Annual Associates Achievement Awards honour impactful Asper School of Business scholars

Each year, the Associates Achievement Awards Celebration brings together community members and members of The Associates and Young Associates to celebrate excellence in research and teaching at the Asper School of Business.

The Associates of the Asper School of Business have generously funded research fellowship awards to recognize and encourage scholarship produced by Asper faculty members. Each successful fellowship recipient earns the distinguished title of Associates Fellow, as well as $10,000 per year, for three years, to support their continued excellence in research, teaching, and engagement.

This year, four new Associates Fellows were named, and two outstanding educators were honoured with Associates Teaching Awards:

Shiu-Yik Au is The Associates Fellow in Finance; Narendra Malalgoda is The Associates Fellow in Supply Chain Management; Kiran Pedada is The Associates Fellow in Marketing and Inclusive Business; and Wei Wang is The Associates Fellow in Leadership and Ethics.

In addition to awarding multi-year research fellowships, The Associates also generously recognize excellence in the classroom with the Associates Teaching Awards, valued at $5,000 each.

Sean Buchanan and Dan Shin each received 2024 Associates Teaching Awards.

The Associates Fellow in Finance – Shiu-Yik Au

Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting & Finance, Au is broadly interested in corporate finance, EDI and finance, financial ethics, finance and innovation, and social finance.

His research takes seriously the maxim that people are what matter most in business and consequently focuses on the impact of intangibles, such as corporate culture, innovation, and ethics on corporate outcomes, showing that a business is much more than the sum of its debt and equity.

With multiple publications in the last five years—appearing in FT 50 journals including Management Science and Journal of Business Ethics—and multiple local media citations (CBC, CTV Winnipeg), Au is a frequent and reliable contributor in both academic and public spheres.

The Associates Fellow in Supply Chain Management – Narendra Malalgoda

Malalgoda, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management, centers his research on transportation economics, productivity and efficiency analysis, agri-food supply chains, and rural transportation.

He has worked on research projects on public transit efficiency, productivity, and factors influencing transit ridership. Currently, he is focused on agriculture-related projects to improve the efficiency and sustainability of Canadian supply chains. One project optimizes grain movement from farm to elevator to reduce farmers’ costs, while another explores sustainable farm waste management to meet eco-friendly standards. Both projects, funded by Manitoba Agriculture under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP), highlight his commitment to sustainable solutions in agri-food supply chains.

Malalgoda has published and shared his work widely in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, including the Journal of Public Transportation, the International Journal of Public Administration, and Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice.

The Associates Fellow in Marketing and Inclusive Business – Kiran Pedada

As an Assistant Professor of Marketing, Pedada’s research is centered on marketing strategy, with a focus on the financial and social impacts of marketing, marketing strategies for digital environments, and emerging markets.

His research has been featured in public media like Forbes, Fortune, and CNN, local media outlets including the Winnipeg Free Press and CBC, as well as a range of academic publications including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (FT 50) and the International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Pedada’s recent work examines the impact of rural women microentrepreneurs on consumer value in India, expanding the discussion to suggest the empowering women through entrepreneurial activities can play a crucial role in driving positive social change.

The Associates Fellow in Leadership and Ethics – Wei Wang

As an Assistant Professor of Business Administration and the Co-Director of the David Dreman Behavioral Lab, Wang’s research and teaching interests include organizational behaviour, business ethics, and leadership.

His research program takes a multi-method approach to study the dynamics of leadership and ethics at work. As the recipient of the 2022 Anne Tsui Dare to Care Research Award, Wang was recognized for the ways in which his work seeks to make a difference int eh lives of employees.

With publications in the Journal of Applied Psychology and the Journal of Management, Wang’s work crosses management and psychological disciplines to understand how leadership and ethics intersect.

The Associates Achievement Award in Teaching – Sean Buchanan

Associate Professor and The Associates Fellow of Business Administration, Sean Buchanan has received an Associates Achievement Award in Teaching in recognition of his outstanding engagement, dynamic instruction, and accessible teaching style in the classroom.

Student testimonials highlight Buchanan’s humour and care, as well as his ability to make complex concepts digestible and create a learning environment conducive to understanding of and enthusiasm for course material. He also received the Commerce Students’ Association Golden Shovel Award this year; for this annual award, BComm students vote to select the professor who has made the most significant impact on them in their final year at the Asper School of Business.

In addition to in-class teaching responsibilities, Buchanan serves as a course coordinator for a core BComm course—a role that often involves training and mentoring new instructors—and he is a committee member for three graduate research students. 

The Associates Achievement Award in Teaching – Dan Shin

Assistant Professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management, Shin has been selected as a recipient of an Associates Achievement Award in Teaching in recognition of his promising contributions to student success and learning since first joining the Asper School in Fall 2023.

In the classroom, Shin combines traditional lectures with case-based teaching to encourage collaborative learning experiences and help students develop real-world presentation and communication skills.

Student testimonials reflect Shin’s willingness to adapt and offer multiple modes of participation for diverse groups of students, with many emphasizing that his choices in the classroom facilitated their learning and demonstrated his investment in their success.

In addition to in-class work, Shin also coached two teams for the 2023-24 Association for Supply Chain Management student case competition, meeting with students regularly and assisting in their preparation for the final presentations. He also worked to coordinate and update a core supply chain course curriculum.

The Emerging Topics Speaker Series: Excellence and relevance in research

Created to support enhanced connections to the business community, contributions to the practice of management and meaningful collaboration between Asper faculty and the business community, The Associates Fellowship Awards have collectively disbursed over $100,000 to the Asper School of Business in pursuit of cutting-edge research projects since the program launched in 2022. Since the program’s inception, nine Associates Fellows have been named.

When named an Associates Fellow, recipients also become featured speakers in the Emerging Topics Speaker Series, an event that invites members of the academic and business community to learn and discuss the Fellows’ research.

This January, The Associates Fellow in Sustainability Rajesh Manchanda will be featured in the next installment of the Emerging Topics Speaker Series. Stay tuned to the Asper Research Events page to learn more.

Emily Wilson