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Our research was supposed to shed some light into this domain. Did you have any problem doing this work? Felix: To be honest, not really. There were no “big” problems because Jorge and I had weekly meetings and so he supported me a lot and directed the study in the “right direction”. However, gathering the data was a bit difficult, because we collected data from Germany and Spain and since I don’t have social media, it was a little bit hard to reach a lot of users in Germany. Have you advanced in the project after receiving the Award? Felix: No, not in this project. We started to ellaborate on the PhDwith a new topic, however, a little bit related to that one in terms of consumer behavior in a “digital era”. Jorge: In general termswe are analyzing consumer behavior in the new economy. In particular, consumer behavior related to digital platforms or services enabled by the new economy such as, e.g. Glovo, Deliveroo, and UberEats. We have continued with the idea of the digital consumers but from a different perspective. Regarding the master thesis, it was more about analyzing why people are feeling engaged with this kind of platforms, and if they are willing to use them in the future. The truth nowadays is that our students are hoping to arrive home and turn on Netflix etc. They are super engaged with the brands. With the PhD, we want to discover now what engages them to use platforms like Glovo etc. and we think this research is going to have a really good impact, especially because it incorporates moral perspectives. . Why? Jorge: More people are using this delivery apps and they are expanding quickly to new markets/countries. And what we are doing with this is promoting labor practices imposed on riders that are unethical: E.g., the riders are working from eight to sixteen hours a day (of course depends on the rider) and have no health insurance… people consider this as immoral and they don’t like it, nevertheless, at the same time, they use the application for their own convenience. People apply cognitive mechanisms that are called moral rationalization / moral decoupling. For instance, moral decoupling addresses the separation of moral judgments of the company and the evaluation of the service performance of the company. People can feel like: “Yes, those imposed labor practices are immoral, however, at the same time the services provide me with a lot of convenience” Felix: It is connected with the idea that we are mentally dissociating. Hence, we can feel comfortable with ourselves because I'm saying “they are doing something that is immoral and that is bad, but at the same time I'm saying this service is very good. They bring me food to my place every Friday night at 11:00pm.” What has meant to you winning the Pare Gil award? It was very positive. I didn't expect it. I felt happy because it kind of confirmed all the efforts you put into the research and also the ongoing support of Jorge and the time he dedicated for me and the project. Winning this award is at least 50% on him. How do you imagine your professional future? Felix: For the moment I am working on my PhD together with Jorge and Ramon Palau .After that I am quite sure that I want to work in the industry/free economy. For now, I can see myself in market research or in consultancy. But in the end, you never know where you going to end up. 15 AIQS News 85 En profunditat En profundidad In depth