Russell Belk, who is widely considered by academics around the world to be “the father of qualitative marketing”, was selected as the inaugural recipient of the newly established Dean’s Research Impact Award at York University's Schulich School of Business.
From left, Dezsö J. Horváth, dean of the Schulich School of Business, with Professor Russell Belk, the Kraft Foods Canada chair in marketing at Schulich who won the inaugural Dean’s Research Impact Award
The award recognizes Schulich faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in research and whose work has had a major impact on management education.
Professor Belk, who holds the Kraft Foods Canada chair in marketing at Schulich, was presented with the award during Schulich’s 2013 Research Day fair held on Wednesday, Jan. 30. In addition to a luncheon and a panel discussion on “Rethinking Business for the 21st Century”, the event featured detailed poster presentations highlighting new management research projects by many of the school’s leading scholars, several of which have been carried out in collaboration with researchers from other leading universities around the world. Dezsö J. Horváth, dean of the Schulich School of Business, and Robert Haché, vice-president, 
research & innovation at York University, delivered the opening remarks.
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Belk's selection as the recipient of the Dean's Research Impact Award reflects a brilliant and productive career that has generated approximately 18,000 citations, many honours and awards, and the publication of more than 500 articles, books and edited volumes. He is a past recipient of the prestigious Paul D. Converse Award, has held two Fulbright Fellowships as well as honorary professorships on four continents, and is a past recipient of the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Consumer Research Award for Long-Term Contribution to Consumer Research.
About 100 people attended the first-ever Schulich Research Day and examined detailed poster presentations highlighting new management research projects by some of the school's leading scholars
The work of Belk will also be featured in a forthcoming 10-volume retrospective, Russell Belk, Sage Legends in Marketing (Sage Publications), which will include an interview with Belk and reprints of 160 of his academic papers, along with comments from three other scholars.
“Professor Belk has produced an extraordinary volume of top-calibre research of the sort that keeps Schulich among the world’s leading business schools in management research,” said Horváth. “We are very pleased that our students continue to benefit from Professor Belk’s excellent scholarship and teaching.”
Andrew Crane, the George R. Gardiner professor of Business Ethics at Schulich, presented his research poster on modern slavery as a management practice at the Schulich Research Day event
Robert Kozinets, professor of marketing and chair of Schulich's Marketing Department, had this to say about Belk: "He is an amazing colleague, not only in terms of his recognition, but the quality and quantity of his work, the incredible variety of his co-authors, the open-mindedness of his approach, the consistent scholarly interest in social rather than corporate betterment and the generosity he extends to new, international and growing scholars. He truly deserves every honour he has achieved, and more."
Among the Research Day presentations were:
- “Homelessness: The Role of Accounting in Structuring Poverty” by Cameron Graham, professor of accounting and director of the MBA Program;
- “Modern Slavery as a Management Practice,” by Andrew Crane, George R. Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics and director of the Schulich Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business; and
- “Timing a Smooth and Efficient Retirement Income Plan: To Drawdown the TFSA, RRSP or Neither?,” by Moshe A. Milevsky, professor of finance, in collaboration with Thomas Salisbury and Huaxiong Huang of York University’s Department of Mathematics.
To view all the poster presentations, click here.
Kevin McKague's poster presentation looks at how to make markets work for poor producers in developing countries