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Bezençon, Valéry
Nom
Bezençon, Valéry
Affiliation principale
Fonction
Professeur ordinaire
Email
valery.bezencon@unine.ch
Identifiants
Résultat de la recherche
Voici les éléments 1 - 4 sur 4
- PublicationAccès libreThe rise of intelligent technologies and social media : implications for human-technology relationshipsCette thèse explore les dynamiques évolutives des relations humains-technologie à travers trois articles distincts, mettant l'accent sur les implications des technologies intelligentes et des médias sociaux. Le premier article évalue de manière critique l'anthropomorphisme dans l'IA, en explorant sa conceptualisation théorique et son application dans des domaines tels que l'informatique, la robotique, la psychologie et le marketing. Malgré l'utilisation généralisée de caractéristiques humanisées dans les technologies, une compréhension globale de l'anthropomorphisme dans l'IA fait défaut. Pour pallier cela, cet article propose un cadre conceptuel et recommande les meilleures pratiques pour les recherches futures, en particulier dans le domaine du marketing et du comportement du consommateur. Le deuxième article adopte une perspective relationnelle pour analyser les impacts des assistants IA anthropomorphiques, tels qu'Alexa, sur les consommateurs. Les résultats des enquêtes et des expérimentations de terrain révèlent que si l'anthropomorphisme de l'IA peut enrichir l'expérience utilisateur, il peut également susciter des menaces à l'identité humaine, renforcer les préoccupations liées à la confidentialité des données et diminuer le bien-être. Cependant, la recherche dévoile également trois interventions pratiques pour atténuer ces effets indésirables. Le troisième article contemple les changements sociétaux induits par les réseaux sociaux. Il souligne que ces plateformes amplifient les valeurs individuelles de l’accomplissement et de la conformité. Cette affirmation est soutenue par une analyse de données secondaires, d'enquêtes consommateurs approfondies et d'expériences. De manière générale, cette thèse vise à éclairer les complexités des relations consommateur-technologie et leurs implications.
ABSTRACT:
This dissertation explores the evolving dynamics of human-technology relationships, emphasizing the implications of intelligent technologies and social media. The dissertation encompasses three distinct articles. The first article critically evaluates anthropomorphism in AI, exploring its theoretical conceptualization and application across fields like computer science, robotics, psychology, and marketing. Despite the widespread use of humanlike features in technologies, a comprehensive understanding of anthropomorphism in AI is lacking. As a remedy, this piece offers a conceptual framework and recommends best practices for future exploration, particularly in marketing and consumer behavior. The second article adopts a relationship-centric lens to analyze the impacts of anthropomorphic AI assistants, such as Alexa, on consumers. Findings from surveys and field experiments reveal that while AI anthropomorphism can enrich the user experience, it can also elicit identity threats for the users, intensify data privacy concerns, and diminish overall well-being. However, this research also unveils three practical interventions to mitigate these adverse outcomes. The third article contemplates the profound societal shifts induced by social media. It underscores that platforms like these amplify individual values of achievement and conformity. This assertion is backed by an analysis of a large set of secondary data, a consumer survey, and an experiment. In essence, this dissertation seeks to illuminate the complexities of consumer-technology relationships and their implications. - PublicationAccès libreAn empirical analysis of the roles, activities and performance of commercial diplomats in promoting international business(2015)
; Background
Governments seek to promote – beyond the support for individual businesses – increased exports but also the intangible elements, such as nation branding and country positioning for inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and other economic benefits. In this context, commercial diplomats work as State representatives with diplomatic status conducting trade and business promotion activities between a home and a host country supporting directly individual business firms or promoting the home country as a destination for business. Scientific research in management studies / international business is needed to understand more-in depth effectiveness and the nature of the commercial diplomat’s work.
Objectives content and structure
This thesis addresses the contribution of commercial diplomats to business promotion from a management studies / marketing perspective. Mixed research methods are used (qualitative and quantitative) for data collection within a single study. The central research question is “what is the nature of the work commercial diplomats perform”. The thesis is structured around sub-questions: chapter 2 tackles the trends and the major themes in research over time; chapter 3 researches the determinant factors of performance. Chapter 4 presents an integrative framework to build theory and concepts on how commercial diplomats create value for the nation and individual businesses. Chapter 5 focuses how the business community perceives commercial diplomats. Chapter 6 measures time allocation of commercial diplomats in terms of roles and activity areas and establishes correlations with individual features.
Findings and Implications
The main findings include the gap in the current literature about the commercial diplomat’s managerial role as a unit of analysis and the relatively little use of management studies / marketing approaches (chapter 2). In chapter 3, the thesis identifies three dominant types of commercial diplomats: civil servant, generalist and business promoter, depending largely on factors such as the organisational and institutional arrangements, individual attitudes and backgrounds. Further, an integrative framework for systemic analysis of value creation was designed. Inputs are divided into capabilities i.e. institutional/organisational arrangements and resources such as the commercial diplomat’s individual features such as education and business experience. Roles and activities (promotion of trade, investment, tourism, IP and R&D) and their intensity constitute the process. The commercial diplomat’s managerial roles are brought down to three “FAR” roles: Facilitation i.e. coordination, referral, logistics; advisory i.e. intelligence gathering and analysis, internal communication; and representation i.e. advocacy and external communications. The three roles create value in terms of network/relationship capital, knowledge capital and influence respectively. Inputs may impact on roles performed and their output. From a business firms’ (beneficiaries) perspective (chapter 5), the main advantages to use the commercial diplomat’s service appears to business firms as the central platform, the starting point to promote bilateral business; they are considered credible and neutral; commercial diplomats are found valuable in assisting firms in their first steps in entering foreign markets. In chapter 6, the results regarding time allocation show that commercial diplomats spend more than half of their time on the activity area of trade promotion, which is thus considered core business. Commercial diplomats would want some change in their time allocation particularly on the advisory and representation roles. Commercial diplomats are in majority satisfied with their actual time allocation on the facilitation role along with the intelligence gathering and analysis component (which is part of the advisory role). Individual attitudes matter: a higher hands-on attitude is correlated with more time spent on the facilitation role and the trade promotion activity i.e. the commercial diplomat’s core business. It is concluded that commercial diplomats may have to tackle too many different technical activity areas such as S&T, IP and tourism. Therefore, commercial diplomats run the risk of losing focus of their core business.
Theoretical implications include that the management/marketing approach is promising for research: frameworks and theories are to be further tested. The importance of the human factor/ individual features along with pragmatic institutional and organisational arrangements constitute axis of reflection. Further research should tackle performance and efficiency to be measured as contribution the country’s economy (inward FDI, country image) and business support individually. Practical and managerial implications for senior management in charge of designing, planning and managing commercial diplomacy involve that hybrid, pragmatic institutional and organisational arrangements should be found to fulfil both business and government objectives. Talent management and recruiting need flexibility involving cross-fertilisation with the private sector. Clear delineation is needed between core business and extra activities, we, thus, recommend to reconfirm trade promotion as the core business instead of overwhelming commercial diplomats with other complex technical areas such as research and development. Clear division of labour and coordination in the entire trade promotion architecture are to be enhanced with other government sponsored and private business support organisations. - PublicationAccès libreSuccess Factors of the Fair Trade Chains: A Managerial Perspective(2008)
; Background
Ethical consumption and business practices aiming at managing the social and environmental responsibility of firms are on the rise for several years. These phenomena raise several questions, since the economic agents involved, consumers and firms, are commonly considered as governed respectively by rationality and profit maximisation. Does this mark the emergence of a new social rationality? Or do these observations simply represent new means of reaching materialistic objectives? Is this tendency a flash in the pan or is it a movement that will eventually reform our understanding of business theory and trade? In this research, these background reflections are apprehended through the analysis of Fair Trade, from a managerial perspective. Fair Trade is a field which is guided by ideology, political activism and discursive approaches and has only recently been researched scientifically. There is a need for managerial research in order to foster good business practices and professionalism among the actors.
Objectives, content and structure
The main objective of the research is to draw broad success factors of Fair Trade, at different levels of analysis. The thesis is constituted of four individual studies (Chapter 2 to 5), having their own research questions, units of analysis and methodology, but related by this common underlying objective. Chapter 1 introduces the field and the approach, defines Fair Trade and states the research problem, as well as the epistemological approach. Chapter 2 dissects the two types of distribution channels existing in Fair Trade, namely the alternative channels and mainstream channels. It is an exploratory research, which introduces the core of the thesis composed of Chapter 3, 4 and 5. Chapter 3 aims to develop an initial typology of business strategies with regard to Fair Trade product distribution. The organisation of the Fair Trade distribution knowledge is a first step towards the optimisation of the related processes. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on Fair Trade consumers. An instrument to analyse and predict consumer behaviour is developed in Chapter 4 for the specific case of Fair Trade consumption. In Chapter 5, consumer segments are hypothesised and their behaviour is analysed with the help of the instrument previously developed. The aim of these two chapters is to have a precise understanding of Fair Trade consumers in order to know how to address the different market segments.
Contribution, Findings and Implications
The two main theoretical contributions to current researches related to Fair Trade consist first in the preliminary typology of strategies explaining why companies distribute Fair Trade products, how they organise this distribution and how they engage with the Fair Trade principles. Then, the involvement model developed refines the common generic instruments which are insufficient to fully apprehend the specificities of ethical consumers. Findings show that firms have various motivations pertaining to the distribution of Fair Trade products, ranging from alibi to altruism. Consumer motivations are also heterogeneous and several criteria (age, education and distribution channel) proved to be efficient in segmenting the market according to consumer attitudes and behaviour. The research leads to three categories of managerial implications. First, it presents the key factors in organising the distribution of Fair Trade products. It also analyses several strategies that can be implemented by companies in order to benefit from Fair Trade products and make the Fair Trade movement benefit from this distribution. Second, it explains marketing professionals how to structure Fair Trade communication efficiently according to the segments identified. Finally, the emphasis is placed on how to improve Fair Trade product competitiveness, which is useful to both distributors and the Fair Trade movement. - PublicationMétadonnées seulement