Consumer Pod Index

The Alberta School of Business recently spoke Chri Lerohl, ‘12 MBA, and Heather Thomson about the current landscape of consumer behaviour in Canada, the rapid digitization of businesses and the rise of e-commerce, the global supply chain, the movement to shop local and insights into the world of entrepreneurship.

The Alberta School of Business recently spoke with two alumnae about building a business committed to environmental and social sustainability.

We recently spoke to two Black leaders in our community over Zoom to discuss their time as Black students at the Alberta School of Business, their experience as leaders and what it means to have the platform they do. Hanna Daniel is a 5th year Bachelor of Commerce student. In her first year, she founded the black students association on campus. She's also competed at JDC West on the first all-woman team and is a senior UAlberta Ambassador. Keenan Pascal is a School of Business alumnus and the co-founder and CEO of Token Naturals, an Edmonton-based company that extracts cannabis for companies and consumers. He's also the founder and CEO of Token Bitters, Edmonton's first local bitters company.

Artificial Intelligence is the future of business. Whether it be oil and gas, agriculture, health care, banking, or retail, big data and machine learning have transformed everything we do. A world-class talent pool at the University of Alberta, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and Google DeepMind have turned Edmonton into a global AI powerhouse. Government, universities, and the private sector must work hand-in-hand to further develop Alberta’s AI capacity, so that both the province and country can reap the social and economic rewards of being at the forefront of the next industrial revolution.

Gossip, hearsay and innuendo are an everyday part of life, but as a society we generally frown upon the spread of unverified information. In a new paper examining the dissemination of rumours within the tech sector, however, assistant professor Tim Hannigan contends that partial knowledge can and does influence the trajectory of product development. Rather than pretend like they don’t pay attention to tech blogs and forums, Hannigan argues, companies might be better served incorporating this partial information into their formal planning processes, and even consider strategically leaking bits of information to rumour sites in order to spur feedback and innovation.

A new paper from School of Business professor Joel Gehman examines FracFocus, a non-regulatory online registry purporting to inform North Americans about the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.  Gehman concludes that despite being a popular tool for industry, as well as provincial and state governments, the information disclosed by FracFocus is largely unhelpful to everyday citizens. Information disclosed via regulator-operated websites is more accessible than information disclosed via FracFocus, and is presented in a way that better supports public decision-making.

On October 17, 2018, Canada became only the second country in the world—and the first G7 and G20 nation—to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Six months later, as part of the Alberta School of Business' Eric Geddes lecture series, industry leaders discussed the effects of government regulation on the industry, finding a career in cannabis, the next wave of cannabis products, and Canada as a global cannabis leader.

Looking at 21 current and historical women’s leagues in four professional sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, and indoor volleyball), Marvin Washington, professor of Strategic Management and Organization at the Alberta School of Business, wanted to better understand why professional women’s sports leagues continue to struggle. His answer? Something Washington and his fellow researchers call “gender imprinting.”

Made a decision on what to get your loved one this Valentine’s Day? Or maybe the plan is to “treat yo self,” instead? Listen in as Heather Thomson, Executive Director of the School of Retailing, talks about consumer behaviour on Valentine's Day, and identifies some of the current trends surrounding the “Hallmark Holiday.”