1,720,971 research outputs found
Understanding the Benefits of Community-Focused and Affordable Housing Projects from a 3-Pillar Perspective: An Impact Measurement Framework
Get PDFOntario is facing an affordable housing crisis. As of 2021 10.1% of Canadian households were in core housing need with 77% being attributed exclusively to a lack of affordability, 10% attributed to housing inadequacy or unsuitability, and an additional 13% facing a combination of such issues. This is especially prominent in Ontario as 12.1% of households were in core housing need (Gov’t of Canada, 2022). Much of the shortage is attributed to an insufficient supply. The project is part of a multi-stakeholder initiative to create an assessment framework to value affordable housing projects, grounded in academic theory and practice. The purpose of this research is to develop a measurement framework to estimate the social, environmental, and indirect economic contributions of affordable and community-focused housing projects. Quantifying the social returns of investments will provide organizations a tool to justify budget allocation decisions and to advocate for government funding support.
The proposed framework is generated using the Common Approach to Impact Measurement (CAIM) Common Foundations, a set of 5 governing practices for developing impact measurements. The Common Foundations were used to select effective impact measurements for a wide range of housing projects. The CAIM is in early stages of development, but will be used by impact investors, social enterprises in Ontario, and is supported by the Canadian Social Finance Fund. The framework was informed by content analysis, a frequency analysis, and semi-structured interviews with professionals. As a proof of concept, the proposed framework was applied to a case study with the United Property Resource Corporation to understand what impact measures are relevant, cost effective to measure, with accessible data. The framework encourages practitioners to interpret the cost-effectiveness of measurement.
The proposed framework and case study application demonstrate the importance of accounting for social returns of affordable housing projects as opposed to simply reporting the economic costs. This research contributes to emerging literature in the areas of affordable housing valuation, social finance, and impact measurement. Future studies should consider gaining feedback from affordable housing tenants and indirect beneficiaries to create a more comprehensive indicator set
Five configurations for scaling up social innovation: Case examples of nonprofit organizations from Canada
No full textGreenhouse Gas Emissions cuts, a set of fuel-based mitigation wedges in Canada
Get PDFTo combat climate change, a global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and low-carbon systems is necessary. The energy sector plays a pivotal role in this transition. This thesis aims to guide the Canadian oil and gas (O&G) industry in developing investment strategies for transitioning to renewable energy sources, supporting the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan.
Mitigation wedges provide an accessible framework for understanding emissions-reducing actions. This thesis derives a set of mitigation wedges for transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy, which can be applied in designing O&G companies' strategies towards achieving Canada's GHG emissions reductions. Quantitative methods and statistical analysis are applied to a balanced panel dataset collected from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) website, including information on provinces, territories, and the entire country from 2005 to 2050, with historical data up to 2020.
The study demonstrates that end-use energy demand for natural gas in the industrial and transport sectors and refined petroleum products in the industrial and residential sectors positively impacts GHG emissions reduction in the O&G industry. These four mitigation wedges can significantly contribute to the Canadian O&G industry's GHG emissions target of 42% below 2019 levels. This research offers valuable insights for decision-makers at industry and policy levels to support a successful transition to a low-carbon economy
Neolocalism Strategies in Ontario Craft Brewing
No full textWhile we may live in a globalized society, it is human nature to crave local connection. The theory of Neolocalism helps us understand how businesses try to harness this, and can be defined as “a conscious effort by businesses to foster a sense of place based on attributes of their community” (Holtkamp et al., 2016, p. 66). In particular, there is a direct association between the theory of Neolocalism and businesses that sell food or beverage products as a way of creating a local identity for themselves. Craft or “Microbreweries” have emerged as the most common example of local businesses that embody Neolocalism as a way of building a successful business model through attributes and interactions with their local community. The purpose of this research is to understand what the most common approaches to Neolocalism are amongst Craft Breweries in Ontario. This research contributes to neolocal literature as it expands upon previous methods of understanding neolocal approaches carried out by businesses. Therefore, it will continue to advance the measurement framework that has been utilized to evaluate the business practices affiliated with the concept of Neolocalism. It also identifies trends in businesses approaches to Neolocalism that were previously overlooked or undervalued as the ability to collect information on certain variables and indicators had been limited. By doing this, it will determine more ways for businesses to embed themselves in their community, as it will allow them to evaluate their decision making process and identify further opportunities to create a stronger sense of place in their community. An explanatory mixed-methods approach was used for this study to gain a comprehensive understanding of Neolocalism within the Ontario Craft Brewery industry. Utilizing measurement framework for the business practices will provide clear trends and empirical measurement of neolocal approaches, while the inclusion of actual members from each brewery will ensure results are coming from their perspective and strategic thought process. The inclusion of brewery workers as participants instead of the use of customers or websites for data collection demonstrates the importance of gathering information from stakeholders who are privy to all aspects of the business. Given their knowledge and ability to comment on all indicators of Neolocalism is far greater, it aligned with the methodology for creating a comprehensive study on this theory. As well, the opportunity for qualitative discussion allows anyone who wishes to provide further context regarding their situation and decision making. Future studies should consider reducing the number of variables used in their assessment tool. This will create a more concise measurement of business practices and maintain one way of measuring variables to create a standardized measurement across all indicators
Marketplace Lending and Credit Unions: Where the Past and Future of Peer-to-Peer Finance Meet
Get PDFPeer-to-peer (P2P) or marketplace lending has expanded rapidly since the 2008 global financial crisis. While the idea of pooling small amounts of money from several lenders is not new, advances in financial technology (fintech) have resulted in scalable, efficient, and global processes. Since Zopa (the world’s first P2P lending platform, launched in 2005), the lending has increasingly shifted away from individual lenders working collaboratively to assess loans, and now includes automated decision-making algorithms with institutional lenders such as hedge funds and banks. Consequently, marketplace lending threatens to disrupt many activities of the financial sector. Although the industry has experienced significant growth in the UK and the USA, it is only recently, in 2016, that some Canadian regulations implemented new crowdfunding rules; these include allowing retail lenders to invest up to $10,000 annually. Similar to chartered national banks, Canada’s sub-national credit unions might feel challenged by emerging fintech firms. As such, through the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic alliances, this thesis sought to answer the question, How are Canadian credit unions entering the marketplace lending industry? The study employed an exploratory, qualitative design where semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 participants from 12 credit unions (including one credit union central) of the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA), but outside of Quebec’s Desjardins system of caisses populaires. In these interviews, three areas of prominent credit union business are explored: the use of marketplace lending for small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing; impact investing; and the use of marketplace lending in providing alternatives to payday loan products. The study’s findings revealed that out of the 12 credit union members from the sample, three have partnered with fintech firms, one is developing its own lending platform, and the majority are simply monitoring the evolution of marketplace lending in Canada. Regarding the latter, perceived risks and/or barriers include regulations, reputational risk, and difficulty attracting deposits. However, reported opportunities include using marketplace lending to enhance member retention and attraction, and lending to socially and environmentally motivated SMEs. This thesis contributes to the academic literature by providing evidence as to how Canadian credit unions are entering the marketplace lending industry. It details the reported barriers and/or risks and opportunities, and the motivating drivers to form strategic alliances with start-up fintech firms
Three Tales in Journeys Towards Wisdom: Decolonial Impetuses in Social Innovation
No full textMost Social Innovations (and related fields and practices such as Social Entrepreneurship, Social Finance and Systemic Design) address symptoms instead of the root causes of the most wicked problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973) we face as humanity. Global North paradigms (in particular, epistemologies) often focus on the gathering of data, organising it into information, and synthesising it into knowledge that can be consumed, and thus commodified. In contrast, Indigenous and Traditional frameworks almost always go a step further, and sometimes in altogether other directions, towards the attainment of ‘Wisdom’ as their ultimate goal. Resultantly, the most progressive Global North pedagogies and praxis focus on bridging the knowing-doing gap (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000) centering ideas such as learning cycles (Kolb, 1984) and organizations (Senge, 1990), rarely paying heed to what Indigenous and Traditional frameworks present at their very core: embodiment; being and (when extended to the metaphysical) entanglement; inter-becoming (Bhogal, 2012; Wight, 2013). An altogether knowing otherwise rooted in wisdom…
A (re)focus on these Global South frameworks may provide the field of Social Innovation with the decolonial impetus required to move us towards a paradigm of relationality (Goodchild, 2021) and regeneration (Senge, 2008; Wahl, 2008, 2016) that can potentially aid our species in avoiding (& continuing to create) the catastrophic climate (and related) calamities (UN IPCC, 2018) confronting us on the horizon.
Sensing into the provisional elements of wisdom frameworks from the Global South, this dissertation shares three tales of journeys towards decoloniality in social innovation. Spanning two sites between North America and South Asia, chapters 3-5 share examples of “upside-down” approaches to social innovation and its allied fields (social finance, systemic design, learning and evaluation, and systems change).
Using these tales, this dissertation recognizes our desire as researchers and practitioners of social innovation to enact shifts in systems and ignite transformations towards regenerative futures in these times of polycrises/polycollapse. In this process, these stories emphasize the need for a different sensing: more embodied ways of knowing, more pluralistic ways of doing, and increasingly relational ways of being. It is perhaps in these explorations that we may be able to tap into the wisdom of our inter-becoming
Unpacking the Intention-Behaviour Gap in Canadian Consumers’ Food Purchasing Decisions
Get PDFCanada has a deep-rooted reliance on single-use plastic in the food industry, with little evidence of changing its use of plastic as a durable, convenient, and cost-effective choice of packaging material to process, package, deliver and sell food to Canadian consumers (Schweitzer et al., 2018; Sundqvist-Andberg & Åkerman, 2021). A majority of Canadian consumers (73.4 percent) support banning single-use plastic food packaging in favour of more sustainable food packaging options, according to a consumer survey by Dalhousie University (Walker et al., 2021). However, barriers at the point-of-purchase, including the higher price tag and limited availability of food without plastic packaging, limit the purchase of plastic-free food products in Canada. This quantitative research project was undertaken to 1) segment consumers based on their consumer opinions regarding single-use food packaging, 2) determine the pre-purchasing intentions and point-of-purchase behaviour of Canadian consumers, and 3) determine if any gap exists between consumers’ intention and their purchasing decisions when food shopping. The Theory of Planned Behaviour explains the connection between consumer intention (“intention”) and purchasing decisions (“behaviour”) (Ajzen, 1991). Data was collected from Ontario food shoppers using a custom mobile app to capture both consumers' intentions before shopping for food and their purchasing decisions while food shopping. The data of 95 participants who completed the study - a competition rate of 42.04 percent - was segmented into Green (20 percent) and Grey (80 percent) consumer segments for comparative analysis between the two groups. The results show that both Green and Grey Consumers are more strongly influenced by their in-store purchasing decisions regarding packaging than their pre-shopping intentions which current intention-only surveys would not reveal. This research provides evidence of consumer support for the shift to more plastic-free food products in Canadian supermarkets. The researcher intends to develop the mobile app used for this research project into a commercially viable version to support the shift away from single-use plastic food packaging
Financialization of the Housing Market: A Contribution to Modern Urban Rent Theory
No full textA great deal of wealth is produced through the economic activity of cities. There is a gap, however, in the formal apparatus in standard economic theory for analyzing the distribution of this enormous value created in cities.
In the context of a widely-felt housing crisis, we explore how the capture of urban value by financial actors through the financialization of the housing market affects ownership patterns in urban areas, and the ultimate implications of these processes for urban productivity. We hypothesize that financialization induces a shift towards tenancy among the urban workforce that is likely to result in decreased urban productivity through a range of channels. To examine this hypothesis, we construct an agent-based model with a land market and production sector in which productivity scales superlinearly with city population. This work brings together urban agglomeration effects, Ricardian rent theory and a spatially explicit land market model in a novel way.
In our model, transportation costs determine the size of the city, and the available locational rents. Rising productivity increases wages and urban land values, so the value of increased productivity is transferred to land owners. Investors attempt to capture these productive gains by purchasing land. These financial actors can bid against residents to purchase urban land. The interaction of agents determines the distribution of property ownership, city size, and wages. City size and wages provide a measure of urban productivity. The evolving pattern of property ownership tells us how residents are distributed between the tenant class and the owner class.
We then explore a range of channels through which financialization might result in decreased urban productivity. When we add this link in the model, we see that financialization not only transforms the class structure of the city and the distribution of urban wealth, it disrupts the relationship between population growth and productivity, reducing the wealth and resilience of the urban system. To illustrate the uses of this kind of computational model for economic policy analysis, we run six policy experiments with and without the productivity link.
Contributions of this work include: integrating classical rent theory into an agent-based urban model; linking urban rent dynamics with urban productivity, and population growth; incorporating urban scaling literature into the model framework; examining the impacts of financialization on wealth distribution and urban productivity; creating a framework for a broader understanding of public policies in an urban system; and examining the qualitative effects of various public policies on wealth distribution, productivity, and class
Redefining Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) World
Get PDFIn a paradigm characterized by unprecedented levels of transparency and business risks, CSR reporting standards have gained substantial power in their ability to drive organizations towards more sustainable business practices. With the advent of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), corporate sustainability discourse has progressed to a point where sustainability became critical to the success of firms. This dissertation explores the changes in the CSR domain post the introduction of the SDGs in 2015. The SDGs provide a robust framework for strategic CSR given their objective 17 goals along with 169 sub-goals and 232 indicators, which represent a comprehensive agenda for sustainable development. This dissertation explores the changes in the reporting practices by analyzing more than 14 thousand reports provided by 9,397 organizations to test a set of hypotheses that identify the factors that influence SDGs reporting within firms. Additionally, this dissertation highlights current gaps and challenges in the contemporary CSR domain and sheds light on the latest practices of CSR communication, such as the use of social media sites as platforms for CSR and SDGs reporting. We introduce a novel approach using social media analytics to analyze how corporations communicate about SDGs on social media, namely Twitter. The dissertation also highlights the current initiatives towards the standardization of reporting frameworks. Findings from this research contribute to strategic CSR literature by highlighting the nature of reporting per sector, and how organizations report on the SDGs that are related to their core operations. The results of the dissertation also contribute to legitimacy theory by identifying how and why corporations address the SDGs in their strategic CSR reporting. Finally, the dissertation provides a set of recommendations that can help improve strategic CSR reporting in the SDGs era
Analyzing Green Finance Incentives: An Empirical Study of the Chinese Banking Sector
Get PDFClimate change is a major contemporary issue. In response, financial institutions offer green financing to fund low-carbon investments to those organizations who want to help mitigate this issue. Nevertheless, a lack of green credit remains the case. Therefore, to learn how to close this financing gap, this empirical study explores China’s green finance through the lens of the Chinese banks who are the providers of such loans. Green finance has been growing rapidly in China since the Chinese government issued the Green Credit Policy. Previous studies have posited that banks have incentives in the form of credit risk management, new business opportunities, corporate reputation, and compliance risk to offer green loans. The objective of this thesis is to ascertain whether green loans provide better risk management and more business opportunities in practice.
As a part of the research, this thesis explores China’s banking system and the development of, and current research into, China’s Green Credit Policy. This study identifies a distinct characteristic of the Chinese banking system (i.e., heavy government involvement) and posits how the government may influence the development of green finance in China.
A dataset with a panel design was collected to perform the quantitative tests. The dataset contains financial and green finance data from 24 banks in China between 2009 and 2015. Panel regression techniques, such as Two-stage Least Square Regression Analysis (2sls) and Random-effect Panel Regression (RE), were used to examine whether the banks’ green finance practices lead to better financial performance.
The results reveal that green loans grow at a faster rate than do other types of loans, and that allocating more green loans to the total loan portfolio reduces a bank’s NPL ratio. The findings imply that green financing is a less risky investment with increasing demand. Through empirical evidence, this thesis contributes to the existing green finance literature and fills the literature gap on the Green Credit Policy in China through its study of the policy’s implementation from the banks’ perspective
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