Research into the effects of low interest rates on Canadian loan markets receives grant
Dr. Mohammad Rahaman, Canada Research Chair in International Finance & Competitiveness and a professor with the Sobey School of Business
The work of a Saint Mary’s University researcher into the effects of low interest rates on the syndicated loan market in North American has received a boost.
Mohammad Rahaman, Canada Research Chair in International Finance & Competitiveness and a professor with the Sobey School of Business, is receiving a $40,000 research grant from the Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation.
Rahaman’s research focuses primarily on understanding how access to intermediated capital such as bank loans can be a source of power and efficiency for industrial firms in a competitive global market place. He is currently investigating the effects of the unprecedented and prolonged low interest rates by central banks following the global financial crisis.
His research also touches on how financing through syndicated loans influences investment, innovation, and internationalization among North American industrial firms. A syndicated loan is a loan provided by a group of lenders and set up and administered by one or more commercial or investment banks.
“This is one of the most coveted research grant awarded by industry practitioners in Finance in Canada, and I am honoured to be its recipient,” said Rahaman. “No other finance faculty member in the Maritimes has received this grant, which speaks to a recognition of the importance that the Sobey School of Business has in our region and the quality of research underway at the school.”
The Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation encourages and supports grounded research on the Canadian Capital Markets.
“The Canadian Securities Research Foundation is actively supporting research into interest rate risk, especially the drivers and impact of the current low interest rate environment,” said Heather-Anne Irwin, Executive Director of the Foundation. “We are thrilled to be supporting Professor Rahaman in his work, as we strive to bridge the gap between theory and practice.”
David Sobey and The Sobey Foundation lead donation of $18 million to boost business education in Atlantic Canada
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Co-op student and entrepreneur wins prestigious Frank H. Sobey Award
Student entrepreneurs from across Atlantic Canada at Saint Mary’s for business development conference
Student entrepreneurs from across Atlantic Canada will be working closely with experienced entrepreneurs to help develop their businesses at the Starting Point Entrepreneurship Conference taking place at Saint Mary’s University.
The conference begins on Tuesday, Feb. 19, and will bring student entrepreneurs from post-secondary institutions and high schools from multiple provinces together to work with entrepreneurs, CEOs and startup experts. The students have the chance to work directly with the entrepreneurs to help brings their business ideas to fruition or grow an existing business. Events include keynote speakers, master classes with successful businesspeople, funder speed dating and the Iron Entrepreneur Tournament. At the end of the conference, students have a chance to win cash investments for their businesses.
This year’s conference theme is “From Vision to Venture.” The theme is about encouraging and inspiring students to bring their ideas to reality by giving them the confidence and tools to do so. Conference proceedings such as master classes, the iron entrepreneur competition and the keynote speaker will focus on helping students to realize that vision and help them to bring it to fruition through actionable advice and inspiration.
Since it began in 2015, the conference has hosted 590 student entrepreneurs from post-secondary institutions and high schools from across the country and given over $40,000 in funding and prizes. The conference is organized by the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre. Over the past five years, SMUEC programs have provided opportunities to more than 4,500 students, allowing them to be engaged in curricular and extra-curricular activities.
To learn more about the Starting Point Conference visit www.startingpointconference.com.
Two years in a row of podium finishes for Saint Mary's venture capital students
For the second year in a row, a team of students from the Sobey School of Business took second place in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (New England region), held in Boston.
In early February, the Saint Mary’s students joined teams from Cornell University, Babson College, New York University, Tufts University and Southern Connecticut State University to show their venture capital expertise.
The way the competition works is that two days before the event, teams receive pitch decks from startup companies. The teams are given 38 hours to learn as much as they can about the presenting startups. Then they arrive at the competition, and it begins with the startup pitches. Teams receive 14 minutes of one-on-one time with each startup. Finally, teams have two hours to make an investment decision and submit their recommendations.
Cornell University, narrowly edged Saint Mary’s to take first place. In addition to finishing second place, Saint Mary’s Venture Grade took home the competition's only Entrepreneurs Choice Award, chosen by the startup entrepreneurs.
“The spread between 1st and 2nd place was 1.6%,” said Dr. Ellen Farrell, the faculty coach of the Saint Mary’s University Venture Grade Fund. “In the Boston event, there was an entrepreneur looking for $11,000,000 but who wasn’t committed to exiting so the team didn’t feel he met the fund thesis; and another father/son co-founding group offering a new type of incuabator to 3rd world countries that had yet to commercialize. In picking Language I/0, SMU met the entrepreneur’s elevated valuation expectations with term sheet provisions. There was a buzz in the room about the team’s defence when they were done. Brilliant job.”
Competing in the competition were Kory Henn (Entrepreneurship), Emma Scott (Entrepreneurship), Jake Chambers (Entrepreneurship), Maxim Roy (Accounting) and Tahsin Fatin (Finance).
Congratulations on your great showing!
Saint Mary’s University to participate in Halifax and eBay partnership on retail program
Saint Mary’s University and The David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services are proud to be a part of a new partnership between eBay Canada and the Halifax Regional Municipality. The partnership is for Retail Revival, an eBay program designed to help small and medium-sized retailers harness the power of e-commerce and global trade.
Retail Revival is a free 12-month training, support and educational program that empowers 60 – 70 local small and medium-sized retailers to thrive by leveraging eBay's global marketplace to reach new customers around the world. The program will also include a dedicated customer service support team, digital tools and subscriptions, promotional marketing from eBay, as well as additional education and resources from participating partners focused on small business and exporting.
The David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services will participate in the eBay Retail Revival program in Halifax as a research partner. Dr. Ramesh Venkat, Director of the David Sobey Centre, along with Dr. Rahman Khokhar and Dr. Mark Raymond will form a research team to study the performance of the companies participating in the program as well as the overall economic impact on this region.
“This partnership represents a great opportunity for both our region and university,” said Saint Mary’s University president Robert Summerby-Murray. “It is a recognition of the important role that we play as a national leader in business education, entrepreneurship and retail across Canada. We look forward to bringing the expertise of our business faculty and the David Sobey Centre to this partnership.”
This program is a partnership between eBay Canada and the Halifax Regional Municipality. It is supported by the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia. As part of the program, eBay is partnering with Halifax Partnership, Nova Scotia Business Inc., and Saint Mary’s University.
Photo credits: Stoo Metz, Click Productions.
Sobey School kicks off renewed strategic planning process with release of community report
New report examines Sobey School’s impact on co-operative businesses
Sobey School of Business MBA ranks #8 in the world for sustainability
The Sobey School of Business is eighth in the world for sustainability, according to the recently released Corporate Knights Better World MBA ranking.
The eight place finish marks the highest ranking yet for the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University. The school attributes its success to the way sustainable development and ethics are deeply embedded in its courses, the strong ethnic and gender diversity of its student and faculty, and the faculty’s extensive research on sustainability themes. Corporate Knights assessed 141 business schools across 25 countries for its rankings.
“Placed as we are here on the east coast of Canada, the impacts of climate change are strongly felt. At the same time, our province is a leader in immigration, and has a deep history in co-operative and alternate business models. We understand how important sustainability must be in business today,” noted Dean Harjeet Bhabra. “We are proud of our faculty’s strengths in international research and ethics, and the growing expertise in social enterprise development at Saint Mary’s, which have helped us achieve this recognition.”
The Sobey MBA program ranked second in Canada, with Schulich, at York University, placing first nationally. Warwick University in Exeter, UK, was ranked first in the world
Corporate Knights introduced two new metrics to this year’s ranking: the gender and racial diversity of graduate business department faculty. Such diversity can influence student perception of what leadership looks like, and means that business schools can model meaningful standards for more diverse corporate boards and management.
According to Corporate Knights, The University of Connecticut's School of Business and the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax led the way on racial diversity with 51 percent of faculty identified as visible minorities.
Participating schools were graded on five indicators: the number of institutes and centres dedicated to sustainable development; the percentage of core courses that integrate sustainable development; faculty research publications and citations on sustainable development themes; and faculty gender and racial diversity.
In 2014, the Sobey school’s faculty unanimously voted to become signatories to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative (PRME). A central part of this commitment is a pledge to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
For Saint Mary’s and the Sobey School, the ranking was helped by research and work conducted through the school’s centres: the Atlantic Research Group on Economics of Immigration, Aging and Diversity, the new International Centre for Co-operative Management, the Centre for Leadership Excellence, the David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services, and the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives.
Spark Zone recognized as World’s Best in Entrepreneurship Skills
The Spark Zone, a sandbox to foster social innovations and business ideas, has been recognized as the world’s best in enterprise and entrepreneurship skill-building.
The staff of the Spark Zone accepted the award in Houston, Texas from the International Education Business Partnership Network. The IPN Global Best Awards was held October 17 through 19 at the Houston Space Centre.
“This award recognizes Spark Zone’s success in supporting students to learn about entrepreneurship through not only academics but also by introducing them to our great mentors and networks,” noted Jason Turner, Spark Zone manager. “This global award is an endorsement of our ability to guide students in creating viable businesses. We are really proud of the programs and initiatives we’ve introduced in Nova Scotia’s post-secondary institutions.”
Spark Zone is a partnership between Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Nova Scotia Community College, Mount Saint Vincent University, the Atlantic School of Theology and University of King's College, with Saint Mary's serving as the host institution. The Spark Zone is funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education.
“Nova Scotia’s unique mix of industry and academia, and the ease with which the two come together, is what makes our innovation story compelling,” said Hon. Labi Kousoulis, Minister, Labour and Advanced Education. “The Spark Zone is a great example of innovation in action, and I’m pleased to see it recognized internationally for its leadership.”
The Global Best Award submissions are evaluated on how well the programs deliver the following criteria:
• Enhanced employability
• Extent of experiential learning
• Knowledge transfer of employability skills
• Youth involvement in design and operation of the partnership
• Replicability of the partnership
• Recognition of excellence
The competition includes other entrepreneurship centres and service providers from across the world with winners from six regions attending the conference.
About the Spark Zone
Utilizing physical and virtual spaces, The Spark Zone brings together students and community members to create, develop and ultimately launch business ideas and social innovations. Partners at Saint Mary’s University, NSCAD University, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia Community College, University of King’s College, and the Atlantic School of Theology provide opportunities for people to connect and then nurture those connections as ideas become reality.
Another successful South Shore Tour for the Sobey School of Business
Top business students from Saint Mary’s University recently met with business leaders from Nova Scotia’s South Shore to discuss opportunities for collaboration and employment.
Thirty-nine students from Sobey School’s graduate business programs toured Lunenburg and Bridgewater on Friday, Sept. 28, visiting 22 companies and attending information sessions. The businesses met with students and had the opportunity to see how an innovative intern or new graduate could help their bottom line or grow their business.
“This tour is a direct expression of our commitment to making an impact on the prosperity of this province,” said Dr. Harjeet Bhabra, dean of the Sobey School of Business. “At the same time, it helps our students build the ability to recognize opportunities that they otherwise might miss. And it helps connect the work of the university with more of the province.”
The businesses taking part in the tour include:
Aqualitas
ABCO
CO3 & Mashup Labs
Freemans Lumber
Hawboldt Industries
Heart to Hand
Lunenburg Industrial Foundry and Engineering (LIFE)
Michelin
Ocean Gear
Old Town Boat Works
Petite Riviere Winery
Port Mersey Commercial Park
Pro-Oceanus
RPS Composites
Sattlers Stained Glass
South Shore Tourism Co-op
Stelia
Terra Beata
Van Dyk’s Health Juice Products Ltd.
Westcote Pottery
“The South Shore Corporate Tour reveals the opportunities available in Queens County and along the South Shore through our innovative businesses and the superb lifestyle we enjoy,” said David Dagley, Mayor of Region of Queens Municipality. “We are pleased to welcome them to the South Shore, and proud to showcase our community.”
The Saint Mary’s students involved come from Sobey School graduate programs including the Master of Business Administration (MBA); the Master of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and the Master of Finance.
The South Shore Tour is an initiative between South Shore businesses and Saint Mary’s University. The tour is coordinated by the Graduate Career Services office of the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s, and is in its second year.