Business PhD students share timely research at U of A conference

PhD students from the Alberta School of Business gave the University of Alberta community a peek at their latest research insights and ideas during their annual conference on November 24.

In a program presented via three-minute talks (3MTs), 15-minute presentations, and poster sessions, the Business PhD Research Conference unveiled an astonishing array of graduate-level research.

All five specializations in the PhD program — accounting, finance, marketing, operations and information systems, and strategy, entrepreneurship and management — were represented in the topical questions the students examined and the thought-provoking answers they explored.

Among the issues tackled during the conference’s four 15-minute presentations: What is the best way to ask consumers to donate to a charity at the point of sale? Marketing PhD student Bijit Ghosh and his supervisor John Pracejus say they're more inclined to round up to the next dollar and donate the change if they're asked not just to "round up", but also given an additional option for donating, especially a fixed dollar amount.

During her 3MT presentation, student Mehrnaz Behrooz floated an intriguing plan for decreasing delivery costs and harm to the environment with a crowd-shipping service in which commuters would deliver parcels during their drives to and from work. 

Other 3MTs showcased Arkadiy Lenchak exploring the idea that through the predictive power of language, CEOs may learn of their dismissals before public announcements, and a new model for predicting the demands of wildfire firefighting was proposed by Yasser Zeinali in his work with supervisor Ilbin Lee and co-author Mostafa Rezaei.

Poster presentations of student papers ran the gamut of current concerns — from an examination of the voluntary disclosure practices of U.S. firms doing business with Russia during the Russia-Ukraine war to how the language of AI chat agents affects consumers.

A panel discussion over the lunch hour featured faculty members Robert Fisher (marketing), Armann Ingolfsson (OIS/ABA), Dev Jennings (SEM), Runjing Lu (finance) and Bohan Song (accounting/ABA) on the topic of addressing real-world problems through business research.

The Business PhD Research Conference is enormously valuable to students because it gives them the opportunity to explain their research to people outside their specific discipline, said Sarah Moore, associate dean, PhD and research, at the Alberta School of Business.

“Being able to communicate to multiple audiences is an important skill within and outside of academia, especially for disseminating knowledge to organizations and to the public,” said Moore.

The conference has run for the past 26 years and this year attracted approximately 50 participants and 100 attendees.

Serving as the conference co-chair was “a transformative learning adventure,” said marketing PhD student Cindy Grappe.

"The event promotes a deep sense of community and encourages me, and I hope all business PhD students, to remain curious. Seeing the richness of doctoral research, in terms of ideas, methodologies and implications for the world, is invaluable."

The conference is hosted by the Business Doctoral Association and is supported in part by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Alberta.