Chiu Centre for Business Serving Society

We seek to become a nationally recognized research centre dedicated to understanding and helping businesses enhance social impact and nurture community, care, and compassion. This includes fostering culture change in capitalism by promoting business models that address social and ecological crises facing humanity. To achieve this far-reaching agenda, the Centre draws together and provides a support system for scholars from multiple disciplines within Asper and across the University of Manitoba.

Two people standing at podium giving speech.
  • U Manitoba President Michael Benarroch wearing a suit standing in front of a podium speaking.

  • Business that cares
     

    The University of Manitoba (UM) is proud to announce a transformative $5.4 million gift from Drs. Wayne [BSc(ME)/80, LLD/23] and Eleanor Chiu to establish the Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, a visionary initiative housed within the I.H. Asper School of Business.

    “Business is a powerful tool of change, and it must be about more than just profit. It must drive positive social and ecological change,” says Michael Benarroch, UM president and vice-chancellor. “And thanks to the Chius' selfless gift to our university, we will spark big ideas that will change how we think about and do business, and that will change the world.” 

    Read more

What we do

The Centre is designed to be open-ended, so long as its activities are consistent with the overarching goal of working to create culture change in capitalism via promoting business models that foster community.

  • Develop and support multi-disciplinary research that enables examining the multi-facets of business models that enhance social impact. This may include awarding annual “Centre Research Fellows” with a small grants that can be used for research purposes or for course buy-outs. Similar grants or funding may also be awarded to graduate students whose work is closely aligned with the Centre’s.

  • Develop longitudinal data sets of leading-edge business models that address social and ecological issues facing society. This may include collecting data (e.g., interview, survey, archival) that are informed by and made available to researchers from a variety of disciplines. By studying exemplary businesses models over time, researchers can get a deeper understanding of the characteristics and processes that enhance social impact. It is expected that students will participate in collecting, coding and sometimes analysing data.

  • Facilitate seminars and events. Invite speakers to present on topics related to social impact entrepreneurship to faculty, students, staff, and the public. This may include hosting a virtual conference, sponsoring a visiting scholar, or focusing on specific events or student groups.

  • Promote research dissemination to the scholarly, educational, business and not-for-profit sectors. This includes supporting publishing research in scholarly and practitioner journals. It may also occasionally include a book for scholars or practitioners, or perhaps a textbook for courses in social impact entrepreneurship and producing video-based materials. 

Resources

The first publication associated with the Centre is a management textbook that describes three approaches to management, including the “Social and Ecological Thought” approach closely linked to the vison of the Centre, which is being used at business schools around the world (notably Canada, the USA, and Philippines)

Dyck, B., Caza, A., Aure, P. A. H., Leaman, J., Marcus, J., Jimenez, S., & Kato, A. (2026). Management: Financial, Social and Ecological well-being. Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, with Sapajo Publishing.

Advisory board

The advisory board is being created and will be comprised of representatives from the University of Manitoba, corporate and non-profit sectors, and the broader community. The advisory board will seek to include broad representation across the University of Manitoba. Members of the advisory board will be appointed by the Dean, I.H. Asper School of Business, on recommendation by the Director.

The advisory board will be responsible for the following:

  • Providing advice regarding research questions the Centre might want to address, programming it might want to engage in, and exemplary organizations in the field

  • Providing advice on the strategic plan for the Centre

  • Providing advice on the Centre’s success in achieving its desired expected outcomes and need for potential course correction

  • Providing advice on the Centre’s annual reporting and five-year review process

Members

Membership is open to any faculty member or graduate research student at the University of Manitoba who demonstrates an interest in one or more of the following:

  • Examining and promoting business models to foster community, connectedness, compassion and equity

  • Examining and promoting business models to transform the culture of capitalism

  • Examining and promoting business models to address social and ecological issues facing society

  • Theoretical and/or applied research focused on social impact entrepreneurship, social innovation, and technologies that can transform industries by addressing social and ecological issues

  • Instruction, pedagogy and promotion of business models that foster community

Members

Members are responsible for contributing to the advancement of the mission and vision of the Centre.

The inaugural members are listed below, but this list is expected to grow as the work of the Centre becomes known.

 

Name

Title

Faculty/Department

Chi Liao

Associate Professor

Accounting & Finance

Derek Johnson

Professor

Anthropology

Harsha Kamatham

Assistant Professor

Marketing

Iain Davidson-Hunt

Professor

Natural Resources Institute

Jesse Hajer

Associate Professor

Economics

Kiran Pedada

Assistant Professor

Marketing

Lei Lu

Professor

Accounting & Finance

Luming Wang

Associate Professor

Marketing

Martin Entz

Professor

Plant Science

Minelle Silva

Associate Professor

Supply Chain Management

Mohammad Eslami

Associate Professor

Supply Chain Management

Mohammad Khan

Associate Professor

Social Work

Nahid Masoudi

Associate Professor

Natural Resources Institute

Nathan Greidanus

Associate Professor

Business Administration

Rajesh Manchanda

Professor

Marketing

Rong (Ratchel) Zeng

Assistant Professor

Business Administration

Sean Buchanan

Associate Professor

Business Administration

Sijie Sun

Assistant Professor

Marketing

Suzanne Gagnon

Associate Professor

Business Administration

Thomas Falkenberg

Professor

Curriculum, Teaching & Learning

Yik Au

Associate Professor

Accounting & Finance

Contact us

Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community
Drake Centre, Asper School of Business
181 Freedman Crescent
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus) 
Winnipeg MB R3T 5V4 Canada

bruno.dyck@umanitoba.ca