Contact
Marketing and Behavioural Science Division
Sauder School of Business
University of British Columbia
2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z2
T: (604) 827-3711
E: Katherine.White@sauder.ubc.ca
W: Sauder School of Business Faculty Profile
Generally speaking, I am interested in the intersection of social psychology and consumer behavior. I am particularly interested in how social and situational forces can impact our behaviours as consumers. In this stream of work I examine how self-identity and social influence can impact consumer attitudes and decision making. I am also very interested in how we can change people’s behaviours for the social good and I study how we can shift people’s attitudes, choices, and behaviours to encourage positive actions such as engaging in sustainable behaviours, charitable giving, and making prosocial choices.
Here is the more official run-down below:
Kate is currently Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is the Academic Director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics and she holds a professorship in Consumer Insights, Prosocial Consumption, and Sustainability. Kate teaches courses in consumer behaviour, consumer insights, social influence, marketing strategy, and sustainability/ social marketing at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels.
Kate was identified as an up-and-coming Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute and in 2015 she was honored as one of the top 5 Marketing Researchers in the world by the American Marketing Association. Kate is co-author of the leading Consumer Behaviour Textbook in Canada (Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being). She currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Research and is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She is Editor of an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Association for Consumer Research called “The Prosocial Consumer.”
Kate has been the lead on various large-scale consumer behaviour-change projects with clients such as The City of Calgary, Lululemon, Health Canada, My Sustainable Canada, DDB Canada, BC Hydro, Big Rock Brewery, The United Way, and the SPCA, Celgene Health Care, and the Share, Repair, Reuse Initiative. Kate’s industry collaborations focus on shifting people towards various types of positive, sustainable behaviour change.