Three StFX Schwartz School of Business students took on research questions around ADHD disclosure, human rights awards, and ESG performance, and brought their findings to St. John’s, NL recently.
Claire Bradley, Hannah Roberts, and William Veale each presented their original research at the Atlantic School of Business (ASB) Conference held September 18-20, 2026. The conference is a long-standing peer-reviewed forum for business scholarship in Atlantic Canada, which places research before business academics and practitioners.
Ms. Bradley, a 2026 graduate from the Honours Management and Leadership program who holds a minor in psychology, presented “Reading the Room: Exploring the Effects and Experiences of ADHD Disclosure on Career Possibility and Professional Identity.”
Conducted under the supervision of Dr. Katelynn Carter-Rogers, her research explored how adults with ADHD experience disclosure at work and what it means for their careers.
Ms. Bradley is now pursuing publication, with hopes of continuing her research in graduate school.
Ms. Roberts, a fourth year International Business student, presented “Employment and Human Rights – An Empirical Analysis of Decisions Rendered by the Nova Scotia Board of Inquiry and a Typology of Legal Decision Terminology.”
The research project focused on quantitative and qualitative analysis of human rights awards, and an initial typology of legal semantic categories present in the awards.
Ms. Roberts worked as a research assistant on the project, which is co-authored with her supervisor, Dr. Stefan Litz, and Dr. Haoze Chen.
The research was funded by a University Council of Research grant and concerned with Nova Scotia’s Board of Inquiry awards based on filed human rights complaints.
Mr. Veale, a fourth year finance student, presented “Understanding the Role of ESG Criteria in Firm Performance: Evidence from Canadian Companies.” The study was co-authored with his research supervisor, Dr. Vijay Vishwakarma.
The study asked the question “does strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance actually pay off for companies?”
“Most of the evidence in this literature comes from U.S. or global samples, so Canadian evidence is comparatively thin. A carefully identified null result is scholarly valuable. It cautions against assuming that more disclosure means better performance, and it raises a real measurement question about whether ESG scores capture substantive practice or simply the capacity to report,” says Dr. Vishwakarma.
