Time is a scarce and valuable resource for individuals, and reducing the duration of waiting time provides opportunity benefits. Understanding individual preferences for waiting time is important for predicting behaviors in many time-consuming and useless activities (e.g., transportation, queuing, waiting rooms in hospitals, etc.). Moreover, better knowledge of individual behavior towards waiting time is key to designing the improved organization of the activities. Our main research questions concern the shape of individual preferences towards waiting time and the induced properties of two routinely-used measures of it, the value of time (VOT) and the value of reliability (VOR). In most of the literature, waiting time is viewed as a non-market private bad (i.e., waiting time is unpleasant), and the decision maker (DM) has well-defined preferences over both consumption and (possibly random) waiting time. Our research questions concern the shape of the DM’s preferences towards waiting time and the induced properties of the VOT and the VOR when several components from behavioral economics or quality concerns are accounted for. Yet, several elements can impair the relationship between value and preferences predicted by the standard Beckerian theory. First, quality matters, especially the influence of reference points or the nature and the source of uncertainty. Secondly, the quality of the waiting time has been largely neglected in both theoretical and empirical literature, and we wish to close this gap. To answer our research questions, we would mainly rely on incentivized and controlled laboratory experiments and non-incentivized online experiments and will use theoretical investigations as a guide for those empirical settings. Third, because the results may have specific implications for transport policy and, more generally, for a better understanding of individual preferences and behavior involving waiting time, we aim to investigate how new welfare measures can be built upon the improved definition of VOT and VOR.

Both globally and within France, the Covid-19 crisis has created substantial and diverse challenges for population health, children’s education, social interactions and the economy, specifically as it relates to small businesses owned and operated by entrepreneurs. Concerning this last point, small businesses – representing 99.9% of companies in France (https://www.economie.gouv.fr/cedef/chiffres-cles-des-pme) – have been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Small businesses in B2C industries have been particularly affected, specifically those that are “store-based” and can no longer welcome customers into their stores due to administrative closures, lockdowns, curfews and subsequent hygiene constraints. The small businesses that today are either closed or in real difficulty are mainly hotels, restaurants, bars and fitness centers. Some are totally independent establishments, while others are chain-affiliated (e.g., to a franchise chain or a cooperative chain). All these businesses are very important to the French economy in terms of dynamism, sales, employment, etc. In this project, we focus on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on hotels, restaurants, bars and fitness centers, specifically in terms of entrepreneurial fear of failure, i.e., a “negative affective reaction based in cognitive appraisals of the potential for failure in the uncertain and ambiguous context of entrepreneurship” (Cacciotti et al., 2020, p. 1). Our main research objective is to better understand and assess this entrepreneurial fear of failure in terms of dimensions (e.g., cognition, affect), antecedents (personal, business, institutional characteristics) and consequences (negative and positive) in the specific context of the Covid-19 crisis. We will build on the nascent literature on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on entrepreneurs (e.g., Pantano et al., 2020; Papadopoulos et al., 2020), the literature on crisis management in the entrepreneurial context (e.g., Doern, 2014; Herbane, 2010), the literature stream that has focused on crisis management in the tourism sector (e.g., Paraskevas and Altinay, 2013) and the literature on entrepreneurial fear of failure (e.g., Cacciotti et al., 2016; Cacciotti et al., 2020; Cacciotti and Hayton, 2015). A more detailed literature review during the first month of the project will allow us to design the articulation of several theories and their extensions, among which are achievement motivation theory (McClelland, 1961), cognitive appraisal theory (Lazarus, 1966), the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998) and coping theory (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). [Task 1] To answer this research objective, the data has to be collected quickly (before the end of summer 2021), while most of these entrepreneurs’ small businesses are totally (e.g., fitness centers) or partly closed (e.g., restaurants), or with low levels of activity (e.g., hotels). This research project is based on two empirical studies conducted in the French market (one qualitative [Task 2], the other quantitative [Task 3]). It will contribute to the research and practice [Task 4]. The research team, led by Dr. Rozenn Perrigot, includes eight researchers from three different research centers: the Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM UMR CNRS 6211) – research center jointly supported by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the University of Rennes 1 and the University of Caen Normandy; the Institute for Research in Organizational Management (IRGO EA 4190) – University of Bordeaux; and the Institute for Research in Management and Economics (IREGE EA 2426).

In the field of sexuality and women's health, a growing number of applications are presented by their designer as birth control devices, where women can enter data about their menstrual cycles. No less than 250 period tracking apps are available in Google's Play Store. Studying these apps is nowadays crucial : after 2012 – 2013 controversies related to the health risks associated with 3rd and 4th generation pills, the lost of trust in the pill seems to be a motivation for women to start using these apps as a way to better understand – and control – their body. Chemical hormones are being abandoned by several women in favor of other technologies. For example, Natural Cycle is a period tracking app that claims to be “as effective as the pill but using only mathematics”. Does data-science appear « more reliable » or « more natural » for users, compared to pharmaceutical science ? However, these apps harvest heterogeneous data which can be medical, social, physiological, psychological, sexual or linked to daily lifestyle. Indeed, the intimate data of users are at the heart of those apps' business model and their design encourages users to fill in as much data as possible, as frequently as possible. In addition to privacy and data security risks, in the US, several apps have been accused of sharing users' health data with social media, insurers and employers. With the recent threats on abortion rights, many activists have been calling on women to remove these apps from their smartphones. Nevertheless, women explain that they still use these apps because they benefit from dashboards and advice, and use them to make sense of their body, to make choices about their fertility, sexuality and health, and to organize their daily life. As data are at the heart of both economic processes (for companies) and sense making process (for women), how does a digital technology based on the collection and visualization of intimate data shape the gendered body experience of users?

This project addresses the issue of social separatism and its consequences on the dynamics of inequality. This fundamental research is mostly related to Axis 3 “Spaces and Inequality Places” of the ANR program “Métamorphoses des sociétés: Inégalités-Inégalité”. It also addresses a number of issues of the thematical Axes 2, 4 and 5. We tackle these issues from an economic analysis perspective and develop a theoretical as well as an empirical analysis. Precisely, the research program is organized in 5 tasks, Tasks 1 and 2 being mainly theoretical and Tasks 3, 4, 5 corresponding to the empirical analysis. Task 1 opens the black box of social interactions by considering that the influence of group membership is mediated through social norms and networks. Task 2 tackles the issue of the impact of fiscal policy on social stratification. Task 3 is dedicated to the empirical study of the determinants of economic choices made by some segments of the population affected by segregation. We will use the survey Trajectoires et Origines (TeO) carried out jointly by INED and INSEE. Task 4 deals with the issue of student assignment mechanisms and their consequences on social mixing at school. It will proceed by simulating the effect of particular student assignment mechanisms on social mixing using data from Parisian primary schools. In Task 5, we plan to conduct laboratory experiments in order to identify some discrimination mechanisms and their consequences on social stratification. All these tasks will involve joint works. The team consists of 11 researchers. Finally, the team has not benefited from any external funding to develop this research.

The main goal of the project is to explore ways to improve the competitiveness of supply chains thanks to a better integration of logistical and financial decisions. This implies a decompartmentalization between supply chain and financial departments of the company and between the stakeholders in the chain (externalities / synergies). In this perspective of functional and organizational transversality, the objective is to design an analytical framework and management tools for the supply chains, their individual links and, if necessary, their stakeholders. Two main questions will be addressed: how do financial aspects affect logistical and tactical decisions both at the level of the members and the chain as a whole? What collaborations for optimizing financing and control of financial risks in the supply chain? In the first question, we want to show that the integration of financial risks and flows into the decision-making process (planning, location) is of particular interest at the managerial level. In terms of tactical planning, the potential for research development is very important to introduce the financial dimension while taking into account more realistic production processes, to take account of collaborative relationships between actors and to integrate financial risks. In term of location, our main research question will be to know how the introduction of financial factors in the multi-actors models of Supply Chain Network Design modifies the decisions of location in space or their staggering in time. The objective of the second question is to propose the most appropriate financing methods and their optimal combination within a supply chain. This implies taking into account both the impact of financial decisions on logistical choices and their consequences on other members of the chain. In this broad perspective, we wish not only to analyze the relevance of existing financing methods (commercial and banking finance) but also to explore the possibility of developing new financing methods (concept of Supply Chain Finance). As the financial cost is mainly linked to the risk of the companies and the chain as a whole, we will study the impact of different types of risks: financial risks (credit and liquidity risks linked to commercial loans, foreign exchange risk, etc.), structural risks (concentration, asymmetry of information) and logistical risks on the choice of optimal financial structure. As the financial decisions and risks of the different members of the chain are interconnected, individual optimization does not lead to optimization of channel funding. Our objective is therefore to explore the most relevant modes of financial collaboration. Our objective is also to ensure the operationalization of our work, transfer and interaction with stakeholders in the food sector. The objective is not to provide an answer to a specific problem of the company but, on the one hand, to inspire our theoretical reflection (for example, taking into account specific constraints of food chains such as perishability, constrained upstream flow, etc.), and, on the other hand, to compare our theoretical results with industrial practices.