Dr. Stephanie van de Sanden

Stephanie obtained her PhD in Applied Economics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in 2021. Her doctoral research focused on the optimization of digital signage communication in retail and service environments. Since then, she has held postdoctoral (senior research) positions at institutions including VUB, UHasselt, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Since 2022, she has been a guest professor in the Business Department at VUB, where she teaches Consumer Behavior and supervises master’s theses. She also teaches in the Executive Master in Digital Marketing and Sustainable Strategies at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. Previously, she served as Lecturer in Emerging Marketing Technologies at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (teaching in the Master Digital Driven Business and Minor AR/VR for Marketing Innovation) and as guest professor in marketing at KU Leuven (courseholder Research Methods 2; thesis supervision).

Her research focuses on how digital communication can be optimized to better inform and engage consumers in physical retail and service environments, with a particular emphasis on digital signage. She is also interested in understanding how retail technologies (e.g. social robots and immersive technologies) can be leveraged to create more relevant and meaningful customer experiences. Overall, her professional focus is on identifying the added value of technology in retail: when and why it works, how it should be implemented across customer contexts, and how it ultimately influences consumers’ perceptions and behavior as well as retail and service performance.

Currently, Stephanie works on an imec ICON research project that explores privacy-friendly, ethical personalization of digital signage in (semi-)public environments using cameras and AI, addressing the key tension between relevance and privacy by investigating when such personalization feels helpful and acceptable versus intrusive. Next, her research activities also involve examining how in-store technology can better support older consumers and improve their in-store experience (age-inclusive retail). Finally, she is also working on research that examines whether and to which extent integrating Virtual Reality (VR) and haptic feedback in the pre-purchase orientation stage can lead to more informed decisions.