Publications Database

Welcome to the new Schulich Peer-Reviewed Publication Database!

The database is currently in beta-testing and will be updated with more features as time goes on. In the meantime, stakeholders are free to explore our faculty’s numerous works. The left-hand panel affords the ability to search by the following:

  • Faculty Member’s Name;
  • Area of Expertise;
  • Whether the Publication is Open-Access (free for public download);
  • Journal Name; and
  • Date Range.

At present, the database covers publications from 2012 to 2020, but will extend further back in the future. In addition to listing publications, the database includes two types of impact metrics: Altmetrics and Plum. The database will be updated annually with most recent publications from our faculty.

If you have any questions or input, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

Search Results

Shiu-Yik Au, Ming Dong, and Xinyao Zhou (Forthcoming). "Does Social Interaction Spread Fear among Institutional Investors? Evidence from COVID-19", Management Science.

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Abstract We study how social connectedness affected mutual fund manager trading behavior in the first half of 2020. In the first quarter during which the COVID outbreak occurred, fund managers located in or socially connected to COVID hotspots sold more stock holdings compared to a control group of unconnected managers. The economic impact of social connectedness on stock holdings was comparable to that of COVID hotspots and was elevated among “epicenter” stocks most susceptible to the pandemic shock. In the second quarter, social interaction had an overall negative effect on fund performance, but this effect depended on manager skill; unskilled managers who were connected to the hotspots underperformed, while skillful managers suffered no deleterious effect. Our evidence suggests that social connections can intensify salience bias for all but the most skilled institutional investors, and policy makers should be wary of the destabilizing role of social networks during market downturns.

Mawani, A. and Fan, H. (2023). "Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Disclosure and Firms’ Contemporaneous Dividend Payouts", Canadian Tax Journal , 17(3), 667-99.

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Abstract The Canada emergency wage subsidy (CEWS) was designed as a bailout for employees who had been sidelined from employment during COVID-19. However, the eligibility rules for the wage subsidy suggest that it was not restricted to jobs that would otherwise have been lost. CEWS recipients also did not have to demonstrate the need for cash, so the cash received from the subsidy, based on a decline in monthly revenue, could be used for other purposes if annual revenues did not end up declining. This article examines characteristics of publicly listed firms that voluntarily disclosed the wage subsidy they received and whether such disclosure was associated with increases in contemporaneous dividend payouts. The authors hypothesize and show that firms may have been reluctant to disclose their CEWS if they increased their dividend payouts in the same year. This finding is moderated by firms’ cash holdings, reported losses, lower accounting earnings (compared to the prior year), and the extent to which firms managed their accounting earnings. The results hold under endogeneity tests using a two-stage least-square regression.

Ordonez-Ponce, E., Dordi, T., Talbot, D., & Weber, O. (2022). "Canadian Banks and their Responses to COVID-19 – Stakeholder-Oriented Crisis Management", Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment.

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Abstract The financial sector is essential to the stability of markets in times of crisis and during the pandemic, banks are called to contribute to society by easing access to credit or keeping rates low. This article explores Canadian banks’ responses to the pandemic assessing their products, services and stakeholders. Using crisis management and stakeholder theories, 3161 news articles about the five biggest Canadian banks and the pandemic were assessed as a proxy for banks’ responses to the pandemic using sentiment analysis, text mining, and statistical methodologies. Results show that banks were negatively impacted by the pandemic and that their stakeholders were approached differently highlighting the community over clients and employees. This study contributes to the need to adapt crisis management strategies and theories to unexpected crises, as others may come, and it sheds some light on stakeholder management measurement processes, which speak to how effective stakeholder management is.

Gong, S., N. Ho, J. Jin, and K. Kanagaretnam (2022). "Audit Quality and COVID-19 Restrictions", Managerial Auditing Journal, 37(8). 1017-1037.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine declines in audit quality after the COVID-19 travel restrictions/stay-at-home orders were issued in the USA in early 2020.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking advantage of variation in the dates of stay-at-home orders issued by different US states, this study identifies engagements that were significantly affected by the lock down orders.

Findings

The results suggest that engagements affected by the restrictions produced lower audit quality, as measured through restatements and discretionary accruals, relative to those completed before COVID-19 travel restrictions/stay-at-home orders. Further analysis reveals that this decrease in audit quality was attributable to firms with high inventory relative to assets, high R&D expenses relative to assets and non-Big 4 auditors.

Practical implications

This study finds that the restrictions on physical and on-site interaction caused auditors to universally struggle with resource/judgment-intensive accounts such as inventory and R&D expenditures. The results suggest that while Big 4 auditors managed to maintain their status quo level of audit quality following COVID-19 restrictions, non-Big 4 auditors were unable to overcome the challenges of an online work environment and their audit quality declined.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to empirically examine changes in audit quality as a response to a substantial change in auditors’ working environment due to the global health crisis. As work-from-home becomes more prevalent in audit firms, the results suggest that, on average, this move does diminish audit quality.

Cho, C.H., Senn, J. and Sobkowiak, M. (2022). "Sustainability at Stake During Covid-19: Exploring the Role of Accounting in Addressing Environmental Crises", Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 82, 102327.

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Abstract In this paper, we reflect and provide insights on the environmental implications of post-COVID-19 economic recoveries. More specifically, we highlight the connection(s) between the environment and the COVID-19 crisis, in particular the intertwined links between Mother Nature and the virus. We then raise some concerns about the ‘illusionary’ positive and negative effects of the crisis on the environment before evoking some past lessons about crisis management and recovery. We contend that the current accounting and accountability mechanisms employed in economic stimulus programs, as well as traditional environmental accounting approaches, are inadequate and limiting to achieve long-term sustainability change. The paper concludes by offering accounting practitioners and researchers some possibilities to take a step forward and develop new understandings of social and environmental value consistent with ecological principles and sustainable development—and hope that these reflections will contribute to a broader debate on the role of accounting for sustainable development in the Anthropocene.

Chang, C. H., Shao, R., Wang, M. and Baker, N. (2021). "Workplace Interventions in Response to COVID-19: An Occupational Health Psychology Perspective", Occupational Health Science, 5, 1-23.

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Abstract The outbreak of COVID-19 has imposed significant threats to individuals’ physical health and has substantially changed the socioeconomic order and the nature of our work and life all over the world. To guide organizations to design effective workplace interventions to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19, we take the occupational health psychology (OHP) perspective to propose a framework that highlights important areas for organizations to intervene in order to better protect workers’ physical health and safety and to promote workers’ psychological well-being. Specifically, we integrate the prevention-based public health model with the Total Worker Health (TWH) and OHP-based approaches to propose a comprehensive set of primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions that target different groups of employees with varied exposure risks to the new coronavirus. We believe these proposed interventions can contribute positively to the development of healthy and safe work. Implications of these proposed interventions for workers, organizations, and policy makers are also

Eugene Furman, Alex Cressman, Saeha Shin, Alexey Kuznetsov, Fahad Razak, Amol Verma, Adam Diamant (2021). "Prediction of Personal Protective Equipment Use in Hospitals During COVID-19", Health Care Management Science, 24 (2021), 439-453.

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Abstract Demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks, gloves, and gowns has increased significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In hospital settings, both medical staff and patients are required to wear PPE. As these facilities resume regular operations, staff will be required to wear PPE at all times while additional PPE will be mandated during medical procedures. This will put increased pressure on hospitals which have had problems predicting PPE usage and sourcing its supply. To meet this challenge, we propose an approach to predict demand for PPE. Specifically, we model the admission of patients to a medical department using multiple independent Mt/G/∞Mt/G/∞ queues. Each queue represents a class of patients with similar treatment plans and hospital length-of-stay. By estimating the total workload of each class, we derive closed-form estimates for the expected amount of PPE required over a specified time horizon using current PPE guidelines. We apply our approach to a data set of 22,039 patients admitted to the general internal medicine department at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto, Canada from April 2010 to November 2019. We find that gloves and surgical masks represent approximately 90% of predicted PPE usage. We also find that while demand for gloves is driven entirely by patient-practitioner interactions, 86% of the predicted demand for surgical masks can be attributed to the requirement that medical practitioners will need to wear them when not interacting with patients.

Beelitz, A., Cho, C.H., Michelon, G. and Patten, D.M. (2021). "Measuring CSR Disclosure When Assessing Stock Market Effects", Accounting and the Public Interest, 21(1), 1-22.

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Abstract A growing number of studies use a dichotomous variable indicating the presence of a standalone CSR report to capture impacts of CSR disclosure. Our concern is that, without considering differences in the information provided, such an approach could lead to incorrect inferences regarding those impacts. Accordingly, we extend prior research by examining whether, similar to differences in environmental disclosure, the mere presence of a standalone CSR report mitigates negative market reactions at times of regulatory cost exposure. We focus on the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster and a sample of international utilities with nuclear power generation. Controlling for other factors related to social and regulatory cost exposures, we find only the environmental disclosures appear to reduce negative market effects. We thus argue that, in exploring the impacts of CSR disclosure, researchers need to carefully consider, beyond just the presence of a CSR report, differences in the extent of information being provided.

A. Crane and D. Matten (2021). "COVID-19 and the Future of CSR Research", Journal of Management Studies, 58(1), 280-284.

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Abstract Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) flourished pre-COVD-19 and could reasonably claim to be one of the most widely read and cited sub-fields of management. However, the pandemic has clearly challenged a number of existing CSR assumptions, concepts, and practices. We aim to identify four key areas where CSR research has been challenged by COVID-19 – stakeholders, societal risk, supply chain responsibility, and the political economy of CSR – and propose how future CSR research should be realigned to tackle them.

Cho, C.H., Jérôme, T. and Maurice, J. (2021). "Whatever It Takes”: First Budgetary Responses to the COVID19 Pandemic in France", Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, 33(1), 12-23.

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Abstract Purpose – This paper highlights the emergency budgetary measures taken by the French government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic health crisis and identifies some of the key political, economic, social and environmental factors and consequences associated with those measures. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct a thorough analysis of official reports, bills and academic and news articles related to the pandemic management in France. The authors’ analysis covers the period from January 24 to July 31, 2020. Findings – Despite previous austerity policies, France faced the health crisis with a very high level of debt, which has complicated the management of the COVID-19 crisis. Although significant, the response brought by the French government seems in the end to be rather choppy. Originality/value – This paper highlights three elements of analysis that allow a better understanding of the budgetary management process in France. The authors first discuss the notion of budgetary flexibility. Then, they show that the growth of participatory budgets in local communities gives hope for a possible and much needed decentralization process implying a stronger commitment of citizens. Finally, they highlight a budgetary paradox; that is, massive funding of polluting industries versus ecological issues. These three elements of analysis all advocate the need for a deeper engagement among different levels of government and actors.