PhD theses

• Director: Dr Oriol Iglesias, Esade - Universitat Ramon Llull & Dr Stefan Markovic, Copenhagen Business School
• Date of defense: June 20th, 2022

Abstract
Brands are increasingly recognized as valuable assets for companies and brand management is at the core of business practices. During the last decade, there has been a clear paradigm shift in corporate branding. On one hand, corporate brands no longer follow a top-down and inside-out approach in which brands largely assume managerial control. Instead, corporate brands are co-created in an ongoing and dynamic process based on active stakeholder interactions. While co-creation research has attracted considerable interest in recent years, there remain understudied yet critical issues in the literature, such as co-creation in B2B contexts and the association between co-creation and brand equity. On the other hand, with technological advancements shaping a more interconnected and transparent world, there are growing pressures on brands to behave in a socially responsible manner. Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives should be rewarded by stakeholders, a growing skepticism about corporate activities indicates that brands need not only to behave in a socially responsible manner, but also take further actions to be perceived as socially responsible. Accordingly, this PhD thesis is committed to better understanding these two building blocks of the paradigm shift in corporate branding. This thesis is comprised of three separate papers: 1) Chapter 3 consists of a systematic literature review identifying the drivers, processes, and outcomes of co-creation in B2B branding; 2) Chapter 4 comprises an experimental study examining the effect of co-creation by a corporate services brand on its brand equity and considering the roles of recognition benefits and alternative attractiveness; 3) Chapter 5 consists of an empirical study investigating the effect of CSR of a corporate services brand on customer positive word-of-mouth, considering the roles of brand authenticity and alternative attractiveness.

• Director: Dr Uri Simonsohn, Esade - Universitat Ramon Llull
• Date of defense: July 15th, 2022

Abstract
Lies, manipulation, or false information are nothing new. All have been around for centuries since the flow and content of information has been a source of power. However, in the age of the social platforms, the mechanism has changed. While broadcasters still exist, they compete with other information sources that rely on virality through the network for information diffusion. In this competition, traditional and institutionally created content suffer a disadvantage: they do not play with the same rules. Content that deviates from the deontological and stylistic reporting of reliable information providers leverages and hijacks psychological heuristics to become more viral. For example, they rely on emotional evocation (sentimental language and appeal to moral values) and rely on styles that require less cognitive effort to be processed (in terms of grammatical and lexical complexity). In this PhD thesis, I explore how misinformation sources take advantage of psychological heuristics to define their strategic choices. More specifically, the thesis is comprised of three studies: (1) Using Natural Language Processing, a quantitative exploration about how different misinformation categories (clickbait, conspiracy theories, fake news, hate speech, junk science, and rumors) differ in terms of sentiment, appeal to morality, readability, and lexical diversity; (2) By means of network analysis and Natural Language Processing, a demonstration of isomorphism strategies from misinformation sources towards reliable sources with the aim of mimicking high-status actors in the information ecosystem; and (3) a dynamic analysis of fake news vs reliable sources reporting about the Covid pandemic during 2020 and 2021. In general, my results indicate that there are significant structural differences between distinct misinformation categories and between misinformation sources and reliable sources (for example, fake news are, on average, 18 times more negative, 12 times less lexically diverse, 50% more appealing to morality and 13% easier to process than factual news. Also, I present evidence about how fake news, clickbait, and rumors employ a mimicking strategy towards reliable sources with the aim to be perceived as legitimate and high-status information providers. Moreover, I show how reliable and fake news sources behaved during the Covid pandemic, revealing a convoluted initial reaction followed by a misinformation strategy to create chaos and ambiguity by constantly shifting between topics. Finally, I discuss the implications of the thesis results for social media platforms, the media ecosystem, political elites, and Internet users.

• Director: Dr Lisa Hehenberger, Esade - Universitat Ramon Llull & Dr Jonathan Wareham, Esade - Universitat Ramon Llull
• Date of defense: July 22nd, 2022

Abstract
Field governance represents an important but overlooked area of organizational and institutional field research. This dissertation theorizes practitioner-policymaker interplay as one of the underlying mechanisms of field governance, and suggests the importance of considering practitioners as active contributors to field governance. Using conceptual and empirical methods of research and ideas from field governance, institutional work, and robust action studies, this thesis examines who participates in practitioner-policymaker interplay, how and when the interplay can be organized, sustained, and scaled, and what outcomes the interplay produces. This dissertation uses the case of the European Impact Investing field of practice to demonstrate how practitioner-policymaker interplay develops under convening activities of an association with a perceived mandate to orchestrate and stabilize interactions between field actors as a part of its maintenance work. Also, the case allows to map and analyze the activities the association used to enable and manage interactions that, when repeated over time, generate routines and norms that constitute institutional order.

• Director: Dr Daniela Noethen, Esade - Universitat Ramon Llull & Dr Jaime Bonache, Carlos III University
• Date of defense: August 31st, 2022

Abstract
While research on cross-border knowledge transfer (CBKT) via international assignees has been growing consistently and has been investigated from multiple perspective and angles, successful assignments are currently reflected to either end in repatriation or in being reassigned. In practice, however, not all expatriates follow these options, but rather decide to stay indefinitely on assignment in their host country. This thesis investigates this phenomenon and explores who these infipats (expatriates who stay indefinitely) are, why they decide to stay, and in particular the highly beneficial implications of their decision for organizational CBKT. Given the lack of research on this phenomenon, first a meta-analysis on antecedents and outcomes of CBKT via international assignees in general is provided to serve as a base to rely on when investigating infipats and their CBKT. The findings showed the relative importance of individual, relational, knowledge, and contextual antecedents. Then, two exploratory case studies were conducted, based on 26 interviews with infipats, host country nationals (HCN) and headquarter colleagues, conducted in Malaysia and China. The results showed that the main reasons to stay indefinitely were very dependent on location. In China the main reason to stay were career and development factors, while in Malaysia the decision was mostly influenced by family and partner considerations. Infipats proved especially valuable for CBKT, as they benefit from being well adjusted and through having good relationships with HCNs, as well as strong local networks which improved their knowledge access. This enabled them to change the knowledge transfer direction from uni- to bidirectional, making them the perfect knowledge bridge between HQ and the subsidiary. Overall this thesis draws attention to infipat phenomenon and in particular its CBKT implications.