2 Mitacs Globalink (GRI) research projects for Summer 2027.
1. Effets différenciés d’un outil d’intelligence artificielle sur la performance des professionnels RH : une expérimentation randomisée contrôlée
Nous menons un essai randomisé contrôlé relatif à l'impact de l'utilisation d'un outil d'IA de prévention des risques psychosociaux sur la performance d'employés RH. Les étudiants assisteront le professeur dans l'administration des questionnaires et l'animation des focus groupe prévus.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: HRM, AI, Management public
Student roles:
Assister le professeur dans la conduite des entretiens
Skills required:
Méthode quantitatives, littératie numérique, gestion des ressources humaines et management. Capacités de réflexion et rédactionnelles. Bon entregent.
2. Succession Across Cultures in Toronto Area Family Businesses
This project investigates how culture and immigration history influence succession in family firms predominantly located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), one of the most culturally diverse metropolitan regions in the world. While succession is a critical milestone for all family businesses, relatively little is known about how succession intentions, planning, and practices differ across cultural communities and newcomer founded firms in a highly diverse, urban setting.
The project draws on the Pulse of the GTA Family Business Study, an innovative, student driven research initiative that has collected over 800 confidential survey responses from business owning families. The dataset includes rich quantitative information on ownership structure, governance practices, succession intent and planning, firm size, generational stage, birth country of owners and successors, and GTA specific characteristics such as industry, neighbourhood, and immigrant status.
The internship is hosted at the Family Business Institute (FBI) at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, in the heart of downtown Toronto. The FBI is a leading hub for research, education, and community engagement in family enterprise, led by acclaimed scholar Dr. Francesco Barbera, recipient of international honours such as the Family Firm Institute’s Barbara Hollander Award and multiple best paper prizes.
The student will gain advanced skills in data analysis, interpretation, and visualization, and help create outputs intended for both academic and public audiences. There is significant opportunity for recognition: the intern’s contribution can be highlighted on the FBI website, and there is potential for their name to be included on public reports or knowledge mobilization pieces. For students from family business backgrounds, or those planning to work with family enterprises, this project offers deep insight into real succession challenges and opportunities across diverse business families.
Research area, student roles & skills
Research area: Our specialized research area lies at the intersection of family business, succession, and migration studies, with a focus on how culture shapes ownership continuity in diverse urban contexts. We examine how governance structures, intergenerational relationships, and succession intentions vary across first generation immigrant founders and multi generation family firms. Using large scale survey data predominantly from the Greater Toronto Area, we investigate how culture, birthplace, and migration histories influence whether families intend to keep businesses in the family, how they plan for succession, and which governance practices they adopt to balance family, ownership, and management roles.
Student roles:
The Globalink intern will play a central role in advancing the analysis of the Pulse of the GTA Family Business Study. Working closely with the research team at the Family Business Institute in downtown Toronto, the student will begin by familiarizing themselves with the survey instrument, codebook, and data structure. They will support data cleaning, variable construction (e.g., cultural background, generational status, governance indices), and the preparation of analytic datasets tailored to the project’s research questions.
The student will then conduct quantitative analyses to explore how succession intentions, planning behaviours, and governance practices vary across cultural and immigrant groups. This will include generating descriptive statistics, cross tabulations, and visualizations, as well as assisting with more advanced techniques such as regression or subgroup comparisons. Under supervision from Dr. Francesco Barbera and the FBI team, the intern will help interpret the findings, identifying meaningful cross cultural patterns and implications for family business continuity.
Beyond technical analysis, the student will contribute to the communication and dissemination of results, including internal research memos, tables and figures for academic outputs, and accessible summaries or infographics for public facing reports. There is potential for the intern’s role to be profiled on the Family Business Institute website, and for acknowledgement on public reports or other knowledge mobilization materials.
The role is ideal for students from family businesses or those planning to work with such firms. They will leave the project with stronger analytical skills, a richer understanding of cross cultural dynamics in entrepreneurship, and a standout research experience on their CV.
Skills required:
The ideal student has a background in business, economics, sociology, psychology, or a related social science, with strong interest in family business, entrepreneurship, or migration studies. Prior coursework in statistics or quantitative methods is essential, alongside experience with at least one statistical software (e.g., R, Stata, SPSS, or Python). The student should be comfortable working with survey data, cleaning datasets, and interpreting regression or multivariate results. Strong written communication skills in English and an interest in cross-cultural or immigrant entrepreneurship are highly desirable. Curiosity, attention to detail, and a collaborative mindset are critical for success in this high profile project.