Impacts of research
Talking of impact means measuring the usefulness and degree of application of the research work of our teaching staff, whether in management, economic competitiveness, social responsibility or innovation.
In a constantly changing world, particularly shaken up by the rapid rise of the digital economy and by changes in how we consume, our Research activities must have a significant impact on:
- Society in general
- Economic growth
- The strategies and managerial practices of organisations
The impact of the research comes from collaborations between businesses, organisations, decision-makers and our teaching staff.
Some examples of recent projects:
Enedis: how to support a public service organisation towards greater agility
A team of NEOMA researchers worked on this subject, within the framework of a project financed by the Great East region, in partnership with Enedis Champagne-Ardenne.
Like many French companies, Enedis is facing huge technological transformations that can be seen in the upheaval affecting systems, structures and working practices. Thanks to an action research approach, in close collaboration with internal teams, the NEOMA researchers were able to identify ways of helping improve long-term reactivity and agility, without of course compromising the essential aspects of safety, accuracy, rigorous planning and respect for social agreements. This approach has led to the launch of three integrated transformation programmes intended to boost the organisation’s agility.
Rachel Beaujolin, Chris Worley.
360 degree tours to enhance territorial attractivity
In 2015, the city of Reims commissioned researchers at NEOMA to propose projects related to territorial attractivity. One of the retained projects was proposed by Dr. Nathalie Spielmann, Associate Professor of Marketing. The main objective of this project was to examine the influence of online virtual reality website inserts (i.e., 360-degree tours) on consumer perceptions. Through the lense of telepresence, the cognitive state of feeling like one is in a place without leaving home, Dr. Spielmann was able to show that 360-degree tours lead to more positive attitudes towards an online offer.
Since 2015, Dr. Spielmann has continued to work with the city of Reims on this theme and many others. She has shown, via her research, that 360-degree tours are more powerful than videos and static images, how such online offers should be designed, and how enabling telepresence leads to more authentic perceptions of advertisers and decreased perceptions of manipulative intent. She and her co-authors have also examined: 1) the value of citizen ambassadors in local advertising, 2) the role of social identity cues in tourism advertising (i.e., highlighting American monuments in Reims such as the Carnegie library when advertising to potential American tourists), 3) the importance of place authenticity in consumer evaluations, and 4) how marketing products as being of taste (i.e., consumed by the social elite, the Queen of England, on San Pellegrino’s 50 best tables, etc.) leads to better physical taste perceptions. Overall, the research program designed and spearheaded by Dr. Spielmann addresses critical questions by the City of Reims and its stakeholders and provides tangible and applicable marketing recommendations for the local actors. The research program has contributed to the overall increasing attractivity of Reims and its products.
VISTA-AR: tourist visits undergo digital transformation
Innovative technologies have the potential to revolutionise heritage tourism, but an economic model is still at the research stage. As part of the VISTA-AR* European project, researchers are working with heritage sites to design and implement virtual or augmented reality experiences to meet the expectations of their visitors, based on analysing their behaviours and comments.
VISTA-AR is financed by the European Interreg V programme and coordinated by the University of Exeter. Eight partners from both sides of the Channel are working together. They bring with them their complementary skills in the areas of tourism, digital, economics and management.
Beyond its huge cultural interest, this project also responds to an economic necessity: promoting the assets of the common natural and cultural heritage in coherent economic models, to support innovative and sustainable economic growth.
*VISTA-AR: Visitor experience Innovation through Systematic Text Analytics and Augmented Reality.
Jean-Baptiste Suquet, Gaël Bonnin, Sylvie Jolly, Elsa Gatelier, Valérie Duthoit-Saint-Georges.
Contact : Sylvie JOLLY, sylvie.jolly@neoma-bs.fr
