Zourrig examines the dark side of consumer behaviour

Posted: February 24, 2015 10:10 a.m.

Dr. Haithem Zourrig, assistant professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Business Administration
Dr. Haithem Zourrig, assistant professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Business Administration Photo: U of R Photography

Dr. Haithem Zourrig, an assistant professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Business Administration, studies the dark side of consumer behaviour.

His current research examines how cultural and individual differences impact the acceptance, and increase the likelihood, of fraudulent behaviour. Consumer fraud is a growing and global problem. Recent reports have pointed to the pervasiveness of consumer fraud in many countries in North-America, Europe, and Asia.

“We’re interested in the relationships between the attitude towards fraud and various factors such as consumer’s ethical beliefs, perceived motives, perceived unfairness, perceived risk of being caught, as well as the moderator effects of culture,” says Dr. Zourrig. “Understanding cultural variability in fraud will enrich our knowledge about how and why fraud occurs, how it can be better detected and how it can be controlled.”

In June 2014, the Social Sciences and Research Council awarded Dr. Zourrig $48,000 over two years for his research project entitled “Consumer Fraudulent Behaviour: A Cross-Cultural Perspective”. The research involves three international collaborators: Dr. Béatrice Parguel from the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), Dr. Alexandra Medina-Borja from the University of Puerto Rico and Dr. Mengxia Zhang from the Capital University of Economics & Business in China.

Dr. Zourrig’s research has won numerous other awards including two Best Papers Awards, at the 2014 Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators Conference in Dallas, Texas and the Commonwealth (UK and Canada) best thesis award at the 2015 International Marketing Trends Conference, Paris, France for his PhD Thesis entitled “Three Essays on Consumer Revenge, Avoidance and Forgiveness Behaviors: A Cross-Cultural Perspective”.

The U of R’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan recognizes that research should expand our knowledge and have impact at home and beyond and builds on the University’s previous efforts to foster such work. In 2014 the University of Regina achieved top ranking among comprehensive Universities in international research collaboration by Research InfoSource.

For more information about the Strategic Plan visit: http://www.uregina.ca/strategic-plan/