Public thesis defense of Avreliane Kullak

Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences

The Rector of UCLouvain and the Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences announce that Mrs Avreliane Kullak will publicly support her dissertation, for the title of Doctor in Economics and Management Sciences of UCLouvain.

Title : Further engaging consumers into healthy behaviors with mobile applications - Essays on the supporting and hindering processes

Summary:

This doctoral dissertation, built on four essays combining quantitative and qualitative research methods, aims to better understand the engagement process - the process by which people continue to invest efforts - in healthy behaviors using health mobile applications. This research shows the effects of design elements in health apps, i.e., a challenge as gamification mechanic and an online community, to further investigate how to engage users and the underlying process of engagement in different contexts associated with health issues. It also examines the various users’ profiles, focusing on users’ stage of change in the behavior change process, and the influence of the latter in the engagement process. This doctoral dissertation contributes to the literature on health apps by underlying the user engagement process to better understand the effectiveness of health apps as an intervention to address health issues in sport, nutrition, and well-being contexts. Specifically, this research provides theoretical insight into the design elements that support or hinder the user engagement process in health apps. This research also contributes in a managerial way by guiding any field actors involved in healthy behaviors, offering concrete solutions to achieve their objectives. This way, we provide guidelines to improve the design of health apps and make them more engaging to enable the effective support of users in their journey towards a healthier lifestyle, favorable for them and for society as a whole. 

For the good organisation of this event, please inform Avreliane Kullak (avreliane.kullak@uclouvain.be) of your presence.