Entrepreneurship and Startups

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.

In this interview with Knowledge@HEC, a dozen of professors and Ph.D. students from HEC Paris share the key findings of their latest research on diversity and inclusion. They also share insights for managing one’s career in challenging contexts and give analysis on how education and the new generations can change the workplace culture.

The image of a Falcon rocket topped by the Crew Dragon capsule designed and manufactured by private company SpaceX as part of a NASA mission, has struck world public opinion in May 2020. Like its landing in the Gulf of Mexico a few weeks later, in early August. It illustrates the profound changes that have affected the space industry in recent years. In this article, Professor of international business law Lucien Rapp describes the transformation of the space industry and the strategies developed to enter the space market, as well as the challenges of its privatization for the future of the industry.

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.

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.

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.

A shortage of jobs in Senegal means people are forced to fend for themselves to generate their own income. This “survival entrepreneurship” could be a unique opportunity for the country, however, if used as a catalyst to create SMEs with the capacity to develop long-term activities. Pauline Lebas and Elisabeth Gaydon surveyed a wide range of actors in an attempt to map out the key issues and challenges facing entrepreneurs in Senegal, decompartmentalizing hitherto closed worlds in the process.