The Gitga’at Development Corporation (GDC) is creating a strategy for economic development activities within the Nation and requires innovative business research to facilitate this initiative. As such, this research cluster is comprised of six projects: • Project 1: Shellfish Aquaculture Opportunity Investigation • Project 2: Alternative Energy Feasibility Study • Project 3: Forestry Feasibility Study […]

It is well-known that the growth of young firms accounts for a disproportionate share of employment growth and the associated economic welfare. In Canada and Japan, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent around 99.7 percent of each country’s total firms and over 70 percent of each country’s total employment. However, SMEs are known to suffer […]

Canada is a leader in the global mining industry. At a time of increasing scrutiny of the role of business in society, mining executives now cite social risk as a key challenge to providing resources for global growth and sustainable development. This proposed research aims to assess approaches for mining companies to engage with stakeholders […]

Eden Valley Poultry (EVP) is one of the main suppliers of chicken products in Atlantic Canada with 10.3M broilers and turkeys processed in 2018. Currently, the EVP planner manually manages various factors that contribute to the selection of barns for broiler pick up to be processed every day. This research proposal aims to improve the […]

The VEC, under its Economic Transformation Lab and in partnership with SFU and MITACS, seeks to research, design, and publish an affordability dashboard that consolidates all important metrics/statistics on affordability, relevant to Vancouver businesses and talent. The Dashboard will not only focus on affordability of office, retail, and industrial space, as well as other pertinent […]

The proposed project seeks to better understand how contingency, dynamic capability, and task-technology theories factor in business process management models that apply to the business needs of SMEs and allow multiple system integration. Because a lot of research shows that the alignment of the business and IT goals of a company is crucial for business […]

The research project consists of improving a model that is used for the prediction of new loans granted at a financial institution. The improvements will come from adding macroeconomics variables in the original model which currently does not include these types of variables. The hypothesis is that adding these variables should provide more precise predictions […]

Ageing is a global phenomenon, which presents challenges and opportunities for many nations, including Canada, China, and Germany, the foci of the study. In addition to the impact on pensions, health care, the labour market, consumer trends, and social services, the greying population also has far-reaching implications for businesses. As the population ages, changes in […]

Sustainable investment is an expending sector of the mainstream financial market, yet there are few studies evaluating the trends, opportunities, impacts and knowledge gaps as they relate to Canadian investors. Understanding the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues related to business operations and investment are critical to understanding trends that are driving this shift towards […]

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is considerably different from the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Marketing strategies do not necessarily translate from one segment to another. This is evident in the social media/online marketing arena where many of the strategies and tools have been developed primarily for B2C marketing which results in many B2B companies dismissing social media/online marketing […]

The Canadian economy is built on decades-worth of industrial activity and its links to the natural endowment of the country. For an extended period of time, Canadians have looked to our natural resources for wealth creation, value-added processing, and international market opportunities. On the other end, recent studies and experts have demonstrated concern and warnings […]

E training and development has been repeatedly identified in studies to be a major contributor to corporate financial performance. Large enterprises maintain dedicated training departments, while a vast array of consultants and corporate education companies exist to help small and medium sized enterprises. At the same time, choosing the right corporate training is difficult, and […]