Scientific Staff
lourim | Louvain-la-Neuve, Mons
Postdoctoral researchers
Movement detection, Man-machine interactions, Gesture recognition, 3D gesture recognition, Movement detection, Human-Computer Interaction
Many sensors are used to capture the human body movements and can be involved in many activities in various application domains. The captured raw data often consist of physical data measured in a three-dimensional space (e.g., x, y, z, t) along with other data (e.g., speed, acceleration, pressure, jerk), thus posing several challenges in terms of data fusion and interpretation. When all these data need to be fused to feed a high-level model of the human body, there is a need to unify these coordinates systems. Instead of converting data from one coordinates system to another, thus losing some information, the thesis will investigate how computing in the same system by manipulating mathematical objects (scalars, vectors, pseudo-vectors, and bi-vectors) may unify the capture of these data as well as their fusion in order not to lose any information. The results inform the development of a system for 3D gesture recognition.
PhD students and researchers
Entrepreneurship, sustainability, social entrepreneurship
Thesis supervisor: Amélie Jacquemin
Integrating sustainability into entrepreneurship programs? The use of new teaching models in higher education institutions for sustainable entrepreneurship education and its value for organizations
The first entrepreneurship course was born in 1947 at Harvard Business School (Nabi & al., 2017). Since this time, education for entrepreneurship evolved and adapted itself to the international changing environment (Grindsted, 2016 ; Ballereau & al., 2020). In order to respond to the worldwide focus on sustainability, sustainable entrepreneurship education is a topic present in a growing number of higher education institutions even if this transition is only at the beginning stage (Fichter & Tiemann, 2018 ; Ploum & al. 2018 ; Ballereau & al., 2020). This context leads academics to question themselves about the construction of sustainable entrepreneurship programs in higher education institutions (Ballereau & al., 2020).
First, more studies addressing competencies for sustainable entrepreneurs are needed. Ploum & al. (2018) notice that mostly conceptual research has been made recently to identify the knowledge, attitudes and skills for change agents in sustainability. Moreover, the framework of Lans & al. (2014) is the only one that addresses competencies for sustainable entrepreneurship. Secondly, a gap of reviews in sustainable entrepreneurship education can be identified in terms of pedagogies used. Consequently, Nabi & al. (2017) and Klapper & Farber (2016) are asking for future research to better understand the impact of pedagogical designs and methods. Impact research that focuses on emotion and motivation indicators are also recommended (Nabi & al., 2017). Finally, Nabi & al. (2017) consider education for entrepreneurship as an underresearched phenomenon in other school contexts than higher education institutions.
In this thesis, a 3 steps-research will be leading:
- to catch information about the actual state of literature on sustainable entrepreneurship learning outcomes in terms of competences in higher education institutions ;
- about the pedagogical methods permitting to enhance students’ passion for sustainable entrepreneurship ;
- and lastly, about the exploration of sustainable entrepreneurship course implementation at the level of primary schools while understanding the sensibilization effect on sustainability issues and entrepreneurship on children.
To achieve these goals, qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be used on the project around two research fields. The first concerns the selection of a university offering a sustainable entrepreneurship program to their students with different pedagogical means and the second consists of the program “Futur Défi” attended by children from 10 to 12 years old, in Belgium.
Thesis supervisor: Amélie Jacquemin
Thesis supervisor: Ingrid Poncin
Online Sensory Activation: The Role of Crossmodal Interaction in the Customer experience
Erasmus PhD mobility from Università di Pisa
Financial Accounting, Corporate Reporting, Entrepreneurial Finance, Textual Analysis
Thesis supervisor: James Thewissen
The value of visual displays in financial disclosures − the case of initial coin offerings
This project investigates the impact of visual displays in financial reporting on investors’ decision-making. Financial disclosures aim to provide useful information to stakeholders and investors, thereby mitigating information asymmetry and increasing a firm’s value. However, ESMA and SEC authorities are concerned about how to provide and design clear disclosures to investors as they rely on ill-specified proxies focusing on the average number of words per sentence or the frequency of words with more than two syllables (e.g., the FOG index). We depart from previous literature by arguing that these traditional readability proxies are inadequate and therefore focusing on the effectiveness of visual displays in enhancing investors' comprehension and decision-making. By leveraging the Dual Coding Theory (Paivio, 1990), we argue whether visual displays (e.g. infographics, images, bullet points) are informative signals in mitigating information asymmetry and enhancing outcomes during financing campaigns, focusing particularly on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). ICOs are a popular and alternative funding practice for entrepreneurs, which allow them to sell blockchain-based digital assets called tokens directly to investors. The ICO market exhibits high levels of information asymmetry (Fisch, 2019; Momtaz, 2020; Thewissen, Shrestha, et al., 2022). ICO white papers, which serve as the main source of information about ICOs, often suffer from quality issues, leading to inadequate disclosure (Momtaz, 2021a; Florysiak & Schandlbauer, 2022; Thewissen, Thewissen, et al., 2022). Therefore, examining how visual displays impact information asymmetry within the ICO context could offer valuable insights.
This research project encompasses three main research questions, each respectfully addressed as follow. The first paper provides evidence of the use of images and infographics in ventures’ financial disclosures and how their use impact investors’ decision-making. The second one explores the effect of an alternative form of visual, bullet points and the third one examines the use of visual displays in the context of fraudulent ICOs (scams). We innovate by accounting for the multi-modal nature of financial communication and therefore identifying new signals mitigating information asymmetry. We also contribute to the understanding of ICOs and token offerings, addressing concerns about scams and information quality in the ICO market. The methodology used involves manual counting of visual cues and bullet points in ICO white papers, followed by regression analyses to examine their impact on investors’ behaviors and ICO funding success and random forest methodology for the scam projects prediction. Overall, this research project has practical implications for entrepreneurs, regulators, and investors by providing new insights into how to design and provide clear disclosures to investors, reducing information asymmetry and improving decision-making processes.
Cultural and creative industries, music, movie, cinema, creative cities, culture, creativity, innovation
Thesis supervisor: Guilhem Bascle
How organizations from large European cities benefit from Big-C culture: the particular ripple effects of the movie and music industries for organizations
Proposing creative and innovative solutions is today critical for organizations, not just for improving their productivity. From a micro perspective, creativity and innovation provide key elements of differentiation to compete: « innovation is the key to organizational survival and therefore the study of processes that support innovation should be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike » (Hogan & Coote, 2014). From a macro perspective, creativity and innovation appear as key resources to face huge societal and environmental challenges and crisis. To answer this constant need of creativity and innovation, for twenty years, researchers have been paying attention to drivers of innovation (Carlino & Kerr, 2015). It appears organizations’ internal factors foster innovation, like for instance R&D expenditures (François, Favre, & Negassi, 2002). Moreover, it stands out external factors also stimulate organizational creativity and innovation (Porter & Stern, 2001). This is what agglomeration theory investigates. Policymakers and researchers have paid particular attention to now well-known examples of (high)-technological agglomerations – like the Silicon Valley. It appears such agglomerations achieve strong economic performance among others thanks to the cohabitation of innovative clusters from related industries (Delgado, Porter, & Stern, 2014).
However, this study questions whether and how cultural agglomerations – instead of much more investigated (high)-technological agglomerations – offer particular ingredients to stimulate creativity and drive innovation, whose organizations could strategically take advantage of. It aims at determining organizations’ strategic benefits of Big-C culture to boost their creativity and innovation capacity. Whereas organizations develop little-c culture, they absorb Big-C culture (Gibbons, Siegel, & Weber, 2021). Consequently, the focus is on Big-C culture instead of little-c culture, namely presented as the organizational culture and extensively studied into management researches (Büschgens, Bausch, & Balkin, 2013).
Concretely, this research investigates if and how Big-C culture may act as strategic source of creativity and innovation for organizations through CCIs’ ripple effects. The most of data has already been collected across cities from UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and European Capitals of Culture (ECOC). It is planned to determine at the urban level the existence and magnitude of causality relationship between Big-C Culture – through the movie and music industries’ urban development – and the creativity and innovation capacity of organizations located in such cities.
Recommender systems, Multi-stakeholder recommender systems, Customer experience
Thesis supervisor: Corentin Vande Kerchove
The main objective of my research is to study and develop recommender systems that take into account different stakeholders of this technology. We will therefore move away from traditional recommender systems that only focus on the needs and interests of the consumers by exploring recommender algorithms that incorporate the utility functions of the consumers but also of the sellers and the owners of web applications. In particular, this project focuses on consumer behaviors when they are faced with biased recommendations from this type of system. The research will thus mobilize many tools and aspects of management research such as the analysis of data, the development of various algorithms, mathematical modelling and multi-objective optimization as well as marketing and the study of consumer behaviors (loyalty, trust, retention, etc.).
Hybrid work, productivity
Thesis supervisor: Laurent Taskin
Hybrid work and the re-regulation of performance: A university’s perspective
At its core, the thesis aims to understand how hybrid work ‘re-regulates’ performance within institutions of higher education. To do so, research objectives are:
To establish a comprehensive understanding of what is meant by hybrid work, what are its specificities and how does it contrast with other alternative work arrangements. Indeed, so far literature about hybrid work is both scarce and ambiguous hence the need to start by establishing a good and unequivocal understanding of the concept.
To contextualize both hybrid work and performance management within universities. As both concepts can have multiple declinations, this characterization work is essential to highlight the peculiarities of the university context.
To understand changes in the norms of performance for universities’ hybrid working employees and what drives them. More specifically, shedding the light on how hybrid work practices re-regulate performance management processes within universities.
Human ressource management & Critical Management Studies
Thesis supervisor: Edina Dóci
Workplace friendships through the lens of psychological capital: Insights from minoritized employees
There is a fundamental need in people to form and maintain strong interpersonal relationships with others. Individuals thrive when they feel a sense of belonging and relatedness to others, and social connections at work are no exception. Yet, we don’t connect to each other in the same way at work nor do we face the same barriers to build these connections. Minoritized workers face discrimination in the workplace, whether its sexism, racism, ableism or else, they don’t have the same access to social capital as others. Because of that, they must find strength in other types of relationships and social behaviors.
Simultaneously, our psychological capital (PsyCap) remains another determining aspect of our evolution within (and outside) organizations. But PsyCap is unequally distributed between individuals. People from low-status backgrounds don’t benefit from the same opportunities to develop and maintain it and sometimes even face situations that deplete it at a higher rate compared to their higher-status peers.
In the face of this necessity to build strong connections and maintain a high psychological capital, this thesis aims to understand how these two mutually influence each other. It also seeks to comprehend the organizational conditions that allow such inequalities to persist, and the levers organizations can use to “level the field” of inequalities in the workplace.
To achieve these goals, this thesis mobilizes two ethnographic studies in middle-sized organizations to build a comprehensive, nuanced, contextualized and critical understanding of the situation while ensuring an ethical rapport with the field and its subjects.
CSR, social learning, practice, community of practice
Thesis supervisor: Valérie Swaen
From Individual to Organizational Learning of CSR: Relations between Knowledge, CSR and Stakeholders in the Learning Journey
From learning to practicing corporate social responsibility: Ethnographic insights of a CSR inter-organizational community of practice.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essentially contested concept which cannot be defined, for its very core is debated (Mitnick et al., 2021). In order to deal with this complexity and ambiguity, decision-makers are in continuous need of opportunities to renew, transfer, co-construct and craft their knowledge of CSR (Brès et al., 2019), to enable and guide CSR action. This necessity is reinforced by constantly evolving stakeholders’ expectations (Matten & Moon, 2008) and the emergence of hot topics (e.g. new frameworks and regulations with regard to due diligence, extra-financial reporting). A central challenge for decision-makers is thus to be able to expand their CSR knowledge base (Brès et al., 2019), and transfer newly acquired knowledge followingly. Informal environments outside the firm such as communities or alliances are predominant in developing tacit aspects of CSR knowledge (Osagie et al., 2018). However, limited attention has been given to the conditions for inter-organizational CSR knowledge sharing (Fortis et al., 2018). Hence, in this doctoral work, we focus on inter-organizational communities of practice (CoPs) as a locus of CSR knowledge transfers where individuals from different organizations meet based on a shared concern, CSR, and deepen their knowledge and expertise on this domain through regular interactions (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
In order to capture the evolution of knowledge transfers and practices in their context, we follow an ethnographic approach. Through prolonged participant observation and triangulation of data sources, ethnography offers rich insights into how individuals make sense of CSR and enact it in practice (Gond & Moser, 2021). Through this PhD, we aim at exploring how professionals or decision-makers share CSR knowledge and develop CSR practices on that basis, through their participation to groups or communities outside the organization. We analyze what happens at CoP level, i.e. during and around meetings, and how the CoP’s conditions set the ground for its members to share CSR knowledge and develop CSR practices. We also consider the individual as embedded in the CoP, hence how one’s role and identity is socially shaped by and contributes to the CoP’s discussions and practice. Finally, we seek to trace the processes through which CoP’s members are able to develop CSR practices (at individual, organizational or collective level) following their participation to the CoP.
Grand challenges, entrepreneurship, strategy, decision-making, change management
Thesis supervisor: Frank Janssen
Institutional Entrepreneurship and Grand Challenges: the Enabling Role of Institutional Logics in the Emergence of Change Agents and their Strategies
Organization scholars have recently highlighted the complex, uncertain and evaluative nature of those grand challenges (Ferraro et al., 2015) which pose main threats to common understanding of organizing at individual, organizational, field or societal level. In particular, grand challenges call upon new ways to think our institutions as “the fundamental principles underlying a grand challenge are the pursuit of bold ideas and the adoption of less conventional approaches to tackling large, unresolved problems.” (Colquitt & George, 2011, p. 432). In this context, the institutional theory has shown to be a relevant theoretical framework to uncover taken-for-granted behaviors, norms and beliefs and untap the great creativity potential of change agents to find new solutions. In particular, the concept of institutional entrepreneurship has proved to be a promising one to study actors who diverge from old institutional templates and build new solutions (Battilana et al., 2009). Our research adds to the study of the enabling conditions of institutional entrepreneurship and of the strategies institutional entrepreneurs use to successfully implement institutional change. Our main contribution is to proliferate and elaborate the institutional logics perspective by showing which institutional logics enable institutional entrepreneurship and how. We plan to run organizational-level analysis in two contexts related to the grand challenges. First, we will analyze the decision-making process of strategy definition at the sub-national level in Italy during the Covid-19 crisis. Second, we will run an in-depth longitudinal case study of the strategies an Oil & Gas major has implemented to leverage its competitive advantage in a declining sector. Finally, we intend to complement our research with a conceptual paper at the intersection of institutional entrepreneurship, grand challenges and institutional logics.
Marketing
Thesis supervisors: Gordy Pleyers, Jean Vanderdonckt
Sensory Webdesign: Cross-Modal Correspondences to Convey Sensory Perceptions Through Web Interfaces
New ways of working, PWD integration, HRM
Thesis supervisors: Laurent Taskin, Eline Jammaers
Disability in the new ways of working
This project aims to explore how the new ways of working (NWOW) impact the inclusion of people with disabilities (PWD) at work. The NWOW are a set of work practices characterized by flexibility and collaboration. They include the use of telework, activity-based offices, participative management, hotdesking, among others. Although the NWOW are intended to bring benefits such as increased creativity, knowledge sharing, and employee engagement, several studies have identified downsides. For instance, scholars have associated the NWOW with blurring work-life boundaries, work intensification, uncontrolled interaction, and dehumanization. However, it is still not clear how the NWOW can impact diversity and inclusion in organizations, especially the inclusion of PWD. To fill this gap, this PhD project is composed of three studies. The first study reviews the literatures on NWOW and disability and builds a conceptual framework of how NWOW practices can affect PWD’s disadvantages in work-related outcomes (e.g. performance, job satisfaction, psychological well-being). The second study uses a multiple-case research design to understand how disability is experienced in the NWOW from the perspectives of different stakeholders. These stakeholders include PWD, their colleagues and supervisors, HR workers responsible for diversity and inclusion, and those responsible for the implementation of the NWOW. Finally, the third study will use an ethnographic approach to gather an in-depth understanding of the processes through which the NWOW affect the lived experiences of PWD.
Information systems
Tax policy, Sustainable development, Pro-environmental behavior, Sustainable business conduct, Plastic Packaging Tax, Circular Economy, Food Packaging Industry
Thesis supervisors: Marie Lamensch, Valérie Swaen
Can tax policies prompt corporate behaviors with diminished environmental impact?
Grégory De Boe is a teaching assistant and researcher at UCLouvain, working on his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professors Marie Lamensch and Valérie Swaen. His doctoral research is structured in three essays, with a primary focus on unraveling the intricate ways in which environmental taxes and subsidies shape the decision-making processes of companies subjected to these policies, specifically in the context of adopting pro-environmental behaviors.
Essay 1: "Greening Corporate Practices: A Review of Tax and Subsidy Influence on Pro-Environmental Behaviors Across Industries" This essay undertakes a comprehensive examination of the influence of taxes and subsidies on corporate pro-environmental behaviors across various industries. By conducting a systematic review of existing literature, the study aims to uncover industry-specific variations in outcomes. The research delves into factors such as the level of taxation or subsidy, the economic agents affected, subsidy sources, external factors, and conflicting environmental objectives in tax policy. The overarching goal is to provide policymakers with valuable insights for designing effective tax and subsidy mechanisms and to propose avenues for further scholarly exploration of the intricate interactions between tax policies and corporate pro-environmental behaviors.
Essay 2: " Examining the Role of Plastic Packaging Taxes in Decision-Making Processes for Circular Practices in the Food Packaging Industry: A Case Study of the UK, Spain, and Portugal" This essay examines the role that plastic packaging taxes implemented in the UK, Spain, and Portugal play within the decision-making processes for circular practices in the food packaging industry. By conducting in-depth interviews with producers and importers in the food packaging industry, an industry heavily reliant on plastic, the essay aims to uncover the motivations and obstacles, especially those tied to taxation, behind the adoption of circular practices. Additionally, it examines the interplay between tax-related considerations and other motivations or obstacles behind the adoption of circular practices in the food packaging industry and determines to what extent plastic packaging taxes serve to eliminate some barriers in the implementation of circular practices. The essay finally compares these results according to different designs of plastic packaging taxes. This essay significantly advances the discourse on environmental policy by delivering detailed insights into circular practices within the food packaging sector. It enhances our comprehension of decision-making processes related to circular practices, shedding light on the motivations and obstacles faced by producers and importers in this industry. The paper highlights the role of plastic packaging taxes in encouraging circular practices within private industries, emphasizing key aspects of tax design that support circular approaches. Additionally, it explores contextual elements beyond the taxes, revealing how these factors interact with and either facilitate or impede circularity among food packaging stakeholders. The contribution extends to outlining the capabilities and limitations of state actors in promoting circularity through tax policies. By delving into complexities of the decision-making processes for circular practices, the paper contributes to a comprehensive understanding of how public interventions interact with and within businesses, shaping their engagement in circular practices.
Essay 3: "Impact of Plastic Packaging Taxes on Packaging Choices and Circular Practices in the Take-Away and Home Delivery Food Industries in the UK, Spain, and Portugal" Building upon the insights gained from the previous essays, the third essay narrows its focus to the take-away and home delivery food industries in the UK, Spain, and Portugal. This research investigates how businesses in this sector respond to plastic packaging taxes and examines their choices regarding packaging and circular practices. By analyzing the downstream effects on businesses involved in food take-away or home delivery, the study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the overall impact and processes resulting from the implementation of plastic packaging taxes throughout the entire value chain of the food industry. This approach contributes significantly to the evaluation of the effectiveness of plastic packaging taxes in promoting circular practices within this specific industry context.
Together, these three essays form a cohesive and multi-faceted exploration of the complex relationships between taxation, corporate pro-environmental behaviors, and the circular practices within the food packaging industry.
Innovation management, Business Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Open-innovation, Corporate venturing, Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Innovation ecosystem
Thesis supervisor: Benoit Gailly
Corporate entrepreneurial ecosystem, an incumbent’s perspective on engagement with startups
Collaborations between large corporations and startups have emerged as a prominent topic for both scholars and practitioners. Studies confirm that such collaborations prove to be beneficial for both actors given their respective nature and the current business context (Usman and Vanhaverbeke, 2017). Several streams of literature have studied the collaboration between corporations and startups but none has yet specifically investigated how do incumbent corporations identify and engage with their entrepreneurial ecosystem(s). Therefore, we will be using the concept of corporate entrepreneurial ecosystem to further investigate the phenomenon of corporations engaging with startups. In particular, exploring how large companies, define, decide to manage and implement collaboration processes with what they identify as their entrepreneurial ecosystem(s). Our literature review has shown that several streams of literatures (i.e. corporate venturing; open innovation; entrepreneurial ecosystem; etc.) have looked into collaboration processes between incumbent corporations and startups. Therefore, we will mobilize and build upon these concepts between which this phenomenon is intertwined. Nevertheless, our research will adopt a unique positioning to address the research gaps and broaden the understanding of this topic. The expected contributions of this research project are three-fold. First, the use of incumbent corporations’ perspective to further investigate an increasingly popular concept among scholars. Second, building on multiple literature streams to address research gaps and adopting a unique positioning. Third, its exploratory nature will enable to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of incumbent corporations engaging with their entrepreneurial ecosystem(s).
MOOC/Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, perceptions, education, online courses, MOOC
Thesis supervisors: Valérie Swaen, Mariane Frenay
How do individuals develop knowledge about Corporate Social Responsibility? Role of conceptual change and socio-cognitive conflicts in the learning process of a contested concept
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been defined as the contribution of companies to sustainable development. As CSR is an essentially contested concept, individuals (i.e., consumers, employees, or leaders) may have a different understanding of its meaning and its applications by companies. This further influences their reactions to corporate actions. In this context, the goals of the project are: first, to identify the different perceptions individuals have about CSR, and analyse how the framing of perceptions vary with their individual and cultural profile; second, to analyse the evolution of individuals’ CSR perceptions while interacting with sustainable development experts and other individuals; and third, to investigate pedagogical mechanisms that foster constructive debate about CSR and allow conceptual learning of the concept by individuals. For this purpose, we focus on micro-CSR literature to analyse the processes by which individuals interpret and evaluate CSR. We put into perspective the development of individuals’ knowledge about CSR by two conceptual learning theories from educational science research - i.e., conceptual change and socio-cognitive conflict theories. To answer our research questions, we analyse the CSR perceptions and learning process of more than 23,000 registered participants (up to now) in a MOOC on CSR through a mixed-method approach. The expected contributions concern first, the development of micro-CSR research with respect to the framing of individuals’ CSR perceptions and conceptual learning of the concept, and second, the potential change of consumers, employees and leaders’ mentalities necessary to trigger the most beneficial actions and decisions for the transition to a more sustainable society.
Marketing, Smart Retailing, Customer Engagement
Thesis supervisors: Ingrid Poncin, Marion Garnier
Smart retail technologies: influence of consumers’ experience on consumer engagement
My research in marketing focuses on problematics related to the retail industry and new technologies. More specifically, the goal of my research is to study the impact of smart technologies in the retail environment on customers’ experience and, as a result of that, the impact on their engagement towards a retailer. This project aims at employing experimental research methods in a controlled laboratory environment that takes the form of a store with many technologies at hand.
Marketing, consumer behaviour
Thesis supervisors: Karine Charry, Béatrice Parguel
Essays on Food Consumption Confusion in the age of sustainability: Study of underlying processes and reduction mechanisms
Our western society is at a turning point, facing a health crisis, an ecological crisis and an economic crisis. This necessarily impacts consumers and, when it comes to food issues, consumers are faced with even more complex choices to make. The injunctions are multiple, like eating healthy, buying local, or choosing eco-friendly food products; which raises confusion. Plus, these injunctions are sometimes perceived as not very reconcilable with other aspects like tastiness or low prices. Indeed, food has always been associated with pleasure, conviviality, and discovery; consumers, in the tense contexts we know, are not ready to give up on these aspects in their diets. Furthermore, the question of price is also an issue, particularly in the inflationist situation we are in, as sustainable food is associated with higher prices in consumers’ minds. Accordingly, how do consumers deal with all these injunctions, limits and wants?
This thesis is aimed at developing the concept of Food Consumption Confusion (FCC), determining its causes and consequences, the ways of reducing it, and other potential information about this phenomenon. More precisely, we would investigate the impact of contradictory information on FCC and other following consumers’ behaviours, as contradictory information seems to increase with the proliferation of information on food packaging. Plus, we contemplate answering questions about the concept of Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (a consumer’s perception about his or her ability to contribute to the solution of a problem through specific behaviours (Ellen et al., 1991)), its conceptualization, its relationship with Self-Efficacy (one’s perceived ability to perform the behaviour that will enable him or her to reach desired outcomes (Bandura, 1977; Ajzen, 2002)), its link with FCC etc. PCE is an interesting concept that we would like to include in our research, but it is not defined enough and needs clarification.
Customer experience management, Customer journey design, Omnichannel retailing, Promotional (in)consistency, Consumers’ fairness perceptions
Thesis supervisors: Caroline Ducarroz, Simon Hazée
Strategies and omnichannel retail cues to influence customer experience
In today’s connected world, retailers need to rethink their strategies and effectively execute across online and offline channels (Jindal et al., 2021). Embracing an omnichannel strategy would not only allow retailers to get low-cost access to new markets, but also leverage synergies between touchpoints and build a strong competitive advantage (e.g., Chen et al., 2018). While omnichannel strategies offer several potential benefits to retailers and customers alike, managing customer experience across all touchpoints remains challenging (Kuehnl et al., 2019). Against this backdrop, practitioners have started investing in customer journey design to differentiate and provide customer value (De Keyser et al., 2020).
Prior research on customer journey design is relatively scant and provides mixed results. On one hand, research suggests that a customer journey design is effective when consumers perceive multiple brand-owned touchpoints as designed in a thematically consistent or standardized way (Kuehnl et al., 2019). Some authors, on the other hand, argue that inconsistency may also positively influence customer experience by improving experiential involvement over time (e.g., Siebert et al., 2020).
Addressing the customer journey design challenge, this doctoral project builds upon congruity theory (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) and uses a multi-level approach to investigate the effects of (in)consistency on customer experience. Specifically, the first objective is to examine when (in)consistency, at the journey-level, positively influence customer experience. The second objective is to investigate the role of omnichannel consistency between the offering-related stimuli – namely Design-Ambient-Social-Trialability (DAST) retail cues (Roggeveen et al., 2020) – that reside within firm-controlled touchpoints in influencing customer experience.
To address these research objectives, this doctoral project uses a mixed-method approach, including econometric models and experiments to analyze the effects of omnichannel (in)consistency on customer experience. By so doing, this research aims to contribute to the customer experience and retailing literatures and to provide retailers with relevant insights on how to best design customer omnichannel journeys and, ultimately, to enhance customer experience.
Information systems
Thesis supervisor: Manuel Kolp
A Comparison of Machine Learning-based Approaches for Adapting Graphical User Interfaces to their Context of Use: Application to Information Visualization
Social innovation, innovation, innovation management
Thesis supervisor: Julie Hermans
Can stories transform reality? A study of the performative effect of narratives and their potential for the impact scaling of sustainable ventures
In the context of the climate and environmental crisis, sustainable entrepreneurs contribute to bringing into the present a sustainable future that is still in-the-making. The development and use of organization narratives by sustainable entrepreneurs are part of the answer to this challenge. Organizational narratives, as “temporal, discursive constructions that provide a means for individual, social and organizational sensemaking and sense giving” (Vaara et al., 2016, p. 3), are a powerful tool to support the legitimacy of a sustainable venture through their performative effects, i.e. their capacity to bring upon the narrated future (Garud et al., 2014).
But how do sustainable entrepreneurs come to envision and narrate such futures? How do they deal with the multiplicity of actors and their diverse – sometime conflicting – visions of a desired future? The literature calls for in-depth study of the performative effects of entrepreneurial framing for the development of new meanings in the answer to the environmental crisis (Snihur et al., 2021). Some mechanisms of the performative process still need to be better understood.
Thus, the goal of this research is to better understand the way sustainable entrepreneurs narrate their desired future as well as the way it contributes to performatively bring upon changes for them and their stakeholders. We study this performativity process longitudinally through a case study in the eco-construction sector. In order to study this phenomenon, we build on the narrative perspective of entrepreneurial innovation by Garud et al. (2014) in which entrepreneurs contextualize innovation through their relational, temporal and performative effort. We adopt the Entrepreneurship as Practice (or EaP hereafter) lens, focusing on the “doing” and “saying” of entrepreneurs and other members of their ecosystems (Champenois et al., 2020).
In this context, we will address the following questions, looking at several narrative complications and tools: How can sustainable entrepreneurs legitimize their ventures through the co-constitution of new meanings? How are narrative practices developed within sustainable ventures? What is the role of artefacts in the performativity process of entrepreneurial narratives across audiences?
Entrepreneurship, Legitimacy, Hybridity, Artificial intelligence
Thesis supervisor: Frank Janssen
L’Impact de l’Intégration des Nouvelles Technologies sur les Dynamiques d’Hybridité et de Légitimité des Start-ups
In a world where technology is a key driver of transformation, my research explores how technological companies build, maintain, and transform their legitimacy with their stakeholders. Each part of my thesis is connected by a central theme: understanding the interplay between technological innovation, stakeholder perceptions, and strategic balance.
The first part lays the foundation by examining how new technological ventures establish legitimacy. Through the pragmatic, moral, and cognitive dimensions, it identifies the factors influencing stakeholder perceptions and how these perceptions drive their engagement.
The second part deepens this analysis by studying the impact of technological acceptance on the legitimacy of new technological ventures. It investigates the extent to which the adoption of innovative technologies strengthens (or weakens) their legitimacy, depending on stakeholder expectations and perceptions.
Finally, the third part broadens the scope to analyze the long-term effects of technology integration on business strategy. It focuses particularly on hybridity and the risks of mission drift, exploring how companies can balance innovation, commercial objectives, and societal values without compromising their legitimacy.
Social construction of technology(SCOT), Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs),Sustainable innovation, innovation process, digitalisation, social interactions, Multiple case studies, Area-based approaches (ABAs)
Thesis supervisors: Valérie Swaen, Kadia Georges Aka
How do managers and entrepreneurs operating in different environments use innovation and digital technology to influence sustainability? My research focuses on the SCOT. It examines the relationships between sustainability, the innovation process and digitalisation in the context of SMEs in their environment. My aim is to analyse the social and technological constructs that lead to the commercialisation of an innovative product or service that takes account of SDGs, from the reflection, design, creation (prototype) and experimentation phases to its technological dissemination, known as 'Sustainable Digital Innovation', without losing or reducing its added value in terms of wealth creation.
Marketing, consumer behavior, tourism, destination branding
Thesis supervisor: Nicolas Kervyn
Destination anthropomorphism: How does it shape tourists’ behavior?
Destinations, whether they are cities, regions, or whole countries, are promoted by destination management organizations (Avraham, 2021a; Mair et al., 2016). Both managers and scholars mention that these destinations can be considered and managed like brands (Cai et al., 2007), brands around which marketing strategies are built (Morgan & Pritchard, 1998). This led to the concept of destination branding.
Like other brands, destination brands seek to raise potential customers (i.e. tourists) awareness and interest by differentiating themselves from other destinations brands (Kotler & Gertner, 2002 in Morgan & Pritchard, 1998). In addition, marketing tools such as logos, symbols, or slogans can be instrumental for destination brands by enhancing the destination's image and attracting tourists.
Simultaneously, research on product and brand anthropomorphism has gained substantial traction (Aggarwal & McGill, 2007, 2012; Epley et al., 2007; Fournier, 1998). However, when it comes to integrating anthropomorphism into destination branding, there is a limited amount of research available.
This thesis aims to combine these two concepts and by doing so, offer an additional marketing tool for destination management organizations. Indeed, anthropomorphism has started to be used in destination branding sector (Lin et al., 2024). Specifically, our research will seek to understand the impact of destination anthropomorphism on potential tourists, consumers, and their travel behavior. Therefore, our research has the potential to be relevant for both destination management organizations and consumers.
In practice, based on the existing literature such as the three-factor theory of anthropomorphism (Epley et al., 2007), we will formulate hypotheses and test them using both qualitative and quantitative experimental methods. To do this, we plan to create experimental material that will be tested and used for data collection. Innovative concepts such as destination stereotypes (Herz & Diamantopoulos, 2013; Micevski et al., 2020; Motsi & Park, 2020), destination gender (Hamdy et al., 2023; Ren & Pan, 2024) and the multi-step model for altering place image (Avraham, 2021c) will be integrated into our research.
Humanization, As Practice, Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, Critical Management Studies
Thesis supervisor: Laurent Taskin
Humaniser la gestion de l’entreprise : une approche par la théorie des pratiques
Management is sometimes criticized for its instrumentalization (Alvesson & Deetz, 1999) and for the tendency of its theories to undermine good management practices (Ghoshal, 2005). Humanism may offer a solution to this issue. This study aims to propose a rigorous definition of the humanisation of management, grounded in 19th-century theories that present alternative conceptions of homo economicus. The proposed alternative anthropology for management science is termed homo reflexivus, which is employed to evaluate management theories that claim to be more 'human' or 'humanizing.'
The second objective of this research is to address the operationalization of the humanization of management within companies. An approach based on strategy as practice (Whittington, 1996; Jarzabkowski et al., 2022; Kohtamäki et al., 2022) offers a framework for considering this operationalization. Methodologically, we are conducting two case studies using ethnographic methods. The first case study involves an organization seeking to develop a humanisation program as part of its next strategic plan. The second case study focuses on a health insurance fund (a Belgian mutual) that has implemented humanization initiatives.
Strategy, Implementation process, Circular Economy, Sustainability
Thesis supervisor: Yves De Rongé
Advancing Circular Business Models: Innovation Patterns, Categories, and Their Impact on Firm Value
Amidst the escalating climate crisis—marked by record-breaking global temperatures, extreme weather events, and transgressed planetary boundaries—the circular economy has emerged as a promising strategy for sustainable development. This thesis explores the integration of circular economy principles in business models, addressing key gaps in their understanding and implementation through three articles. The first study critically reviews 37 classification schemas and 275 circular business model classes, identifying three common shortcomings and proposing both a glossary and a classifier-centric approach to enhance clarity and applicability. The second study investigates how firms transition to circularity, introducing a three-level analysis linking managerial practices, value dimensions, and resource retention options, resulting in actionable circular business model innovation patterns. The third study examines the financial impact of circular economy strategies on U.S. firms, revealing the varied effects of different strategies on firm value. Together, these studies enhance the theoretical, practical, and financial understanding of circular business models, contributing to their successful implementation and advancing the transition to a circular business model.
Marketing
Digital Marketing, customer experience, service research, artificial intelligence, human-AI interaction
Thesis supervisors: Ingrid Poncin, Simon Hazée
Customer experience in interaction with artificial intelligence
According to Statista (2021), 21% of businesses worldwide already integrated artificial intelligence (AI) to their service activities (e.g., chatbots, virtual assistants, service robots). The market for AI interfaces is projected to grow from $12.9 billion in 2019 to $41.5 billion by 2027 (Fortune Business Insights, 2020). In this context, customers increasingly interact with organizations through various touchpoints and channels powered by AI interfaces (Hoyer et al. 2020).
This shift from human-to-human to human-to-technology interactions is likely to dramatically influence the customer experience (Bolton et al. 2018, Davenport et al. 2020, Larivière et al. 2017). Considered as a unique source of competitive advantage, understanding and managing customer experience along the customer journey has become an imperative for organizations (Lemon & Verhoef 2016). However, research on how customers respond to and experience interactions with AI is at an early stage, making it a top research priority according to the Marketing Science Institute (2020).
Customer experience is by its very nature multidimensional, including emotional and social dimensions (De Keyser et al. 2020). Studies examining customer experience with AI-based interfaces however mainly use a rational-cognitive perspective (Mariani et al. 2022). While the latter provide useful and relevant insights, we argue that they do not capture the complexities of customer experiences with AI interfaces. Responding to calls for research using a more fine-grained experiential perspective (Ameen et al. 2021; De Keyser & Kunz, 2022, Puntoni et al. 2021), this research aims to provide a better understanding of the processes in action by considering the multiple dimensions (e.g., affective, social) of customer experience as well as relevant contextual elements that may dramatically influence customer experience.
By doing so, this research aims to make theoretical contributions to the fields of Customer Experience, human-machine interaction, and service research. It also aims to make managerial contributions for businesses and organizations.
Organizational behaviour, corporate social (ir)responsibility
Thesis supervisor: Corentin Hericher
Her research investigates Corporate Social Irresponsibility (CSiR). The exploration includes understanding employees’ behavioural and emotional reactions to CSiR, identifying factors contributing to weaker employee responses, and examining the detrimental effects on employees witnessing CSiR.
Thesis Supervisor: Jean Vanderdonckt
Social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, social startups, social impact incubators, hybridity tensions
Thesis supervisor: Frank Janssen
Towards an integrative model for open social innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial metaorganizations' performance
Despite the promising growth of the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem over the past decade, little research has attempted to explore the role of social incubation programs in supporting Tunisian early-stage social startups. This research addresses this gap by exploring the role of those programs in supporting social startups, particularly in overcoming and managing their hybridity tensions. The study will make original and innovative contributions to existing knowledge on the relationship between social incubation programs and hybridity tensions of social startups, which has yet to be widely examined. Given the topic's novelty, we used an exploratory qualitative methodology involving several case studies of Tunisian social incubators and their incubated startups. Furthermore, at the beginning of our research, our interest was directed toward understanding the types of hybrid tensions that social startups may face. From this, we sought to analyze and interpret the innovative incubation programs' contribution to managing these tensions.
Consequently, this research results offer several contributions. Concerning the theoretical one, our research help understands the role of social impact incubators in enabling social startups to manage hybridity tensions, achieve social and financial goals and create social impact. For the managerial one, the study provides a guideline for incubation program managers to improve their programs by having a new strategic vision of social startups' hybridity tensions. Finally, it also helps social startups understand how to overcome and manage their hybridity tensions and be aware of social incubators' crucial role in doing it.
CSR, Sport Management, Sport environmental sustainability, Sport ecology, Non-Profit Sports Organizations
Thesis supervisors: Jeroen Scheerder, Géraldine Zeimers
Sport Environmental Sustainability (SES): An Investigation into Non-Profit Sport Organisations from a Stakeholders Perspective
Sport has an impact on the natural environment, and in turn is affected by the natural environment. It is critical to study environmental sustainability in sport because of this mutual relationship between sport and the environment. Sport Environmental Sustainability (SES) is an underdeveloped research field that is dominated by international professional sport organisations, sport facilities and major sporting events. Given their social role and reach, non-profit sport organisations (NPSOs) are powerful avenues to influence their stakeholders’ behaviour (e.g., participants, consumers, employees, investors, suppliers, communities). However, little is known about how NPSOs manage their stakeholders’ expectations to implement environmental sustainability actions. Therefore, it is vital to gain a better understanding and assist in the successful deployment of pro-environmental changes by NPSOs. In this context, the purpose of this research project is to capture how NPSOs and their stakeholders engage toward environmental sustainability. Three research questions will be examined: 1) What are the expectations of NPSOs’ multiple stakeholders regarding SES? 2) Are there SES paradoxes in NPSOs and how do managers manage these paradoxes?, and 3) How do NPSOs manage their stakeholders’ expectations when engaging toward environmental sustainability? The project is grounded on stakeholder theory for which the interconnectedness between the central organisation and its stakeholders is key in the quest for sustainability progresses. A mixed-method and multilevel empirical research design including document analysis, survey, a social network analysis, and in-depth interviews will be used. This project will contribute to develop knowledge on SES and future policy-making processes.
sustainability practices; informal sector; informal institutions; informal entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs' motivation; source of sustainability knowledge; resource constraints; case study; developing countries
Thesis supervisor: Valérie Swaen
Sustainability Implementation in the Informal Sector: Processes, Challenges and Outcomes
The world is facing global economic, social, and environmental challenges. To tackle these challenges, different programs, frameworks, and initiatives (such as UNGC, GRI, ISO, B Corp Certification, etc.) are developed to engage and guide enterprises in the pursuit of sustainable development but they focus on the formal sector, ignoring the informal sector. In addition, in sustainability research, economic, social, and environmental practices of formal firms, either large or small, have been largely explored with little attention given to informal businesses. However, sustainability cannot be achieved if the informal sector, which represents an important part of the global economy (accounting for almost 51,9% of the global employed population), is neglected. Therefore, the informal sector has a role to play in achieving sustainable development and this research investigates the links between the informal sector and sustainability, particularly from the perspective of informal entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to understand how sustainability is understood and implemented in the informal sector and why. To address this question, we will identify and analyze sustainability practices in the informal sector to characterized informal entrepreneurs who engage in these practices; we will describe and analyze the processes developed by informal entrepreneurs to implement sustainability practices; we will analyze the specificities of sustainability practices implemented in informal businesses to understand the challenges, drivers and motivations behind informal entrepreneurs' sustainability engagement, in order to suggest strategies to improve their contribution to the achievement of sustainable development.
Thesis supervisor: Amélie Jacquemin
Thesis supervisor: Alain Vas
Thesis supervisors: Julie Hermans, Tom Dedeurwaerdere
IT
Thesis supervisor: Jean Vanderdonckt
The Extra-User Interface as a User Interface for Controlling other User Interfaces: Concept, Method, and Application in Information Visualization
Context-aware Interactive applications are those interactive software that have parts or whole changing depending on the constraints imposed by a dynamically-changing context. The context of use covers the user and the associated tasks, the computing platform and devices, and the physical environment. Therefore, any significant change of any of these three dimensions, i.e., the user, the platform, and the environment, may trigger a change of the software, including the user interface. Until now, such changes have been managed by the system, thus leading to a system-controlled context-awareness. Instead, we want to pursue the goal of letting the end user control the changes, thus leading to a user-controlled context awareness. To enable the end user to have this control facility, there is a need for another user interface than the one of the original software. This is the Extra-User Interface, which is hereby referred to as the user interface to control the user interface of another interactive application to support context awareness. This concept can be applied in principle to any domain of computer science (e.g., ambient intelligence, smart rooms, ubiquitous computing, multimedia). We will instantiate this approach to the area of information visualization.
Recommender Systems, Responsible Consumption, Sustainability, Information Systems, E-commerce.
Thesis supervisor: François Fouss
Towards a More Sustainable and Responsible Consumption Using Recommender Systems
The increasing awareness around environmental issues has led to a rising interest in the negative impact of our consumption on the environment. It has also been highlighted that different technologies present along the purchase journey of consumers, such as recommender systems, influence consumption. This thesis focuses on how recommender systems could be modified to encourage a more sustainable and responsible consumption. In the first part of this thesis, we explore the use of machine learning techniques to build a model that could easily and quickly identify sustainable products. Next, we analyse different in-processing and post-processing strategies for increasing the representation of sustainable products in product recommendations. The last part of this thesis focuses on whether consumers would be willing to adopt a pro-environmental behaviour by choosing sustainable recommended products.
Innovation management, CSR
Thesis supervisor: Valérie Swaen
Responsible post-crowdsourcing management
My name is Min Shuai and my research focuses on creative crowdsourcing management in a multi-stakeholder environment. we have analyzed how mindsets affect the way project holders manage a crowdsourcing project. We then will discuss how varying crowdsourcing management strategies differently shape participants’ experience and their perceived brand ethicality. In order to achieve engaging long-term crowdsourcing management, we will finally identify all involved stakeholders in the crowdsourcing management process and investigate how to manage stakeholder involvement.
IT management and Information Systems
Thesis supervisors: François Fouss, Marco Saerens
From Data to Responsible Decisions - Improving Diversity, Fairness and Explainability in Algorithmic Decision-Making
As technology and connectivity advance, both individuals and organizations increasingly rely on algorithms to improve decision-making. However, this reliance on algorithms raises significant ethical concerns given that algorithms are used in many domains and may have a significant impact on people's lives when it relates to, for example, hiring, lending, justice, or healthcare. My thesis explores this emerging field of responsible algorithms, which emphasizes non-performance criteria such as diversity, fairness, and explainability. More precisely, my thesis focuses on building responsible algorithms applied in diverse areas of human sciences (such as hiring and mental health) and studying the impact of such algorithms on stakeholders.
Strategy
Thesis supervisors: Jean-Christophe Defraigne, Régis Coeurderoy
Economic growth sustainability of “21st Century Socialism” governments in South America: public policy analysis in the light of the development experience of East Asian new industrialised countries”
The objective of this project is to analyse economic growth sustainability reached by the “21st century’s socialism” government in Ecuador through the implementation or maintenance of determined public policies. Specifically, the research project will focus on the evaluation of the agricultural, industrial, trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) public policies applied by these governments to promote the rise of national income through the increase of productivity of the national and foreign enterprises, the diversification level of production and trade structure by attracting FDI or support national champion companies in key economic sectors (primary, secondary and/or tertiary).
Accounting
Thesis supervisor: Yves De Rongé
Organizational Changes and corporate reporting: A Social Perspective
This project aims at exploring how major organizational changes influence the content of corporate financial information. In this post-pandemic era, organizational changes, such as mergers and acquisitions and labor dismissals, are increasingly common among multinational corporations as they adapt to the challenging global economic environment. Although the impact of major changes has been shown to influence firm performance, there exists little to no evidence on how they influence corporate reporting. Yet, reporting mechanisms have not only been shown to increase trust, but also market liquidity and performance. It is therefore essential to understand how major organization changes influence the type, framing and content of the information shared by managers. This project’s contributions also also fit with the current increase managers’ awareness on the society and restate the “S” of the ESG framework by tackling questions regarding the role played by large layoffs on managers’ propensity to manipulate expectations on the market. This project covers three main questions. The first paper examines how the threat of a takeover influences the tone and readability of financial disclosures. The second paper explores the impact of employee layoffs on the tone of corporate communication and expectation management. Finally, the third paper investigates the role of diversity during Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) and its effect on the tone and readability of corporate disclosures. This project contributes to prior literature by first examining how social factors affect the qualitative content of corporate disclosures, offering new insights into how companies engage stakeholders during period of major changes. Second, it assesses how major organizational changes impact financial reporting practices. Lastly, it addresses a growing issue in the financial literature by examining such events, with the recent increasing prevalence of large-scale workforce reductions (Cascio, 2020; Farber, 2022).