Meet Michael Antioco, a Dean of Faculty & Research who thrives on learning and nurturing talent

Born in Brussels, he easily claims to be of ‘European nationality’, having grown up in an Italian-British household, in other words a pure product of the EEC (European Economic Community, the forerunner of today's European Union). From this rich background, shaped by diverse influences, Michael developed from an early age a deep interest in others and an ability to seek out and engage with what was unfamiliar to him, synthesizing these experiences to foster personal growth.

The first full-scale test of this character trait came during his Master's degree in Business Science, when he spent a year as an exchange student in Tokyo. ‘Alongside the university programme, I worked for a company that sold educational materials and language courses, particularly English’, he explains. ‘So I had a triple immersion experience: personal, academic and professional. It was a decisive year for the rest of my career’.

Back in Belgium, Michael continued and completed his Masters at UCLouvain, with a research project on the Japanese market's appetite for a molecule capable of detecting cancer. He found a clear interest in making the link between the classroom and real-life business issues, an approach he would apply for the rest of his professional life.

He was then offered a position at the Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Netherlands, to begin a doctorate co-funded by Philips' medical imaging division. However, Michael didn’t settle for just one new environment; he seized the opportunity to spend several months at the prestigious Purdue University in the United States as a visiting researcher. Once again, the immersion was manifold and extremely enriching, both intellectually and personally. In 2006, he completed his thesis in Marketing: "Service Orientations of Manufacturing Companies: Impact on New Product Success". ‘I have very fond memories of my doctoral years,’ he says. ‘The close relationship between academia and business in the Netherlands really cemented in me the belief that research should be rooted in reality and should seek to have an impact. I also learnt a lot from the Dutch approach: a culture of consensus, a very direct style of communication and a management style that is more horizontal than vertical.’

Michael arrived in France in 2006, when he took up his first teaching post in Marketing at the IESEG School of Management in Lille. To his great surprise, after Japan, the Netherlands and the United States, it was the French context that was to provoke a culture shock: ‘The omnipresence of hierarchy, a rather top-down management style, very structured communication, with a lot of codes: it took me several months to find the right rhythm and adapt’, he confides.

Once he was up and running, Michael began research into the issues of innovation, business model change and brand extension, which led to publications in international journals (1). In particular, he studies the visual communication of beauty products (2), healthcare marketing (3) and the conditions for consumer adoption of new technology (4).

He is frequently asked by his students to explore the luxury sector, which has undergone a transformative revolution at the turn of the 2010s. ‘Post the economic crisis of 2008, the sector was at a turning point and brands, particularly French ones, were beginning to review their strategies in order to win over new audiences while retaining their uniqueness’, he comments. ‘It was also a period of accelerating concentration in large groups, with the rise to power of LVMH and PPR (now Kering).’ An ideal field for marketing research and teaching, which he has never left since.

Michael joined EDHEC in 2013 and, barely a year after his arrival, became Head of the Marketing Department. A position he will hold until his first appointment as Dean of Faculty and Research in 2021.

‘Research accounts for 20% of the school's budget. The Dean of Faculty and Research is therefore at the heart of EDHEC's value proposition. We have to organise and drive the creation of knowledge, structure and deliver teaching, and develop and control the impact of our activities. It's a mission with a lot at stake and a lot of challenges, but that's what makes it so exciting,’ he explains. ‘To navigate these different issues, you have to be constantly open to innovation and discussion, in a sector where supporting change is very important: you can't impose anything on a Faculty! You must know how to communicate a strategy, explain it clearly, not be afraid to make difficult, even unpopular decisions, and know how to set a direction without being inflexible or rigid. Every day, I look for the right balance, trying to maintain guidelines that everyone can relate to’.

This balancing act has propelled Michael into the world of top management, this time as an active participant rather than an observer.

On the eve of his second term, he is already drawing valuable lessons from this experience: ‘I have learnt the strength of the collective and the power of complementarity, but also that you can be demanding while having a collaborative management style. It takes a lot of energy to get people to commit to a mission, but you can be committed to excellence without becoming an autocrat. I've also learnt that you need to leave time between a question and an answer, especially for decisions that have a big impact. Finally, I'm convinced that you need to know how to surround yourself with people who share a common set of values. This enables us to resolve almost any situation, and to build together on the basis of a common language.’

Will we see him in this position again in 10 years' time? By then he may have embarked on a career as an international bridge player (his No. 1 hobby, inherited from his grandmother), or become a successful author (when he finishes the novel he started two years ago...). What is certain is that by then he will have recruited and integrated over 100 professors and researchers in 4 years as part of EDHEC's ‘Generations 2050’ strategic plan. This is clearly not the Dean's last challenge...

Key Dates

Since 2021 : Dean of Faculty and Research, EDHEC Business School

2014-2020: Director of the Marketing Department, EDHEC Business School

Since 2013: Professor of Marketing, EDHEC Business School, Lille

2010-2013: Associate Professor of Marketing, EMLYON Business School, Lyon & Shanghai

2006-2010: Assistant Professor then Associate Professor in Marketing, IESEG School of Management, Lille

2002-2006: PhD in Marketing & Innovation Studies, University of Eindhoven (Netherlands)

2004-2005: Visiting Scholar, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana (United States)

2001-2002: Master's degree (DEA) in Business Science, Université Catholique de Louvain

1996-2001: Master in Business Science, Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

1999-2000: Academic exchange, Sophia University, Tokyo (Japan)

To know more about Michael Antioco

• Visit his EDHEC Business School webpage
• Go to his Research Gate profile
• Visit his LinkedIn profile

References

(1) To view his publications, go to Michael Antioco's Researchgate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Antioco

(2) Michael Antioco, Dirk Smeesters, Aline Le Boedec. Take Your Pick: Kate Moss or the Girl Next Door? The Effectiveness of Cosmetics Advertising (2012). Journal of Advertising Research - https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-52-1-015-030

(3) Adam Lindgreen, Martin K. Hingley & Michael Antioco. Value Marketing in the Health Care Industry (2011). Journal of Marketing Management; Pages 199-206 - https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.545668

(4) Michael Antioco, Mirella Kleijnen. Consumer adoption of technological innovations: Effects of psychological and functional barriers in a lack of content versus a presence of content situation (2010). European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 44 No. 11/12, pp. 1700-1724. - https://doi.org/10.1108/03090561011079846