Erasmus PhD Programmes in Business and Management

In his dissertation, 'Asymmetric Information in Programmatic Advertising.
Three studies on adverse selection, mechanism choices, and fee structures.', ERIM's Francesco Balocco delved into the world of programmatic advertising supply chain, where he investigated the role of asymmetric information in the relationships between advertisers (buyers), publishers (sellers), and Ad Exchanges (auction platforms). Through three studies, Francesco’s research addressed the complexities of asymmetric information, conflicting incentives, and mechanism choices existing within programmatic advertising - opening up new avenues for improving the programmatic advertising supply chain, fostering greater trust, and shaping the future of digital advertising.

In her inaugural address, The Reality of a Virtual World Creating Value for Companies, Consumers, and Society, ERIM’s Yvonne van Everdingen delved into how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can create value for companies, consumers, and society, by providing several examples from business practice. The increasing adoption of VR and AR in the business realm has propelled these technologies to gain more traction in the field of marketing, both as a focus of studies and as a new research tool. Yvonne's research has sparked some insights into how consumers’ application of AR in online shopping may potentially reduce product return rates and provided initial evidence suggesting the possibility of VR experiences to substitute real-life experiences. She also addressed how VR could enhance existing research methodologies and showed three ways of conducting research with VR at the Erasmus Behavioural Lab.