PhD : Immersive Tech & Consumer

Welcome to Maastricht University!
Are you interested in how Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), together with AI and new multisensory technologies, are transforming how consumers engage with services in experience-based industries such as food service, hospitality, and retail?

We invite applications for a PhD position on this topic, focused on learning about immersive technologies with multisensory and AI-enabled experiences. You take a user-centric, social science perspective to study how organizations can design and effectively implement these next-gen immersive technologies in highly experiential service contexts to improve consumer value, decision-making, and well-being.

PhD Candidate:
Next-gen Consumer Experiences with Immersive Technologies

• Our goal:Understand how immersive technologies shape consumer experiences and decision-making.
• Your colleagues: As a PhD candidate, you will join a collaborative and interdisciplinary research team working on immersive technologies and digital experiences. The supervisors and research environment will provide:
  
  • Close supervision and mentoring throughout the PhD project
  
  • Access to state-of-the-art immersive research facilities
  
  • Opportunities to collaborate with researchers and industry partners through the LIT Network
  
  • Support for publishing research and presenting at international conferences
  
  • Training through the University’s doctoral program and opportunities to develop teaching experience

You will be employed at the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. The PhD project is conducted in collaboration with Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and positioned within a joint university initiative called the Limburg Immersive Technologies (LIT) Network. You will be supervised byProf. Dr. Dominik Mahr, Dr. Tim Hilken, Dr. Jonas Heller (UM), and Dr.

Danny Dai-In Han (Zuyd). In the PhD project, youwill:

• Study how immersive technologies can be used to design and stage service interactions in highly experiential contexts such as food service, hospitality, and retail.
• Investigate the immersive experiences afforded by different media and devices, such as wearable AR/VR headsets or a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE).
• Examine howmultisensory elements in AR/VR (visual, sound, touch, and smell) as well as integrated AI agents influence consumer value, decision-making, and well-being.
• Conduct lab experiments and field studies with AR/VR technologies and consumersin service settings such as food service, hospitality and retail to establish effects on consumer perceptions, thoughts, emotions, choices and other behaviors.

Research environment

You will conduct your research in two research labs equipped with

AR/VR devices as well as a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). These lab environments are continuously evolving through collaboration with technology development partners. Together, these labs provide a unique infrastructure for conducting bothlab and field studies.

• DEXLab (Maastricht University School of Business and Economics)

The PhD position is also embedded in a regional impact initiative called theLimburg Immersive Technologies (LIT) Network, which connects researchers, industry partners, and public organizations working on immersive technologies. This setting allows you to combine academic research with real-world experimentation together with regional partners and contributes to innovation in the regional ecosystem.

Specific Activities

• Conducting research studies with human participants in AR, VR, and CAVE environments
• Collecting and analyzing behavioral, survey, qualitative, and/or performance data
• Supporting the management and operation of the research facilities, including lab operations and communication activities related toDEXLab and the FXL Food Experience Lab
• Contributing to activities within theLIT Network, including collaboration with partners and involvement in funded research and innovation projects
• Publishing in peer-reviewed journals and presenting findings at international conferences
• Writing and completing aPhD dissertation within four years
• Teaching business…