Department of International Business, Marketing, Strategy and Law
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Item Equality and harmony: diversity management in China(2019) Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Wei, William X; Swallow, PhillipResearch into diversity and diversity management has a history going back some forty years or more. As a concept, diversity management developed within the management literature, focusing initially on equal opportunity issues and then going on to embrace, successively, affirmative action policies, diversity management methodologies, and finally diversity management theories and models. The great many articles and books written on the subject reflect its increasing scope, complexity, and nuances of diversity. One limitation of the literature is that it is based almost entirely on American research, which is hardly surprising given that the concept originated in the United States (US) (Agócs and Burr, 1996; Teicher and Spearitt, 1996; Zhang and Tsui, 2013). How best to manage diverse workforces is now, however, a global concern. In the literature there are very few studies on diversity management from developing countries. In particular, there exist very few articles that delve into issues of diversity management in China. This seems to be at odds with that country’s status as a powerhouse driving the global economy.Item Leadership and crisis management for businesses globally: the role of leadership in business sustainability in a crisis environment(2023) Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Roache, Darcia; Muschette, Richard; Singh, AmitaThe reach of businesses is expanding, customers’ needs and wants are increasing, and natural and man-made disasters permeate the business environment causing tremendous financial implications on business productivity. Given these crises, there is the need for business leaders to develop leadership skills or adapt different leadership approaches to mitigate the negative effects of crisis and disaster in order to maintain business effectiveness. Considerable literature on disaster management seeks to aid business leaders on how to address/manage disasters in business. This conceptual chapter explores leadership approaches that leaders can implement in times of crisis. We suggest that a leadership function in a crisis environment intensifies the impact of management functions. The chapter concludes by examining the implications of leadership approaches. This then leads us to a discussion of business sustainability and the impact of decision-making on leadership. Although the literature states that transformation is the best in times of crisis, we opine that situational leadership is more appropriate in the dynamic environment of a crisis.Item Times of crisis: women and leadership(2023) Johnson, Teresa Sims; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Singh, AmitaThe Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that countries with greater women’s rights and support for female leadership exhibit more socially progressive policies and competencies when managing crisis. Throughout this tumultuous time, headlines celebrating the success of female leaders’ abilities to manage the spread of Covid-19 dominated popular media prompting a reexamination of gender and leadership during times of crisis. Unique to times of crisis, those traits associated with femininity are welcomed and deemed appropriate by communities and corporations alike and are associated with strong leadership abilities. At a time when the likelihood of failure is heightened, women are often promoted into leadership positions (glass cliff). This suggests that they are being set up to fail. Whether the act of setting women up for failure is true or an unconscious gender bias, it must not be assumed that female leaders are ill equipped for the task at hand nor are they naively accepting these fallible roles. Women show a natural tendency for transformational leadership which means they have the ability to lead with empathy and integrity and inspire followers to act selflessly for the greater good. These are the very traits that are appropriately suited for leadership roles during crises. This ability to understand followers’ needs at a deeper level and act accordingly explains actions that female transformational leaders have made. The barriers in place preventing the rise of women into higher-level leadership positions in business are based on outdated concepts of gender roles. They are not based on merit. Further research needs to investigate the effectiveness of women in leadership roles during crisis situations.Item Teaching, technology, and time: revisiting Ellen Rose’s call for reflection in an AI era(2025) Stasiewich, AshleyEllen Rose’s "On Reflection" explores the importance of reflective thought in education, particularly in response to the technological shifts that have reshaped post-secondary teaching. She outlines three forms of reflection—reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, and reflection-then-action—drawing from established concepts previously discussed in literature. While Rose grounds her arguments in interdisciplinary theory, including the work of Dewey and Schön, the latter half of the book adopts a nostalgic tone, advocating for a return to pre-digital modes of reflection—an era that no longer exists. This paper critiques that stance by addressing the current realities of post-secondary educators who must navigate bureaucratic barriers, limited time, and rapid technological advancement. These challenges demand ongoing pedagogical adaptation, often leaving little room for the deep, sustained reflection Rose calls for. Reflection remains essential but must be reimagined to align with contemporary constraints. As institutions respond to demands for accountability and innovation, reflective practice is increasingly sidelined, creating new tensions around academic integrity, assessment design, and student learning. This paper examines how educators can respond to the ethical and instructional challenges posed by AI while maintaining pedagogical integrity and calls for renewed institutional support for reflection as a foundational element of effective teaching and learning.Item Teaching students how to succeed in group assignments(2025) Benson, LyleThe ability of university students to function effectively as team members in group assignments is essential for their success as they transition to the workforce. For this reason, many universities have teamwork as a required learning outcome for their graduates. Researchers have identified both the problems university students encounter with group assignments and the solutions to these problems. However, one main issue remains—university faculty do little in the way of teaching their students how to work as a team on group assignments. This descriptive practice-based paper reviews the problems associated with university group assignments and provides solutions to these problems and curriculum guidance with specific suggestions on how faculty can teach students to work in group projects. These suggestions can apply to any university group assignment.Item Avanzando en la oscuridad: una revisión de los métodos de investigación del liderazgo distribuido(2023) Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Beckford, Wilfred; Roache, Darcia; Delgado, Miguel Ángel Díaz; Cabrera, Óscar Julio Mauriera; Newton, Paul Michael; Pérez, César Omar MoraEl concepto de un enfoque distribuido del liderazgo ha estado presente desde principios de la década de 1950, pero la investigación sobre el liderazgo distribuido (LD) en un contexto educativo comenzó a principios del siglo XXI y ahora parece ser aceptado como el paradigma de liderazgo para la educación. Sin embargo, el LD no está exento de problemas. Algunos lo han calificado como otra moda de liderazgo, mientras que otros afirman que es simplemente un subconjunto de un enfoque de liderazgo establecido (Edwards, 2011; Fitzsimons, James y Denyer 2011; Jambo y Honge, 2020); de cualquier forma, parece que ha llegado para quedarse.Item Digital technologies and the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises(2024) Yordanova, Desislava; Dana, Leo-Paul; Manolova, Tatiana S.; Pergelova, AlbenaSmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make important contributions to sustainable economic growth, employment, poverty alleviation, local development, and human wellbeing in developed and developing countries. SMEs are also increasingly active international players due to the technological advances that have lowered the risks and costs of foreign market entry. The key among these technological advances is the advent of digital technologies. Indeed, as early as 2010, Etemad, Wilkinson, and Dana noted that “internetization” is a pre-requisite for internationalization in the new economy. Previous research has revealed complex links between internationalization, digitalization, and sustainability in the context of SMEs, and observed that this field is rapidly evolving; however, there are still many gaps in our knowledge about the relationship between digitalization and SME internationalization. Hence, this Special Issue focused on unraveling various ways in which digital technologies affect the internationalization of SMEs. In this Editorial, we present a brief overview of the topic of SME internationalization, followed by the role of digital technology in the internationalization process, and finally offer a summary of the articles in this Special Issue.Item Guest editorial: marketing via smart technologies in hospitality and tourism(2024) Stylos, Nikolaos; Jiang, Yangyang; Pergelova, AlbenaSmart technologies are revolutionizing services across various sectors. Smartness creates an innovative substratum of technological advances that offer new ways for service optimization via capitalizing on intelligence capabilities to best serve consumer needs (Stylos et al., 2021). Consequently, the design, operations management, organization of resources, marketing and communications and actual provision of services have a lot to benefit from adopting and disseminating smart technologies in the service organizations and across service partners, to ultimately influence wider service ecosystems (Priporas et al., 2017). In this vein, value creation as influenced by sophisticated apps and other smart technologies is an area of interest for both marketing scholars and practitioners and requires further investigation to support marketing effectiveness in the Industry 4.0 era (Ekren et al., 2023; Osadchaya et al., 2024). Notwithstanding the opportunities that have emerged from this new technological environment, various challenges also need to be addressed. These challenges span across service ecosystems and influence the roles and actions of all stakeholders involved. Thus, there are organizational challenges, ethical considerations, environmental concerns and technological challenges that may need to be tackled, mitigated or even avoided (Marder et al., 2024).Item Understanding SMEs’ internationalization through digital platforms: the role of knowledge sharing and consumer education(2024) Hu, Lala; Filipescu, Diana A.; Pergelova, AlbenaPurpose The aim of this study is to understand how digital platforms and context-specific characteristics of China – such as swift guanxi – affect opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) entering this market. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a qualitative approach based on a multiple-case study of Italian SMEs in the wine industry that have activated international activities in China. Primary data consist of 32 interviews with SMEs’ managers, local consumers and other stakeholders involved in firm internationalization. Findings The findings of this study highlight that in SMEs’ internationalization, the process of knowledge/learning on digital platforms takes place in a bidirectional way thanks to the interactions among multiple stakeholders, which activate consumer education and knowledge sharing. Originality/value While previous research has emphasized firms' knowledge acquisition in the internationalization process, this study incorporates both the consumer perspective and the firm perspective, along with considering interactions with various stakeholders.Item The human element in digital transformation: the role of talent management for SMEs(2024) Pergelova, Albena; Yordanova, DesislavaThe role of digitalization for business performance has attracted significant research interest. While many studies have advanced the literature with insights on digital tools and strategies, what is less well understood is the role of the human factor in this process. The objective of this study is to assess the role of the human element in the digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Theoretically, we draw on sociotechnical theory and dynamic capabilities to underline the importance of integrating the technology and human aspects for enhancing SME performance. Empirically, we use a representative dataset of 1,000 Bulgarian SMEs and perform structural equations modeling. Our findings reveal that the existence of digital strategies by themselves may not lead to improved performance unless they are well integrated with the appropriate talent management practices that support organizational agility. The results underscore the importance of considering the pathways through which digital strategy affects organizational performance for SMEs.Item Cultural and distributive justice in firm's response to product failure(2023) Muralidharan, Etayankara; Guo, Wenxia; Maheshkar, Chandan; Sharma, VinodExtant research suggests that in a service failure context, consumer's power distance value orientation interacts with the nature of the firm's response to influence perceptions of distributive justice and satisfaction. We examine whether this interaction is applicable in a goods failure context. In our study that uses an experimental design and data from Canada and Hong Kong, we find that for consumers with high power distance value orientation perception of distributive justice remains the same regardless of the status (higher versus lower) of the individual providing an apology for the goods failure; whereas for consumers with lower power distance value orientation justice perceptions will be lower when the apology is provided by an individual of higher status (versus lower status). These findings are contrary to the findings in a service recovery context and therefore reveal that cultural value orientations (e.g., power distance) may shape customer reactions to the nature of organizational responses in goods and service contexts differently. Justice perceptions further influence customer satisfaction, which is a key for complaints management.Item Positive leadership approaches: principles and practices for flourishing schools(2021) Roache, Darcia; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Marshall, Jason; Kutsyuruba, Benjamin; Cherkowski, Sabre; Walker, Keith D.The world is evolving. Economic activity is no longer driven solely by the capitalist ideals of land, labour, and capital; there has been a shift toward a knowledge-based economy. As a result, schools are at the pinnacle of societal growth and development as they are the primary institutions where knowledge is generated, translated, and mobilized. Consequently, it is imperative that school climates based on respect, collegiality, collaboration, gratitude, and engagement are at the forefront of education. These types of climates are critical if schools are to flourish. Creating these flourishing school environments will require a positive leadership approach.Item Transformational leadership in practice: bridging the chasm(2023) Salem, Tarek; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Roache, Darcia Ann MarieThis chapter captures the bi-furcated challenge of implementing the transformational leadership practices in a complex organizational context. The authors embark on Bass' 4I transformational leadership model and suggest a variety of imperative skills necessary for the proper implementation. From the suggested pool of skills, two are highlighted as the most important and resonate with the 4I model. These are creativity and innovation skills and change management skills. The authors expect to find out the importance of transformational leaders to empower and enable the second line of operational leaders that are capable of efficiently and effectively bridging the transformational leadership chasm from the leaders' vision to the followers' practice.Item Autonomy and empowerment for middle managers in Jamaican local (municipal) authorities: a positioning strategy for change leadership/management(2022) Roache, Darcia Ann Marie; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Muschette, Richard Oliver; Wilmot, Ann-Marie; Thompson, Canute SylvesterThe chapter explores how chief executive officers' (CEOs) leadership styles in municipal corporations (MCs) in Jamaica affect middle managers' autonomy and empowerment for change leadership in times of crises. The CEOs' leadership styles contribute to the performance of middle managers' fulfilment of their organizational mandate. Fourteen participants (senior and middle managers), with at least 10 years of working experience at the senior and middle management levels, participated in this study to explore human lived experiences using a case study approach. The qualitative case study used NVivo 12 software to analyze data collected using semi-structured interview questions on how CEOs in MCs can empower middle managers with autonomy to effectively perform their jobs. The findings reveal that when CEOs empower and give autonomy to middle managers, such an action could transform local government organizations and encourage best practices for organizational change in times of crises.Item Ethical implications in money laundering detection: balancing privacy and accountability(2024) White, Robert McKay; Lyn, Alexandra; Roache, Darcia Ann MarieThe obligation of businesses to submit suspicious transaction reports (STRs) in anti-money laundering efforts is a critical component of regulatory frameworks worldwide. Businesses increasingly look to technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) tools, to satisfy these obligations. While STRs remain a key component of compliance, they raise complex ethical issues involving client privacy and human rights. Employing AI technology in transaction monitoring and reporting processes exacerbates these issues. This chapter explores ethical dilemmas surrounding STR compliance, including the tensions inherent in balancing regulatory imperatives with individual rights. The role of AI in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of suspicious transaction monitoring is considered, alongside the ethical risks associated with algorithmic bias, lack of interpretability, and the potential erosion of human oversight. By synthesizing insights from theory and research, this chapter offers a comprehensive framework for navigating the ethical complexities of STR compliance.Item An exploration of the influence of having international family on higher education reputation and loyalty(2024) Cartwright, Kelly; Angulo-Ruiz, FernandoWe use a mixed-methodology to examine the influence of having international family on higher education (HE) reputation and loyalty. Employing qualitative research, we hypothesize that having family members in the international country where an international student plans to pursue higher education is a key source of information that activates not only awareness and positive associations of universities but also a social identity which in turn affects HE reputation and loyalty. We test our hypotheses using survey responses from international students of a HE institution based in Alberta, Canada. Our structural equation modeling results point to the significant role of having international family—relative to marketing activities—for building HE reputation and in turn for affecting HE loyalty. Our findings contribute to the literature on organizational reputation in an international context with an enhanced understanding of the determinants of HE reputation and insights into the psychological and social processes of reputation formation. This research has also implications for university international officers and HE marketers to help with attracting international students.Item Electronic signatures and ethics(2007) Srivastava, Aashish; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Quigley, MarianThe advent of the Internet once again raised the question as to what constitutes a signature and what form of signature should be used to sign electronic documents. This led legal jurists and academics to examine what a signature is. Traditionally, a signature is “the name of a person written with his or her own hand” (Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary, 2006), and since 439 AD in the Roman Empire, a signature authenticated wills (Nicholas, 1965). However, courts have accepted various other forms of signature such as initials, marks, rubber stamp, typed name, and a printed name.1 Thus the validity of a signature is not to be tested by its form but rather by the functions it performs (Reed, 2000).Item The emergence of the institution of mingongzhi and its implications for a unified labour market in China(2010) Zhu, Cherrie Jiuhua; Zhang, Mingqiong; Thomson, Stanley Bruce; Nyland, Chris; Guo, Yue; Wang, Yue; Ramburuth, PremThere have been significant changes in the available workforce in Chinese cities due to the influx of millions of migrant workers as the consequence of economic reforms. Drawing on institutional theory, this chapter discusses the emergence of the 'institution of mingongzhi' (mingong means farmer-turned workers and zhi means system in Chinese) and provides a justification for applying the label of institution. Mingongzhi refers to a social-economic system under which certain people or social groups, known as mingong here, are socially excluded in urban areas of contemporary China. Based on the empirical evidence from the case studies and surveys conducted in Changsha and Haerbin, we found the existence of the institution of mingongzhi even after many of the barriers for rural migrants were removed by the central government. We argue that mingongzhi needs to be deinstitutionalized if China is to establish a unified labour market as advocated by the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization.Item Religion and organizational stigma at work(2015) Thomson, Stanley BruceThis book uses stigma theory to provide meaningful insight into the coping mechanisms of employees who experience critical and judgmental reactions to their religion in the workplace. Thomson's research synthesizes the various models of invisible diversity management and offers strategies for application at the organizational level.Item Access to justice for victims of economic exploitation(2024) White, Robert McKayResearch in intimate partner violence (IPV) has established that economic abuse, including economic exploitation, is an important form of IPV that is often used to trap victims in an abusive relationship. Though victims of all types of IPV encounter particular barriers to accessing justice, there are particular issues for those victimized by economic exploitation. This article explains the prevalence and consequences of economic exploitation and explores the indicators that victims lack access to justice. It proposes the primary obstacles victims of economic exploitation encounter and urges specific actions to assist lawyers, judges, and legislators in recognizing economic exploitation in intimate partner relationships and promoting appropriate remedies. This is particularly important for women, which data analysis indicates are at greater risk for this type of abuse.