Beedie School of Business News

March 24, 2011. SFU News Online

Companies need to embrace the new wave of consumers who are tinkering and altering their products, according to an award-winning study by researchers at SFU’s Beedie School of Business.

Their findings come in the wake of some high profile hacking of proprietary technology offerings, including the unlocking of Apple’s iPhone 4 and the hacking of Microsoft’s Kinect gaming device.

Doctoral student Colin Campbell, professors Leyland Pitt and Ian McCarthy, and a U.S. colleague examined the phenomenon of “creative consumers”—those who hack, tinker and mess with firms’ proprietary offerings.

“Creative consumers are becoming a major force in the business world,” the authors wrote in their paper, Creative Consumers: Awareness, Attitude & Action—Instrument & Preliminary Results. “They are adapting, modifying and creating.”

For example, it was Apple’s customers—not the company itself—that adapted the iPod for podcasting, which has evolved into a new form of media broadcasting. But there is also potential danger when customers tinker with certain pharmaceutical products, or with safety features on automobiles.

That’s why the researchers developed a scale—or checklist—that firms can use to examine and explore their own attitudes toward the creative consumer phenomenon.

“By being aware of the phenomenon, knowing what their attitude towards it is, and being able to determine the actions they will take toward it, firms will be better able to deal with creative consumers,” say the researchers.

The article received the best paper award on the Strategic Marketing track at the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand in December 2010.

The original story from SFU News Online is here.

Good instructors recognize that sometimes simply knowing the content is not enough. You also need to understand how to effectively share your knowledge with your students. For Andrew Gemino, one of this year’s three Excellence in Teaching Award recipients, being a good teacher is about, “creating an environment where students want to learn and have fun learning.” He makes a point of engaging his students by adopting a friendly attitude, breaking the ice with ‘fireside chats’, using examples that students relate to, and trying to bring something new to every class.

Read the full article and watch the video at SFU Teaching and Learning News, here.

Burnaby, BC – The BIG Book Drive team made up of three Simon Fraser University students, Joseph Choi, Alex Venetis and Steffi Chua would like to thank the residents of BC for their incredible support and generosity on February 26th and March 19-20, 2011 in Richmond and Burnaby, respectively. Altogether, these communities donated more than 10,000 books to The BIG Book Drive, all of which is benefiting the Salvation Army’s Family Services to provide low-income families and children with an opportunity to gain a better literacy education. In addition, the team was able to recycle more than 24 large boxes of magazines and catalogues, all of which was recycled into new resources.

“This project was started in the beginning of January just 10 weeks ago. Our initial estimation for this entire book drive was going to be 2,000 books, but we never could’ve imagined that we would end up with over 10,000,” says Joseph Choi, one of The BIG Book Drive coordinators. “The generosity from the Lower Mainland community is simply incredible.”

These books are going towards the Salvation Army in support of their Family Services and their other literacy-related programs. According to Literacy BC, 40% of adults in British Columbia do not have the literacy skills needed to fully participate and succeed in today’s world. This presents over one million people who are under-equipped to cope with society’s increasing informational demands. Having low literacy rates increases poverty and crime which hinders economic productivity; it indirectly affects our personal health and well-being overall. The BIG Book Drive team wants to give these low-income families and children access to these books so that they could gain the literacy skills to succeed.

“We are really thankful for all the help the Salvation Army has given us since the beginning,” says Choi. “We feel very honoured to have received such incredible support from them, and by helping us carry out what we wanted to do by supplying us with their own resources.”

The BIG Book Drive team would’ve never been able to achieve this feat if it were not for the help and support from their sponsors, including The Salvation Army, Richmond Scouts, Lansdowne Centre, Black Bond Books, Kin’s Farm Market, Literacy BC, Cornerstone Printing, SFU Bookstore and TrendzPrintMedia, as well as the help of volunteers from the Richmond Scouts and The Salvation Army. The team would like to thank these organizations for their contributions in making this event a success.

“It is the Lower Mainland community who should be proud of what they have come together to achieve,” says Steffi Chua. “There are so many children, teenagers, and young adults who don’t have access to books that can improve their literacy skills. It’s fortunate to see that as soon as we sent the word of an opportunity to help these individuals, these book donors jumped right on board.”

“We are privileged to be able to attend a university like SFU,” added Alex Venetis. “If it were not for our education, we never would have been able to make this happen. There’s so many people out there who can benefit from these books; all it takes is a community with the desire to make that happen. Together, we can make a difference in someone’s life.”

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For more information, please contact:

Joseph Choi
Phone: 778-991-7654
Email: thebigbookdrive@gmail.com
www.thebigbookdrive.com
Twitter: @thebigbookdrive

SOURCE: Japan Relief Fundraiser – http://lumioso.com/japanfundraiser

March 21, 2011 (Vancouver, BC) – The earthquake and tsunami that recently wreaked havoc on Japan has stolen the lives and wellbeing from countless individuals. This disaster has touched the lives of many of the students and alumni of SFU.

To this end, a group of them have united to organize the Japan Relief Fundraiser on April 2, 2011. The event is a chance for SFU students and alumni, many of whom have family and friends who were in Japan at the time of the disaster, to take an active role in supporting the country as it rebuilds.

With friends overseas in Japan and many Japanese-Canadian friends, Gurjeet Singh, an SFU Beedie School of Business graduate, feels a strong connection to the country and what has happened. Singh says that it is this concern for his friends and their families that has driven him to organize the Japan Relief Fundraiser. “It is times like these that you need to depend on people you trust; people in your networks” says Singh. “The help and support we’ve received from our SFU network has been astounding. Everyone from alumni to first years, Business to Arts, staff and faculty, it’s been fantastic!” To date, 30-plus SFU students and alumni have come together to support the Japan Relief Fundraiser.

Michelle Se, a fourth year SIAT and Communications student at SFU says that the Japan Relief Fundraiser is a chance to take an active role in the relief effort. “This is not simply about donating money to the relief effort in Japan,” says Se. “It is also an important opportunity to show that our hearts are with all those who were affected in Japan and everywhere along the Pacific Rim.”

The organizers of the event have felt the affects of the disaster in some way or another. SFU graduate Isabella Shin has family spread throughout Japan and has felt compelled to take part in the event.

The Japan Relief Fundraiser will include dinner and entertainment at Shiang Garden (2200 – 4540 No. 3 Road, Richmond) — with the restaurant generously donating a portion of their proceeds from the evening to the Red Cross. The night will begin and end with silent auctions and raffles with proceeds donated to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.

The Japan Relief Fundraiser will be held on April 2, 2011 at 6:30 PM. For more information about the event visit http://www.lumioso.com/japanfundraiser.

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Contact:
Gurjeet Singh, Japan Relief Fundraiser
gurjeets87@gmail.com

Contact:
Kyle Krystalowich, 604.961.6740; president@sifesimonfraser.com

Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.3210;marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca

March 15, 2011

A Simon Fraser University student team has clinched top honors in a regional competition with their presentation of a project that finds new life for old banners.

The team, from SFU’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) group, was selected winner of the Scotiabank & SIFE Go Green Challenge at the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) competition in Calgary March 14.

The win entitles the students to participate in the national competition in Toronto May 9-11. They’ll be joined by Jordan Gutierrez, CEO of librerialeo.com.mx and a fourth-year economics student at SFU, one of two Western Canadian students to move into the national finals of ACE’s student entrepreneur competition.

Gutierrez is founder of the world’s largest online Spanish-language medical bookstore to serve rural doctors in his native Mexico. He was earlier chosen as SFU’s 2010 Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Banner Bags project puts high school students to work turning donated street banners into reusable bags – and teaches them about environmental sustainability in the process.

Presenting students Manisha Narula and Sonam Swarup shared how the project has so far involved 710 students and 20 schools throughout Metro Vancouver, Vernon and even Ottawa.

The students were able to reuse nearly 450 banners worth more than $30,000. “That meant more than 1,100 pounds of nylon saved from going to the landfill, saving over 27,000 pounds of CO2 emissions,” says Narula.

As part of the Go Green challenge the students also presented their New Leaf program, which gives Grade 7 students an opportunity to create community action plans and express their views on environmental sustainability through an online magazine.

SIFE students were also runners up in the TD SIFE Entrepreneurship Challenge and second runners up in the SIFE Financial Education Challenge.

SFU teams competed against 13 other SIFE teams from Western Canada. For a complete list of winners see: http://www.acecanada.ca/news/newsItem.cfm?cms_news_id=476

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VANCOUVER – Businesses both small and large across Metro Vancouver can benefit from hiring international student interns for seasonal staffing needs, according to the local SFU chapter of AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization. These exchange students from across the globe bring university-level skill sets, strong work ethics, and diverse backgrounds with them. They also represent a low-risk, fiscally prudent human resources investment for virtually any organization. Best yet – it’s a simple, low-maintenance process to bring them on board.

AIESEC SFU has long recognized their untapped potential through its Global Internship Program.  In Metro Vancouver, a wide range of firms — including IT companies, financial services, universities, and consultancies — have brought on AIESEC Global Interns. This non-profit organization can help your organization hire international students to work locally, making the process easier and more affordable than you think. If employers need the extra help in time for summer, businesses should be looking into the process now.

An added bonus: Through AIESEC SFU’s Global Internship Program, local businesses don’t need to worry about recruitment, visas, or paperwork. Employers simply need to provide the job description, specifying their needs for unique skill sets or languages and AIESEC is able to source out high potential students and recent graduates from over 1,700 universities in over 107 different countries.

Culture and experience play a large role in how people think and solve problems. Businesses with international markets benefit highly from the value international interns provide. Candidates bring depth to existing teams through their international awareness, and inherent diversity. The Global Internship Program will increase a company’s competitive advantage by providing access to global talent, an otherwise difficult labour market to access.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of AIESEC SFU’s partnership with SFU Career Services. “AIESEC interns have become an integral part of SFU’s Annual Career Fair and we enjoy meeting a new person from a different country every year,” said Christine Gilbert, Campus Recruitment Manager for SFU Career Services. “International interns bring a different type of energy to the team. It’s great to share our cultures with each other and I highly recommend it for businesses.”

With over 60 years of experience, AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization in the world. AIESEC provides companies access to a global talent pool of the best and brightest young, globally-minded leaders from all over the world.  We offer a simple solution to source talent with specific skill-sets to work on highly customized job profiles and projects.

For more information about AIESEC’s Global Internship Program, email Christina Buiza at christina.buiza@aiesec.net or visit www.aiesec.ca/sfu

Contact:
Salina Siu, VP of Communications, AIESEC SFU
604-202-8168
salina.siu@aiesec.net

An upcoming event at Simon Fraser University Surrey and hosted by the Beedie School of Business will give students the opportunity to showcase their in-class developed entrepreneurial ventures to the wider business community.

“Opportunity Fest” will be held on April 7 from 7 to 9 pm in the Mezzanine of SFU’s Surrey Campus. Students will be tasked to develop trade-show exhibits that include product prototypes, videos, graphical display boards and more. Judges from industry, academia and the wider business community will informally meet with participants to evaluate the products showcased, and express their financial interest or commitment through investment of emulated venture capital dollars.

Over 50 students from several different classes will take place in the marketplace-style exhibition, which will include themes of sustainability and social innovation along with traditional entrepreneurship and business strategy. A male and female winner will be crowned as “Mr. and Ms. Opportunity,” respectively.

“This is like a Capstone experience for these undergraduate students,” said Eric Gedajlovic, Professor at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. “In today’s inter-connected world, where things are happening so rapidly and your plans are outdated as soon as they are established, success and growth depends on your ability to continuously identify and pursue opportunities.”

A wide range of student-generated business ideas will be shown, including a bluetooth embedded ski helmet; a bus-tracking GPS device; inflatable skates; and smart exercise machines that upload workout data to the Internet.

“This event is a little bit of Dragon’s Den, and a bit of Apprentice,” he said. “The teams take this opportunity to develop a full-blown project. These are ideas and new ventures that come from dissatisfaction with the way things are done currently – and now represent viable business concepts.”

Opportunity Fest is not just restricted to the commercial area. Gedajlovic points out that students and entrepreneurs from a wide range of discliplines can adopt this strategic entrepreneurial mindset, and identify opportunities that are consistent with areas they care about — whether they be not-for-profit initiatives, environmental causes or cultural activities.

“It’s part experiential, but is also theory and problem driven,” said Gedajlovic. “The opportunities that people discover can be highly idiosyncratic. This is something people can take ownership of, and is derived from their own background or experiences or network. It’s something that they will really care about.”

For more information:
Eric Gedajlovic, SFU Beedie School of Business
erg@sfu.ca; 778-782-5168
Twitter.com/gedajlovic

A team of business students from Simon Fraser University are using their growing expertise in management and social media to address one of the most pressing issues facing Africa today: access to clean drinking water.

The MBA students from Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business — Angie Rai, Karen Robson, Tina Sun and Pankaj Saini — are raising money to build a clean water well in a Sierra Leone village via the not-for-profit Free the Children.

The fundraising effort originally got off the ground as a result of a classroom assignment. Students in the MBA class Managing Information Systems, taught by SFU Beedie School of Business Assoc. Professor Michael Parent, were challenged to garner as many social media likes and comments as possible in order to increase organizational engagement with consumers.

On the night previous to receiving the MBA challenge, students had viewed the documentary A World Without Water, which casts new light on the commodification of water globally and the tragedies stemming from lack of access to safe drinking water. Moved by the central premise of the program, Rai vowed to address it in her team project.

Her team’s Facebook page, entitled 1 Dollar Per Like, initially hoped to acquire 5,000 likes in order to raise enough money to build the well in Sierra Leone. She notes that on the first night of her group’s Facebook campaign, they had 400 likes — translating into $400 raised. By the end of the first week, they had attracted 1,000 likes to raise the same number of dollars. The team has since garnered sponsor commitment of up to $5,000 — the amount required to build the well — and are well on their way to attracting that many likes. “Amazingly, we will have used our Facebook page to have built 100 percent of the well,” she said.

“Now we’re saying, why stop at $5,000 — why not $25,000 and adopt the entire village?” said Rai, who is also the co-president of the SFU Net Impact Society – a student club focused on the intersection of business with sustainability and corporate social responsibility. “That would mean building a school classroom, plus a well, and starting health care and alternate income programs.”

Rai herself is no stranger to volunteering for infrastructure projects in Africa. Previous to coming to SFU’s Beedie School of Business, she worked with Free the Children, helping to build a school in Kenya.

Moving forward, she hopes to combine her newfound enthusiasm for business with her experiences in the developing world. “I’m trying to do good through business,” she said. “Whatever I wind up doing, it’ll have a lot to do with Africa, because that’s where my passion lies.”

For more information, or to donate, visit: http://www.facebook.com/1DollarPerLike

Longshots and Luck

By Ken Warren, The Ottawa Citizen

We’ve all seen those teenage prospects forced to sweat through round after round of the National Hockey League entry draft before they hear their names called.

Well, maybe there’s no reason to feel sorry for them.

A comprehensive study of the history of NHL draft selections, compiled by researchers at Simon Fraser University, shows that lateround picks have almost the same chance of a career in the big leagues as mid-round selections.

And, says the report, there is no significant difference in future success between players chosen late in the second round of the draft with those taken at any point in the third round.

The statistics came as a surprise to researchers, who originally thought there would be a more dramatic dropoff in NHL success after the supposed elite players from each draft class had been selected.

“We just didn’t expect the numbers to flatten out the way they did,” says Peter Tingling, a professor of business administration at SFU and co-author of the report, Does Order Matter?, which will be featured in the upcoming edition of Sport Business & Management.

The research reveals that, from 1990 until 2003, players selected from 121st to 150th overall (the fourth round of a 30-player draft) had a 14.9-per-cent chance of playing 160 NHL games. (For the study, an NHL career is considered to be 160 games, the point at which players qualify for a pension.)

Meanwhile, prospects chosen in the eighth round had a nine-per-cent chance of sticking in the NHL.

Interestingly, those eighthround picks were actually more likely to succeed than the teenagers who were chosen in the seventh round (7.2 per cent).

Players picked in the latter half of the second round had a 24.9-per-cent future success rate, compared to 23.5 per cent of those selected in the third round.

Accordingly, regardless of where players fall into that range -from 45th to 90th -their chances of staying in the NHL is almost one in four.

To read the complete article printed in the March 12, 2011 edition of the Ottawa Citizen, visit: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Draft+Longshots+luck/4427851/story.html