Corporate finance

Mobilize, Renault’s affordable car project case, written by HEC Paris Professor Olivier Chatain, has just been released on the Case Centre platform. This case study explores how an automobile manufacturer creates an ecosystem to provide affordable mobility solutions for those in the suburban areas in France. 

Schneider Electric’s pay-as-you-go solar home systems fund in Kenya case, written by HEC Paris Professor Luc Paugam and Sookyoung Lee of HEC Paris S&O Institute has just been released on the Case Centre platform. This case study explores the concept of hybrid organization, which blurs traditional boundaries between nonprofit and for-profit organizations, reconciling profit motives with community needs. 

Should I take this job? Will this new experience help me to get a promotion in future, or will I waste my time trying to master something that I am not good at? Those are questions that one would ask if proposed a job in another functional unit. Cross-functional transitions (moves between different functional units within an organization) may seem useful to boost one’s career, but what is better for long-term career advancement: to specialize or to diversify?

A new study developed by Thomas Åstebro, Professor of Entrepreneurship at HEC Paris, finds that the number of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms using artificial intelligence has increased dramatically in the past decade. The study claims that while increasing efficiency overall, AI will also change deal-making processes and destroy junior-level jobs. This article summarizes the article, ‘An Inside Peek at AI Use in Private Equity’, published in the Journal of Financial Data Science (Summer 2021, jfds.2021.1.067) with Portfolio Management Research (PMR).

The September 26 federal elections in Germany have been earmarked as one of its most important in the past two decades. For a start, it signals the end of Angela Merkel’s tenure as Chancellor, after 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. To comment on this landmark vote, its uncertain outcome, and economic outlook, we turn to Armin Steinbach, HEC professor in law and economics. Steinbach is ideally placed to comment: prior to his September arrival at our business school, he spent over a decade as a government official and adviser in the Ministries of Finance and of Economic Affairs and Germany’s Parliament.

Innovation thrives in teams where diverse thinking is not only encouraged but proactively encouraged. Gender diverse teams are shown to have improved performance. Despite the evidence demonstrating the impact of diversity, we still witness mixed reactions to gender diverse teams with the situation exacerbated following the pandemic. As organizations are rebuilding after the initial waves of the pandemic, we focus on why gender diversity needs to be at the heart of this transformation.

On September 7, El Salvador became the world’s first nation to make the cryptocurrency bitcoin legal tender across the country. This bold initiative from the tiny Central American state is dissected by HEC Paris Professor in Finance Bruno Biais, who has written several top research papers on cryptocurrency.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many households started to invest in the stock market expecting to pick the winning stocks and to take advantage of the high volatility. This phenomenon has been possible thanks to the development of trading applications such as Robinhood, which provides individual investors with the opportunity to buy and sell stocks easily. Because most individual investors do not have sufficient time and financial skills, they need to find relevant information to pick stocks. While some of them use social networks such as Twitter, Stocktwits or the WallStreetBets discussions on Reddit, other investors rely on the Wall Street gurus. Is that really a good idea to listen to them?

Veolia’s Eau du Grand Lyon case, written by HEC Paris Professor Bertrand V. Quélin, Bouygues Chair Professor in Smart City and the Common Good, and Anicet Fangwa, HEC Paris Ph.D. candidate, has just been released on the Case Centre platform. This case study explores how a company might reconcile profit motives with the greater needs of a community’s inhabitants.