F.C. Manning Faculty
and Staff

Donna Sears
Associate Professor
Area: Marketing
Contact
  (902) 585-1404
Credentials
  • BA (Mount Allison)
  • MBA (University of New Brunswick – Saint John)
  • PhD (McGill)
Courses
  • BUSI 2423 Marketing Principles
  • BUSI 3473 Marketing Research
  • BUSI 3483 Advanced Business Research
  • BUSI 4433 Digital Marketing
Research Interests
In broad terms, my research relates to hedonic consumption, most often with a wine consumer/wine tourism lens. This research area touches on consumer psychology, sensory science, marketing, and other business functions. I am in the midst of several projects that are all tied, in some way, to wine tourism and wine consumer behaviour.
Bio

Dr. Donna Sears received her MBA from the University of New Brunswick and her PhD from McGill University, joining Acadia in 2009 following several years as a faculty member at University of New Brunswick – Saint John. She teaches BUSI2423: Principles of Marketing; BUSI3473: Marketing Research; and BUSI4433: Digital Marketing. She also offers occasional special topics courses such as “Sport & Special Event Marketing,” “Sensory Marketing,” and “Advanced Topics in Digital Marketing.” She frequently supervises Honours Students and is the former Director of the Atlantic Wine Institute.

Her research focuses on hedonic consumption experiences, particularly related to wine consumers and wine tourism. She has presented her work at various conferences such as Advances in Consumer Research, Academy of Wine Business Research, Wine & Culinary Tourism Futures Conference, Society for Marketing Advances, and International Wine Tourism Conference. She has also chaired the Atlantic Schools of Business Conference (2017). Dr. Sears often works with organizations in the community and regularly presents her work to community groups.

Dr. Sears has been involved in several occupations over her career, beginning with retail and children’s libraries and later administrative positions before returning to university to pursue an MBA. Subsequently, she worked as a business/marketing consultant before embarking on a PhD.

Dr. Sears is actively involved in promoting Nova Scotia as a tourist destination, sitting on the volunteer Board of Directors for the Province’s Crown Corporation responsible for tourism, Tourism Nova Scotia. In addition to her academic qualifications, she is an avid equestrian with National Coaching Certification.