Crandall Professors Win Research Prize

Crandall University Faculty of Business Administration Professors Robert MacDonald and Heather Steeves were awarded the $10,000 Certified Management Accountants of Alberta / NACRA Award for the Outstanding Case in Corporate Governance at the 54th Conference of the North America Case Research Association (NACRA). MacDonald and Steeves were recognized for their research in corporate board governance in a not for profit organizational setting.

“We feel both honoured and blessed to have been chosen for this award,” said MacDonald, who teaches Strategy and Human Resource Management in Crandall’s Business Faculty. “Our work sought to provide a venue to explore the differences between for profit and not for profit policy governance structures, with a particular focus on the responsibility of individual board members. To have been recognized by NACRA and the CMA like this is an incredible validation of our work and demonstrates the quality of research being done in New Brunswick, and in particular at the Crandall University Faculty of Business.”

“The need for strong and effective governance has never been more pressing,” said Steeves, who teaches Accounting at Crandall. “Our research illuminates the challenges that boards face in making quality decisions, especially when financial analysis is at odds with considerations of organizational mission and vision. We’re very thankful that this research has been recognized as making a substantive contribution to the discipline.”

The award was presented to the professors Saturday by Kara Mitchelmore, President of CMA-Alberta, and Dr. Jeff Shay, President of NACRA at a ceremony held in Boston, Massachusetts before an assembly of Conference attendees from around the world.

NACRA is a non-profit, voluntary professional association whose mission is to promote excellence in case research, writing, and teaching in business and other academic disciplines. Since 2011 it has partnered with CMA-Alberta to recognize the most outstanding teaching case on corporate governance submitted to the Conference, which will then be used in CMA’s undergraduate university education program.

Professors MacDonald and Steeves plan to continue to expand their research, and are presently developing a project focused in the area of corporate social responsibility.