Business PhD Spotlight: Feyzan Karabulut

While pursuing her undergraduate degree in business, Feyzan Karabulut became interested in understanding how and why consumers behave the way they do, particularily when it comes to interacting with AI chat agents and personalizing virtual meeting rooms.

Karabulut went on to pursue a master’s degree in marketing at the University of Rochester. There, her experiences confirmed that she was on the right track — so much so that she decided to pursue a PhD in marketing, knowing an academic career in marketing aligned with her professional, intellectual and personal interests.

Karabulut joined the Alberta School of Business because of its research-focused and nurturing environment.  Business PhD students are encouraged to generate creative research ideas and develop the skills to pursue them. Additionally, she finds working with and learning from the Alberta Business School’s top-notch faculty members invaluable.

"Every member of the department is an expert in their field, and they foster an environment in which I’m able to thrive,” said Karabulut.

Karabulut's research explores consumer behaviour in digital spaces. She investigates consumers’ interactions with AI agents, businesses, and each other across platforms such as online chat, videoconferences and social media. She studies how, when, and why consumers interpret, are influenced by and respond to digital interactions.

In published research on videoconference backgrounds, Karabulut found that in work settings, people tend to choose non-revealing backgrounds that convey little information about themselves, such as plain walls, in order to appear professional. However, this intuition is wrong: even in work settings, people prefer it when others use revealing backgrounds that offer a glimpse of their personalities, such as musical instruments.

In her dissertation, Karabulut is examining online customer service interactions and exploring how the language that AI chat agents use impacts consumers. So far, she finds that while consumers appreciate AI chat agents that use basic normative language (e.g., “sounds good”), they dislike it when AI agents use more sophisticated relational language (e.g., “how are you?”).

Ultimately, Feyzan is delighted to have found an opportunity that allows her to ask questions and satisfy her ongoing curiosity. She happily shares her enthusiasm, skills, and knowledge with faculty and students.

"I am passionate about asking questions about the world and learning new things. I feel energized in an academic environment."

Feyzan Karabulut joined the Alberta School of Business in 2019 as a PhD student specializing in marketing, under the supervision of professors Sarah Moore and Paul Messinger.