Jean Pfiffelmann, associate professor at EM Strasbourg, received the Best Thesis Award at the International Marketing Trends Conference held online January 14–16, 2021.
He was awarded for his PhD dissertation “Identification-based personalization effects in recruitment advertising,” which he defended in 2020. Two articles from his dissertation have already been published in the Journal of Business Research (FNEGE 2) and Décisions Marketing (FNEGE 3).
Here is a short summary of his dissertation:
Attracting talent is a perennial difficulty for organizations. Many recruiters turn to social media to advertise job openings by targeting potential employees. However, targeting the right candidates may not be enough to grab their attention in a cluttered environment, augment clicks-through rates on the ads, or increase job pursuit. . . . This doctoral work, positioned in human resources marketing, aims to answer the following question: How does identification-based personalized recruitment advertising influence potential employees’ responses?
Jean gives us a firsthand account of the experience:
At this conference, seven doctors competed for this award by presenting, one after the other, their doctoral work in 15 minutes before an international jury of marketing professors. Most of these young doctors had high-level international publications, so the competition was tough.
I think that the publication is a very important factor in preselecting the best dissertations in marketing, but that it is not the only element considered in the final decision. Otherwise, other doctors with more impressive backgrounds would have won the award.
Receiving this award was a real surprise for me, but I think it’s also a reward for my level of commitment during my PhD. I am infinitely grateful to my PhD adviser Prof. Sébastien Soulez for his guidance, to my coauthor Prof. Nathalie Dens for her support and expertise, and to the marketing team at IAE Lyon 3 for the extensive knowledge they transmitted to me.
Lastly, I’m obviously very grateful to EM Strasbourg Business School for recruiting me and placing their faith in me!
