On the morning of July 5, 2024, Associate Professor Wei Ruiqi from EMLYON Business School, France, was invited to give an academic lecture titled "Contract Ambiguity, Psychological Contract Patterns, and Customer Engagement in Vendor Product Innovation" in the Lecture Hall 214 of the School of Management at Northwestern Polytechnical University. This lecture was the 16th session of the 2024 Overseas Lecture Series at the School of Management, chaired by Professor Chang Yu, with participation from faculty and graduate students of the School of Management.

During the lecture, Wei Ruiqi shared the latest research findings, exploring the situation of ambiguous contract terms in the B2B market and analyzing how contract ambiguity affects customer engagement in vendor product innovation. Combining both survey and experimental methods, the research demonstrated a U-shaped relationship between contract ambiguity and customer engagement in product innovation with suppliers. This effect is partly attributed to the different psychological contract patterns perceived by customers under varying degrees of contract ambiguity. The study further indicates that the impact of contract ambiguity on customer engagement depends on mechanisms that may reshape customers' views of the contract, including goal alignment and reward systems provided by the supplier.

During the interactive session, Wei Ruiqi engaged in extensive and enthusiastic exchanges with the faculty and students of the School of Management. Teachers and students actively participated in the discussion, and the atmosphere was lively. The lecture was informative and provided many academic research insights for the faculty and students, from which everyone benefited greatly.

[Written by Zhai Yuhang, Reviewed by Shao Jing and Zhang Shuang]

Introduction to the Speaker:

Wei Ruiqi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Marketing at EMLYON Business School. His research interests are concentrated on B2B marketing and digital technology within B2B contexts. His scholarly work has been published in leading marketing journals, including Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. He has served as a guest editor for special issues of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, a member of the editorial review board for the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He has been an expert group member for the European Commission's project on "Future Vision of B2B Online Platforms," an expert group member for the APEC Bio-Circular Green Economy Model project, and a member of the Business 20 (G20 Business Summit) Digital Transformation Working Group. He has taught marketing courses in Lyon, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dublin, Ireland, covering areas such as marketing management, B2B marketing, relationship marketing, digital marketing, and international marketing, and has supervised doctoral and master's research projects.