Written by Carolina Cuervo-Robert, Ph.D. candidate at Toulouse School of Management (France)
Delphine Dion, full professor at ESSEC and recently appointed Associate Editor (AE) at IJRM talks about her path to becoming an AE, how she brings her own perspective to this new role, and her excitement about the ever-changing landscape in academic publishing.
Aligning perspectives
Delphine’s path to becoming an AE has been a mix of different elements: expertise, extensive peer reviewing, and a commitment to advancing science. For her, this trajectory was possible only through an alignment of perspectives.
At a practical level, she has skilfully found convergence between her research interests and professional opportunities. By focusing on topics that inspire her—such as luxury and environmental transitions—she has cultivated meaningful collaborations and established herself as a respected author and reviewer in her field.
On a deeper level, Delphine has achieved alignment between her guiding principles and the diverse activities that define an academic career: teaching, research, and reviewing.
One of her guiding principles is fostering fresh ideas and new perspectives through critical thinking:
“For me, what's central to research and teaching, and to my participation in the life of the school, is the idea of critical thinking. Whether it's stimulating students, colleagues, or authors."
Delphine Dion
However, critical thinking is only meaningful when it’s supported with constructive encouragement. Particularly when it comes to reviewing, she mentions that reviewers should take a supporting role—one of enabling authors to refine their work without discouraging their unique vision.
As she puts it,
“A good reviewer is someone who accompanies a paper, seeking to understand and invest in it, not criticize for the sake of criticizing.”
Delphine Dion
The role of the Associate Editor
Transitioning from a reviewer to an AE opened new dimensions for Delphine. No longer working in isolation, she found herself immersed in the collaborative dynamics of synthesizing diverse perspectives from reviewers. She appreciates the unique challenge of finding common ground or understanding divergences among reviewers’ feedback, which informs her recommendations to authors.
“It’s a transition from a very solitary job to near teamwork, where we have to draw on each other's expertise and opinions to formulate our recommendations, which I find extremely enriching.”
Delphine Dion
An AE’s job, in her view, isn’t to dictate or impose but to guide authors while respecting their ownership of their work. Her approach is marked by transparency—always providing actionable suggestions, explaining decisions thoroughly, and, even in cases of rejection, ensuring authors receive constructive feedback to advance their research.
A fresh perspective on reviewing
Delphine’s experience as a reviewer shapes her perspective on the reviewing process. She views it as undervalued labour—often behind the scenes, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating. Her innovative response to this is rooted in personalization. Beyond the standard messages that journals send, she takes the extra step to individually thank reviewers, highlighting the aspects she values in their work.
In her own words:
“I think it's important to put a little human touch back into this relationship and to personalize it, otherwise reviewers receive a formatted message sent by a platform.”
Delphine Dion
Her gratitude extends to journals like IJRM, which acknowledges reviewer contributions through awards, inspiring her to consider more ways to recognize this crucial yet often invisible work.
New horizons in academic publication
Becoming an AE at IJRM was a first for Delphine, but she has welcomed the opportunity to make a deeper impact. Her experiences at IJRM, characterized by precise and timely reviewing processes, fuelled her motivation to foster a culture of respect and efficiency. She also embraces emerging trends like registered reports, viewing them as promising avenues for reducing stress for early-career researchers and encouraging innovative approaches to research.
Words of advice
I couldn’t finish the interview with Delphine without asking her what advice she would give to authors aiming to publish in IJRM. For authors hoping to publish in IJRM, Delphine’s advice is simple: don’t hesitate to try.
“The advice for me is to try. Sometimes authors censor themselves and don't dare send to certain journals. To me, IJRM is a journal that's capable of accepting ideas that are sometimes at odds with what you can read or write, so I think you should try."
Delphine Dion
Meet Delphine Dion
If you could retain only one concept in marketing, what would it be?
There's one theme that drives me, and it’s the issue of climate change and that's what I'd like to focus on. It's not a marketing concept, but I think it's really important and we need to focus our energy and efforts on understanding current consumption patterns because they are not sustainable in the long term. We need to question the role of marketing in consumption practices, global warming, the erosion of biodiversity, and the depletion of natural resources. It's not a question of moving from the “more with less” approach promoted by sustainable marketing to a “less is more” approach, but rather of showing the limits of sustainable marketing approaches and thinking about alternative ways of developing prosperity without growth. So, I don't really have a marketing concept to hold on to, but rather an objective that's close to my heart.
If you were not a marketing researcher, what would you be?
I can't imagine a career other than research and teaching. However, I'd have liked to be a researcher in other human sciences like sociology or anthropology. But I would also have liked to be a biology researcher, particularly to study the effects of climate change on ecosystems. What drives me is understanding. So, it's reading and learning to try to develop new understandings of the phenomena that surround me; and then being able to share this, [this] is what drives me. For me, being a professor meant being in a library, and I still go to libraries a lot. We've got great libraries in Paris, and I'll immerse myself in the midst of very old manuscripts and it gives me a breath of fresh air, it gives me a very particular inspiration that I really enjoy.
This article was written by
Carolina Cuervo-Robert
Ph.D. candidate at Toulouse School of Management (France)
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