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Writing a good dissertation or thesis

The learning center team is at your disposal to assist you in your documentary research via our research assistance service ..

Identifying your project

Taking the time to define the right topic is a very important step in the essay process. With the answers to the 3QPOC questions, you will be able to extract the concepts that will define your subject. Mind maps can also help you to have an overview of your project. In addition, it is essential to review existing research. This should allow you to see if there is enough material to address your topic, if its scope is realistic, and if anyone has already answered your question.

The Learning Center has student papers that have been awarded an A or B grade and are not confidential. From our search portal, select "HEC PhD Theses" or "HEC Dissertations and theses"  in the tab "New items-selections".

Preparing your research

To begin, make a list of keywords using dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, manuals, etc. Break down each concept into a series of keywords, search for synonyms or equivalent terms. Once you have defined all your keywords, we recommend that you use Boolean operators to filter the results, combining or excluding specific words from your search "(AND/ET, NOT/SAUF, OR/OU)".

You can conduct your research using the Learning Center's resources (databases, news articles, journals, books and ebooks, dissertations and theses).

Managing your bibliographic references

Citation management software allows you to keep a database of the sources you use (books, journal articles, websites, etc.) when doing research. You can then select them when you cite your sources in your written work and automatically produce bibliographies from the citations you have included.

The Learning Center offers an article on the use of citation management software: Zotero.

Writing your bibliography

The bibliography is a very important part of your thesis. It allows you to confirm your knowledge of the subject and to recognize the people behind the ideas you have developed in your research. It also allows the reader of your work to deepen it by identifying the documents you have consulted.

The Learning Center has produced a guide to help you build your bibliography in a consistent and standardized way.

Citing bibliographic references

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own without acknowledging the source. Thus, when writing your dissertation or thesis, it is important to indicate the various sources that were used to fuel your thinking. Even when summarizing or paraphrasing information found in books, articles or web pages, you must credit the original author.

To assist you in this process, the Learning Center provides a document on plagiarism and how to cite your sources. 

The School honours the remarkable research work of 2023

Awards and prizes for the msc program and the phd program.

May 8, 2024

The MSc in Administration program and the PhD in Administration program presented the best doctoral thesis award, the best Master’s thesis award, and the Esdras Minville Award for 2023, during a ceremony held at Le Cercle on April 30.

3 awards were given for the best doctoral thesis defended in 2023:

• Best thesis in Human and Social Sciences : Théophile Demazure , under the co-supervision of Professors Pierre-Majorique Léger and Marc Fredette.
• Best thesis in Natural Sciences : Mehran Poursoltani , under the co-supervision of Professors Erick Delage and Angelos Georghiou.
• Best thesis written in French : Mireille Mercier-Roy , under the supervision of Professor Chantale Mailhot.

The best Master’s thesis award was presented to Laurie-Anne St-Pierre whose thesis entitled “ L’effet du quartier; une analyse de la microgéographie des processus d’échange de connaissances ” was co-supervised by Professors David Doloreux and Anthony Frigon.

Lastly, the 2023 Esdras Minville Award was presented to Xin Wang for an article that was accepted for publication in Transportation Science .

A $2,000 prize was awarded to the winner of the best Master’s thesis award, and a $3,000 prize was awarded to the other winners.

Théophile Demazure

Theophile Demazure’s PhD thesis is entitled: “ Dual Perspective on Mental State Inferences in Human-Computer Interaction: A three-essay thesis proposal ”.

It explores various methodologies for assessing mental state constructs of Information Systems users during Human-Machine Interaction (HMI).

Several challenges related to estimating these mental states were identified, by adopting the NeuroIS approach. This in-depth research proposes two distinct approaches for addressing them: the first one utilizes a data-driven methodology, employing advanced machine learning techniques for mental state decoding, and the second one takes a more hypothetico-deductive perspective and draws on the current understanding of multisensory integration and its interplay with attention.

By adopting both these methodologies, this thesis contributes to advancing the field of NeuroIS and the measure of mental state during IS use.

Consult Théophile Demazure’s thesis

From left to right: Pierre-Majorique Léger, Théophile Demazure, Camille Grange and Guy Paré

Mehran poursoltani.

Mehran Poursoltani’s thesis is entitled “ Regret Minimization in Multistage Decision Problems ” and explores the concept of regret minimization from a computational perspective for multistage decision contexts.

Through this research work, the author was able to develop novel modeling paradigms, advance solution methods and identify an interesting phenomenon in the contexts of inventory, routing, and financial portfolio management.

Despite computational challenges, this thesis proposes algorithmic approaches based on robust optimization to address these problems and apply them to various practical areas like inventory management, portfolio selection and the shortest path problem.

Consult Mehran Poursoltani’s thesis

From left to right: Erick Delage, Mehran Poursoltani and Guy Paré

Mireille mercier-roy.

Mireille Mercier-Roy’s thesis is entitled “ L’organisation des relations multiespèces au temps de l’Anthropocène – Une approche compositionniste ”.

Consisting of two scientific articles, this research work focuses on the organizational challenges linked to the involvement of other species, particularly animal species, which are conducive to the complexification of management efforts.

The author critiques the anthropocentric nature of conceptual frameworks in organizational studies. As a result, she relies on the work of philosophers Donna Haraway and Vinciane Despret to formulate a research approach that better accounts for the presence and participation of other species, particularly animal species, in organizational processes.

She thus develops a perspective that she calls “compositionist”. This considers organizations as multispecies communities and shifts the focus away from humans and their doings, thus offering an alternative for understanding and managing interactions between different living entities.

The author illustrates this approach by reconceptualizing grand challenges as processes of arbitration between modes of existence and by analyzing a controversy over the management of an urban park to highlight the political work and organizational dynamics and define the modalities of inclusion and exclusion of species in the shared space.

Consult Mireille Mercier-Roy’s thesis

From left to right: Chantale Mailhot, Mireille Mercier-Roy, Jean-François Soublière and Guy Paré

Laurie-anne st-pierre.

Laurie-Anne St-Pierre’s Master’s thesis is entitled “ L’effet du quartier; une analyse de la microgéographie des processus d’échange de connaissances ”.

This research deals with the role of microgeography in knowledge exchanges, focusing on two Montréal neighbourhoods, Mile-End and Chabanel. The comparative study seeks to understand the role of the neighbourhood and geographical proximity in bringing together different stakeholders and promoting exchanges. Its purpose is also to explore how third places in neighbourhoods promote knowledge exchanges between actors from different industries.

Consult Laurie-Anne St-Pierre’s Master’s thesis

From left to right: David Doloreux, Laurie-Anne St-Pierre, Charlotte Cloutier and Sihem Taboubi

The paper, which is co-authored by Xin Wang and Professors Erick Delage and Okan Arslan, is entitled “ Crowdkeeping in Last-mile Delivery ”. It was published in Transportation Science.

In order to improve the efficiency of the last-mile delivery system when customers are possibly absent for deliveries, the research team advocates the idea of employing the crowd to work as keepers and to provide storage services for their neighbours. Crowdkeepers provide extra flexibility, more availability, and lower costs than fixed storages such as automated lockers and improve the overall efficiency of the delivery system. A bi-level program is proposed to optimize the assignment, routing, and pricing decisions, while considering customer preferences, keeper behaviors, and operational efficiency.

Results based on a real-world dataset from Amazon show that the crowdkeeping delivery system has the potential to generate higher profits due to its ability to consolidate deliveries and to eliminate failed deliveries.

Consult Xin Wang’s article

From left to right: Erick Delage, Xin Wang and Guy Paré

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HEC Partners Harvard Business Publishing Education for Case Studies

HEC Paris and Harvard Business Publishing Education (HBP Education) have signed a new collaboration to increase the school’s visibility through its case studies. HEC joins an elite group of institutions distributing cases globally through the HBP Education catalog .

HEC Paris Partners with Harvard Business Publishing Education to distribute quality cases

HBP Education, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, serves as a bridge between academia and enterprises through its reach into academic, corporate, and consumer markets. " This is just the beginning of a most fruitful relationship ,” said HBP co-president Ellen Desmarais at the April 23 signing ceremony in the HEC Alumni Association headquarters. " Our partnership provides so many opportunities to work together, to innovate together, and to think about this future together ,” she continued. HEC Paris is one of the very few case partners providing both French and English cases, which is helping HBP Education better serve its global audience of students and educators. Other major business schools partnering HBP include Wharton and INSEAD.   HEC Dean of Research Andrea Masini declared: “ This partnership tells our professors that writing case studies is absolutely vital not only because it has an impact on the pedagogy but also on the international visibility of the school .”    Associate Dean for Pedagogy, Anne Michaut thanked HBP Education for their help in the past two years: “ Collaboration between the two has been instrumental in refining case methodologies and identifying relevant topics. The partnership continues to unveil new opportunities for collaboration and growth .”

The collaboration between HEC and Harvard will continue to be instrumental in helping academics in case methodologies and identifying topics deemed relevant for students on all continents. The Co-president of the American not-for-profit organization, Ellen Desmarais, cited the example of cases in citizenship: “ One of the things we are hearing more and more from deans around the world is that they believe it's important for students to learn how to be true citizens of the world and think about the global context and global environment. Case studies on this subject can have a huge impact ." Professor Michaut praised the quality of dialogue between her business school and HBP Education: “ I want to thank you for pushing us to put in place a process to support our faculty in case writing for publication . As Andrea Masini said, it increases our visibility tremendously and encourages quality exchange between faculty members .” Michaut went on to thank the work achieved in instigating the partnership by HEC’s Ioana Helou and Mala Banerjee . 

Also present at the ceremony were HBP Education’s senior director EMEA & Asia Pacific, Gabriela Allmi, and the publication editors Stefaan Van Waes and David Champion. HEC’s 50 case studies are scheduled to go online before the 2024 summer break.