Entrepreneurship and Startups

Trust plays a key role both in investors’ and entrepreneurs’ performances. It is built among others on a shared vision of entrepreneurship, as well as shared networks. In this interview, HEC Paris Professor Hélène Löning shares her expertise based on research and several studies about entrepreneurial ecosystems conducted with her students. She introduces the different relationship stages between investors and entrepreneurs, explains the consequences of shared images of entrepreneurship, and the business schools’ key role in building this relationship and its ability to innovate. To conclude, she emphasizes the notion of trust by explaining how it applies to investors and entrepreneurs.

Design thinking has been hailed as the latest strategy to gain a powerful competitive edge in both innovation and processes. But to be successful, it must involve a major cultural and organizational shift. Two researchers and Thales Chief Design Officer share the lessons from their analysis of bringing design thinking to technology giant Thales.

What we are experiencing is similar to an earthquake of strong magnitude. Everyone agrees that there will be a before and after Covid-19. Whilst this earthquake assails us all, we do have control of the choices and decisions to be made. These will determine how crippled or strengthened we will be by the end... As always in times of crisis there are losers and winners, the cards are redealt.

Fears about economic depression following the pandemic lead most entrepreneurs to restructure their company drastically in order to secure their cash and prevent future liquidity crises. Etienne Krieger, Associate Professor on the Education Track at HEC Paris, explains the main challenges for entrepreneurs when major economic crises occur and their room for manoeuvre in terms of operations and finance. Such crises paradoxically provide a unique opportunity to rethink business models.

For many people who have started their entrepreneurial adventure, the biggest challenge is to believe in yourself. Yet, for those who choose this path, confidence can also make the entrepreneur underestimate actual business risks, leading to fatal decisions. Researchers of HEC Paris Business School and Bocconi University offer a new explanation for why decision makers often appear too confident, and shed light on the consequences of this characteristic.

Researchers have investigated the effect of the transfer of intellectual property rights from researchers to employing universities, in the USA and in Europe. While the effect of this act is positive in the US (more production and therefore competitiveness), the effect is negative in Europe (fewer creations). Interview with Thomas Astebro, professor of entrepreneurship at HEC Paris.

Bernard Garrette, professor of strategy at HEC Paris, talks about his case study “Librinova: a startup for digital innovation in publishing” and about how he self-published his own fiction stories.