Knowledge@HEC: Recent Episodes
HEC Paris
Grasp today’s economic, social and business issues with research and analysis brought to you by our HEC Paris Business School Professors. Widen your perspectives with recognized experts from different disciplines through a series of talks. Expanding knowledge, Enhancing responsibility: this is our engagement to our podcast listeners.
In this special Books episode of Breakthroughs, five HEC Paris academics share the works that nudged, shook or sharpened the way they think about research: Seungah Sarah Lee with Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson; Olivier Darmouni with Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson; Quirin Fleckenstein with Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; Michelangelo Rossi with Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Power of Experiments by Michael Luca and Max Bazerman; and Brian Hill with Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. From nationalism and public capacity to behavioral economics, experiments and the human stakes of exchange, the episode is a reminder that research sometimes begins when a book makes a familiar question feel strange again.
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Universities are often seen as neutral places of learning. But are they becoming actors in their own right? In this episode of Breakthroughs, HEC Paris researcher Seungah Sarah Lee explores how geopolitics, student mobility, global rankings, and emerging South-South cooperation are reshaping higher education. Drawing on studies covering more than 500 universities across 89 countries, she discusses soft power, the dominance of the US model of financing, China's growing academic influence, the future geography of internationalization, and why the spread of university fundraising owes more to professional networks than to market forces alone. Could universities become one of the defining instruments of global influence in the twenty-first century?
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Has there always been only two genders? Or have there been societies, including in the Western world, where additional genders were recognized? A recent study by Matteo Winkler shows that many cultures throughout history, including Western cultures, did not necessarily conceive of sex and gender as binary. This comes at a time when an Italian court dismissed a case demanding the recognition of one of its citizens as non-binary, saying that in the Italian legal system there is no sex or gender beyond male and female.
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AI may feel weightless, but Olivier Darmouni argues that its real-world costs are anything but virtual. In this episode of Breakthroughs, the HEC Paris professor explains when and where the boom in data centers could raise electricity prices in the future; and how these centers could reshape investment in power infrastructure and force Europe to think much harder about energy security. Olivier also reflects on his recent hearing at France’s National Assembly, the difference between productive finance and financial extraction, and why overcoming the financial barriers to sustainability means finding credible ways to crowd in private capital.
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When credit markets seize up in crisis periods, most people still blame the banks. But new research suggests the bigger pullback may come from nonbanks like those in the syndicated loan market. These have grown fast but remain fragile, cutting lending harder in times of stress – with negative consequences on employment. That shift could reshape how we think about crises, jobs and financial resilience. HEC Assistant Professor in Finance Quirin Fleckenstein explores these issues as part of his research into macro-finance, financial intermediation, and corporate finance.
Original research paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3629232 (open source), and the published article in the prestigious Review of Financial Studies (https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/39/4/925/8114830)
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The 98th Academy Awards are just days away, six weeks after the Academy listed the nominees. But what do Oscar nominations really do to moviegoers? According to Marketing professor Michelangelo Rossi, they don’t just guide what we watch, they can also raise expectations enough to change how much we enjoy a film. Michelangelo joins Breakthroughs to unpack his latest research, cosigned by Hi! PARIS academic Felix Schleff.
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Marketing professor Michelangelo Rossi shares with Breakthroughs the research he and Hi! Paris academic Felix Schleff published on Oscar nominations and their impact on movie-goers’ expectations. On the eve of the 98th Academy Awards, Rossi describes the overlooked downside of such quality disclosures. He also shares his latest research on the impact that Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has had on consumers using Google Maps.
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What if we put standardized barcodes on products we buy which inform us of their sustainability, supply chain, human rights records, etc? That’s the proposal of HEC & CNRS researcher Brian Hill. In his recent policy paper, he maps out an efficient way of shifting disclosure rules from companies to products - in the name of sustainability. This is a timely exchange, coming as it does as Europe reached an agreement last month to simplify sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements. Could Brian's digital, standardized scorecard be the key to filling in information and data gaps in this drive for smart product-level disclosure Europe should be aiming for? This ten-minute compact version of our monthly podcast discusses the essential points of his breakthrough research.
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A bumper christmas edition of Breakthrough featuring Brian Hill. He's Research Director at the CNRS and HEC Professor in the Economics and Decision Sciences Department. Brian discusses his new policy paper which shifts the focus of disclosure rules from companies to products - in the name of sustainability. A timely exchange, coming as it does as Europe reaches a provisional agreement to simplify sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements. Could Brian's digital, standardized scorecard be the key to filling in information and data gaps in this drive for smart product-level disclosure Europe should be aiming for?
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Puissantes by HEC est un podcast qui révèle des entrepreneuses qui ont bâti leur propre voie. Elles transforment une idée, un désir ou un manque en un projet qui leur ressemble profondément et racontent leur parcours, leur détermination et le déclic qui les a poussées à franchir le pas, jusqu'à la fierté d'être devenues des entrepreneures. Ce podcast est porté par HEC Stand Up, le programme qui accompagne les femmes qui souhaitent se lancer dans l’entrepreneuriat, qu’importe leur âge, leur parcours, ou leur horizon social.
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SHORT BREAKTHROUGHS: Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Challenges UN Bodies and International Law
While the GHF has closed its doors, could its controversial approach to humanitarian aid be a blueprint for the administrating of Gaza? Law academic Julia Emtseva analyzes this US-Israel initiative and its possible implications for a territory shattered by violence and famine. This is a condensed version of the Breakthroughs first broadcast on November 25.
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When the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (the GHF) began operating in late May 2025, much public debate centered on its immediate humanitarian record: the shootings, the chaos near distribution sites, the opaque role of private security companies. But what of the GHF’s impact on international law and conventions, core obligations of an occupying power and very notion of politicizing humanitarian aid? HEC Assistant Professor of Law Julia Emtseva explores these issues as part of her research into private actors in international law and transitional justice. We also hear the opinions of HEC students on these questions.
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Short of time? Here's an abridged version of the Breakthroughs podcast exchange with HEC strategy professor Aline Gatignon. Her research focuses on the ripple effect of corruption, tracking how scandals reshape cross-sector partnerships between nonprofits and multinationals. The lessons are urgent for any leader whose organization touches public trust, whether in emerging markets or in Western capitals. Often, multinationals turn to nonprofits in times of crisis, funding environmental or social causes to show they’re part of the solution. But are these partnerships real, or just spin? Hear more from Aline as she gives advice to both parties on how to work together. Her research is a story about power, legitimacy, and the resilience of civil society.
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When a corporate scandal explodes, like Volkswagen’s Dieselgate or BP’s oil spill, companies scramble to save their reputations. Often, they turn to nonprofits, funding environmental or social causes to show they’re part of the solution. But are these partnerships real, or just spin? Strategy professor Aline Gatignon suggests answers. Her new study uncovers how crises change the way corporations and nonprofits work together - and how nonprofits sometimes resist being used as PR cover. Her research is a story about power, legitimacy, and the resilience of civil society.
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HEC academics Pauline Asmar, Matteo Winkler, Lisa Baudot and Olivier Sibony share with Breakthroughs the books which sustained or transformed their approach to research. For, as the 19th century Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle once said: "What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books." These books are now available in HEC's Learning Center, thanks to the efforts of Elise Thomas: Livres recommandés par nos professeurs-chercheurs - Groupe HEC. Click on this link: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/from-huxley-to-frankl-research-academics-pinpoint-their/id1524786528?i=1000723447474.
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Why should employees articulate your company’s purpose - and not just the firm’s CEO? In this SHORT LISTEN Breakthroughs speaks with Pauline Asmar, a doctoral researcher at HEC Paris, whose groundbreaking work reframes how purpose actually works inside companies. Drawing on data from nearly 60,000 employees across 469 firms, Asmar reveals that it's the middle managers who translate abstract mission statements into daily motivation - not the top brass. We discuss why this “purpose dialogue” at management/worker level is emerging as a vital new lever for team commitment, how companies can fail despite having purpose statements, and what happens when leaders just parrot slogans instead of listening. Plus, how purpose-washing creates skepticism, and what can be done about it. For the full version, go to https://shows.acast.com/knowledgehec/episodes/not-just-parrots-how-middle-managers-bring-purpose-to-life.
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Why should employees articulate your company’s purpose - and not just the firm’s CEO? In this episode of Breakthroughs, we speak with Pauline Asmar, a doctoral researcher at HEC Paris, whose work reframes how purpose works inside companies, at the level of the teams. The research is co-authored by HEC Professor and Purpose Chair director Rodolphe Durand. Drawing on data from nearly 60,000 employees across 469 firms, Asmar reveals that it's the everyday managers who translate abstract purpose statements by the top brass into daily motivation. We discuss why this “purpose dialogue” at management/worker level is emerging as a vital new lever of team commitment, how companies can fail despite having purpose statements, and what happens when leaders just parrot slogans instead of listening and engaging. We also discuss how purpose-washing creates skepticism, and what can be done about it.
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This month’s HEC Breakthroughs podcast features the insights by KU Leuven professor Frank Wijen who challenges fellow researchers in sustainability to go deeper and to have greater impact. Here are some of the key points taken from our 30-minute exchange on what Wijen calls “engaged research”.
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Is academic research into sustainability doing its job, moving the cursor forward in a time of unprecedented climate crisis? It’s a question Professor Frank Wijen discusses in the context of dramatic ecology-related incidents around the globe. “Researchers are taking snapshots and not movies,” he says, and this static orientation is not answering the urgency of real-life crises. Breakthroughs explores possible solutions with the Full Professor of Global Sustainable Strategies from KU Leuven.
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We’ve heard it a thousand times: diversity is good for business. But what if that familiar line doesn’t stand up to scrutiny or serious research – and, to cap it all, it’s counterproductive? In this SHORT LISTEN version of the HEC Breakthroughs podcast, HEC Paris professor and best-selling author Olivier Sibony explains why the “business case” for diversity may be leading us astray. If we want fairer, smarter organizations, we need to stop trying to change minds - and start redesigning the systems that shape them.
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We’ve heard it a thousand times: diversity is good for business. But what if that familiar line doesn’t stand up to scrutiny or serious research – and, to cap it all, it’s counterproductive? In this latest HEC Breakthroughs episode, HEC Paris professor and best-selling author Olivier Sibony explains why the “business case” for diversity may be leading us astray. If we want fairer, smarter organizations, we need to stop trying to change minds - and start redesigning the systems that shape them.
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President Donald Trump’s dismantling of American Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs is happening at breakneck speed. His Executive Orders label DEI policies as "illegal and immoral forms of discrimination”. HEC scholars Matteo Winkler and Marcelle Laliberté scrutinize this shift of narrative which is challenging certain constitutional rights. They share their research on this seismic shift which, they say, could undermine the very essence of American - and by ricochet, European – societies and their notion of equal rights.
Read the highlights here.
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Japan’s “super-aged society” (over 28% of its population aged 65 or above) and the US’ “aged society” (around 16% over 65) pose new challenges to the retirement period. And they’re set to rise. Just how do these two countries answer them? HEC professor Lisa Baudot plunges us into her new research through the eyes of CEO retirees from accounting’s Big Four.
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“I just make the time to read a book and it gives me this burst of fire in the belly to give me another two or three hours of creativity or productivity.” This cry of passion by author Robin Sharma is a call to arms four HEC researchers have heard throughout their respective careers. Gilles Deleuze, Norbert Elias, Sherry Turkle and E.O. Wilson are so many references inspiring our academics in their devotion to further their disciplines. They share their passion for books in this first Breakthroughs podcast of 2025.
Find the written highlights in Knowledge@HEC here.
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The questions of language, culture and merit have long intrigued researchers. HEC accounting professors Daniel Martinez and Keith Robson share the challenges these issues pose for diversity and equity. Professor Robson describes the cultural notions like language that favor the progression of elite groups in service firms in the UK. Whilst Associate Professor Martinez joins with fellow-researchers Javier Husillos and Carlos Larranaga to challenge the monolingual hegemony of English in academic publishing. This, he claims, affects non-native speaking academics’ very identity and puts them in a position of subservience.
Find the written highlights in Knowledge@HEC here.
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HEC research academic Craig Anderson has been exploring the impact of “awe” on Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, and well-being for over a decade. The specialist in affective science recently published a paper on culture and awe, comparing the emotional approach of Americans and Chinese to this phenomenon. Anderson’s research was at the heart of a 2023 National Geographic documentary “Operation Artic Cure” which traces the use of awe to alleviate PTSD in veteran soldiers. The American academic shares his insights into a new science reshaping policies in sustainability, marketing and health.
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This summer’s eruption of violence in the UK has renewed searching questions on the role social media plays in our society. It has also accelerated calls for new or revamped regulation of the country’s social media platforms, encapsuled in the UK’s Online Safety Act. But online violence does not confine itself to politicized and stigmatized communities. For the past 12 years, HEC Professor Kristine de Valck has explored the presence of direct, cultural and structural violence in an online community that few researchers would imagine: the British electronic dance music community. Kristine shares her decade-long research on such leisure-oriented communities, also observed on Reddit, Twitch and Discord platforms, and suggests ways to mitigate such brutalization of online consumers.
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Notre série du podcast Breakthroughs fête ce mois-ci les événements sportifs de l’été avec un programme hors-série dédié au lancement d’un nouvel électif sport et commerce pour les étudiants. Intitulé « Sport & Business », ce programme de six mois comprend un travail théorique, puis de terrain en partenariat avec le club de football professionnel Racing Club de Lens (présidé par Joseph Oughourlian, un alumnus d’HEC). Le professeur Luc Arrondel dirige les contenus académiques de l’électif. Ce chercheur partage avec nous son approche pédagogique centrés sur l’économie du foot. Puis, dans la deuxième partie du podcast, nous suivons le premier rassemblement de l’Economie du Sport dans lequel HEC Paris, Bpifrance et EY ont uni les acteurs clés de l’écosystème sportif. Etaient présents pour HEC, des dirigeants, des étudiants et des alumni pour des séances dédiées à la recherche, à l’enseignement et à l’action de l’école de commerce dans ce secteur florissant.
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2024 marks 20 years since the birth of social media. Since then, it has become a major communication force in the lives of teenagers’ lives - a 2024 Pew survey claims that 93% of American youth use it, for example. Unsurprisingly, research on its impact has followed suit. But just how reliable are the conclusions in this new field of studies? In April 2024 HEC professors Tina Lowrey and L.J. Shrum co-signed a research paper with their former doctoral student Elena Fumagalli (H18), showing conflicting findings on the negative and positive effects of social media on youth. They warn against major policies and lawsuits founded on inconclusive studies and contradictory scientific research. Professors Lowrey and Shrum share with Breakthroughs their empirical study to try to make sense of a subject matter inflaming public debate.
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Ever since he published “Strategic Management”, Edward Freeman has been at the forefront of a theory that stakeholders are interconnected. For his collective body of work, the economist from Darden School, Virginia, received an Honorary Doctorate from HEC Paris, adding his name to the 48 illustrious scholars on the HEC Honoris Causa list. The March 4 ceremony was followed by several thousand spectators, both live and on line. Freeman’s visit to the Jouy-en-Josas campus was the occasion to discuss his stakeholder vision with a prism of the 21st century. This is an exceptional Breakthroughs podcast, recorded for Knowledge@HEC.
Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC.
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Unlike the steam engine or the birth of the Internet, AI and LLMs (such as ChatGPT) do not need expensive hardware for access. Hence, a universalization which Carlos Serrano underlines in this wide-ranging podcast. He’s Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Economics in the Department of Economics and Decision Sciences at HEC Paris. With his colleague Professor Thomas Åstebro, he organized a groundbreaking AI & Entrepreneurship Workshop at HEC, inviting top researchers and business experts from different disciplines and backgrounds to discuss how to bridge the gap between research and business. Key points included the transformation of risk management for machines and how, in the words of Serrano, industry practitioners are generally thinking ahead of academics. That, and much more in this frank and often personal podcast exchange.
Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC here.
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HEC Professors Laurence Lehmann Ortega and Hélène Muzikas have been working together for over 15 years on a business framework they call Odyssey 3.14. This strategy helps guide companies to better invest in business models that promote innovation and sustainability. The result is a book which entered its third edition in September, entitled “(Re)invent Your Business Model with Odyssey 3.14”. The two academics describe these three pillars and 14 directions which have evolved significantly in the past decades.
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How can the E.U. respond to the growing clamor for more citizen participation in its institutions? In a wide-ranging podcast, the Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law, Alberto Alemanno, proposes a permanent European Citizens Assembly to bring E.U. voters and their representatives closer together. The HEC professor also explores how lobbies can become a force for promoting social change. He also points out structural problems within the E.U. which are stymying the continent’s youth. Finally, Alemanno’s research with fellow academic Elie Sung pinpoints the oft-neglected impact of lobbies on judicial courts by interest groups– which are having devastating effects on societal issues like women’s and LBGTQI+ rights.
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The FTX cryptocurrency scandal illuminates the critical caveats to the world of blockchains. Since December 2022 and the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, this affair has rocked the world of cryptocurrencies and the on-chain features that underpins its entire existence.It also reveals the impact of off-chain factors involved in blockchain operations. Recent research by professors Dane Pflueger (HEC Paris), Martin Kornberger (Vienna University) and Jan Mouritsen (Copenhagen Business School) sheds light on the FTX and other scandals that are unfolding. Their December 2022 publication in the European Accounting Review, explores the issues of governance, organizing, and trust that buttress blockchain accounting. Speaking from the HEC campus near Paris, Pflueger challenges the notion some have that blockchain technology does not need intermediaries like accountants to function.
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Around 1,200 participants congregated in Toronto for the first in-person CDL Super Session in four years. The two-day event featured intense exchanges between startups from the 24 CDL streams, mentors, researchers and academics. There were equally hard-hitting exchanges on AI, geopolitical shifts in innovation and the advancement of humanlike intelligence. HEC Paris sent a strong delegation to Canada to exchange on its growing involvement in this objective-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage companies. A Breakthroughs special brings you an extended program highlighting the key exchanges during this third in-person Super Session.
On the eve of the 11th annual D-Tea (promoting Dialogues between Theory, Experimental findings and Applications of decision-making, hence the acronym), we talk to its co-organizer Professor Itzhak Gilboa. Last year, Itzhak was ranked by Stanford University in the world’s top six theoretical economists. His main interest is in decision under uncertainty and decision models whereby uncertainty can’t be quantified. That is called non-Bayesian decision models – as opposed to the Bayesian approach which assigns probabilities based on experience or best guesses. Itzhak questions these axioms, or self-evident truths. He believes his research can help answer unforeseen crises, called black swans, like the war in Ukraine, health pandemics or the climate crisis.
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HEC Associate Professor Guillaume Vuillemey explores how the maritime shipping industry has evolved in the past 40 years to systematically evade its corporate responsibilities. In his groundbreaking research Vuillemey reveals how this industry – which handles over 80% of global trade flows – uses flags of convenience and limited liability to flout international and moral law. This has repercussions on the environment and basic human rights. In a long interview, Vuillemey outlines his approach of this industry and its links to what some are calling the “dark side of globalization”. The exchange is followed by an on-the-ground report from ChangeNOW 2023 Summit on its analysis to the shipping sector.
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Doctor Anicet Fangwa's work on health centers and stillbirths in the Democratic Republic of Congo could save millions of lives by better managing health practices throughout Africa. The PhD graduate from HEC Paris describes the managerial tools he's been using to transform treatment in health centers in remote parts of the DRC.
It’s been over five years since #MeToo began to draw global attention to the sexual abuse and harassment women have been subjected to in the workplace. But just what impact has this protest movement had on US companies and their boards of directors? HEC Assistant Professor Crystal Shi examined the behavior of over 2,000 American firms to gauge the evolution in policy and attitude of investors and board members in their respective companies. Shi and two fellow academics at New York’s Stern School of Business identified 37 MeToo events in the year after the Harvey Weinstein scandal. They then looked for any abnormal market return based on the boardrooms’ gender structure and culture. Finally, the researchers studied the costs of the companies’ gender-inclusive or -exclusive cultures.
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Et si, en enseignant l’empathie et la coopération à de jeunes garçons, l’école pouvait transformer des vies ? Dans une recherche cosignée par Yann Algan, professeur d'économie et doyen associé de l'ensemble des programmes pré-expérience à HEC Paris, les résultats sont sans appel. Ce spécialiste du bien-être au sein des organisations nous livre le bilan d’une recherche unique qu’il a menée pendant 33 ans auprès d’enfants à risque de décrochage venant de quartiers pauvres de Montréal.
Retrouvez le résumé de l'étude, en anglais sur Knowledge@HEC.
Gilles Vermot-Desroches est ingénieur de formation. Mais c’est au cœur de la stratégie et de l’innovation de Schneider Electric qu’il a piloté les actions du développement durable de Schneider pendant les 25 dernières années. Il répond à nos questions sur sa compréhension des critères de notation de l’ESG et partage sesobservations de l’évolution des tendances de la question de l’impact, de la responsabilité de l’Europe dans ces efforts stratégiques et des manières de mesurer l’ESG. Mais, tout d’abord, le Directeur du Développement Durable à Schneider retrace les étapes clés dans la stratégie ESG de la société depuis 1998.
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Why is the SOCIAL element of Environmental, Social and Governance performance (ESG) neglected or ignored? Three HEC academics have joined forces with an S&P Global researcher on ESG to better understand this negligence. They have published a landmark report on how ESG frameworks cover this issue – or don’t. “What Gets Measured” also suggests ways to ensure that what gets measured, in the authors’ own words, “matters for businesses, the people and the communities they impact”. For, ignoring social concerns like workers’ rights in the supply chain can have serious consequences, as France's gilet jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement illustrated.
Read more on Knowledge@HEC.
Top personalities from the political and academic worlds, including Pascal Lamy, Peter Altmaier, John Denton and Merit Janow, were amongst the 17 speakers at a September 29 conference at HEC Paris on constitutionalism,. Over three intense sessions, the policy-makers and professors of law explored reforms in governance of public goods.
The HEC Paris conference went beyond constitutionalism to explore the failures of transnational governance, policy responses and current free market dynamics in the past decade. It set out to propose reforms in multilevel governance of public goods at worldwide, European and national levels. In this way, the organizers, HEC professor of EU Law and Economics Armin Steinbach and Emeritus professor at EUI Florence, Ulrich Petersmann, hope to develop academically innovative research and concrete policy proposals for policymakers. This, they believe, will encourage policymakers to implement new approaches to address the growing number of these governance and constitutional failures the world is currently experiencing. The results of the three sessions at HEC are to be published in the form of a book in 2023.
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The COP27 summit begins on November 6 in Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt, exactly a year after COP26 in Glasgow. A year is a long time and challenges have piled up: a world divided by war in Europe, where the world sees an acceleration of climate changes and global warming has beaten all modern records. In this light, Knowledge@HEC discusses the 12-day summit’s agenda and objectives with two guests: Igor Shishlov, Academic Co-Director for HEC’s Climate & Business Certificate; and Shiraz Moret-Bailly, co-president of Esp’R, an HEC student association devoted to sustainability and social economy.
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Bertrand Quélin is professor of Strategy and the holder of the Bouygues-HEC Paris Chair in ‘Smart City and the Common Good’. He has been spearheading research on ways public bodies and private companies partner up to create both social and economic value. We discuss how the partnerships rely on a form of hybridization relying on three mechanisms: contractual, institutional and the ability to regularly partner up with public authorities.
Read more on Knowledge@HEC
As Europe faces postwar records in forced migration from the east and south, ad hoc citizen groups have been sprouting up to ease the hardships of their new homelands. To illustrate this, HEC Assistant Professor David Crvelin publishes a detailed study on the rapid and effective response of German citizens to the unprecedented wave of migrants in 2015. A lesson of integration for all Europe?
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In the United Kingdom, more than 700 Post Office workers were wrongfully convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting between 2000 and 2014. That was the result of a fault in Horizon, a Fujitsu computer system used by the UK Post Office. How can AI solutions be developed to detect and prevent such intelligent anomalies? To answer these questions and more we have turned to HEC Professor of Accounting and Management Control, Aluna Wang. She is also chairholder at Hi!PARIS Center on Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.
Read more on Knowledge@HEC
Finance professor and executive director of the HEC Energy and Finance Chair, Jean-Michel Gauthier, spoke to us on March 3, one week after Russia invaded Ukraine. Jean-Michel is a veteran of the energy business. As a partner at Deloitte, he moved to the energy consulting industry for 16 years, before joining HEC Paris’ finance department in 2006. The dramatic events developing in Ukraine lead us to discuss with Jean-Michel a key factor behind the conflict: the question of energy. Not just the pipelines that bring Europe 40% of its natural gas and much of its oil – but also the knock-on effects on all energy sources that prop up our global economy. He helps us understand what role energy is playing in this ongoing conflict and where these upheavals could lead the entire planet.
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HEC Paris Assistant Professor in Marketing, Klaus Miller, analyzes the February 3 Facebook/Meta stock market plunge. What exactly does it tell us about private data on internet and its links to the advertising world? We meet Klaus on February 8, the very day he and five co-researchers self-published “The Impact of the GDPR on the Online Advertising Market”. This book focuses on Europe’s GDPR and how it affects online publicity. We exchange in Klaus’ apartment in Versailles, near the HEC campus. This is a wide-ranging discussion on personal data and the advertising industry, including the researcher's insights on ad blockers on news websites and their impact on our reading habits.
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Activist short sellers are controversial hedge funders that some are calling the modern day Robin Hoods of the business world, others are denouncing as unethical profiteers. Most economists, however, recognize their short selling as a vital part of an efficient and liquid market. HEC academics Hervé Stolowy and Luc Paugam, with their coauthor Yves Gendron, from Université Laval in Quebec, spent three years researching the reports short sellers write on companies they suspect of nefarious activities. They link these narratives to the linguistic tools “ethos”, “pathos” and “logos”, first dreamt up by Aristotle in 350 B.C.E.. In the podcast, Hervé and Luc also share their unique exchanges with three of these sellers, people who rarely reveal their operations.
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Dr. Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj has spent decades analyzing women for leadership roles. Shortly after joining HEC Qatar as Associate Professor in Gender Diversity and Entrepreneurial Leadership, she published her third book “Futureproof Your Career”. We caught up with the prolific academic at the 2021 Women’s Forum in Paris to discuss cognitive diversity, her research on Asian communities and leadership, teaching entrepreneurial leadership at HEC, and much more.
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Just days after the conclusion of the 2021 Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona, HEC Paris Professor Bertrand Quélin and HEC Paris 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 & HEC in the context of the school’s Smart City & the Common Good Chair. We exchange with Professor Quélin about the advantages of, and challenges to, tomorrow’s cities.
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The upswing in inflation figures on both sides of the Atlantic, called “reflation”, continues to worry governments and the general public. But what is behind these inflationary pressures? What are the consequences of this 13-year-high in the euro zone (4.1% in October); and 30-year record surge in prices in the United States? To find out what caused these increases and to analyze what could happen in the future, we’ve turn to two HEC academics whose research is linked to the inflation question. Associate Professor Eric Mengus specializes in monetary and macro-economics. His colleague, Associate Professor Gaetano Gaballo is a researcher in the same domains, and he’s also worked for seven years as a senior economist at the Banque de France. In mid-October, they reflected on a wide range of issues linked to reflation.
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For the second time ever, HEC’s first year students began their school career with the off-campus “Purpose & Sustainability” seminar. 370 freshmen converged on the Alpine village of Chamonix for a physically and intellectually intense three-day seminar devoted to the major environmental and social challenges the world faces. This podcast reflects the intensity of the experience and the lessons drawn from it.
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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. 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.
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HEC Professor of Strategy (Education Track) Olivier Sibony joins forces with Nobel-laureate Daniel Kahneman and legal scholar Cass Sunstein to publish Noise, a monumental study on a little-known – yet pervasive - flaw in human error. The trio thus reinvent a term for a variability of judgment pervading decision-making at all levels and in all fields. In an exclusive interview, Olivier shares insights into a groundbreaking work that has shot into bestseller lists worldwide. It comes a day after the publication of the book’s French edition. And weeks before the arrival of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman’s visit to HEC on October 7, to accept the title of “Honoris Causa Doctor”. The interview was recorded on May 6, 2021.
Film extracts: 12 Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Henry Fonda.
This podcast was recorded on September 30, 2021.
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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 Professor in Finance Bruno Biais, who has written several top research papers on cryptocurrency.
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Jean-Noël Barrot, professeur associé à HEC Paris et député des Yvelines à l’Assemblée nationale, allie son engagement politique avec ses recherches dans le domaine de la finance. Il a remis un rapport au gouvernement le 29 juin dernier, où il développe des propositions pour aider la France à sortir de la crise sanitaire. Dans cet entretien, Jean-Noël Barrot nous explique comment il parvient à combiner utilement ses travaux de recherche et son rôle de parlementaire.
Ce podcast a été enregistré le 13 juillet 2021.
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HEC Paris associate professor of marketing, Anne-Sophie Chaxel, describes her recent study on truth distortion in the COVID-19 era. Using marketing techniques like the Stepwise Evolution of Preferences Chaxel and fellow academic Sandra Laporte, used such tools to see how people respond to controversial statements linked to the virus – when they’re delivered by popular personalities. They enrolled 1,400 American workers and asked them to respond to allegations that COVID-19 is man-made and that hydroxychloroquine can eliminate the symptoms. They discovered that the more controversial these statements are, the more people seem to adhere to them…
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For the 32nd Olympic Games, one of South Africa’s modern icons, 800-meter champion Caster Semenya, will not be making the trip northwards. She has been barred from the Tokyo Olympics where she had hoped to defend a crown she won in 2012 and 2016. We discuss with Associate Professor Matteo Winkler the legal, sociological and ethical implications of this legal decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS. It targets women athletes like Semenya who are born with naturally high levels of testosterone, what’s called “hyper-androgyny”. Winkler and fellow academic, Doctor Giovanna Gilleri, published a 40-page study deconstructing the controversy and what it reflects on the law, sports politics, transgender sexuality… and the West’s sometimes uncomfortable position on femininity in the Global South.
A year after the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that none of its member states can outlaw the sale of the non-psychotic compound cannabidiol (CBD), France’s highest appeals court overturned a decision banning its sale on French territory. Associate Professor Daniel Martinez analyses the June 26 decision in the light of his long research on cannabis-related questions in Colorado.
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Il y a un mois, Amazon fait un coup d'éclat spectaculaire, en annonçant l’achat du studio hollywoodien MGM pour plus de sept milliards d’euros. Quelles conséquences pour le monde du cinéma et son économie ? Directeur du MS Médias, Arts et Création à HEC Paris, Thomas Paris analyse la portée de cet événement. Il a récemment cosigné avec Philippe Chantepie « L’économie du cinéma », publié par La Découverte.
Ce podcast a été enregistré le 9 juin 2021.
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A large body of empirical evidence points to bias in access to credit. This is stigmatizing women, ethnic minorities and consumers from certain geographical zones. Nowadays, algorithms and machine-learning techniques could be unintentionally exacerbating this bias. HEC Associate Dean for Research, Christophe Pérignon, describes these challenges - and new techniques he has developed to reduce bias impact. These techniques can be applied in banking, insurance, hiring, fraud detection and justice.
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An unknown advertising agency calling itself Fazze last month offered thousands of US dollars to social media influencers last month to smear the Pfizer vaccine. Two prominent influencers in Germany and France, respectively, refused to share its allegations with their hundreds of thousands of followers.
HEC Assistant Professor, Andreas Lanz, analyzes this new online affair in the light of his extensive research on influencer markets. He called on both governments and major content networks like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube to “play their part” in ending such disinformation campaigns.
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The forced landing of a Ryanair airplane and the subsequent arrest of two Belarusians on May 23 has sparked a major diplomatic crisis between EU and US authorities and the Minsk government, as well as sanctions. But just how effective are these measures? HEC Professor Alberto Alemanno shares his analysis of the stand-off and its reflections on EU foreign policy. Recorded on June 1, 2021.
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Why do non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have the potential to disrupt the art market? This new investment phenomenon came to light when an animated GIF of Nyan Cat, which is a meme of a flying pop-tart cat, sold for more than $500,000 US Dollars. Shortly after, musician Grimes sold her digital art for more than $6 million US Dollars. HEC Paris Associate professor of finance Christophe Spaenjers, explains how NFTs work and why they have become such big news for the investment world.
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On March 31, 2021, French president Emmanuel Macron announced a four-week national lockdown, throwing the country into a similar situation slightly over a year ago. This time though, not all businesses are affected in the same way. HEC Paris Associate Professor of Economics Tomasz Michalski analyzes the possible microeconomic impact of the different lockdown strategies, and its eventual long-term effects.
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Cinq ans après la signature de l'Accord de Paris sur le climat et alors qu'en France, un projet de loi Climat très contesté arrive en débat à l’Assemblée nationale, la communauté internationale ne semble toujours pas être à la hauteur du défi climatique. Pour dresser un état des lieux des solutions aujourd'hui sur la table pour réduire les émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre et contenir l’élévation des températures, nous avons interrogé Arnaud Van Waeyenberge, Professeur associé en droit à HEC Paris, dont une recherche récente porte sur l'efficacité des marchés carbone en tant qu'instruments de régulation pour lutter contre le changement climatique.
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Is the GameStop Affair a collective action revolting against major hedge funds, or is it just another form of speculation by amateur investors also aiming to become rich? In the course of one week, GameStop’s stock value had catapulted to an impressive 1600% rise from its previous value. This sudden steep climb up raises questions on stock market behavior, the actions of hedge fund investors, and the trading technique of short selling. HEC Paris professor of Finance Johan Hombert explains the mechanics behind the GameStop affair.
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Are the efforts of transparency by the pharmaceutical industry sufficient to regain the trust of the world population? The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world hostage since March 2020, yet there is hope that this health crisis may be vanquished this year, thanks to the approved vaccines by pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. While there are ongoing vaccination drives, there are nonetheless doubts about these newly-developed vaccines, which compromises the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns already underway. HEC Paris professor Professor Vedran Capkun tells us why transparency is critical in this current context. He explains what the outcome of the production of these vaccines represents for the pharmaceutical industry.
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Le Prix Nobel d’Economie 2020 a récompensé Paul Milgrom et Robert Wilson de l’université de Stanford pour leurs recherches sur les enchères. Dans cet entretien, Jean-Edouard Colliard, professeur de finance à HEC Paris et auteur de "Les Prix Nobel d'Economie" aux Editions Repères, nous explique les recherches récompensées, ainsi que le protocole de sélection des Prix Nobel, et leur rôle dans l’économie, la société et la perception des économistes.
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Is trust the key to a more inclusive world? In this two-part podcast, HEC Paris professor Hélène Löning first defines trust as the foundation that touches different aspects of our lives and clarifies why this quality is so essential for a positive recovery in the post-pandemic era. She then describes the three pillars of trust that drive diversity and inclusion in our society. Professor Löning will also draw on her research about entrepreneurial ecosystems to explain trust in the specific relationship between investors and entrepreneurs, and offers examples of how innovation hubs like Silicon Valley and Paris-Saclay, as well as business schools such as HEC Paris, play a critical role in building trust within this ecosystem.
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Poland and Hungary continue to oppose the rule of law mechanism linked to the European Union’s seven-year budget, which includes the 750-billion euro recovery fund to tackle the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 health crisis. As the EU stands at a deadlock, HEC Paris professor and expert on EU law, Alberto Alemanno, explains the rule of law mechanism and its importance in the governance of the European Union.
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On November 5, 2020, as the U.S. presidential election comes to a close, HEC Paris professors Jeremy Ghez and Chantal Carleton, and HEC Paris MBA candidate Megan Scullion, analyze the balance of power in American politics, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the elections and the future of economic and foreign policy in the United States of America. This discussion was moderated by Daniel Brown, Chief Editor at the HEC Paris Corporate Communications Department.
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With less than one month to go before the US Presidential Election Day, will American voters place priority on economic recovery above how the COVID-19 health crisis was managed? Before COVID-19, the US had been experiencing the longest economic expansion of its history with stock market rebound, lower unemployment rate and an increase in the average income of American households. After the virus hit the country severely, more than 20 million American jobs were lost, affecting society’s most vulnerable. Some industries thrived while others barely survived. Analysis by HEC Paris professor Jeremy Ghez.
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The French government recently announced a 100-billion euro "France Relance" stimulus plan to revive the local economy from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. HEC Paris professor of Economics, Tomasz Michalski, analyzes the details of the recovery plan and its potential to restore the local economy.
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How to lead positive change within organizations in order to adapt to the coronavirus crisis, and yet continue to inspire and motivate people under such highly uncertain circumstances ? Mathis Schulte, Associate Professor in Management & Human Resources at HEC Paris, elaborates on social psychology’s terror management theory, and what we can do to prepare for the disruptive changes ahead of us.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for us to rethink our current energy system. Jean-Michel Gauthier, professor and Executive Director of the Energy & Finance Chair at HEC Paris, explains the global consequences of the coronavirus and paints a picture of the future of the energy transition right here at the heart of the European Union.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has placed companies under the microscope for how well they respond to the needs of a diverse set of stakeholders. HEC Paris professor of Strategy & Business Policy, Georg Wernicke, shares his perspective on how engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, may affect firms’ well-being not only during the crisis, but also in its aftermath.
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Quel peut être le rôle des dirigeants et managers, en tant que véritables pilotes de l’économie? Hélène Löning, Professeur Associé à HEC Paris donne des clés pour gérer le court terme, le moyen terme et long terme. Dans cette deuxième partie du podcast, elle évoque la sortie de crise : entre incertitudes et opportunités comment élaborer des business models plus durables.
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Quel peut être le rôle des dirigeants et managers, en tant que véritables pilotes de l’économie? Hélène Löning, Professeur Associé à HEC Paris donne des clés pour gérer le court terme, le moyen terme et long terme. Dans cette première partie du podcast, elle pose les enjeux et évoque l’urgence : trésorerie, supply chain et responsabilité.
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A call for change will be necessary in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. HEC Paris professor Jeremy Ghez emphasizes on the role of higher education in preparing tomorrow’s leaders for the disruptive global environment to come.
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HEC Paris professor Brian Hill defines severe uncertainty and clarifies how to make good, responsible and informed decisions under conditions of extreme incertitude such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The COVID-19 health crisis has a critical bearing on decision-making biases that may potentially influence the decisions we take today and in the future. Analysis by HEC Paris professor Anne-Sophie Chaxel.
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The coronavirus pandemic has placed millions of employees under lockdown. Digital technology and new ways of working across time and space, become more critical. Sangseok You, HEC Paris professor of Information Systems, explains the relationship between humans and AI and robots, and its post-crisis impact on the future of work.
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As social distancing becomes the new normal, social media rally distant communities worldwide in moments of hope and inspiration. HEC Paris professor Kristine de Valck tells us how critical social media can be in times of crisis and how should marketers adopt their social media strategies in this extraordinary time.
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The European Central Bank unveiled a 750-billion-euro aid in support of the European economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic. What are these measures set to achieve? Analysis by HEC Paris Professor of Finance Jean-Edouard Colliard.
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The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic is an opportunity for a more coordinated Europe, yet each country continues to act alone. Analysis by Alberto Alemanno, HEC Paris Professor of EU Law & Public Policy.
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HEC Paris Associate Professor of Economics Tomasz Michalski explains the microeconomic backlash of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how economic networks will be affected.
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