Alain Decrop

Alain Decrop is full professor of marketing at the University of Namur, Belgium. A founding member and former director of NADI-CeRCLe (Namur Digital Institute - Research Center For Marketing and Service Management) and CCMS (Center for research on Consumers and Marketing Strategy), he is a former president of the French Marketing Association (AFM). He holds a master's degree in modern history and economics, and a doctorate in business administration. Alain Decrop has taught a number of courses related to marketing management, consumer behavior, digital marketing communications, research methods, service management and collaborative business models. His research interests include consumer behavior, the collaborative economy, qualitative methods and leisure and tourism marketing.

He has been invited to teach and conduct research projects at a large number of academic institutions both in Belgium (UCLouvain, KULeuven, USLB) and abroad (Universidad de Valencia, Baltic Management Institute, Université Gustave Eifel, Kedge Business School, etc.).)

Alain Decrop is the author and editor of numerous books, including "Sustainable and Collaborative Tourism in a Digital World" (Goodfellow, 2021) and "Consumer behavior in tourism and hospitality research" (Emerald, 2017). His other work has appeared in a number of edited books and leading academic journals, including Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Public Policy Marketing, Journal of Travel Research, Psychology and Marketing, Recherches et Applications en Marketing, and Tourism Management. Finally, Alain Decrop has produced five films documenting the results of research into postmodern consumption. Three of these films have won awards at major conferences and festivals.

Wafa Hammedi

Wafa Hammedi is a renowned professor of service management and marketing at the University of Namur, Belgium, where she directs the Nadi-Cercle Research Center. She is also co-director of the Centre interuniversitaire sur les stratégies consommateurs et marketing (CCMS) with the University of Leuven, and sits on the board of the NaDI Institute. She is also a research fellow at Cornell University, USA. Wafa Hammedi obtained her PhD from the Institute for Management Research at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Acknowledged researcher in the field of service management, Prof. Hammedi teaches subjects related to service management, service design and innovation, social innovation, marketing strategy and entrepreneurship. She coordinates the Master's program in Service Management and Marketing. Her research covers a wide range of topics related to service innovation, technology-mediated interactions and co-creation mechanisms (such as gamification) on digital platforms in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts. Her current projects focus on vulnerable service users (e.g. patients at the bottom of the pyramid, frontline employees and disabled service users), service inclusion and an emphasis on research with social impact.

Prof. Wafa Hammedi has published extensively in leading journals, including Journal of Service Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Decision Management, Marketing Research and Applications, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Marketing Management, among others.

Internationally recognized, Wafa Hammedi has won several research awards from academic organizations and at international conferences such as the American Marketing Association, Association française du marketing, QUIS and EIRASS. She has received numerous research grants (ERDF, NBB, Walloon Region, among others) and works closely with industry. She received the IBM Faculty Award in 2013 and 2015, in recognition of the quality and impact of her research on the service industry. Wafa Hammedi is also co-founder of the annual conference for early-career service researchers, "AMA - SERVSIG - Let's Talk About Service", and is associate editor of the Journal of Services Marketing. Prof. Wafa Hammedi is on the editorial board of several journals and has been invited to write special issues for leading journals.

Wafa Hammedi's work continues to push the boundaries of innovation and services marketing, making significant contributions to academia and industry.

Pietro Zidda

Pietro Zidda is Ordinary Professor of Marketing and Management at the University of Namur (UNamur). Since August 2022, he has been Dean of the Faculty of Economics Management Communication sciencesPo (EMCP).

He is a member of the Namur Digital Institute (NaDI) and the Research Center For Marketing and Service Management (CeRCLe), both at UNamur, and of the Center on Consumers and Marketing Strategy (CCMS), a joint initiative of UCL and UNamur.

He studied business engineering and management sciences at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Mons Campus, FUCaM) and began his academic career as a retail researcher in Professor Bultez's research group, then became ICM-fellow at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University, USA). He obtained his doctorate in management from UCLouvain-Mons and the Intercollegiate Center for Management Science (ICM-CIM), with a thesis on sampling designs for calibrating store choice models.

His main research interests concern retail marketing and management in general, and more specifically the modeling of consumer choice behavior, particularly in the field of customer relationship management (e.g., store and brand loyalty), but also in consumer adoption and evaluation of new technologies (e.g., mobile payment, collaborative platforms, interactive recommendation systems).

He has published in Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, International Journal of Wine Business Research, Tourism Analysis, European Journal of Operational Research and in the proceedings of international conferences (Marketing Science, ACR, EMAC, AFM, EIRASS, AWBR, etc.), among others.).

He is a regular guest lecturer at Belgian (Louvain School of Management, UCLouvain) and foreign (Kedge Business School, Skema Business School, EM Strasbourg and Iéseg School of Management) universities and business schools.

He has twice been Director of the Management Department at the University of Namur (2008-2010 & 2015-2018), Director of the CeRCLe Research Centre at UNamur, Director of the Centre sur les stratégies consommateurs et marketing (CCMS), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Louvain School of Management (UCL), in charge of academic programs. Recently, he chaired UNamur's Academic Council.

Claire Deventer

Claire Deventer is a lecturer in Data Analytics and Management at the University of Namur. After studying data science and marketing, she completed her PhD in collaboration with a software development spin-off from the University of Namur. She is attached to the NaDI-CeRCLe Research Center in Marketing & Service Management within the Namur Digital Institute.

Claire's main research interests focus on the impact of artificial intelligence technologies and personalization strategies on customer behavior and experience. Her work includes analyses of product configuration systems, product recommendation systems, chatbots and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). She has collaborated with several researchers in digital and service marketing, information systems and human-machine interface. Claire has also conducted field research with numerous industrial players.

Her research is published in International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Data & Knowledge Engineering and has been presented at several international conferences (SERVSIG, FRONTIERS, EMAC, HICSS, RCIS, RARCS). She won the best paper award at the RCIS 2023 conference and the best student paper award at the International Configuration Workshop 2020.

She has been a business developer and researcher in a spin-off for 4 years and has organized the presence of professionals at major events: KIKK festival, Paris Retail Week, Conext, Global Industry, SEPEM, BE. 4.0, Digitalize, VivaTechnology, Hannover Messe.

She has been a keynote speaker at industry events such as the IBM Chair in Data Science, Digitalize, Paris Retail Week and BE 4.0. She has also appeared in numerous media outlets such as RTBF, LN24, PUB media.

Qusay Hamdan

Qusay Hamdan, PhD, is a dedicated researcher with a strong background in business economics, specializing in marketing and sustainability, with a particular interest in transformative services research (TSR), service ethics, well-being, service inclusion, vulnerability and exploitation. He demonstrates a deep commitment to interdisciplinary research.

As ServCollab manager, he collaborated with Raymond Fisk, ServCollab's founder, with the aim of improving ServCollab's conceptualization and implementation. His current activities encompass several major TSR research projects aimed at establishing a "service to humanity paradigm" that embraces all of humanity. These paradigm projects focus on the most recent part of ServCollab's mission: "Serving humanity through research collaborations that catalyze the reduction of suffering, the enhancement of well-being and the development of welfare. These ongoing research projects introduce conceptual frameworks designed to foster collaborative and ethical service ecosystems and contribute to the well-being and fulfillment of individuals and human society. His research contributions include conceptualizing service ethics for the complexity of modern service interactions on digital platforms. He examines the direct, indirect, intentional and unintentional consequences of these interactions on the well-being and prosperity of customers who do not benefit from services, such as migrant workers and people with disabilities.

Prior to this appointment, Hamdan held research and lecturing positions at CTF Karlstad University and Vlerick Business School. He obtained his PhD from Ghent University, where his research focused on the well-being of corporate stakeholders as neglected determinants of favorable outcomes in business-to-business environments. For example, his research demonstrates the relationship between sales force well-being and sales success, as well as the impact of sales force co-creation efforts. Mr. Hamdan holds a Master's degree in Business Economics from Uppsala University, Sweden, and an MBA from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His advanced methodological skills encompass a range of approaches, including qualitative, quantitative and conceptual techniques. He is proficient in grid interviews, semi-structured interviews, Delphi panels, survey studies, focus groups and systematic literature reviews. Mr. Hamdan is adept at contemporary analytical techniques, including FsQCA (Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis), repertory grid analysis, grounded theory, inter-coder reliability testing, regression analysis and mediation/moderation testing. He is proficient in the use of a range of analytical tools, including FsQCA, Ideogrid 2.4, SPSS, SPSS Amos and NVivo.

Mr. Hamdan's research interests continue to evolve in response to the dynamic challenges of the service ecosystem, with the ambition of bridging the gap between theories of service to humanity and practice. With a strong academic foundation and extensive practical experience, he strives to improve the human experience through his research.

Sara Belghiti

Sara Belghiti is a young international researcher in the field of services marketing. She holds a PhD from the University of Namur and is a teaching and research assistant at the IESEG School of Management.

Her main areas of expertise focus on intelligent service systems, technology and its relational aspects. Sara Belghiti is also an alumna of ESCP where she obtained a Master's degree with a specialization in marketing.

She has published a book article and participated in national and international conferences such as AMA (American Marketing Association), SERVSIG and Frontiers.

Floriane Goosse

Floriane Goosse holds a bachelor's and master's degree in management engineering from UCLouvain, with a specialization in innovation management, and an option in marketing from the prestigious Louvain School of Management (LSM).

She is pursuing her PhD at the University of Namur within the renowned NADI-CeRCLe center on services and marketing.

Her research focuses on transformative services (TSR), and more specifically on the inclusion of vulnerable and disabled consumers in the age of AI-based services.

Her current project focuses on how intelligent voice assistants can empower visually impaired people, promoting their well-being and dignity. This research uses a unique "strengths-based approach" that focuses on users' capabilities.

This research gives her the opportunity to make a real and strong impact on society. This dedication was recognized at the prestigious SERVSIG 2024 conference, where her research received the "Best Paper Award" - a testament to its potential for positive change.

She is also, along with Florence Nizette, the social media coordinator for the Journal of Service Management (JOSM).

Flamure Ibrahimi

Flamure Ibrahimi holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Engineering specializing in Information Management from the University of Namur. She also holds a Master's degree in Business Engineering specializing in Digital Transformation and Enterprise Immersion, and more specifically spent her 2-year internship at GSK Wavre, where she managed various Digital Transformation and Continuous Improvement projects, having a direct impact on the end patient of GSK vaccines worldwide. Since she was a little girl, Flamure has always been involved in volunteering by supporting several socially important causes, such as child welfare (Child Focus), migrant inclusion (refugee camps in Serbia), the fight against poverty (Oxfam), supporting various causes and having a social impact in the world are things close to her heart.

Flamure Ibrahimi completed her studies with great distinction, before starting as a teaching assistant and researcher at the University of Namur. She began as a researcher at the internationally renowned NADI-CeRCLe Research Center in Service and Marketing Management, where she focuses her research on how Blockchain optimizes services, with a particular emphasis on transformative service research, aiming to have a big societal impact even with her research.

Florence Nizette

Florence Nizette holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Business Analysis from the University of Namur and studied for four months at Michigan State University (USA). She has over five years' professional experience in finance (Accenture), brand management (Decathlon) and consulting in the energy sector (DXC Technology). She worked for two years as a senior functional analyst and service delivery consultant in smart meter management for several Belgian distribution network operators, as well as for Atrias, gaining valuable practical experience for her research.

Florence is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Namur and the University of Hasselt. Since 2022, she has been a member of NADI-CeRCLe.

Her research focuses on the impact of AI technologies on consumer trust, decision-making processes and vulnerability in digital environments, including areas such as explainable AI, transparent AI and malicious AI. His current project explores how explainable AI can promote the inclusion of AI among non-expert consumers, particularly in high-credibility services such as insurance and banking.

In addition, Florence, alongside Floriane Goosse, is social media coordinator for the Journal of Service Management (JOSM).

Victor Sluyters

Victor Sluyters is a PhD student in service and marketing management at NADI-CeRCLe (University of Namur). He is completing his thesis under the supervision of Professors Hammedi (Université de Namur) and Van Vaerenbergh (KU Leuven). His research focuses on crisis management, the marketing-finance interface, service failures and their recovery.

Victor Sluyters holds a bachelor's degree in business engineering (Magna Cum Laude) and a master's degree in data science with a minor in finance and information management (Summa Cum Laude, first of the year). He has received several awards in recent years, including the 3rd Belgian Master Thesis Awards (CFA Belgium - 2022-2023) for his thesis entitled "What is the impact of machine learner chartists on exchange rate stability? - Simulations via Heterogeneous Agent Models (HAMs)" and the User Experience Award (Citoyens de Wallonie - 2023) for the creation of "Wall'ON", a gesture recognition-based terminal designed to stimulate citizen inclusion and engagement within society. "

Julie Masset

Julie Masset is a lecturer in marketing and service management at the Faculté Economie Management Communication sciencesPo (EMCP) at the University of Namur. She is a member of NADI-CeRCLe (Research Center in Marketing and Service Management) and CCMS (Research Center on Consumers and Marketing Strategy), which she co-directed from 2021 to 2023.

After obtaining her master's degree in management engineering, she started as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Namur. She pursued her PhD as an ICM-fellow (Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada). She received her PhD in Economics and Management Science from the Université de Namur and the Intercollegiate Center for Management Science (ICM-CIM) in 2015. Her thesis explored the processes by which meanings are given to tourism objects, considered as special possessions, and how these meanings evolve over time and space. Overall, her results provided a holistic and dynamic perspective on the relationships between consumers and their special possessions.

She has been invited to teach at various universities in Belgium (UCLouvain, UMons) and business schools in France (EDHEC Business School-Lille, Kedge Business School-Bordeaux).

Her research focuses on consumer behavior, qualitative methods, videography and tourism and leisure marketing and. Her work has been published in leading books and academic journals, including Journal of Business Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, Leisure Studies.

Valérie Boembeke

Valérie Boembeke holds a Master's degree in Management Sciences from the University of Namur (Magna Cum Laude). Her dissertation, entitled "Influence of quality labels on consumer choice: application to the Walloon tourism sector", was awarded 3rd prize for Best Dissertation in Marketing 2014 (STIMA Stimulation Marketing). She has also co-published an article with Professor Alain Decrop, entitled "The Importance of Quality Labels in Consumers' Preferences", in the book Co-Creation and Well-Being in Tourism (2017). In addition, she also holds a university certificate in Junior Data Analyst from UCLouvain.

Valérie has over seven years' professional experience in consultancy, where she has worked in marketing consultancy agencies (in Paris and Namur) as well as in a survey institute (in Paris). Since September 2022, she has been a research fellow at IWEPS (Institut wallon de l'évaluation, de la prospective et de la statistique), on the theme of mobility.

She is currently pursuing a PhD in Management Sciences at the University of Namur, in co-supervision with IWEPS. Her thesis is supervised by Professor Alain Decrop at the University of Namur and by Síle O'Dorchai, PhD in Economic Sciences and Scientific Director of the "Research & Evaluation" department at IWEPS.

Her thesis project stems from research carried out in Wallonia and initiated by public authorities, aimed at apprehending women's experiences in their active mobility practices (essentially walking and cycling). By taking this reflection into fundamental research, the aim is to deepen understanding of the dynamics underlying active mobility in a context of consumer deceleration (Husemann and Eckhardt, 2019), identifying the factors that influence the practices and use of these modes of travel, while examining the associated gender issues.

Linda Alkire

Linda Alkire is Associate Professor of Marketing and Brandon Dee Roberts Chair of Excellence at Texas State University, USA. Renowned for her comprehensive and sustained research efforts, Ms. Alkire is an internationally recognized thought leader in the field of transformative services research. Her transdisciplinary approach aims to improve societal well-being by bringing transformative knowledge to service providers.

Ms. Alkire's contributions include more than 30 publications in peer-reviewed academic journals, over 60 conference presentations and the receipt of more than 15 prestigious research awards. Her expertise has led to extended research stays at leading universities in the UK, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Japan, China and Belgium, among others. Notably, she is the recipient of the AMA SERVSIG Emerging Scholar Award 2024.

As part of her editorial duties, Ms. Alkire is Editorial Director of the Journal of Service Management and Associate Editor of the Journal of Services Marketing, the Service Industries Journal and the Journal of Social Impact in Business Research. In addition, she is a member of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and will co-chair the AMA's Winter 2025 Conference. Ms. Alkire is a member of the Advisory Board and Board of Directors of ServCollab, a nonprofit organization that seeks to serve humanity through collaborative service research.

Ms. Alkire is dedicated to promoting inclusion in academia by supporting researchers and students from emerging countries and early-career researchers, reflecting her commitment to cultivating a more inclusive and diverse academic community.

Nadia Steils

Nadia Steils is Assistant Professor of Digital Marketing at HEC Liège (University of Liège), specializing in consumer empowerment through learning and information, crowdsourcing and digital marketing. Her research has been published in leading international scientific journals such as the Journal of Service Research and the Journal of Interactive Marketing. She teaches at undergraduate, masters, MBA and PhD levels. Previously, she worked at the University of Lille and the University of Namur.

Professor A. Parasuraman ("Parsu")

The Professor A. Parasuraman ("Parsu") is Professor Emeritus of Marketing and James W. McLamore Professor at the Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, USA. He is currently Mentor of the AIM-Parasuraman Centre for Service Excellence at the Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM) in Bengaluru (India) and Pro-Chancellor (Academics) of Vijaybhoomi University in Karjat (Greater Mumbai, India). He is recognized worldwide as a leading expert in service quality and customer service. He is the author of several books, has consulted for numerous companies and has conducted dozens of executive seminars worldwide. He has published over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (1997-2000) and the Journal of Service Research (2005-2009).

Professor Parasuraman has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research at Miami Herbert Business School and other institutions. He has also received major honors across the discipline, such as: American Marketing Association's "Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award" (1998); Academy of Marketing Science's "Outstanding Marketing Educator Award" (2001); Chartered Institute of Marketing (U.K.)'s "Guru Gallery." ), which profiles the 50 greatest marketing thinkers in the world (2004); Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT-Madras (2005); creation of the Parasuraman Service Excellence Research Prize at Dubai's Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University to encourage academic research throughout the Middle East region (2008); Elsevier Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Marketing Advances (2009); honorary doctorate from Maastricht University, Netherlands (2011); Paul D. Converse Award for significant scholarly contributions to marketing (2012); Gil Churchill Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Research (2013); and AMA Higher Ed SIG's Lifetime Achievement Award (2018). He is also recognized by Clarivate Analytics/Web of Science as one of the world's most cited researchers for four consecutive years (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) in the "Economics & Business" category.

Thomas Leclercq

Thomas Leclercq is Associate Professor of Marketing at IESEG School of Management and Director of the Marketing and Sales Department. He received his PhD in Economics and Management from UCLouvain in 2017. His research focuses mainly on customer experience and service management.

Thomas Leclercq's research areas include customer experience and service management. His work on gamification has been published in numerous leading international journals, including Journal of Service Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Journal of Business Research.