Professors receive major research grants

April 13, 2005

Four Queen's School of Business professors received major research funds from the federal government-funded SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) annual grants competition. Funding from this national program was awarded to Professors Kathryn Brohman, Peer Fiss, Nick Turner and Selim Topaloglu, and is a significant boost to the School’s research program. What follows is a brief outline of their research projects.

Management Information Systems Assistant Professor Kathryn Brohman is building frameworks and models to help managers and executives make decisions related to the use of technology to support customer service. She will explore both organization-driven and customer-driven approaches to network-enabled customer service systems.

Assistant Professor of Strategy and Organization Peer Fiss is developing a new methodology for looking at the relations between key characteristics of firms, such as their strategy, structure, and environment. By examining what elements work best together, he aims to better understand how configurations may lead to superior firm performance.

Organizational Behaviour Assistant Professor Nick Turner is looking at how workers doing dangerous work are able to adapt and thrive. He will investigate the ways in which British female factory workers who assembled explosives in a World War II munitions factory were able to socially construct safety and resilience.

Assistant Professor of Finance Selim Topaloglu is examining the allocation of shares in initial public offerings (IPOs), and will provide a potential explanation for why the issuing firms and the underwriters leave large sums of money on the table. Does any group of investors receive IPO allocations based on the other business they provide to the underwriter?