Monday, 1/12/2026
The School of Economics, Management and Political Science at the University of Minho (EEG) is proud to announce that Simão Nuno Almeida de Soares Machado, a student on the PhD programme in Marketing and Strategy, presented his doctoral thesis entitled "Studying Work-family conflict and burnout: Insights on Value Co-Creation in Sales‘, on 7 January 2026.
In the author's words:
’This study, anchored in the theory of value co-creation, analyses how Burnout, Work-Family Conflict (WFC) and Customer Orientation influence the ability of salespeople to co-create value with customers in the real estate sector. Recognising that sales professionals operate under high professional and personal demands, the research seeks to understand how these psychological and emotional pressures affect the well-being of salespeople and, consequently, the relational processes central to commercial activity. The study adopted a quantitative approach, based on a survey of 131 sales professionals in the real estate sector in Portugal.
The results show that CTF — more than family-work conflict — and Burnout are important inhibitors of value co-creation. Additionally, Customer Orientation emerges as a central mechanism, mediating the relationship between Burnout and Value Co-creation, by allowing customer-centred behaviours to mitigate the negative effects of psychological exhaustion. These results contribute to the literature by integrating psychological well-being into studies on sales and value co-creation, while also offering relevant practical implications for organisations seeking to promote lasting customer relationships and greater resilience in sales teams subject to high pressure.”
The doctoral thesis was supervised by José Carlos Martins Rodrigues Pinho, Professor in the Department of Management at the School of Economics, Management and Political Science at the University of Minho.
EEG congratulates Simão Machado on his defence and wishes him every professional and personal success!
Gabinete de Comunicação
Escola de Economia, Gestão e Ciência Política
Universidade do Minho
Telefone: 253 604 541
Email: gci@eeg.uminho.pt
