Théophile Megali, PhD

Thank you for visiting my research webpage. Here is a short bio, I am:

Associate researcher at the Governance and Regulation Chair;
I hold a PhD in Management Science from PSL - Paris-Dauphine University - Dauphine Research in Management (UMR CNRS 7088). My supervisor was Pr. Eric Brousseau. I was also research Engineer (CIFRE ) for Orange Labs - SENSE lab (Sociology and Economics of Networks and Services). My supervisor was Dr. Kevin Mellet. I defended my PhD thesis in June 2020: you can find the final version of the dissertation online here ;
I work as a deputy head of department for the French Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM), on advertising issues and media economics.

As a researcher, I study the online advertising market and, more precisely, the way this market tends to be self-regulated by specific organizations like trade associations, metrics producers and standard-setters. I address these issues through case studies (e.g. ad-blocking, data quality) and pay attention to the practices of the market actors. My theoretical approach is connecting economic sociology and competition dynamics.

Topics : advertising, digital marketing, environmental impact of advertising, self-regulation, trade associations, standards .

Before starting my PhD in October 2016 at Orange Labs, I worked for one year in the field of public affairs for a main French renewable energy producer (ENGIE). I graduated from Sciences Po Strasbourg (Master in Economic and Regulatory Law) and I hold a Master of Business, Competition and Regulatory Law (LL.M.) from the Freie Universität Berlin and a Master in Digital Economics and Network Industries (IREN) from Paris-Dauphine.

Conferences & communications

"La publicité numérique : organisation du marché et enjeux d’autorégulation", Séminaire "Capitalisme numérique et idéologies", Centre Internet et Société - CNRS, Déc. 2021.
"Plateformes, Ciblage, Privacy : les chantiers de la publicité numérique responsable", Séminaire académique de la Chaire Good In Tech (Sciences Po & Institut Mines-Télécom), Sept. 2021. Replay.
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 2019 (SASE) - New York (USA);
Instiutional and Organizational Economics Academy 2019 (IOEA) - Cargese (Corsica, France).
Workshop on Meta-, Macro-, Partial Organizations (MMPO)- Toulouse School of Management - May 2019 - Toulouse (France);
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 2018 (SASE) - Kyoto (Japan);
Instiutional and Organizational Economics Academy 2018 (IOEA) - Cargese (Corsica, France);
Colloque "Marques, Publicité et Création Audiovisuelle" organized by Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle University, IRCAV & IRMECCEN - 8th & 9th february 2018 - Paris (France);
Instiutional and Organizational Economics Academy 2017 (IOEA) - Cargese (Corsica, France).

Publications and works in progress

(EN) Megali (2022). Digital Platforms as Members of Meta-Organizations: A Case Study of the Online Advertising Market. M@n@gement, 25(2), 10–26. https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.v25.4196 (Generalist Management Journal, Rank 2 CNRS) ;
(FR + EN) Les données de la publicité numérique : de l’accumulation à la redéfinition de la valeur et des pratiques. Enjeux Numériques - Annales des Mines. N°18 - 06/2022. English version available.
"Le marché publicitaire numérique à l'ère des plateformes" - Note pour la Chaire Gouvernance et Régulation - Décembre 2021 + vidéo de présentation ;
(EN) Megali T. & Quinn M. (2021) Does Quality Really Matter? Exploring Data Quality Assessment in the French Online Advertising Market. GovReg Working Paper Series. w/ Dr. Martin Quinn (Assistant professor, Rotterdam Business School, Erasmus University).
(FR) Blog article on the environmental impact of programmatic advertising. Académie des Controverses et de la Communication Sensible (November 2020).
(FR + EN) PhD dissertation (available online): A demand for regulations : Investigating the online advertising market and its self-regulation. Defended in June 2020. Université Paris-Dauphine / Paris Sciences & Lettres.
(FR) Press article for The Conversation France & La Tribune : "Pollution numérique : manifeste pour une sobriété publicitaire". Following this press article, I was interviewed for a Radio broadcast on France Inter "La Terre au Carré" (3rd Sep. 2019 - interview starting from 45'45").
(FR+EN) Research article for Orange : "L'ad-blocking, ou les effets d'aubaine des infrastructures numériques" / "The Ad-blocking phenomenon and the opportunities of digital infrastructures" ;
(FR) Communication : "Good ads, bad ads. Retour sur la controverse autour du blocage de la publicité en ligne" - Colloque "Marque, Publicité et Création Audiovisuelle" (2018, forthcoming publication);
(FR) Research paper for Orange on the strategic issues of ad-blocking + blog post (2018).

Teaching :

> Introductory courses in economics for law students - Master in Economic and Regulatory Law (Science-Po Strasbourg) - since 2019 :

Network economics and regulation;
Digital economics and regulation ;

> Course on "Digital Advertising" - Master in Media, Communication and Sports (Université Paris 2-Panthéon Assas) - since 2022 ;

For any further information, you can contact me by mail: theophile.megali[at]gmail.com or via LinkedIn.