Social Networks Users and their Influence on Marketing Campaigns
Congratulations to Telfer professor Morad Benyoucef, and Amir Afrasiabi Rad, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), who were awarded a Mitacs-Accelerate Graduate Internship grant in the amount of $60,000. The two-year project, entitled Increasing Marketing Campaign Performance Using Influential Users in Social Networks, is sponsored by IBM Canada Ltd.
The project responds to the explosive growth of social media. Massive participation in social networks turned them into an important hub of information reflected in the countless number of opinions, news and product reviews that are constantly posted and discussed on sites such as Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc. The ability to track user generated content on social networks and its propagation within user communities have created an opportunity to follow and predict market trends. The objective of this project is to detect and classify influential users on social networks with the aim that they may influence their friends and followers. Results are expected to be useful for businesses when designing their marketing campaigns.
“Mitacs-Accelerate is Canada’s premiere research internship program. It connects companies with over 50 research-based universities through graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, who apply their specialized expertise to business research challenges. Interns transfer their skills from theory to real-world application, while the companies gain a competitive advantage by accessing high-quality research expertise.” (Source: www.mitacs.ca/accelerate).
A Solution to Efficiently Plan Surgeries at the Ottawa Hospital
Congratulations to Telfer professor Jonathan Patrick, and Mr. Davood Astaraky, MSc candidate in Systems Science at the University of Ottawa, who were awarded a Mitacs-Accelerate Graduate Internship grant. The six-month project, entitled Surgical Scheduling and Capacity Planning, will begin in October 2011, and is sponsored by The Ottawa Hospital.
The purpose of this project is to develop a mathematical model that will effectively answer scheduling and capacity planning challenges for meeting wait time targets for surgeries at the Ottawa Hospital.
“Mitacs-Accelerate is Canada’s premiere research internship program. It connects companies with over 50 research-based universities through graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, who apply their specialized expertise to business research challenges. Interns transfer their skills from theory to real-world application, while the companies gain a competitive advantage by accessing high-quality research expertise.” (Source: www.mitacs.ca/accelerate).
David Doloreux Receives a Prestigious Award from AUF
The Scientific Council of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) has awarded the 2010-2011 Prix de la Francophonie pour jeunes chercheurs, option Social sciences and Humanities to Telfer School of Management professor David Doloreux. The Council, who was very impressed by the quality of his work in the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship and regional development, invited Dr. Doloreux to also become part of AUF’s experts.
The Prix de la Francophonie pour jeunes chercheurs, which are awarded every two years, were created to recognize the merit and value of a researcher who gained scientific recognition and who has made a significant breakthrough internationally, particularly within the framework of the francophonie.
The award will be presented on December 1st in Paris during the closing ceremony of the AUF’s 50th anniversary.
Telfer Professor Investigates the Ontarian Organic Food Market
Telfer School Professor Leila Hamzaoui-Essoussi and her co-investigator Professor Mehdi Zahaf from Lakehead University have received funding from the New Direction Research Programs 2010-2011 of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for their research project entitled Ontarian Organic Food Market: Assessing the Market Potential and the Understanding of, and Confidence in, the Organic Food System.
This project will assess the organic market structure and seek to understand how it impacts local production, retail sales as well as consumer purchasing behaviour. The researchers will identify and analyze factors that create and diversify market opportunities, and determine the relationship between organic food distribution channels and institutional strategies. The consumers’ understanding and confidence in the production, certification, distribution processes and food mileage will also be researched. In addition, this project will seek to be a catalyst to stimulate change and new ways of doing business. The outcomes will enhance knowledge in building a sustainable marketing model for the organic food system in Ontario.
A Study on the Performance of Immigrant-Owned SMEs
Allan Riding and his co-investigators Barbara Orser and Martine Spence, Full Professors at the Telfer School of Management have received a $46,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for their research project entitled The Performance of Immigrant-Owned SMEs.
The research will seek to answer one key question, namely whether or not small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by recent immigrants grow more frequently, or grow faster, than other new firms. To answer this question, the researchers will examine the performance of immigrant-owned enterprises while emphasising in particular on immigrants’ access to financial capital.
