Sprott is excited to announce a full roster of Undergraduate Summer Research Experience positions for 2023

Sprott’s Undergraduate Summer Research Experience program provides funding for up to three undergraduate research internships each year. USRE interns spend thirteen weeks of their summer conducting research on a full-time basis under the supervision of a Sprott faculty member.

The Experience of Graduate Students from Equity-deserving Groups

USRE intern: Aanya Baindur, second-year student, BCom Honours, Marketing

Supervisor: Leighann Neilson, Associate Professor, Marketing

Aanya will join a team of researchers who are studying the experiences of Sprott graduate students from equity-deserving groups with a view to reducing barriers to success for all students, especially those facing issues of which we are unaware. She will conduct interviews, assess the accuracy of automatic transcription, conduct data analysis, and explore resources that can address student needs. Comparable research undertaken at other universities has informed meaningful changes in policy and practice, and similar research is currently in progress in other Carleton faculties. This timely project will thus provide a baseline for future comparative research while reinforcing Sprott’s commitment to improving EDI.

The Internal Auditors’ Competencies Project

USRE intern: Joyce Lau, second-year student, BCom, Accounting

Supervisor: Ouafa Sakka, Associate Professor, Accounting

Internal auditing is an unregulated profession, and the services internal auditors are required to provide vary from organization to organization. The list of competencies associated with positions in the field is both expansive and continually growing. As a result, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) recently updated their competency framework for internal auditors. Since that framework shapes the academic training internal auditors receive, it is important that it reflect the realities of the job market. Joyce will participate in a research project that is assessing the IIA competency framework by comparing it to competencies outlined in actual job advertisements. She will search for and summarize relevant research articles, find and code internal audit job advertisements, and perform statistical analysis of the most in-demand competencies, sorting them by country, sector, and position, among other factors.

Immigrants and Consumer Xenocentrism

USRE intern: Sukaina Rizvi, third-year student, Bcom, International Business

Supervisor: José Rojas-Méndez, Professor, International Business

Sukaina will participate in a research project that seeks to clarify how acculturation, defined as the process of cultural and psychological change that results from the interaction of two or more cultural groups and their members, effects consumer preference. More specifically, this project will compare the cultural dimensions of consumer xenocentrism (i.e., the psychological attitude of a group to prefer and consider elements of another culture as superior to one’s own) among Pakistani immigrants to Canada and Canadian citizens; determine whether nostalgia moderates the relationship between consumer xenocentrism and acculturation; and assess how the length of time since immigration influences levels of consumer xenocentrism. The project’s findings will shed light on the impact of acculturation and nostalgia on consumer xenocentrism.