Emmanuel Raufflet, a Full Professor in the Department of Management, and PhD candidate Nolywé Delannon (Specialized Graduate Diploma, 2009) won the Best Paper Award in the Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, held in Atlanta from August 4 to 8.

Entitled Creolization as resistance to PCSR (Political Corporate Social Responsibility): the contested field of the past at the Guiana Space Center, the winning paper deals with the way a society’s collective memory and past negative experiences can hinder dialogue between a company and its host milieu. The paper focuses on a specific form of resistance to dialogue, termed Creolization, invisible to outside observers but with serious consequences for the firm.

Professor Raufflet, who is in charge of the DESS en gestion – développement durable, holds an MBA and a PhD from McGill University. He has been at HEC Montréal since 2002, specializing in corporate social and environmental responsibility and social innovation. Nolywé Delannon is completing her PhD in Administration at HEC Montréal, and is also an Assistant Professor at Université Laval.

Photo : Sébastien St-Jean/Agence QMI

Photo : The winning HEC Montréal team in New Zealand—Stéphanie Llewellyn, Antoine Lapointe, Claudia Trudeau and William Beaudry—along with their coach, Professor René Gendreau.

A team of HEC Montréal students has just won the Student Development Society (SDS) Business Case Competition, in Queenstown, New Zealand. BBA students Stéphanie Llewellyn, Antoine Lapointe, Claudia Trudeau and William Beaudry took top honours in the fourth and final day of this international competition.

The SDS Business Case Competition is run in close collaboration between 6 New Zealand universities. Contending teams have to analyze the business cases submitted to them and present their solutions to a jury of 1 university professor and 4 representatives from the business community. The first phase in the competition is at the national level, as teams from the 6 universities compete against one another in three national rounds. Then the organizers invite 6 teams from universities around the world ­— including HEC Montréal this year—to compete against the national winners in the final international round.

The competition was launched in 2010 and is open to undergraduate students under age 25. This was HEC Montréal’s first time at the event.

Kakwiranó:ron Cook is the Aboriginal Outreach Administrator at McGill University. He is an enrolled member of both the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne (New York State/Ontario/Quebec) and Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation in South Dakota. In his work, he collaborates with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada in an effort to connect with youth and prospective university students to promote higher education and McGill University. He also co-ordinates many activities in partnership with the First Nations’ House at McGill University, including the welcoming ceremony and McGill’s annual Pow-Wow. A graduate of Hawai’i Pacific University, he has extensive experience promoting educational initiatives in his home communities and abroad.

Julie Desharnais began her career as a social worker in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montréal. Today she is Director of the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Côte-des-Neiges centres of the Fondation du Dr Julien, which provides social pediatrics services. She oversees the general organization of the service centres and supervises the psychosocial intervention team jointly with Dr. Gilles Julien. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s in organizational management. Her extensive knowledge of community social pediatrics and the specific needs of vulnerable children and their families has led to numerous speaking engagements in the educational field as well as many media interviews.

Roméo Essou is the Managing Director Programs and Grants for the African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS) in Senegal, one of six centres across Africa devoted to higher education and mathematical research. He heads a multicultural program team and works with a wide variety of partners, including governments, educational institutions, industry partners and donors. In 2015, he was one of the laureates of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Before joining the management team at AIMS Senegal, he was the Country Manager for Right To Play, in Benin, and held senior positions with Plan International and the Keeping Children Safe Coalition. He holds a master’s degree from the Université d’Abomey-Calavi, in Benin.

Hélène Meilleur is the Director of Défi Travail Argenteuil, an organization that offers professional services for young people and adults to help them improve their employability and integrate the labour market. She founded the organization and has directed it for 20 years. She began her career as a political attaché before working as an employment counsellor and later an employability and human resources consultant and trainer. She views the McGill – HEC Montréal EMBA as a unique opportunity to meet managers from different backgrounds and acquire the tools that will help her contribute more effectively to her organization’s development.

Professor Ann Langley receiving the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Organization Development and Change Division at the AOM Annual Meeting, along with Professor James Vardaman of Mississippi State University, Associate Editor of the Journal of Change Management, which sponsored the award.

Ann Langley, a Full Professor in the Department of Management, was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management (AOM) at its Annual Meeting last month in Atlanta, Georgia. She is only the second HEC Montréal faculty member to receive this honour, after Danny Miller, who became a Fellow in 2012.

Significant recognition

Professor Langley was nominated by Professor Howard Thomas, of the Singapore Management University, and approved in a vote by the some 210 other Fellows of the Academy.

At this year’s Annual Meeting, she also received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Academy’s Organization Development and Change Division, for her contribution to this discipline. The presentation took place in a plenary session of the Division.

The Academy of Management, with over 20,000 members, is the oldest and largest association of management scholars in the world.

About Professor Langley

Professor Langley is reputed for her expertise in organizational processes, a topic on which she is frequently cited. More specifically, her research focuses on strategic processes and practices, organizational management in the health field, decision making and innovation.

She holds the Chair in Strategic Management in Pluralistic Settings at HEC Montréal. She has a Master’s in Operational Research from the University of Lancaster, in the UK, and a PhD in Administration from HEC Montréal. Professor Langley was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2010, and has also received honorary doctorates from the Aalto University School of Business and the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

Intuitive, innovative, intense: artists, creators and entrepreneurs are most often driven by tremendous passion for what they do. They take different approaches, however. “Artists and creators want the public to understand the value of what they create. For entrepreneurs, it’s important to be able to read their environment and their market so that they can sell their new wares.” That is one of Louis Jacques Filion’s observations in his new book entitled Artistes, créateurs et entrepreneurs, published by Del Busso, exploring various aspects of the dynamics of creative industries.

This is the 25^th book by this prolific Honorary Professor. He emphasizes that he wanted to “break the ice” with a volume of case studies on a rarely examined aspect of entrepreneurship. A number of experts contributed to the book, along with Professor Filion himself: Claudine Auger, Jacqueline Cardinal, Mircea-Gabriel Chirita, Luis Cisneros, Géraldine Dallaire, Anaïs Del Bono, Yves Deschamps, Ali Fadil, Laurent Lapierre, Serge Poisson-de Haro and Wendy Reid. François Colbert, holder of the Carmelle and Rémi Marcoux Chair in Arts Management at HEC Montréal, penned the preface.

The book opens with a series of case studies: designer Michel Dallaire; film producer Roger Frappier; publisher Antoine Del Busso; Geneviève Salbaing, the entrepreneur who made the Ballets Jazz de Montréal an international success; Jacques Matte, the driving force behind the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue; Rhéal Olivier Lanthier and François St-Jacques, founders of the Art Mûr art gallery; and David Lavoie, a facilitator working behind the scenes to support young theatre professionals in Montréal.

The second part then examines what can be learned from entrepreneurship in the creative industries, and the differences and similarities between artists and creators, on the one hand, and entrepreneurs, on the other.

“Artists are entrepreneurs, in their own way, and entrepreneurs are also artists, in their way,” explains the lead author. In these pages he shows how fruitful the alliance between artists and entrepreneurs can be and how it is important for them to work and grow together.

About Louis Jacques Filion

Louis Jacques Filion was formerly a professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and holder of the Rogers—J.A. Bombardier Chair of Entrepreneurship at HEC Montréal. His research mainly concerns entrepreneurship and systems. He has authored over one hundred publications.

Artistes, créateurs et entrepreneurs — Louis Jacques Filion (Ed.) (2017) Del Busso éditeur, 265 pages. Available at the COOP HEC Montréal.

HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry is pleased to announce a new Chair in the Mobilization of Individuals, Groups and Organizations, to be held by Professor Michel Tremblay of the Department of Human Resources Management.

The mission of this new Chair, the only one of its kind in Canada, is to contribute to advancing knowledge regarding the causes and effects of, and contexts conducive to, mobilizing individuals and groups within public and private organizations and associations.

Mobilization is one of Professor Tremblay’s main research interests. He defines it as “a critical mass of employees or groups taking positive discretionary action that benefits others and the organization and works toward a common goal.”

Data Contributing to Research

Professor Tremblay notes that this appointment coincides with the recent award of a $2 million grant, shared with Professor Yani Grégoire and under the direction of Professor Christian Vandenberghe. This funding will allow the team to create a panel of potential respondents for collecting management research data over a five-year period (see the news item from August 22, 2017).

About Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay specializes in strategic human resources management and the mobilization of employees in service and retail businesses. His teaching concerns mainly compensation, mobilization of human resources and human resources management theory. He holds a Master’s in Management (MSc) from HEC Montréal and a PhD in Management Science from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises in Aix-Marseille, France.

Until recently, he held the HEC Omer DeSerres Chair of Retailing. That Chair is currently vacant, but a new appointment will be announced this year.

Aude Le Cottier, an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Business, has received the Best Reviewer Award in the International Management Division from the Academy of Management (AOM).

She was honoured in recognition of her contribution to the selection process for papers presented at this year’s AOM General Meeting. She commented on and recommended the papers she considered the most appropriate for presentation to the Academy members.

This is the third time she has received this distinction.

Professor Cottier specializes in quantitative research on the governance of international firms, and specifically on how the advantages and disadvantages of listing a firm on the stock exchange impact the growth of listed and unlisted firms in different countries and industries. She holds a degree in accounting and financial studies, and an MSc in Management from the ESSEC Business School. She has been at HEC Montréal since 2015.

From left to right : Richard Hurteau, Michèle Thibodeau-DeGuire, Raymond Lalande, Guy Breton, Laurence Dumont, Hélène Desmarais, Martin Thibodeau et Alain Bélanger)
Photo : Benoit Champagne

RBC Royal Bank has donated $2 million to the Campus Montréal fundraising campaign, to support the development of entrepreneurial spirit among students and young people.

The generous gesture was announced on October 2, at a ceremony attended by senior Université de Montréal, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal officials.

Of this $2 million, $1.6 million will go to projects at the Centre d’entrepreneuriat Poly-UdeM, and $400,000 to the IDEOS centre for management of social enterprises and organizations at HEC Montréal.

The RBC donation will be devoted in part to creating to new management tools for social enterprises, so as to support their growth in line with their unique features.

“For the IDEOS centre, this donation by RBC will allow us to pursue co-development activities involving students, professors and social enterprises, leading to innovative processes adapted to the needs of such enterprises,” noted HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry.

Robert Parizeau, Co-President of the Gérard Parizeau Fund Coordination Committee, Jacques Légaré, winner of the 2017 Gérard Parizeau Award, and Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal.

The winner of the 2017 Gérard Parizeau Award is Jacques Légaré, Professor Emeritus of Demography at the Université de Montréal.

The prestigious award, accompanied by a cash prize of $30,000, recognizes his exceptional contribution to fostering better understanding of the demographics of Quebec and the rest of Canada, and more specifically the economic and social impacts of an aging population.

Professor Légaré was invited to deliver an address at the award ceremony at HEC Montréal, on October 4. He spoke on the theme of demography over the past five decades: an evolving science that lets us analyze the changing behaviour of Quebec society.

A few words about Jacques Légaré

A Professor Emeritus, still active at the Université de Montréal, until just recently Jacques Légaré was a co-researcher at the Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program (SEDAP), at McMaster University, and a consultant to the Population Activities Unit of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), in Geneva.  

After studying actuarial mathematics at the Université de Montreal, he earned his PhD in Demography at the Université de Paris. His many publications reflect his main fields of interest for many years now, i.e. population aging and Quebec’s historical demography.

About the Gérard Parizeau Fund

The Gérard Parizeau Fund was created in 2000 as a tribute to Gérard Parizeau, an outstanding figure in the Quebec insurance industry.

The Fund presents the Gérard Parizeau Award to researchers, professors or other leading lights in the fields of management, economics or history, in recognition of the value and originality of their thinking and their work.

The winner is chosen by a 9-member jury, consisting of the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the Université de Montréal, a representative of the Director of HEC Montréal, 3 members of the Parizeau family and 4 academic experts. The annual award is presented alternately by HEC Montréal and the Université de Montréal.

Danielle Virone, Executive Director of the ICCC, Ivan Cavallari, Artistic Director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, and Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada has awarded HEC Montréal and its partners, SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan and the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, a Premio Venezia award in the Scientific/Academic Collaboration category, for their joint Master of Management in International Arts Management (MMIAM) program.

The Premio Venezia salutes institutions, businesses and leaders in different fields for their contribution to improving business relations and scientific collaboration between Canada and Italy.

HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry accepted the award on behalf of the School and its partners at the Premio Venezia Award Ceremony, on Thursday, October 5, in Montréal.

 HEC Montréal, SDA Bocconi and the SMU tied for the award with two other groups of Canadian and Italian universities. The first of these groups consists of the Centre Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications at the Institut national de scientific research (INRS), the Department of Chemistry at McGill University and the Istituto di Struttura della Materia – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. The second group is the John Molson School of Business Summer School, the Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione and the Università Carlo Cattaneo.

Some car insurance companies are now offering discounts to interested customers, based on the quality of their driving, in exchange for tracking their movements. Drivers use a device plugged into their cars or a downloaded mobile app to record their GPS data whenever they are behind the wheel. The companies can then analyze the data to determine their speed, the time of day, sharp cornering and braking – almost everything about their driving habits, in other words.

Such programs are popular with people who see them as a good way to save, but they are not yet widely used in Canada. The main drawback is the quality of the data analysis. However, a project by a team of data science researchers directed by Associate Professor Aurélie Labbe should help to vastly improve the approach by refining the underlying technology.

Map matching makes it possible to correct the errors in the raw GPS data, to determine the actual route taken by a driver.

Map matching

Professor Labbe and her team have embarked on an operation known as map matching, which involves “cleaning up” the errors that frequently occur in geospatial data. “The GPS signal is often off by one, two or three metres. It can sometimes look like a car is driving on the roof of a building or in the ditch, if you look at the raw data,” she explains. At this point, the researchers are building probabilistic models to establish realistic routes. They’ll have to start by comparing map-matching algorithms, in order to choose the best one for their purposes.

The project is being carried out under an existing partnership between Intact Insurance and the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO), thanks to a $1 million subsidy from the company over five years. In return, Intact has access to expertise allowing it to optimize its operations, including its driver-habit discount program.

“We’re really interested in sharing. (…) [This type of partnership also] lets us make advances in areas where we aren’t as autonomous as we’d like. We think we’ll learn a lot from it,” explains Jean-François Larochelle, Senior Director of the Intact Data Lab.

More profitable for insurers?

Of course the company hopes to boost its expertise, to give it a leg up on its Canadian competitors and approach or even catch up with the technological development of some large US insurance groups that have already done extensive research in this area.

An insurer obviously has much to gain by being able to accurately measure the risk posed by its customers, but Mr. Larochelle says that the company is mostly aiming to better serve them. “Our approach is more to tailor our products so as to reward good customers.”

A scientific paper co-authored by Professor Geneviève Gauthier and her colleagues Professors Diego Amaya, of Wilfrid Laurier University, and Jean-François Bégin, of Simon Fraser University, won the Best Paper Award in the “Best Paper on Derivatives” category at the annual Conference of the Northern Finance Association (NFA) in Halifax last month.

The paper, entitled Extracting Latent States from High Frequency Option Prices, was chosen for its scientific quality, beating out dozens of other entries from around the world.

The annual NFA Conference is one of the largest North American gatherings for finance professors, practitioners and PhD candidates. This year, only 19% of the papers submitted were accepted.

Professor Debbie J. Dupuis has been elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA)—an honour that the Association confers on no more than one-third of one percent of its members each year.

This distinction, in recognition of Professor Dupuis’ career excellence, was officially announced at the annual Joint Statistical Meeting in August, in Baltimore.

In announcing the honour, the Association noted that it was making Professor Dupuis a Fellow “for outstanding contributions to the analysis of extreme values and the development of robust statistical methods; for designing and promoting the use of innovative statistical analysis techniques in a broad array of substantive fields, most notably the environmental sciences, finance and hydrology; and for dynamic and sustained involvement in editorial and organizational service to the profession.”

The ASA is the world’s largest community of statisticians. Its mission is to promote the practice and profession of statistics. The Association has about 19,000 members worldwide, in academia, government, research and business. Professor Dupuis was one of only two Canadians elected as Fellows this year, out of 62 in all.

Ms. Dupuis is a Full Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences. She directs students in the Financial Engineering and Business Intelligence options of the MSc and PhD programs. More specifically, she is interested in modelling extreme values and dependence, and in environmental problems and weather dérivatives.

A new Chair in Pension and Insurance Plans has been created, to be held by Martin Boyer, Full Professor in the Department of Finance, for a five-year term.

The goal of the Chair is to improve understanding of the challenges involved in long-term financial risk management for individuals, businesses and society as a whole.

The Chair will focus mainly on:

• individual behaviour concerning wealth and insurance management in the context of short-, medium- and long-term risk;
• the structure, use and solvency of different investment vehicles for retirement, including plans offered by government agencies and private plans;
• social responsibility relating to risk management by organizations offering pension and insurance plans.

About Martin Boyer

Martin Boyer has been a Professor at HEC Montréal since 1997 and holds a Professorship in Economic Behaviour in Finance and Insurance. He has published nearly 70 scientific papers, the vast majority of them dealing with corporate risk management and insurance. He has been a jury member for over one hundred supervised projects, theses and PhD dissertations, in addition to teaching BBA, MSc, MBA, Specialized Graduate Diploma and PhD courses. Professor Boyer has also been a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, the University of New South Wales, Cornell University and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Professor Boyer is having a particularly good year: he was recently appointed President-Elect of the American Risk and Insurance Association (see the news item from August 31, 2017).