“Nuisance Outliers or Novel Anomalies: An Inductive Study of Deviance and Grant Mills”

I had the privilege of presenting my paper, titled “Nuisance Outliers or Novel Anomalies: An Inductive Study of Deviance and Grant Mills” at the recent CCC conference. The paper tackles a gap in grant-related research which has frequently dismissed firms with outsized grant acquisitions. Our research uncovered both fascinating phenomena such as the existence of grant brokers, who insert themselves into grant ecosystems as unsanctioned agents, and surfaced potential contributions to principal-agent theory.

With many respected senior academics amongst the attending audience, the conference turned out to be one of the most productive visits I have experienced. Both quality of feedback and networking opportunities were more than ample. Of note, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with some of my personal “heroes” in academia including Profs. Sarah Kaplan from the University of Toronto and Mary Tripsas from UC Santa Barbara.

Beyond that, I also connected with fellow students with very similar research interests, and potential papers are already in discussion. Overall, this is perhaps the most fruitful conference I have attended since the start of my academic journey.