On August 21, 2026, Lisa Baiwir will publicly defend her thesis entitled:

"The engagement paradox: when technology design generates dysfunctional consumer engagement and well-being costs"

at 15:00 at HEC Liège, Classroom number 0/86 (N1d Building)

To attend the defense, please register here

Jury Members

• Prof. Willem Standaert (HEC Liège, President of the Jury)
• Prof. Matthew Alexander, University of Strathclyde
• Prof. Thomas Leclercq, IESEG School of Management
• Prof. Wafa Hammedi,  University of Namur
• Prof. Laurence Dessart (HEC Liège, Supervisor)
• Prof. Cécile Delcourt (HEC Liège, Supervisor)

Summary

Engaging consumers has become a central objective in contemporary marketing practice, largely explained by its established benefits for firms (e.g., loyalty, purchase frequency). Given this practical importance, consumer engagement has emerged as a consistent priority of marketing research scholarship. Yet, while recent research has taken an interest in the dark side of engagement, it has largely focused on negative manifestations from the firm's perspective, leaving the consumer experience of dysfunctional consumer engagement and its well-being costs undertheorized. The overarching objective is thus to advance understanding of consumer engagement by examining dysfunctional manifestations, the conditions that facilitate their development, and the associated well-being costs.
This dissertation introduces dysfunctional consumer engagement, conceptualized as a process in which consumers' dispositions to invest resources in their interactions with connected actors in a service system deviate from the functional assumptions of genuine and bounded resource investment, generating well-being costs across ecosystem levels. Using a multi-study, mixed-methods design grounded in the self-tracking context, the dissertation identifies two manifestations of dysfunctional consumer engagement. Over-engagement is characterized by resource investment that exceeds functional boundaries, violating the assumption of bounded engagement. Faked engagement behaviors are deliberate actions through which actors distort the resources they display toward a focal object, violating the assumption of genuine engagement.
Dysfunctional consumer engagement emerges through the interplay of technology affordances and individual and contextual factors, generating well-being costs across ecosystem levels. At the individual level, these include negative affect (e.g., frustration, stress) and limited self-realization (e.g., self-esteem pressures). Beyond the individual, dysfunctional consumer engagement recalibrates social norms and evaluative standards, whose consequences diffuse into broader marketplace and societal logics. Critically, dysfunctional consumer engagement operates through a self-reinforcing cycle: well-being costs recalibrate technology design and social norms, thereby sustaining further dysfunctional consumer engagement. These findings reflect the engagement paradox: while engagement is designed to create value for actors, it can simultaneously manifest in a vicious cycle.
Taken together, these findings extend consumer engagement theory by formally establishing dysfunctional consumer engagement as a construct, opening a broad and fruitful area of inquiry for future research. For practitioners, these findings urge a shift away from strategies designed and evaluated around engagement maximization, toward engagement for the collective good and societal well-being. Finally, the well-being costs documented here produce systemic harm that risks intensifying over time, positioning dysfunctional consumer engagement as a governance challenge requiring coordinated responses from regulators, policymakers, and educators.