Research

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Business PhD Spotlight: Feyzan Karabulut

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.

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Research Involvement

The Alberta School of Business is research focused and faculty publish in top management and other distinguished journals. PhD students are encouraged to be highly involved in research from the beginning of their programs. For example, the Business Research Conference is held annually to give students an opportunity to present their ideas and research results to faculty, other students and the broader community. Students may be involved in research projects with their supervisors or other faculty, in addition to their main project, the dissertation. 

Research Seminars

Participation in research workshops and seminars is an integral component of doctoral education. Students are urged to participate fully in departmental seminars; this includes attendance at the departments' seminars, in which scholarly papers are presented by University of Alberta faculty, visiting scholars, and doctoral students. Students are also expected to share their research results at the annual Business Research Conference.

The Summer Period

The academic calendar at the University of Alberta consists of two terms of instruction between September and April, followed by two, six-week spring and summer sessions. The May to August period should be used for the following activities.

  1. Further research training through work on joint projects with faculty members. Results of this research will be presented in such public outlets as scholarly journals, professional conferences, department seminars and the PhD Research Conference. When a presentation requires travel to a conference, support may be available from the PhD office. This research activity is very important to students' academic progress.
  2. Taking courses that are prerequisite to, or supportive of, the specialization's required courses.
  3. Preparing for comprehensive or candidacy examinations.
  4. Writing research papers oriented towards developing a thesis proposal or for scholarly publication.
  5. Satisfying the teaching requirement of the specialization.

Research Centres

The Alberta School of Business has established various centres of research. For additional information concerning these centres, visit Research Centres. 

Recent Student Publications

Getting involved in research early can lead to publications prior to graduation.

Shuo Yuan, PhD student: Jia, J., Yuan, S., Wei, L. Q., & Tang, G. (2023). When firms adopt sustainable human resource management: A fuzzy‐set analysis. Human Resource Management.

Ozan Ozdemir, PhD Candidate: Ozdemir, O., Kolfal, B., Messinger, P. R., & Rizvi, S. (2023). Human or virtual: How influencer type shapes brand attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior (forthcoming).

Tim Derksen, PhD Candidate: Orazi, D. C., Mah, K., Derksen, T. & Murray, K. B.. (2023). Consumer escapism: Scale development, validation, and physiological associations. Journal of Business Research.

Feyzan Karabulut, PhD Candidate: Karabulut, Feyzan, Sarah G. Moore, and Paul R. Messinger (2023). Choosing Backgrounds for Success: The Role of Videoconference Backgrounds in Self-Presentation. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 8(2), 153-164.


Updated May 17, 2024