News > 2013 > Lorenzo Bizzi wins the Mercure Award for the best doctoral thesis of 2012

Lorenzo Bizzi wins the Mercure Award for the best doctoral thesis of 2012

May 16, 2013

At the award ceremony for different HEC Montréal program departments on April 17, Lorenzo Bizzi was presented with the MercureLorenzo_Bizzi Award for the best doctoral thesis of 2012, along with a cash prize of $3,000. He was one of 15 PhD graduates from 2012, including the seven finalists.

Directed by Ann Langley, Professor (Management) and holder of Canada Research Chair in Strategic Management in Pluralistic Settings, Lorenzo’s thesis is entitled Social Networks and Job Design: Merging Relational and Proactive Perspectives. It deals with the relationship between job design, social networks, proactive behaviour (job crafting) and performance in organizations. He studied the communication networks in two quite dissimilar Quebec companies. The thesis is innovative in several respects. First of all, it proposes a new theoretical approach by using communication networks to identify the relational character of job design. It also presents a new measurement tool that can be used to capture its proactive dimension. The thesis is also based on a solid empirical study that draws on a sizeable data collection in the field and uses multilevel analysis.

The jury for the Mercure Award consisted of three HEC Montréal professors, who prefer to remain anonymous. They considered the quality of the thesis, its contributions and impact (awards and scholarships won by the candidate, publications, lectures, employment after graduation, grants, etc.) and its publication potential.

This doctoral thesis led to four articles in prestigious journals: Journal of Management, Industrial Marketing Management, British Journal of Management and Strategic Organization (the latter two for articles co-written with Professor Giuseppe Soda of Università Bocconi, in Italy).

In 2007, Lorenzo won an Academy of Management Best Reviewer Award and, in 2006, the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec granted him a merit scholarship for international students (PBEEE). In 2004, Università Bocconi presented him with its Laera award for the best Master’s thesis in human resources organization and management and its magna cum laude gold medal. Lorenzo is currently an Assistant Professor at California State University Fullerton.

 

Our congratulations to Lorenzo and to the other finalists for the Mercure Award for the best doctoral thesis of 2012!

 

Diego AMAYA, Trois essais en méthodes numériques appliquées à la finance

Director: Geneviève Gauthier

 

Pablo ANDRÉS-DOMENECH, Three Essays on Sustainable Forest Management

Co-Directors: Georges Zaccour and Guiomar Martín-Herrán (University of Valladolid, Spain)

 

Leandro C. COELHO, Flexibility and Consistency in Inventory-Routing

Co-Directors: Jean-François Cordeau and Gilbert Laporte

 

Jean-François LALONDE, Entrepreneuriat arabe, cultures et équipes entrepreneuriales multiethniques

Director: Alain Chanlat

 

Marcos PEREIRA FERNANDES DE BARROS, L'évolution de s pratiques dans les Centres de la petite enfance : entre institutionnalisation et résistance innovatrice

Director: Christiane Demers

 

Mélanie ROUSSY, Une typologie des rôles et de stratégies de gestion de rôles conflictuels : l'auditeur interne dans un contexte d'organisations gouvernementales québécoises

Director: Danielle Morin