James A. Roberts ’82, marketing professor, researcher and author of Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy, is the featured speaker at the 2012 Stakeholder Dialogue on Tuesday, April 10.
Dr. James Roberts
Robert’s lecture, “Can Happiness Be Bought or Sold? An Examination of Ethics and Consumer Marketing,” will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Thornton Auditorium, Terrence Murphy Hall, on St. Thomas’ Minneapolis campus.
The dialogue will be moderated by Michelle Rovang Burke, director of the Veritas Institute at the Opus College of Business.
Commentaries will be offered by:
- Dr. Lisa Abendroth, associate professor of marketing at the Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas
- Marc Belton, EVP Global Strategy, Growth and Marketing Innovation at General Mills
A Q-and-A session will follow the commentaries.
This event is free and open to the public; however, advance registration is recommended; register here.
Roberts is a well-known author with approximately 75 articles published in academic literature. He is the Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he has been a faculty member since 1991.
A primary focus of Roberts’ work over the past 10 to 15 years has been the psychology of consumer behavior. His research is largely focused on the “dark side” of consumerism and marketing. Current research efforts focus on the topics of materialism, compulsive buying, credit-card abuse and self-control.
Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy takes a careful and amusing look at how society’s love of material possessions impacts an individual’s happiness and what can be done to find true happiness in a culture awash in the quest for material possessions.
Stakeholder Dialogues are an annual series of events focusing on various groups that have a stake in the business enterprise. They are designed to increase public understanding of issues and encourage ethical action by business organizations.
The dialogue is sponsored by the Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics with collaboration from the Center for Ethical Business Cultures and the Veritas Institute.
