Professor Mike Mulvey to Examine Cross-Border Shopping Practices

Professor Mike Mulvey and M.Sc. Candidate Michael Lever will conduct an ethnographic investigation of Canadians’ cross-border shopping to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon to guide government and businesses. Cross-border shopping has been studied extensively in the field of geography, retailing, tourism studies, and in particular, economics: the Canada-U.S. price gap was the subject of a Senate committee report in 2013. But the body of literature falls short of providing a meticulous consumer-centered exploration of the cross-border shopping experience, the researchers write.

Given the research gap, this study has potential to offer valuable insights to government, retailers and trade organizations that require a more nuanced and variegated understanding of cross-border shopping practices. The study, titled “Cross-Border Shopping: Meanings, Rules And Practices: A Comparative Ethnographic Account Of Canadian Shoppers”, is supported by a $10,000 grant from the School of Management Research Fund (SMRF).