Social Innovation

November 04th, 2022

Nudging Luxury Consumers to Contribute to Charity

Many luxury brands have engaged in corporate social responsibility by linking products to a charitable cause. But altruism is at odds with the materialistic motivations to purchase fancy watches or handbags. So how do luxury brands overcome the paradox and get their clients to engage in charitable giving? Find out in this new study by HEC Paris Marketing Professor L. J. Shrum and PhD Sukhyun Kim, and Kiwan Park of Seoul National University.

By L. J. Shrum

Social Innovation

March 23rd, 2022

2 minutes

Alenvi Case: How a Purposeful Strategy Could Combine Profits and Social Impact

The case study on Alenvi, by HEC Paris graduate Léa Veiga-Planells and Strategy Professor Laurence Lehmann-Ortega, demonstrates how managerial innovation enables a business model to be reinvented in a mature and non-digitized sector and to assess the role that business purpose can play in shaping company's strategy.

Professor (Education Track)

Strategy and Business Policy

Social Innovation

December 10th, 2021

3 minutes

Composting Household Biowaste: Can the Private Sector Reconcile Ecological Concerns with Financial Viability?

Climate change and agricultural soils degradation are two of the leading environmental challenges the world currently faces. A universally agreed-upon solution is developing more circular patterns in supply chains to minimize the negative ecological impact of human activities potentially. In that regard, waste management can play a significant part in countries' sustainability strategies.

Social Innovation

December 09th, 2021

Professor Quélin on New eBook on SMART Cities

Just days after the conclusion of the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona, HEC Paris Bouygues Professor Bertrand Quélin and SASI Master's graduate Isaac Smadja publish a key study of six award-winning smart cities across the globe. The 238-page eBook is the result of a partnership between Bouygues and HEC in the context of the school’s Smart City & the Common Good Chair. We exchange informally with Professor Quélin about the advantages of, and challenges to, tomorrow’s cities.

Smart City and the Common Good Chair Professor

Strategy and Business Policy

Social Innovation

November 04th, 2021

Renault’s Project ‘Mobilize’ Case Study

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.

Professor

Strategy and Business Policy

Social Innovation

October 19th, 2021

Schneider Electric’s Pay-As-You-Go Solar Home Systems Fund in Kenya

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.

Associate Professor

Accounting and Management Control

Social Innovation

September 14th, 2021

3 minutes

Veolia’s Eau du Grand Lyon: Orchestrating a Social Ecosystem in a Community Around Water Distribution

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.

Smart City and the Common Good Chair Professor

Strategy and Business Policy

Social Innovation

May 05th, 2021

3 minutes

Best Buy Case: How Does Purposeful Leadership Impact Performance?

The case study “Purposeful Leadership at Best Buy” written by Rodolphe Durand, HEC Paris Professor of Strategy and holder of the Joly Family Purposeful Leadership Chair, has just been released on the Case Centre platform. This case study aims to better understand the characteristics of “Purposeful Leadership” and to identify the conditions of success to impact positively the performance of a company.

Professor

Strategy and Business Policy

Social Innovation

March 25th, 2021

Why Activist Hedge Funds Target Socially Responsible Firms, and How Executives and Investors Can Counteract Them

Danone’s CEO had to leave his position under the pressure of increasingly powerful and influential activist hedge funds. With their controversial tactics aimed at maximizing shareholder profit, they undermine sustainability practices, which they consider wasteful. Indeed, not only do they tend to suppress the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of the companies they target, they also target companies with stronger CSR records in the first place, as a new study reveals. But its authors Mark DesJardine, Rodolphe Durand, and Emilio Marti also show that these companies can divert the attention of activist hedge funds, and that policymakers and socially minded investors can intervene, too.

By Mark Desjardine , Rodolphe Durand

Social Innovation

February 04th, 2021

6 minutes

Yes, Social Entrepreneurship Training Works

Social entrepreneurship is characterized by a deep commitment to a social cause and the desire to develop new business models with economic, social, and ecological impacts. But can people be trained to become better at social entrepreneurship? HEC Paris Professors Thomas Åstebro and Florian Hoos found that social entrepreneurship training works, but only if carefully designed.

By Thomas Åstebro , Florian Hoos