PhD Block seminars
The HEC Paris PhD Program offers an attractive series of block seminars open to PhD students from all over the world.
Every year, in spring we offer PhD Block Seminars for PhD students from other universities. They sit in the classroom together with HEC PhD students.
Each Seminar offers PhD-level training, typically about current research trends and frontiers in specialized topics.
Duration: 18h, one week (4 to 5 days), between April & July.
Credits: 3 ECTS
Number of seats: Max. 15 participants to ensure quality interaction.
Tuition: 900€ (Participants from HEC Paris Academic Partners: 50% discount).
Location: These courses are on-site at the HEC Paris, Campus Jouy en Josas, Access.
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How to Apply:
If you are interested by joining a course please submit your:
- CV
- Personal statement (max one page) which includes your current research interests (thesis topic) and contact details of your thesis supervisor
by email to Hailee Tindale from the PhD Office at tindale@hec.fr
Application Deadline: Approximately one month before the course begins, as most courses require preparation in advance. Please note that admissions are handled on a rolling basis, and applications may be declined if the course reaches full capacity.
Admissions Decision: 1 week after submission of the application.
Campus Services: On-campus housing possibility according to availability
Any questions? Write to tindale@hec.fr
Topic: A First Course in Accounting Theory (18h/3 ECTS credits)
Dates: June 29 – July 3, 2026
Instructor: Jeremy Bertomeu, Associate Professor of Accounting at Washington University in St Louis
Jeremy Bertomeu’s research specialization is in financial accounting, in particular, the valuation implications of the primary financial statements such as the balance sheet, the income statement, the statement of cash flows and the statement of stockholders' equity. His research aims at understanding the trade-offs involved in implementing more efficient accounting choices, and empirically measuring the degree to which these trade-offs require regulatory action. Jeremy received a Eugene Lang Fellowship 2014-2015 and a PSC CUNY grant 2013 – 2017 from the City University of New York. He also received an Alexander Henderson Dissertation Award in 2008, a Center for Applied Research and Technology grant in 2007 – 2008 and a William Larimer Mellon Ph.D Fellowship in 2003 – 2006 from Carnegie Mellon University. He earned an MSc in Finance from HEC Paris, France and a License Mathematics from the University of Besançon, France in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Read more about Jeremy here.
Course description
This course introduces accounting theory and the relevant mathematical methods used in this area. Throughout the course, we will discuss the main core models and develop several applications based on recently published literature in the field. The course will be aimed at both students primarily interested in theory and students who intend to focus on empirical methods. We will discuss a broad sample of the tools commonly used in theoretical papers and, at the end of the course, you should be able to replicate most published papers or formulate different sets of assumptions to approach a particular research problem. Many of the models covered in class offer testable predictions and we shall spend some time discussing the implications on real behavior implied by models.
Programme Schedule (subject to change)
Monday 29 June
10h30 - 12h30
13:30 - 15:30
Tuesday 30 June
10h30 - 12h30
13h30 - 15h30
Wednesday 1 July
10:30 - 12:30
13:30 - 15:30
Thursday 2 July
10:30 - 12:30
13:30 - 15:30
Friday 3 July
10:30 - 12:30
How to Apply:
If you are interested by joining us please submit your:
- CV (résumé)
- Personal statement (max one page) which includes your current research interests (thesis topic) and contact details of your thesis supervisor.
to Hailee Tindale, tindale@hec.fr
Application deadline: 23 May 2026.
Topic: Institutional Analysis: Individuals, Organizations, and Societies (18h/3 ECTS credits)
Dates: June 15-19, 2026
Instructor
Patricia Thornton, Visiting Distinguished Professor, HEC, Paris Strategy, Regents Grand Challenge Faculty and Professor of Sociology and Entrepreneurship, and Adjunct Professor of Management at Texas A&M University. Her research interests focus on how institutions and organizations affect attention and behavioral strategy in three domains, innovation and entrepreneurship, inclusiveness and diversity, and the solution to grand challenges.
Course description
This seminar has 3 goals, 1) to guide students’ familiarity with central research on institutional theory, in particular the institutional logics perspective, 2) to teach the social science of how theory grows so as to understand how to analytically, (not descriptively) evaluate and make a theoretical contribution, and 3) to provide an opportunity to begin work on an original idea for a publishable research paper or dissertation proposal.
Institutional theory is an interdisciplinary field. We will focus on a sociological approach which is mainstream in management and strategy compared to other approaches. We focus on the institutional logics perspective as the most recent perspective in studying the effects of the institutional environment on strategic reasoning and decision making. The institutional logics perspective is a metatheory, meaning the influence of institutional logics mediate other concepts and theories in sociology, management, strategy, public policy, entrepreneurship, and other domains. We examine how and why existing theory may be conditioned by differences in institutional logics.
Schedule (subject to change)
Monday June 15
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h00
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 16h00
Tuesday June 16
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h00
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 16h00
Wednesday June 17
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h00
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 16h00
Thursday June 18
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h00
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 16h00
Friday June 19
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h00
How to Apply
If you are interested by joining us please submit your:
- CV (résumé)
- Personal statement (max one page) which includes your current research interests (thesis topic) and contact details of your thesis supervisor.
to Hailee Tindale, tindale@hec.fr
Application deadline: 14 May 2026
Topic: Corporate Purpose: Defining and researching it (18h/3 ECTS credits)
Dates: April 13 - 16, 2026
Instructor
Rodolphe Durand is the Joly Family Professor of Purposeful Leadership at HEC-Paris and the founder of the Sustainability and Organizations Institute (S&O) which he launched in 2009. Over the past decade, he was Visiting Professor at UCLA (Anderson), Oxford University (Said Business School), New York University (Stern Business School), London Business School, and Cambridge University (Judge Business School), and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School. As a scholar, Rodolphe’s primary research interests concern the normative and cognitive dimensions of firms' performance, and especially the consequences for firms of identifying and coping with the current major environmental and social challenges. Why do organizations supersede rivals? Can Corporate Social Responsibility bring an advantage to firms and diffuse in markets? How and why does a firm’s purpose provide economic advantages? For his work on these questions that integrate multiple research streams, Rodolphe received the American Sociological Association’s R. Scott Award in 2005, the European Academy of Management/Imagination Lab Award for Innovative Scholarship in 2010, was inducted Fellow of the Strategic Management Society in 2014, and granted a Doctor Honoris Causa from UC Louvain in 2019. As a board member, purpose committee member, and advisor, Rodolphe works with multiple organizations on developing, implementing, and assessing impact strategies that value a firm’s purpose and intangible assets. Read more about Professor Durand here.
Course description (subject to change)
The aim of this seminar is to reflect on the recent expansion of research around corporate purpose. This collection of articles points to corporate purpose as a legal, social, cognitive, and strategic construction. Depending on the core definition of corporate purpose, different research questions can be asked and solved –or not. It is the aim of this seminar to acquaint participants with some of the issues around corporate purpose definition and development using several lenses to examine the advantages (and potential disadvantages) accruing to firms who state and implement a corporate purpose.
Programme schedule (subject to change)
Monday April 13
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h30
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 17h00
Tuesday April 14
Morning session: 09h30 - 12h00
Wednesday April 15
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h30
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 17h00
Thursday April 16
Morning session: 10h00 - 12h30
Afternoon session: 14h00 - 16h00
How to Apply
If you are interested by joining us please submit your:
- CV (résumé)
- Personal statement (max one page) which includes your current research interests (thesis topic) and contact details of your thesis supervisor.
to Hailee Tindale, tindale@hec.fr
Application deadline: 13th March 2026