MBA Thesis – Choice of subject
I’ve been asked about my thesis so many times by my entourage that I’ve decided to make a blog section about it. An added benefit to keeping a blog makes tracking progress easier, and gives the opportunity to practice explaining the somewhat complex nature of this multi-disciplinary thesis.
Lets start by some context.
I am in my final year in ESC Lille, and students are required to turn in a memoire, or thesis. There are no constraints on topics, other than they have to be somewhat relevant to our MBA.
When I worked at Intalio last year, I often asked myself why people would trust a press release when they wouldn’t advertising. I came to realize that the third party element, that added to the checks and balances of the law, was probably the reason. It filtered outlandish claims and acted as an arbiter, or so one would naturally assume. But the issue of trust and credibility remains. Will we ever stop trusting reviews we find on the Internet?
Having read Amot Zahavi’s The Handicap Principle, I was drawn in by the opportunity to re-establish trust in marketing through Honest Signaling. That is, how does nature coordinate mutually distrusting individuals into efficient situations through communication? And how can we adapt these techniques for sales and marketing?
I chose to study this in my thesis; create a toolbox for the advanced marketer to make credible marketing.