Marcel Verhoeven is a scientist in communication and media studies. After research and senior consultant positions in private enterprise communication research, he is currently employed as lecturer with a teaching and research assignment at the Institute of Competitiveness and Communication. Marcel Verhoeven teaches marketing and communication. He also teaches lectures and seminars at the University of Zurich in the fields of media content, production, management, industries and economics. In addition to these fields, his research interests include societal relevance of media entertainment, success factors of media products, media marketing and branding, public authorities’ communication and social media, crisis informatics and communication.

Education

• 2015-2019: PhD in Communication Science and Media Research, Division Media Economics and Management, University of Zurich. Supervising committee Prof. Dr. G. Siegert, Prof. Dr. M. B. von Rimscha.
• 2018: Certificate of advanced studies in higher education didactics.
• 2014-2016: Further education: qualitative comparative analysis (‘QCA’, statistical method); project management in the social sciences; scientific writing for the social sciences; teaching in English to non-native speakers.  
• 1988-1992: M.A. in Communication Science (major), Political Science, (minor), University of Amsterdam.
  

Employment history

• February 2020-to date: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Institute for Competitiveness and Communication. Lecturer and researcher in communication and marketing. researcher in communication.
• University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ). External lecturer.
• 2014-January 2020: University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), Division of Media Economics and Management. Research and teaching associate, postdoctoral research and teaching associate.
• 2001-2014: Publicom AG, Media Research and Consulting. Research consultant, senior consultant.
• 1997-2001: Owner/manager online shop CD & Vinyl

Teaching activities

• 2020 ongoing: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland School of Business, lecturer “Business Communication”.
• 2020 ongoing: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland School of Business, lecturer “Marketing”.
• 2019 ongoing: University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), lecturer “Media production and management”, mandatory BA lecture, German.
• 2015 ongoing: University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), Division of Media Economics and Management, lecturer “Development, production, content, distribution and reception of TV series”, MA and BA seminars in German and English.
• 2017-2018: University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), lecturer “Introduction to media economics”, mandatory BA lecture, German.

Consulting activities

• 2001-2014: Consulting based on research findings: reputation monitoring for international major banks and insurances, reputation and market analyses of media brands, program analysis and quality assurance examination of private radio channels by order of the Swiss Federal Office of Communications;

• 2020 ongoing: “Coronavirus in Switzerland: A Pandemic and an ‘Infodemic’. An analysis of the dissemination of public authorities’ information on the COVID-19 pandemic in social networks”. Role: research design, prime researcher, report author.
  The research project investigates the dissemination of public authorities’ information on COVID-19 in the Coronavirus-related content in social network communication, in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic. The social media data is collected with a sophisticated tool (Delta, Ubermetrics). Qualitative content analysis enables a comparison between input (public authorities’ messages) and output (user-generated content). In addition, the ‘’infodemic”-type content in Coronavirus-related contributions in social networks will be charted and analyzed.  Relevant topical findings and actionable insights for crisis communicators are to be formulated. Funding is pending, requests for grants are submitted.  
• 2017-2019: “Societal relevance as success factor of TV Series: The creators’ perception”. Role: all tasks, one-man project (PhD thesis project)
  Fictional TV series draw large audiences, are big business, and make up substantial shares of the program of broadcasters and of the audiences’ consumption. The format has to some observers acquired 'art' status and has to be perceived as one of the very few classical media formats that is increasingly successful. Mediation of messages in fiction is by many scholars regarded as highly effective. The production, content and messages of TV series are thus worthy of investigation. The data in this project consists of 39 in-depth interviews with European creators (writers/developers/producers/showrunners) of TV series. The deployed method is qualitative content analysis (inductive category development, deductive category application) of interview transcripts. The main research topics are societal relevance of TV series, i.e. mediation of socio-political and other (controversial) messages, and the systemic, institutional, organizational, and individual influences on decision making regarding the content of TV series. Based on the data of the research topics, as a third focal point, a typology of creators of TV series is introduced. The six ideal types of creators of TV series are 'The Audience Servant', 'The Messenger', 'The Crafter', 'The Paymaster Servant', 'The Artist', and 'The Salesperson'. The data collection was partly funded by SNSF. The execution and completion of the project was funded by the University of Zurich, IKMZ, Division of Media Economics and Management. 
• 2014-2016: “Markenorientierte Erfolgsfaktoren für ein transmediales Modell des Medienerfolgs“. Role: prime investigator, report author
  Success is now more than ever the holy grail of media industries. This research project investigates trans-medial success factors of media products/brands and consists of A) an extensive literature review, B) an explorative, qualitative study and C) an online survey. The qualitative study (B) bases on 39 in-depth interviews with decision makers of 20 media brands/products. Ten building blocks of media success were identified and assessed first qualitatively and then qualitative-quantitatively. The product-related meta-categories of success factors (building blocks of success) are content, form, marketing and distribution. The process-related blocks are human resources (HR), internal processes, leadership, environmental orientation, organization, and external evaluation. All were confirmed as valid and as hygiene factors (factors that help avoiding failure of a media product) across all media types. The qualitative-quantitative study (C) consists of an online survey of 255 media decision makers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The data were subjected to QCA (qualitative comparative analysis, a method that bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative analysis) to find out the most important success factors for media products. Four building blocks are necessary for success (form, distribution, HR, environmental orientation) and three combinations of intersecting blocks are found sufficient for success. Funded by SNSF, project 100018_152769.

Publications

• Verhoeven, M. (2019). Societal Relevance as Success Factor of TV Series: The Creators’ Perception. E-Dissertation, ZORA UZH.
  
• Verhoeven, M., Rimscha, M.B. von, Krebs, I., Siegert, G., & Sommer, C. (2017). Identifying paths to audience success of media products: The media decision-makers’ perspective. International journal on media management, 20, 51–77.
  
• Verhoeven, M., Oana, I. (2017). Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Audience Success of Media Product Brands: A field report on a two-step fsQCA with 10 conditions and 255 cases. Compasss.org.
  
• Sommer, C., Rimscha, M. B. von, Verhoeven, M., Krebs, I., & Siegert, G. (2016). Success factors of media product brands: Examining building blocks for success across different media types. In Research working papers.
  
• Verhoeven, M. (2016). A brief introduction to QCA. In: von Rimscha, M. B., Studer S., Puppis, M. (eds.). Methodische Zugänge zur Erforschung von Medienstrukturen, Medienorganisationen und Medienstrategien, pp. 173 – 196. Reihe Medienökonomie, Bd. 9. Baden-Baden. Nomos.
  
• Rimscha, M.B. von, Verhoeven, M., Krebs, I., Siegert, G., & Sommer, C. (2016). Patterns of successful media production. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 24(3), 251–268.
  

Conferences

• Verhoeven, Marcel (2019, June): Societal relevance as success factor of TV series: a typology of creators. Presentation, European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Media Management and Actionable Knowledge", Limassol, Cyprus.
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2018, October): Societal relevance as success factors of TV series: The European creators’ perception. Presentation and conference paper, ECREA Conference on "Centres and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation ", Lugano, Switzerland.
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2018, June): Societal relevance as success factor of TV series: a comparison across countries. Presentation, European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Media Management in the Age of Big Data and High-tech", Warsaw, Poland.
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2017, May): Influences of business models on content of TV series. Presentation, European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Value Creation in Media Markets: Business Models, Clusters and Ecosystems", Ghent, Belgium.
• Verhoeven, Marcel. Krebs, Isabelle (2017, May): Identifying paths to audience success of media products. Presentation, European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Value Creation in Media Markets: Business Models, Clusters and Ecosystems", Ghent, Belgium.
  
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2017, April). Societal relevance as success factor of TV series. Presentation and conference paper, SIFTI IAMCR Conference "Researching Media Companies Producing Audiovisual Content", Lillehammer, Norway.
• Verhoeven, Marcel, Krebs, Isabelle, von Rimscha, M. Bjørn, Sommer, Christoph & Siegert, Gabriele (2016, July): Paths to success for different kinds of media product brands. Presentation and conference paper, International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference on "Memory, Commemoration and Communication: Looking Back, Looking Forward" in Leicester, UK.
• Verhoeven, Marcel, Von Rimscha, M. Bjørn, Krebs, Isabelle, Sommer, Christoph & Siegert, Gabriele (2016, June): Paths to success of media brands. Presentation at European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Creativity, Coopetition and Uncertainty in Media" in Porto, Portugal.
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2016, June): Societal relevance as success factor of TV series. Presentation at European Media Management Association (emma) Conference on "Creativity, Coopetition and Uncertainty in Media" in Porto, Portugal
• Verhoeven, Marcel (2016, May): Influences on content of TV series. Presentation and conference paper, World Media Economics and Management Conference in New York, USA. 
• von Rimscha, M. Bjørn, Verhoeven, Marcel, Krebs, Isabelle, Sommer, Christoph & Siegert, Gabriele (2015, July): Patterns of successful media production. Presentation and conference paper, IAMCR conference in Montréal, Canada.
• Verhoeven, Marcel, Von Rimscha, M. Bjørn, Krebs, Isabelle, Sommer, Christoph & Siegert, Gabriele (2015, March): Konvergente Auswertung von divergenten Fällen. Ein Werkstattbericht. Presentation and paper, workshop: "Auswertung qualitativer Daten" in München, Germany.