Marketing

The research work of the Marketing area focuses on technological innovations (e.g. augmented reality, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence) that contribute to fundamental changes in business models (Airbnb, Uber), innovation (co-creation platforms), customer relationship management -CRM (personalisation and consumer connection), and the collection and sharing of information (big data and intrusion into private life)

Research topics

The research work is perfectly in line with the AFM and MSI hot-topics and aims to provide answers to current problems.

It appears that the advent of social networks, platforms, Internet of the Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, service bots is leading to an improvement in consumer connectivity and a large proportion of customer-business interactions are taking place without human intervention. The plethora of big data and analytical approaches are enabling personalisation that can improve satisfaction and loyalty.

In this context, several questions are addressed (particularly in the context of Franco-German cooperation with the "Duale Hochschule Baden-Würtemberg Stuttgart" and "Mercedes" on autonomous vehicles and AI).
It raises essential questions:

Adoption and appropriation of new technologies, marketing and customer relations: how to encourage the adoption of digital technologies (IoT, AI, smart home, autonomous vehicle, augmented and virtual reality)?
artificial intelligence, automation, service robots, marketing and customer relations:
- what is the optimal mix of automated services, service robots and humans along the customer journey?
- which automated tasks produced by service robots create optimal value?
- what promotes trust in smart technologies (the autonomous car, the chatbot)?
- how are automated connections via IoT and AI shaping the nature of marketing interactions, satisfaction, loyalty, and customer experiences?
- do automated services lead to dehumanisation, consumer welfare?
big data management, marketing and customer relations:
- what are the effects of big data management on marketing and business performance?
- what are the effects of big data and personalisation (via AI and IoT) on privacy intrusion and well-being?
- how to protect customers' data and privacy?
- what is the trade-off between personalising the customer experience and collecting and using customer data?
- what is the impact on consumer welfare?

With regard to the ethical aspects of marketing, the Marketing team's research also addresses various societal issues:

how to implement effective prevention tools to defuse the process of online radicalisation?
do habits play a facilitating role in sound budget management and, if so, how can banking applications contribute to the development of such habits?
how does ownership become central to the process of buying a second-hand object?

It appears that the consumer has become a key player in companies' innovation strategies (e.g. participation in crowdsourcing activities). These strategies raise key questions:

how to distribute the value created among the members of the crowdsourcing community?
how to motivate consumers to engage in communities of innovation?

More specifically, the researchers of the Marketing area are trying to understand the motivations for co-creating new products and the consequences on the well-being of the co-creator, as well as the facilitating role of digital technologies. It is also a question of better understanding the strategies for promoting co-created products:

what is the role of FabLabs in the emergence of co-creator entrepreneurship?
What is the perceived ownership of the co-creators?

Scientific activities

The work of doctoral students is presented at monthly seminars specific to the Marketing area. For publications, a procedure for proofreading articles during workshops has been introduced. The researchers are very involved in the editorial boards of scientific journals in the field.