative effects of removing franchisee incentive for investment. This result is due to the fact that inter-franchise transfers encourage investment, use of the royalty and inter-franchise transfer directly dissipates franchisee profits, and indirectly dissipates franchisee profits through less than universal adoption, thereby causing franchisees to under invest. As compared to traditional franchise systems, however, use of the inter-franchise transfer results in franchises making greater investments than they otherwise would.
Open Access
Age as a Variable in Insurance Pricing and Risk Classification
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) Nielson, Norma; Kelly, Mary
This paper examines the use of age in the delivery of personal insurance to Canadians. We find that age is a reliable classification variable and one that can be practically implemented. Primary concerns about age as a classification variable centre around the issue of socially acceptability. In particular, we focus on age and auto insurance where, unlike life and health insurance, there exists no strong intuitive causal relationship. In North America, the frequency and severity of auto accidents are highly correlated with age, in a nonlinear relationship. The data produce a distinctive U-shape curve when accident history is graphed against age. However, heterogeneity in driving abilities for both younger and older ages emphasizes that this relationship is one of correlation. To assess whether there exists a “better” classification variable, this paper explores possible alternatives to age. In the end, none of the variables examined captures a driver’s risk with the same degree of accuracy as can be achieved using age.
Open Access
Agent-Intermediated Electronic Markets in International Freight Transportation
(Elsevier, 2006-05) Nault, Barrie R; Dexter, Albert S.
In many industries, agent-intermediated markets are inefficient because information about latent demand and supply never gets to market. We demonstrate how information technology (IT) in the form of an agent-intermediated electronic market (EM) alleviates this problem by enhancing the agent-as-market-maker using the international freight transportation industry as an example. We find that an EM increases agent participation and investment thereby increasing demand and supply. Because of tradeoffs between incentives for investment, the EM chooses a profit allocation between agents resulting in limited agent participation. In addition, when price depends on demand and supply balances, price and volume in the market can increase simultaneously.
Open Access
The Alaska Salmon enhancement program: a cost/benefit analysis
(Marine Resource Economics Foundation Inc., 1993) Bischak, Diane; Boyce, J.R.; Herrmann, M.L.; Greenberg, J.
In May 1991. the Alaska Senate's Special Committee on Domestic and International Commercial Fisheries iniiiated the first review ofthe state's salmon enhancement program since its inception 20 years ago. As part of this review, a ccstlhenefu analysis ofthe State's enhancement program for salmon was performed with cooperation from the Fisheries Research Fnhancement Division ofthe Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The main results are that the additional producer's surplus generated by the pink and sockeye hatchery programs are estimated to be less than the costs of running these programs. Eliminating the entire pink or sockeye salmon programs is estimated to increase net benefits by about 8% and 6%. respectively. A 15% increase in either program is estimated to result in a reduction in net benefits and a 15% decrease in either program is estimated to result in a slight increase in net benefits. Estimates of the confidence intervals for net benefits suggest that the gains from the elimination of either the pink program or the sockeye program are statistically different from zero. However, changes of plus or minus 15% of current hatchery production are found not to statistically affect net benefits.
Open Access
All is Not Lost: The Law of Lost and Found
(Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA), 2014-01-06) Bowal, Peter; Kuzma, Dusan
Open Access
Alternatives to Cash in Ensuring the Solvency of Defined Benefit Pension Funds
(International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, 2008) Nielson, Norma; Hedges, P.L.; Lee, Ryan B.
Since 2001, even some sound corporate sponsors have faced sudden and severe negative impacts on pension plan solvency due to poor equity market performance, record low interest rates and declining mortality trends. Following an overview of key accounting changes that have occurred internationally, this article reports on legislation and regulations developing in Canada to assist plan sponsors. The authors describe different instruments of financial guarantee that might be employed and identify several areas that require additional work to enhance those instruments' robustness and transparency.
Open Access
American and Canadian Election Laws
(Legal Resource Centre of Alberta Ltd. (LRC), 2012-11) Bowal, Peter; Stan, Lauren
The article discusses the differences on the federal election law and processes between the U.S. and Canada. It states that the Canada Elections Act governs the federal elections in Canada while both the federal and state law regulate the federal elections in the U.S. It adds that the Canadian government follows the British Parliamentary system as the president, vice president and the Congress comprised the U.S. federal branch. The strong incumbency in the U.S. is also mentioned.
Open Access
An Analysis of Factors affecting Cross Docking Operations
(Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), 2010) Balakrishnan, Jaydeep; Yang, Kum Khiong; Cheng, Chun Hung
Using a simulation model of a cross dock, we examine the impacts of various options on moving freight between inbound and outbound trailers. The decisions examined include direct versus indirect handling of pallets, number of open receiving doors, door layout, number of forklifts, size of cross dock and freight mix. This study provides useful insights into handling freight in a cross dock.
Open Access
An analysis of innovation in oil & gas projects
(Sage Journals, 2018-08-22) Rahimi, Mahmood; Kenworthy, Thomas P.; Balakrishnan, Jaydeep
We examine the effects of predictors from the firm, project, and individual levels on innovative behavior within oil and gas projects. The theory and propositions tested in this study stem from extant work on (1) innovation in poor performance conditions and (2) the availability of slack resources. The research findings revealed that innovative behaviors were present regardless of size, type, and project performance level. Further, it appears that the relationship between slack and innovation depends on when the innovation is introduced (i.e., when project performance is ahead of, or behind, a plan). Finally, the existence of innovation in (1) under-performing projects did not appear to exert any influence on project outcome, and (2) over-performing projects appeared to exert a negative influence on project outcome.
Open Access
Application of Expert Systems in Insurance Regulation
(National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 1989-09) Nielson, Norma; Brown, Carol E.
This article describes how existing expert systems in parallel disciplines might be used to address problems facing insurance regulators. It further describes how an expert system might enhance the value of the NAIC's IRIS system. It concludes with descriptions of the processes involved in building an expert system and the costs and problems likely to be encountered.
Open Access
The Application of Single-Pass Heuristics for U-Lines
(Elsevier, 2009) Balakrishnan, Jaydeep; Cheng, Chun-Hung; Ho, Kin-Chuen; Yang, Kum Khiong
U-lines have been adopted in many manufacturing settings as part of JIT implementation. In this paper, we examine the applicability of existing straight-line heuristics for obtaining a balance on a U-line. We modify 13 single-pass heuristics and study the effectiveness of various heuristics under different problem conditions. An extensive computational study is carried out to help identify the best heuristics. In addition, we compare recent U-line procedures with a single-pass heuristic using some literature problems. Based on a single-pass heuristic, we compare the configurations of a straight- and U-line.
Open Access
Applying Quality Function Deployment in Food Safety Management
(Emerald, 2010) Balakrishnan, Jaydeep; Sweet, Tim; Robertson, Brad; MacFarlane, Jennifer; Karim, Sarah
Structured Abstract: Purpose of this paper This paper reports on a case study conducted to help plan a rollout process for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) type food safety policies at a frozen pie facility in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Design/methodology/approach Existing company policies were prioritized using a Quality Function Deployment tool, which quantified the qualitative material in the original manual based on a number of developed criteria. Interrelations between the different required tasks were also quantified to facilitate effective implementation. Findings The use of Quality Function Deployment was shown to be useful in speeding up the implementation of food safety policies in the facility Practical implications (if applicable) Quality Function Deployment, originally from new product design, proved a useful one when applied to HACCP implementation. What is original/value of paper. This paper discusses the use of product development tools to facilitate the effective introduction of HACCP like procedures. Thus it will be of use to academics and practitioners interested in HACCP implementation.