Transforming Business Through Research: DeGroote Researchers Earn Prestigious Research Grants

“DeGroote’s research is leading edge, inter-disciplinary and complementary to a number of wide-ranging disciplines both within the faculty, across McMaster and beyond,” says Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research Khaled Hassanein.

Stress and destructive leadership behaviour. Big data as a tool for strategy and innovation. Labour costs during the financial crisis. Ownership concentration effects on corporate policy. Firm innovations and minimum wage policies. Discrimination by data analytics tools. Framework development to model the dynamic matching problem.

Six DeGroote researchers will delve into these topics with support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight, and Insight Development Grants, as well as Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants, and Discovery Launch Supplements. Total funding for this group alone is valued at more than $500,000.

“DeGroote’s research is leading edge, inter-disciplinary and complementary to a number of wide-ranging disciplines both within the faculty, across McMaster and beyond,” said Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research Khaled Hassanein. “Congratulations to every researcher recognized for their hard-work in securing these research grants.”

These grants help further develop exceptional research ideas, attracting regional, national, and international attention and serving as future collaboration opportunities between DeGroote and the business and academic communities.

In October 2018, DeGroote submitted five projects for SSHRC Insight Grants, resulting in a 60 per cent success rate. The projects contributed to McMaster’s overall success rate of 59 per cent, compared to a national success rate of 45 per cent.

Not long after, DeGroote was also awarded a prestigious NSERC Discovery Grant.

The latest round of national results indicate that 57 per cent of Early Career Researchers, 84 per cent of returning Established Scholars, and 40 per cent of Established Scholars not previously holding a grant were successful. McMaster Early Career Researchers enjoyed a 65 per cent success rate.

SSHRC Recipients

• Catherine Connelly, working alongside colleagues from the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan, on their project titled: Stress and Destructive Leadership: Causes, conditions, and the mitigating role of mindfulness
• Elkafi Hassini on his project: Power of Big Data: Impact on Strategy and Innovation in Canadian SMEs
• Jiaping Qiu, working on a project titled: Labor Cost Rigidity and Corporate Financing Policies: Evidence from Labor Contract Renewal During the Financial Crisis
• Khaled Hassanein working with colleague Sepideh Ebrahimi of York University on the project Empowering Users to Detect Data Analytics Discriminatory Recommendations

Insight and Insight Development Grant Recipient

• Yan Wang advancing her research on Ownership Concentration, Fragility Risk and Corporate Payout Policy and for her project asking: Does High Labour Cost Encourage or Impede Firm Innovations

NSERC Discovery Grant and Discovery Launch Recipient

• Yun Zhou received funding towards his project entitled Dynamic Matching for On-Demand Service Platforms.

To learn more about the research underway at DeGroote, please visit research.degroote.mcmaster.ca.