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Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering (MIAE)

Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering (MIAE)

Pierre-Yann Dolbec

Assistant professor, Marketing
Concordia University Research Chair in Complexity and Markets

Biography    Teaching activities    Research activities    Publications    Participation activities   

Pierre-Yann Dolbec
Office: S-MB 13227 
John Molson Building,
1450 Guy
Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 5967
Email: pierre-yann.dolbec@concordia.ca
Website(s): http://www.pydolbec.com

We face complexity when there is no clear guideline for action. Today’s world is characterized by complexity. Diverging political interests, technological disruptions, and societal upheavals have created competing and divisive expectations about what we should be doing in our personal lives and in society. 

In my work, I tackle big questions to understand the complexity of markets and how people and organizations manage it.

For example, I answer questions such as how are public organizations responding to market pressures, how can organizations contribute to society while satisfying shareholder interests, and how are consumers reshaping markets.

My current research projects examine markets for coffee, tattoos, sneakers, fashion, music, transportation, microdosing, and education, as well as social projects in Africa, South America, and South East Asia. Based on my students' theses, I also am looking at digital influence and online influencers, and the acculturation of wealthy consumers.

My research has been published at the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Marketing Research, where it has received distinctions such as most cited and most downloaded papers. I have presented at the Association for Consumer Research, the European Association for Consumer Research, the Consumer Culture Theory, and the American Marketing Association conferences, where I have been awarded prizes for best special session and best paper. My research has been featured in media such as the National Post, Channel News Asia, CTV News, Global TV, Radio-Canada, Journal de Montreal, Les Affaires, and Le Devoir. 

I have received more than 700 000$ in funding from varied funding sources, such as the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Fonds Société et Culture. I am on the editorial review board of Journal of Consumer Research and Recherche Appliquée en Marketing (RAM). I am also a mentor at academic conferences, a supervisor and committee member for master and doctoral students, and an instructor at JMSB where I am coordinator for the digital marketing undergraduate course.

Teaching activities

At the undergraduate level, I am coordinator for MARK452 'Digital Marketing,' where I concentrate on teaching digital strategy, as well as how-to plan and enact conversion-based approaches. I recently finished an open source textbook to support the course, and will be making available exercises and slides for Faculty shortly. 

At the master's level, I am instructor for MSCA668 'Innovation and Marketing. 

Teaching material published

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2021). Digital Marketing Strategy, open source textbook, Concordia University. 

Chattopadhyay, Amitava, Pierre-Yann Dolbec, Rajesh Nanarpuzha, and Jean Wee (2020). "The AAK Kolo Nafaso Programme: Securing an Alternative Shea Supply Chain," INSEAD Case Studies. 

Research activities

Research funding

2020
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, “Intergenerational Coffee Market Dynamics,” Co-Investigator. Co-Investigator: Robert Nason
Concordia University Student Research Award (with Linh Tran)  
OVPRGS Early Career Research Support Opportunity. Principal investigator. 
National Bank Initiative in Entrepreneurship and Family Business, “Entrepreneurial Legitimacy and Intergenerational Dynamics in Family Businesses.” Co-Investigator. Co-investigator: Robert Nason. 

2019
Concordia University Research Chair “Complexity and Markets"
SSHRC Insight Grant, “Complexity and Market Dynamics,” Principal investigator. Co-applicants: Zeynep Arsel, Eileen Fischer
National Bank Initiative in Entrepreneurship and Family Business, “Entrepreneurial Legitimacy and Intergenerational Dynamics in Family Businesses” (with Rob Nason)
Open Educational Resources Grant for a Digital Marketing Open Textbook
OVPRGS, ARRE Funding, “Speaker Series: Complexity, Society, and Entrepreneurship” (with Rob Nason)
Concordia University Student Research Award (with Tran Hoang) 

2018
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, “Market Orientation in a Complex Field,” Principal investigator. Participant : Rodrigo Castilho
JMSB OVPRGS Seed Funding, “Scaling Social Impact Projects,” Principal investigator

2017
FQRSC Nouveaux Chercheurs, “After Disruption,” Principal investigator
Concordia University Student Research Award (with Kevin Liu)  
OVPRGS, SEED Funding, “The Emergence of Aesthetic Markets and Complexification of Commodities,” Principal investigator

2016
SSHRC Insight Development Grant, “The Celebrification of Brands and the Development of Nascent Markets.” Principal investigator. Co-applicant: Eileen Fischer
Concordia University Student Research Award (with Courtney Tritt)  
JMSB Associate-Dean of Research, Seed Funding, “Market Memory,” Principal investigator
OVPRGS, ARRE Funding, “Markets and Culture speaker series.” Principal applicant. Sponsors: Zeynep Arsel, Michael Carney, Claudine Mangen

Thesis supervision

Graduated students
Nicole Gorman, MSc, John Molson School of Business – Concordia University, 2020
Dan Fawcett, MSc, John Molson School of Business – Concordia University, 2020
Stjin Kruidenier, MSc, John Molson School of Business – Concordia University, 2019
Yushan Li, MSc, John Molson School of Business – Concordia University, 2019
Thanh Nguyen, MSc, John Molson School of Business – Concordia University, 2018

Publications

Refereed journal articles

Pierre-Yann Dolbec, Eileen Fischer, and Robin Canniford (forthcoming). "Something Old, Something New: Enabled Theory Building in Qualitative Marketing Research," Marketing Theory, doi.org/10.1177/14705931211032257.

Pierre-Yann Dolbec, Rodrigo Castilhos, Marcelo J. Fonseca, Guilherme Trez (forthcoming), "How Established Organizations Combine Logics to Reconfigure Resources and Adapt to Marketization: A Case Study on Brazilian Religious Schools," Journal of Marketing Research, doi.org/10.1177/0022243721999042.

Castilhos, Rodrigo and Pierre-Yann Dolbec (2018). "Conceptualizing Spatial Types: Characteristics, Transitions, and Research Avenues," Marketing Theory, 18 (2), 154-168.

Castilhos, Rodrigo, Pierre-Yann Dolbec, and Ela Veresiu (2017). "Introducing a Spatial Perspective to Analyze Market Dynamics," Marketing Theory, 17 (1), 9-29.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Eileen Fischer ( 2015), "Refashioning a Field? Connected Consumers and Institutional Dynamics in Markets," Journal of Consumer Research, 42 (April).
- One of six "Highly cited" articles at the Journal of Consumer Research for 2016
- As of 2020, second most cited paper at the Journal of Consumer Research for research published in 2015
- Featured in JCR Research Curation "The Psychology of Innovation", July 2016

Dolbec,Pierre-Yann, and Jean-Charles Chebat (2013). "The Impact of a Flagship vs. a Brand Store on Brand Attitude, Brand Attachment and Brand Equity," Journal of Retailing, 89 (4), 460-466.
–One of the 25 most downloaded papers in 2014-2015 at the Journal of Retailing.
- As of 2020, third most cited paper at the Journal of Retailing for research published in 2013

Book chapters

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Andre F. Maciel (2018), “The Micro-Dynamics of Taste,” Taste, Consumption, and Markets, edited by Zeynep Arsel and Jonathan Bean, Routledge, 95-112.

Kozinets, Robert V., Pierre-Yann Dolbec and Amanda Earley (2014), “Netnographic Analysis: Capturing and Interpreting Culture through Websites, Blogs, Tweets, Facebook Posts, Virtual Worlds and Other Social Media Data,” in Uwe Fleck, Ed., The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. Sage: London.

Participation activities

Refereed conference proceedings

Nugyen, Thanh, and Pierre-Yann Dolbec (2020). “Influencers’ Struggles,” Association for Consumer Research Conference, October 1 to 4. 

Bothello, Joel, Pierre-Yann Dolbec, and Thomas Roulet (2020). “Situated Institutions: Exploring Place and Space in Institutional Dynamics,” Academy of Management Annual Meeting, August 7 to 11. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Marie-Agnes Parmentier (2020), “Entrepreneurial Consumption and the Hype Economy, ” American Marketing Association Conference Winter, February 16th. Presented by Marie-Agnes Parmenter. 

Kruidener, Stijn, Alex Bitektine, and Pierre-Yann Dolbec (2019), “Temporary Institutions: The Evolution of Beer Regulations in Brazil Before, During, and After the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” European Interntional Business Academy Conference, December 14th. Presented by Alex Bitektine. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, Zeynep Arsel, and Aya Aboelenien (2019), “Market Aestheticization: How Markets Grow through Value Chain Complexification,” Association for Consumer Research, Atlanta, October 18th.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Marie-Agnes Parmentier (2019), “Believe the Hype: How Resale Monetizes Desire,” Association for Consumer Research, Atlanta, October 18th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, Zeynep Arsel, and Aya Aboelenien (2019), “Market Aestheticization,” Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Montreal, July 19th.  

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, and Eileen Fischer (2019), “Changing Markets by Triggering Socio-Cognitive Transformations: How Tesla Boosted the Electric Car Market,” American Marketing Association Conference, Austin, February 23rd.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, Rodrigo Castilhos, Marcelo J. Fonseca, and Guilherme Trez (2019), “Adopting a Market Orientation as a Strategic Response to Market Neo-liberalization,” American Marketing Association Conference, Austin, February 22nd. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, Rodrigo Castilhos, Marcelo J. Fonseca, and Guilherme Trez (2019), “Adapting to Market Transformations: How Traditional Religious Schools Remain Competitive in a Marketizing Field,” Journal of Marketing Research Special Issue Preconference: Education and Marketing, Austin, February 21st. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann, Joel Bothello and Pharo Sok (2018), “Erasure as Institutional Maintenance,” presented at the Association for Consumer Research Conference, Dallas, October 12th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Shanze Khan (2018), "How Categories Transform Markets through Non-Collective, Non-Strategic Collaborations", presented at the Association for Consumer Research Conference, Dallas, October 13th. 

Castilhos, Rodrigo, and Pierre-Yann Dolbec (2018), “Contextualizing Market Orientation: Logics and Complexity in a Changing Market,” presented at the Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Odense, June 28th. *Presented by Rodrigo Castilhos.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2018), “Objects and the Diffusion of Innovation,” presented at the American Marketing Association, San Diego, February 25th.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2017), “Erasure as Institutional Maintenance,” presented at the Association for Consumer Research Conference, San Diego, October 28th.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2017), “Tasteful Work: The Emergence of an Aesthetic Category,” presented at the Association for Consumer Research conference, San Diego, October 28th.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2017), “Institutional Work, Novel Taste Regimes, and the Emergence of a Cultural Category,” presented at the Bringing Institutional Theory to Marketing conference, Paris, May 29th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Eileen Fischer (2017), “Brand Celebrification in a Nascent Market,” presented at the 2017 American Marketing Association conference, Orlando, Florida, February 11th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2016), “Market Boundary Infrastructure and the Diffusion of Cultural Innovations,” presented at the 2016 Association for Consumer Research conference, Berlin, Germany, October 28th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Andre Maciel (2016), “Consumer-Driven Dynamics of Taste Convergence,” presented at the 2016 Consumer Culture Theory conference, Lille, France, July 7th. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2016), “Systemic Valuation Processes: The Role of Market Categories in Value Creation, or How EDM Became a US$6B Market,” presented at the 2016 American Marketing Association Conference, Las Vegas, NV. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2015), “From Consumer Creation to Mainstream Adoption: A Multi-Level Perspective on Cultural Category Creation,” presented at the 2015 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Fayetteville, AK. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2015), “The Bit Generation: Consumer participation and Legitimacy in the Digital Age,” presented at the 2015 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Fayetteville, AK. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2014), “The Dynamics of Taste: Niche Fields and the Evolution of Taste Regimes,” presented at the 2014 Association for Consumer Research, Baltimore: MD.

Castilhos, Rodrigo, Pierre-Yann Dolbec and Ela Veresiu (2014), “Conceptualizing the Space of Markets: How Spatiality Influences Market Dynamics,” presented at the 2014 Association for Consumer Research, Baltimore: MD. 

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2014), “How Does Taste Change? A Field-level Analysis of the Dynamics of Field-specific Cultural Capital,” presented at the 2014 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Helsinki: Finland.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2014), “How Do Global Aesthetic Markets Evolve? The Translation of Local Actors to Global Markets during Transcendent Events,” presented at the 2014 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Helsinki: Finland.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann (2013), “Consumption-Related Challenges and Consumers' Accumulation of Field-Specific Forms of Capital,” poster presentation at the 2013 Association for Consumer Research conference, Chicago: IL.

Smith, Andrew and Pierre-Yann Dolbec (2013), “Gamification and the Entrenchment of an Engagement Institutional Logic in the Emerging Institutional Field of Social Media,” poster presentation at the 2013 Association for Consumer Research conference, Chicago: IL. 

Dolbec Pierre-Yann and Eileen Fischer (2013), “Same Same, But Different: How the Imperfect Reproduction of Institutional Practices by Inter-Connected Consumers Changes the Online Fashion Market,” presented at the 2013 European Association for Consumer Research conference, Barcelona, July 6th.

Dolbec Pierre-Yann and Eileen Fischer (2013), “Re-fashioning a Field? The impact of micro-level changes on institutional practices and institutional work,” presented at the 2013 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Tucson: AZ.

Dolbec, Pierre-Yann and Eileen Fischer (2012), “Tastemakers? Influential consumers in aestheticized product markets,” presented at the 2012 Association for Consumer Research conference, Vancouver: BC, October 6th.

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