Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management

The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively impact people in their work, leisure, and social interaction. The potential impact on the way we conduct business, interact with brands and others, and develop shared experiences is likely to be transformational as the distinct lines between physical and digital are likely to be somewhat blurred from current perceptions. However, although the technology and infrastructure does not yet exist to allow the development of new immersive virtual worlds at scale - one that our avatars could transcend across platforms, researchers are increasingly examining the transformative impact of the metaverse. Impacted sectors include marketing, education, healthcare as well as societal effects relating to social interaction factors from widespread adoption, and issues relating to trust, privacy, bias, disinformation, application of law as well as psychological aspects linked to addiction and impact on vulnerable people. This study examines these topics in detail by combining the informed narrative and multi-perspective approach from experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds on many aspects of the metaverse and its transformational impact. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda that is valuable for researchers, professionals and policy makers alike.

Abstract Although prior research has examined the influence of technostress creators on job outcomes, insights into the influence of personality traits on the perceptions of technostress creators and their consequent impacts on job outcomes are rather limited. Such insights would enable a deeper understanding about the effects of individual differences on salient job‐related outcomes. In this research, by leveraging the distinctions in personality traits offered by the big five personality traits in the five‐factor model and grounding the research in the transactional model of stress and coping, we theorise the moderating influence of personality traits on the relationships between technostress creators and job outcomes, namely job burnout and job engagement. Specifically, the study theorises the mechanisms through which each of the specific personality traits openness‐to‐experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion interacts with technostress creators to differently influence job burnout and job engagement. We test the proposed model in a field study based on a survey of senior organisational managers who regularly use information and communication technologies for executing professional tasks. Although technostress creators are generally associated with negative job outcomes, our results also show that for individuals with certain personality traits, technostress creators may result in positive job outcomes. The study thus contributes to the technostress literature, specifically by incorporating the salient role of individual differences. The study also provides insights for managers who should pay special attention to allocating specific job roles to employees with particular personality traits in order to optimise job‐related outcomes.

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The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.059. © 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license 
\nhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The development of mobile applications has represented a challenge and opportunity for companies to market their brands and products through a new channel; however, the branded mobile applications (branded apps) currently available in the market are far from perfect and existing app designs do not yet have well-established mobile and social features. This article offers systematic guidelines for branded app design by identifying different levels of strategies that should be taken into consideration by companies. We illustrate five business objectives (communication, customer relationship management, sales, product innovation, and marketing research) and identify five types of branded apps (tool-, game-, social-, m-commerce-, and design-centric). Three functional building blocks are proposed to specify how mobile features, social features, and brand mention elements should be incorporated into branded app development. Various examples of branded apps are provided to illustrate relevant best practices in order to guide marketers in improving branded app design.

International audience

Purpose Most businesses strive to control the efficiency of their supply chains; however, luxury firms face additional challenges from counterfeit, gray market and copycat products. Blockchain technology can address these issues and enhance firms' supply chain management, guaranteeing the traceability and origin of luxury products. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the utility and contexts influencing the implementation of blockchain technology to optimize supply chain management and prevent fraud in the luxury industry. Design/methodology/approach The research uses a qualitative approach based on the grounded theory method. Data are collected by semi-structured interviews with 12 stakeholders working on blockchain applications in the luxury business sector. Findings Highlighting the problems faced by luxury brands' supply chains, this study presents blockchain technology as a solution for disintermediation, traceability and transparency in the luxury goods sector. The constraints faced by luxury brands incorporating this technology into their ecosystem include the knowledge gap, the multiplicity of third parties involved in the production process and bias toward short-term returns on investment. Originality/value Blockchains promote greater transparency and efficiency within supply chains, which builds consumer trust and improves brand revenue. Considering luxury brands' reluctance to adopt blockchains, this study suggests that luxury firms adopt a staggered implementation of private blockchain networks starting with a small number of third-party suppliers.

Abstract Fairness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) decisions has become a big challenge for governments, companies, and societies. We offer a theoretical contribution to consider AI ethics outside of high-level and top-down approaches, based on the distinction between “reality” and “world” from Luc Boltanski. To do so, we provide a new perspective on the debate on AI fairness and show that criticism of ML unfairness is “realist”, in other words, grounded in an already instituted reality based on demographic categories produced by institutions. Second, we show that the limits of “realist” fairness corrections lead to the elaboration of “radical responses” to fairness, that is, responses that radically change the format of data. Third, we show that fairness correction is shifting to a “domination regime” that absorbs criticism, and we provide some theoretical and practical avenues for further development in AI ethics. Using an ad hoc critical space stabilized by reality tests alongside the algorithm, we build a shared responsibility model which is compatible with the radical response to fairness issues. Finally, this paper shows the fundamental contribution of pragmatic sociology theories, insofar as they afford a social and political perspective on AI ethics by giving an active role to material actors such as database formats on ethical debates. In a context where data are increasingly numerous, granular, and behavioral, it is essential to renew our conception of AI ethics on algorithms in order to establish new models of responsibility for companies that take into account changes in the computing paradigm.

Abstract The emerging information revolution makes it necessary to manage vast amounts of unstructured data rapidly. As the world is increasingly populated by IoT devices and sensors that can sense their surroundings and communicate with each other, a digital environment has been created with vast volumes of volatile and diverse data. Traditional AI and machine learning techniques designed for deterministic situations are not suitable for such environments. With a large number of parameters required by each device in this digital environment, it is desirable that the AI is able to be adaptive and self-build (i.e. self-structure, self-configure, self-learn), rather than be structurally and parameter-wise pre-defined. This study explores the benefits of self-building AI and machine learning with unsupervised learning for empowering big data analytics for smart city environments. By using the growing self-organizing map, a new suite of self-building AI is proposed. The self-building AI overcomes the limitations of traditional AI and enables data processing in dynamic smart city environments. With cloud computing platforms, the self-building AI can integrate the data analytics applications that currently work in silos. The new paradigm of the self-building AI and its value are demonstrated using the IoT, video surveillance, and action recognition applications.

Despite the increasing quantum of research on technostress, three particularly noteworthy gaps remain. First, though prior studies have described “technostress creators” through the five dimensions techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty in an aggregated way, they have not adequately considered how these technostress creators individually influence job outcomes. Second, though past organizational research suggests a curvilinear relationship between job stress and job outcomes, research has yet to examine whether the stress-performance dynamics for the technostress context follows the organizational stress literature. Third, even though the literature emphasizes information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled innovation in firms, research has not explored what influence the technostress creators have on ICT-enabled innovation in-depth. Grounding our arguments in the control theory of occupational stress and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we first theorize the linear and curvilinear relationships for each of the five technostress creators with ICT-enabled employee innovation and then test the hypothesized relationships via conducting a survey on organizational employees who regularly used ICTs for professional tasks. The results offer a nuanced understanding about the nature of individual technostress creators and their relationships with ICT-enabled employee innovation. On the practical front, our research paves the way for more meaningful technostress-management strategies in organizations.

Purpose The authors investigate household acceptance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by drawing on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and institutional trust theory. Design/methodology/approach The authors build a research model including six hypotheses and quantitatively analyze it using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and importance–performance map analysis (IPMA) based on 282 answers to a survey questionnaire. Findings The continuous adoption of CBDCs by households is highly probable and is fostered by its expected high performance, the social recommendations and the existence of facilitating conditions. Nevertheless, institutions' efforts to propose a flexible and understandable currency can benefit its adoption only if these institutions also strive to build households' trust in the currency's system. Originality/value The authors provide a full review of the emerging literature on CBDCs and suggest that digital currency offerings can be divided into centralized, semi-centralized and de-centralized control in a meaningful taxonomy. The authors also complement extant studies on CBDCs that mostly apprehend its operational challenges by focusing on the customer side and provide implications to the launching of CBDCs by uncovering the customer-specific determinants of their adoption.

In recent decades, several countries have faced political tensions due to citizens' perceptions that their elections are fraudulent; some electors have even chosen not to vote because they believe that the results may be falsified. Thus, electoral fraud is a major issue. E-governance and e-voting are now being used in many countries, some of which are investigating blockchain solutions. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential contributions of blockchain technology to peace on a worldwide level by securing voting systems. Unfortunately, this technology is complex and could potentially generate conflict between actors in elections. Taking an exploratory approach, the authors chose a qualitative method to address this specific topic. Election observers and blockchain experts were interviewed to identify the technology's strengths and weaknesses. Our results emphasize the importance of trust and human factors in the voting process.

The literature so far provides no in-depth investigation of the determinants of decisions to contribute to crowdfunding platforms. The present article draws on work measuring the decisions and prosocial behaviours of individuals in relation to public goods, and uses survey data on crowdfunding behaviour. We surveyed an original sample of individuals in France to explore individual decisions and amounts of funding chosen to support a creative project. We show that in non-equity crowdfunding contributing money is associated with altruism. Our findings suggest that the ‘warm glow’ effect influences the level of the contribution; we show also those monetary incentives could ‘crowd out’ the decisions to contribute of crowdfunders. Our study has some implications for business strategy since understanding why people contribute adds to our knowledge about the incentives that might encourage them to increase their contributions, and allows predictions about how changes to how crowdfunding platforms are managed might affect individual incentives to give.

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Purpose Circular economy (CE) has evolved as a result of the growing environmental awareness, environmental legislation and the need for social responsibility. However, awareness levels of CE are not as high as expected and practices are further behind than they should be, with a significant lack of research around the subject in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of awareness levels and the practices around CE in manufacturing firms. Moreover, the study aims to empirically validate one of the earlier proposed CE models. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a quantitative survey questionnaire based approach. More than 500 people from various manufacturing organisations were contacted directly over a 40-day long sampling process through the FAME database, personal contacts and LinkedIn. The survey resulted in 103 completed responses. Given the exploratory nature of the study, the data were mainly analysed using descriptive statistics. To validate the CE model, a correlation analysis was also conducted. Findings The research findings show that with the growing emphasis on CE across the globe by governing bodies, firms are becoming more aware of CE practices. The analysis also shows some useful insights on the state of each of the pillars (economic benefits, environmental impact and resource scarcity) of CE. The findings also indicate that the environmental impact pillar of CE is at a more developed state than the other two pillars which are, mostly, in a research state. Research limitations/implications The study provides manufacturing firms with a thorough understanding of the state of CE practices and importance of its successful implementation. The findings of the study advocates consideration of all three pillars of CE by managers as a guide to plan for an efficient strategy around CE implementation. Moreover, our study adds to existing efforts by the academic community to raise the awareness towards CE practice among all relevant stakeholders. The findings of this study are based on the responses from a limited 103 survey responses from manufacturing firms. Originality/value This study adds to the very limited empirical literature on CE awareness and practices in manufacturing firms. This is also one of the first studies attempting to empirically validate an existing CE model.

While mumpreneurship – entrepreneurship by mothers, is not a new phenomenon, it represents a new concept that is still in its infancy in need of a theoretical definition backed up by empirical validation. We review the emerging mumpreneurship literature, frame it with literature on women entrepreneurship, and define mumpreneurship as the creation of a new business venture by a woman who identifies as both a mother and a business woman, is motivated primarily by achieving work-life balance, and picks an opportunity linked to the particular experience of having children. By way of a quantitative study, we first validate that mother entrepreneurs present characteristics that are significantly different, and therefore constitute a sub-group of entrepreneurs. Additionally, in-depth interviews of mumpreneurs support the definition in terms of identity, motivation and opportunity recognition. We conclude that mumpreneurship constitutes a strong affirmative action in terms of her identity and dual role in society.

The transformation of waste into a valuable resource is a key process towards sustainable development and green growth and therefore represents a major concern for policy-makers. Technological innovation plays a crucial role in waste management and therefore understanding the way in which regulation may spur innovation in this domain constitute is crucial. This article aims at testing the weak version of the Porter hypothesis in waste management, by analysing the dynamic relationship between the stringency of environmental regulation and innovation in a European cross-country setting. Results confirm that the stringency of regulation positively affects innovation, but the effect is non-linear, suggesting the existence of an optimal cap to the stringency of regulation. Furthermore, the overall environmental conditions of the country, as well as the presence of highly polluting sectors hinder the development of environmental innovations.

The importance of university-business cooperation (UBC) continues to grow. To date, however, our understanding of UBC in education is lacking, as is our knowledge of the motivations of academics. This research explores a comprehensive mix of motivations underlying education-driven UBC in the form of student mobility, curriculum design and delivery, and lifelong learning. Specifically, drawing on self-determination theory, motivations across five orientations are examined, namely monetary, career, research, educational and social. Based on an extensive and wide-reaching European survey, this research demonstrates the context-specific nature of academic motivations for UBC in education. Not only do the motivations differ from those commonly noted in relation to commercialisation, the set of motivations varies across different education-driven activities. This research offers important contributions to theory and practice, revealing that academics are motivated more strongly by intrinsic than extrinsic reasons, with only social and educational orientations emerging as significant motivations across all four activities.

Work organizations have long employed various management techniques in order to maximize workers’ engagement, which in itself implies that ‘alienation’ at work is common. One of the central descriptions of alienation in classic writings is the idea of not being ‘at home’ while at work. In this article, however, we explore its obverse, which we term ‘disalienation’ – a relationship to work based on assumptions concerning control and agency, aided by collective participatory mechanisms for identity construction and dialogical building of social relationships. We suggest that the concept and experience can be productively explored in the context of organizations which are owned and controlled by workers. Using ethnographic case studies from two Polish co-operatives, we discuss the potential characteristics of a disalienating relation to a work organization and suggest that co-operatives can provide a way for workers to be ‘at home’ while they are at work.

Purpose The current study aims to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and information asymmetry, as well as the moderating effect of board characteristics (gender diversity, size and independence) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a panel data regression analysis with the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) estimator of nonfinancial French firms included in the SBF 120 index. The environmental and social disclosure scores are collected from the Bloomberg database, while financial data are collected from the FactSet database. Findings The empirical results demonstrate that environmental disclosure has a positive impact on the level of information asymmetry, while social disclosure has no effect on the information environment. Gender diversity and board independence negatively impact the opacity index, while board size has a positive effect. The presence of women in board composition has a substitution effect on the relationship between environmental disclosure and information asymmetry. There is no moderating effect of board size on the association between CSR disclosure and information asymmetry. However, the proportion of independent female directors and board independence operates as substitutes to social disclosure on reducing information asymmetry. Research limitations/implications Although the models include the most common control variables used in the literature, they omit some variables. Second, the results should be interpreted with caution and should not be generalized to the entire stock market since the sample is based on large French companies. Practical implications The results of this study may be of interest to managers, investors and French market authorities since France is characterized by highly developed laws and reforms in the area of CSR. In addition, the paper leads to a better understanding of how women on the board, in particular, independent female directors, affect the relationship between CSR disclosure and information asymmetry. This could be of interest to French authorities, which has encouraged the appointment of women through the adoption of the Copé–Zimmermann law. Originality/value First, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the moderating effect of board characteristics on the relationship between CSR and information asymmetry. Second, unlike previous studies using individual proxies to measure information asymmetry, the authors favor the opacity index of Anderson et al. (2009). They calculate this index by including a fifth individual measure, namely, share price volatility. The opacity index better describes the information environment of companies than individual measures since it reflects the perceptions of investors and analysts together.