Inaugural Address Yvonne van Everdingen
Yvonne's inaugural address took place in the Aula at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Woudestein Campus on Friday, 16 June 2023. 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 being used as an alternative to real-life experiences. She also discussed how VR could enhance existing research methodologies and showed three ways of conducting research with VR at the Erasmus Behavioural Lab.
About Yvonne van Everdingen
Yvonne van Everdingen is a Professor of Marketing and Innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Professor Van Everdingen is a member of the EUR Diversity Advisory Board at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and she is also a member of the Special Interest Group Virtual Reality (SIG VR) at the Erasmus Behavioral Lab. Further, over the past decades, she has developed a strong link with marketing practitioner organizations in The Netherlands, i.e., the NIMA and the MOA. Currently, she is chair of the jury for the yearly 'MOAward Insights Scientist of the Year' as well as the organizer and chair of the yearly 'MOA Symposium Topic of the Year'.
Her research interests include the international adoption and diffusion of new products, the use of new technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, for the development and marketing of new products, and the marketing of refurbished products. Her research has been published in the field’s leading scientific journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing Letters, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Economic Psychology.
Address
In this inaugural address, Yvonne discussed how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) could create value for companies, consumers, and society, by providing several examples from business practice.
In line with the increasing use of VR and AR in business, VR and AR are increasingly popular research domains in the marketing field, both as a focus of studies and as a new research tool. Yvonne shared some initial results of her AR and VR research. First, she shared some insights into the effect of consumers’ use of AR applications in online shopping on the reduction of product return rates. Further, she showed some first evidence that VR experiences have the potential to substitute real-life experiences, such as a theatre visit.
Next, she discussed how VR could improve current research methods, and showed three ways to conduct research with VR that were currently possible at the Erasmus Behavioral Lab. These methods were illustrated with examples from her current research projects or research that she highlighted as interesting future research.
View photos of Yvonne's Inaugural Address
Photos: Chris Gorzeman / Capital Images
