In description
Despite environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds gaining popularity, their impact on reducing negative externalities, such as greenhouse gas emissions, may be limited if not approached strategically. In our study, entitled “ESG Investing: How to Optimize Impact,” forthcoming in the Review of Financial Studies, we show that investment capital could actually influence the behavior of more highly polluting companies to drive positive change for the planet.
By Stefano Lovo , Augustin Landier
Over the past decades, HEC Paris Professor Bertrand Quélin has investigated public-private partnerships and sustainable cities. These partnerships and initiatives are essential to integrating social, economic, and environmental objectives while ensuring equitable access to resources and services.
By Bertrand Quélin
In Europe, nearly 80% of diaper packaging depicting a sleeping baby show unsafe sleeping positions – that’s the shocking finding from Professor Anne Laure Sellier of HEC Paris and her colleagues from across Europe.
By Anne Laure Sellier
Individual states and intergovernmental organizations increasingly use financial sanctions to punish or influence the behavior of targeted entities. However, a recent study by Matthias Efing of HEC Paris, Stefan Goldbach of Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany, and Volker Nitsch of CESifo and Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, shows that even universally adopted sanctions can distort bank capital flows and competition if they are not uniformly enforced.
By Matthias Efing
The linear “take-make-waste” business model is a recipe for killing the planet. With global circularity at 7.2 %, supply chains create enormous amounts of waste, a vital driver of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Recent research by Daniel Halbheer (HEC Paris) and his colleagues Stefan Buehler (University of St. Gallen) and Rachel Chen (UC Davis) shows how going circular by recycling end-of-life products can improve profit and reduce the corporate waste footprint.
By Daniel Halbheer
How long does it take to form a new habit, whether starting a yoga routine or flossing after brushing teeth? A wide-ranging study by Anastasia Buyalskaya from HEC Paris, Hung Ho of the University of Chicago, Xiaomin Li and Colin Camerer of California Institute of Technology, and Katherine L. Milkman and Angela L. Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania, applies machine learning to answer that question. Three key facts: Machine learning: The study uses large datasets and machine learning to uncover the diverse contextual variables influencing habit formation. Debunking the 21-days myth: There is actually not a fixed timeframe to establish new habits. Context matters: Certain variables had very little effect on the formation of a habit, whereas other factors turned out to matter a lot.
By Anastasia Buyalskaya
These days, workers at management consulting, investment banking, accounting, and law firms tend to be as interested in their career paths as they are in their salaries—which often means jumping from one firm to another in pursuit of better opportunities. But their career paths and motivation can be powerfully influenced by what sort of tasks an employer assigns to them. A study by Raphaël Lévy, Associate Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences at HEC Paris, and his colleague Heski Bar-Isaac, Professor in the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, explores how these firms’ task allocation strikes a balance between producing value for the business and offering workers opportunities to prove their talent. Three key findings: • “Lose it to use it”: To attract and motivate employees, employers sometimes sell their jobs as springboards to a great career even outside the firm. • Employees are motivated to perform when granted exposure on the labor market and when assigned to tasks allowing them to showcase their skills. • Different human resources policies coexist: some firms consent to high exposure to their employees to boost their professional advancement, others, more concerned with employee retention, offer flatter career paths.
By Raphaël Levy
Companies are increasingly encouraged, or obliged, to report on their sustainability efforts. However, there is little harmonization across the many sustainability standard-setting organizations. In their latest study, Accounting Professors Hervé Stolowy and Luc Paugam of HEC Paris set out to create a picture of the status of sustainability reporting standards today, and what they really mean. Three key findings: Lack of standards harmonization: A significant lack of harmonization in sustainability reporting standards pose challenges for consistent communication of companies' sustainability efforts. Diverse objectives: Standard-setting organizations have diverse objectives, complicating efforts to establish a globally standardized approach to sustainability reporting. Carbon emissions disclosure: One exception may be carbon emissions disclosure, with convergence in the greenhouse gas emission protocol being adopted by most organizations.
By Hervé Stolowy , Luc Paugam
As many as 83% of clinical trial results do not reach the public domain within one year of their trial end date (Anderson et al, 2015). Many never even make it at all. Why do so many pharmaceutical companies hesitate to disclose their (valuable) results? Could the behavior of their peers and competitors have something to do with it? To address these questions, a study on firms sponsoring clinical trials was carried out by Professor Vedran Capkun of HEC Paris, and his co-authors Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto, and Yin Wang, all from Singapore Management University.
By Vedran Capkun , Yin Wang
Most companies value the benefits of branding: customer loyalty, easier sales, premium pricing. But what does brand equity mean for the employee experience? How can businesses balance the advantages and possible drawbacks of strong brands? Dominique Rouziès, Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris, and colleagues Myriam Ertz of LaboNFC, at UQAC (Canada), and Emine Sarigöllu¨ of LaboNFC, at McGill University (Canada), set out to answer these questions by understanding the social mechanics driving employee attitudes towards their employer’s brands.
By Dominique Rouziès