Dionne Nickerson, a Ph.D. marketing candidate at the Scheller College of Business, researches the way companies and consumers can promote positive social change. Her interests in engineering and business have taken her all around the world, and her current work examining corporate sustainability efforts and the response of potential customers led her to Georgia Tech.
While attending Providence College, Nickerson focused her MBA thesis on the adoption of mobile technology and mobile payment systems in Kenya and Tanzania. She looked at how it helped small entrepreneurs and interviewed microentrepreneurs in various industries in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. When her advisors suggested that she consider pursuing her Ph.D. degree, Scheller College was the right fit.
“It is very important to me that if I’m going to work on research it must be something that betters our lives. When I got to Georgia Tech I wanted to explore something totally different,” Nickerson shared. “My research will help companies understand what types of sustainability efforts and claims are a good match with their products and targeted customers.”