Michèle Paulin, LLB, MBA, PhD

MICHÈLE PAULIN (RBC Professorship Strategic Relationship Marketing 2010-2020) holds a law degree L.L.B.  (Université de Sherbrooke), an MBA (Executive MBA John Molson School of Business), and a Ph.D. (UQÀM). She received the highly recommended award from the Journal of Service Management for 2014 at Service Frontiers and the Award for Excellence from MCB University Press—International Journal of Bank Marketing (2001). Several of her major projects were funded, among others, by Seed Grant Volt Age, SSHRC, FQRSC, MITACS, and internal grants (Luc Beauregard Centre, ARRE, CASA Grants, FRDP). Dr. Paulin has more than 120 publications and scientific presentations in, among others, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Humanistic Management Journal, Universal Journal of Management, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Motivation Science, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Health Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Small Business Enterprises, and reputable conferences. Her projects involve immersive experiential learning, humanistic and sustainable management practices, service design and service management, as well as self-determination motivation practices. She is an external expert in various capacities, including research and education impact (SSHRC grants, educational program reviews, and various journal reviews), and is part of the Editorial Board Review for the Journal of Relationship Marketing (2024-).

In a time where the conversation method and civic education becomes critical, Dr. Paulin is interested in setting creative and innovative trends, from many years of diversified and innovative research, her next endeavour is setting grounds for Humanistic-Centered Service Design (HCSD) with the integration of Business Technology Management (BTM) (encompassing systems that are community driven and sustainable-oriented). This means shifting the way we teach and think through a research problem having in mind the societal impact, and it starts with the art of the conversation that we have lost with being driven by machines and systems. It explains why she wrote the book Creating Your Future Through Powerful Conversation (2022) - Concordia Bookstore. The book is the result of a long teaching and research journey, a needed reflexion on making a pause: Are we making sense with our nonsense?

Areas of Expertise

• Business-to-business services from a relationship marketing strategic vision
• Strategic relationship marketing from a service-logic and humanistic perspective
• Service management and marketing from a humanistic service design.
• Sustainable service experience design exploring shift in behavioral systems (swapping, upcycling, re-use, education related to greenwashing, rosywashing, etc.)

Service Marketing (MARK 451)

Students will explore the Human-Centered Experiences Service Design (HESD) framework and its applications across corporate, entrepreneurial, and community-focused contexts. Through immersive learning activities, such as collaborative workshops, theater-based exercises, and meaningful conversations, students will develop their creative and critical thinking skills. They will also gain a deep understanding of the challenges associated with designing, implementing, and monitoring service components. The knowledge and skills gained from this course will prepare students to effectively integrate service marketing concepts into various organizational settings, ensuring that their services are adaptable to evolving technological, ethical, economic, and socio-cultural landscapes. 

Business-to-Business Marketing (MARK 485)

In this course, students will analyze Business-to-Business (B2B) ecosystems using service logic. They will evaluate where a business (organization) stands within these ecosystems and identify opportunities for value creation, considering the impacts of digital transformation, sustainability, and local/global constraints. Students will also learn how to design and improve collaborative B2B relationships involving multiple stakeholders. The course focuses on immersive, hands-on learning activities, including collaborative workshops and meaningful discussions through reflective analysis. It equips students with critical thinking skills to develop innovative solutions that integrate both business and community perspectives to address B2B challenges in rapidly changing environments.

Strategic Relationship Marketing (MSCA 671A)

SRM is an evolving interdisciplinary research and practice that captures contextual changes in complex ecosystems while considering humanistic values, critical thinking, creativity in out-of-the-box solutions, and ethics at the core of research designs and decision-making practices. SRM views the service experience design as the unit of measure to better assess the complexities. These uncertain and evolutive dynamics trigger change and naturally question our assumptions and certainties.

Research Seminar Managerial Marketing: Issues and Impact (ADMI 8301)

This course reviews relevant managerial marketing issues and their repercussions on society and stakeholders. Students will learn how to develop an innovative approach to view complex business and societal problems in potential research programs by considering ethical and societal welfare, as well as understanding the complexities of business and organizational contexts. Topics covered in this course may vary.

This course is designed to familiarize students with managerial marketing trends and issues, as well as their impact, in an interdisciplinary research domain, and it captures the hands-on complexities of real-world applications. The approach can be a “goods-logic, economic, and firm perspective” or an “ecosystem and service-logic perspective.”  The latter will be at the core of this seminar, configuring research questions and research designs that assess and support best ethical decision-making practices, with a focus on stakeholders’ perspectives and “listening to people and how they experience life.” In this case, managerial marketing considers the pertinent Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on EDI and humanistic values, design thinking, creativity in devising innovative research solutions, and the balance of human, natural, aesthetic, and architectural elements, blending abstraction, observation, experience, and experimentation. Managerial marketing from a service logic perspective views the service experience design as the unit of measure to better assess the complexities of live markets, considering the natural ecosystem, AI integration, scarcity of resources, societal discrepancies, and the natural environment. These uncertain and evolutive dynamics trigger change and question traditional research assumptions and certainties while fostering innovative research design perspectives.

Books & Refereed Journal Articles

Paulin, M. (2022). Create your future through powerful conversations, John Aylen Books, division of John Aylen Rédaction Ltée. ISBN: 978-1777381431. Available at Concordia Bookstore. French version Paulin, M. (2019), Tout est parfait, tout le monde le pense! John Aylen Books, 470 pages. Also available at Concordia Bookstore.

Armouch, F., M. Paulin & M. Laroche (2024). Is it Fashionable to swap clothes? The moderating role of culture.  Journal of Consumer Behavior, 1-27. http://doi.org/10.1002/cb.2351.

Ferguson, R.J., K. Schattke, M. Paulin & W. Dong (2024). Motivation in support of charitable causes: Assessing the complete continuum of self-determined theory regulations. Humanistic Management Journal. Published online April 15th, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-024-00171-1

Paulin, M. (2021). Après pandémie : l’importance de retrouver sa « compétence conversationnelle ». Métro, entrepreneuriat & The Conversation. 8 octobre.
https://journalmetro.com/entrepreneuriat/2708562/competence-conversationnelle/
https://theconversation.com/apres-pandemie-limportance-de-retrouver-ou-developper-sa-competence-conversationnelle-161641

Laroche, M., A. Heydari, M. Paulin & M.-O. Richard (2021). Hofstede's individual-level indulgence dimension: Scale development and validation. The Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 62 (September),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102640

Ferguson, R.J., K. Schattke & M. Paulin (2021). Persuasions by corporate and activist NGO strategic website communications: Impact on perceptions of sustainability messages and greenwashing. Humanistic Management Journal, 6, 117-131. 10.1007/s41463-019-00072-8.

Book Chapters

Richard,M-O, M.R. Habibi, M. Laroche & M. Paulin (2016). Recent advances in online consumer-behavior. In Lee, editor Encyclopedia of E-Commerce Development, Implementation, and Management, IGI Global, 1706-1723.

Peer-reviewed Conference Presentations

Ferguson, R.J., M. Paulin & K. Scattke (2017). Empirical evidence of decoupling in sustainability communications: The case of the Energy East Pipeline project.
Conference, Sustainability Across Disciplines, March 16-17th, Montreal, Canada.

Paulin, M., R.J. Ferguson & K. Schattke (2016). Millennials’ perceptions of corporate good versus societal good as presented in online communications: A study of the controversial issues and greenwashing. 24th International Colloquium on Relationship Marketing (ICRM), September 6th-9th, Toulouse, France.

Ferguson, R.J., A. Salman, M. Paulin & K. Schattke (2015). Engaging millennial women to support a fashion event through social media: How important is the cause in cause-related marketing? 44th European Marketing Academic Conference (EMAC), May 26-29th, Leuven, Belgium.

Ferguson, R.J., A. Salman, M. Paulin & K. Schattke (2015). Making nonprofit partnerships with businesses more effective: Importance of emphasizing the charitable cause in social media appeals.
European Academy of Management (EURAM), 17-20th June, Warsaw, Poland.

Paulin, M., R.J. Ferguson, A. Salman & K. Schattke (2015). Emphasizing the cause in cause-related marketing? Gaining millennial women’s support for a fashion event through facebook appeals.
American Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress, July 14-18th, Bari, Italy.

Research Seminars

Goodarzi, I., H. Shirdastian, M. Laroche, & M. Paulin (2025). “Talk to Me, Don’t Scroll”: Voice-Based AI Interventions to Curb Social Media Overuse. The Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) TREO Talks, Montreal (Quebec), August 14-16.

Goodarzi, I., H. Shirdastian, M. Laroche, & M. Paulin (2025). Voice-Based AI interventions to mitigate social media overuse, Completed Research Paper or Emergent Research Forum (ERF) Paper, Thirty-first Americas conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Montreal, August 14-16.

Goodarzi, I. H. Shirdastian, M. Laroche, & M. Paulin (2025). Does AI outperform humans? An empirical study of social media addiction notifications, Human and smart marketing: understanding and enhancing our future, The European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC), May 25-30, Pozuelo (Madrid), Spain

Goodarzi, I., H. Shirdastian, M. Laroche, & M. Paulin (2025). AI Solutions for Social Media Addiction: Mitigating Digital Overuse, 2025 ASAC Conference, Montreal.

Nehme, D., Z. Arsel & M. Paulin (2022). The power of transmedia storytelling through comics. 2022 Winter AMA Conference. Poster accepted.

Paulin, M. & R.J. Ferguson (2017). Conceptual advancement in relationship marketing by design thinking: A pedagogical example of service experience design. 25^th International Colloquium on Relationship Marketing (ICRM), September 13^th-14^th. Invited to present 45 minutes closing the conference of ICRM 25^th anniversary.

Ferguson, R.J., M. Paulin & K. Schattke (2017). Empirical evidence of decoupling in sustainability communications: The case of the Energy East Pipeline Project. Conference, Sustainability across disciplines, March 16-17^th, Montreal, Canada.

Pedagogy: Immersive Experiential Learning

https://www.concordia.ca/ctl/pedagogy/multi-disciplinary/service-design-experiential-learning-michele-paulin.html

Creating Your Future Through Powerful Conversations

https://michelepaulin.com/en/book/