What Is Spatial Business?

Spatial business is the application of location analytics and geographic information systems (GIS) to support business operations, decision making, and strategies. The integration of spatial business includes gathering spatial location information and knowledge, organizing layers of digital boundary information, and producing numerical outputs and visualizations like maps and 3D visuals. These outputs can then deliver powerful insights into markets, customers, services, logistics, transport networks, natural resources, supply chains, and asset and risk management. It can also inform environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts, and help to encourage corporate social responsibility. 

About the Center

Incorporating spatial thinking and GIS into the business programs at the University of Redlands School of Business & Society, the Center for Spatial Studies:

• Seeks to stimulate, support, and provide thought leadership for spatial business research and education through applied location analytics and GIS research
• Provides training toward accomplishing excellence in pedagogical aspects of spatial business
• Enriches education and curriculum for business schools and provides outreach to academic and professional communities
• Works to enhance and grow understanding of location value, spatial decision-making, and locational strategies in business through research and scholarship
• Creates contemporary curricula in spatial business and provides global leadership in spatial thinking for businesses and organizations
• Develops networks of collaborative partnerships and projects with companies, communities, and academic organizations to promote cooperation in furthering scientific understanding of place and location for organization and business success

Resources

Curricular materials, workshop slides, videos, and referrals to industry and academic journals are available through the Center to support the understanding and advancement of business GIS and spatial analysis.

Expertise in Location Analytics and GIS

For over a decade, the Center has sponsored a Speaker Series that features experts in GIS, location analytics, and geo-technology.

Research

The Center assists other faculty and students to develop case studies on business uses of GIS, examine societal and equity impacts of location-based technologies, locate and utilize spatial information, and develop and apply spatial tools. 

Thought Leadership

The Center for Spatial Business team includes thought leaders whose scholarly activities forward the study, teaching, and understanding about location value, spatial decision-making, and locational strategies in business. 

Awards

Students in the School of Business & Society and Department of Business Administration and Management are eligible to be nominated for awards for outstanding course projects involving business applications of GIS.  An awards committee reviews and selects the award recipients. The honoraria awarded to students are courtesy of donations provided by University of Redlands School of Business & Society, by Esri Inc., and by alumnus Kazuo ‘Kaz’ Takeda ’12 (MBA, Location Analytics Concentration), Director of Operations at SprintRay, Inc. and former Manager of Industrial Engineering at Disneyland Resort. Takeda’s donations are a result of the Disneyland Resort’s “Ears to You” grants.