June 20 is World Refugee Day, designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe and to celebrate the strength and courage of those forced to flee their home countries to escape conflict or persecution. By the end of 2023, UNHCR estimated that over 117 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, and climate shocks, often a combination of these factors. Notably, nearly 32 million new internal displacements were due to climate-related hazards, highlighting the urgent need to address this issue. It is high noon for us to step up, reach out, engage with this diverse talent pool, and unlock their true potential.
At HEC Paris, the integration of research, teaching, and action is a fundamental philosophy that we embody. In today's dynamic landscape, where environmental and social challenges are increasingly prominent, HEC serves as a beacon of innovation and responsibility. As Europe's leading business school, we acknowledge our responsibility to guide future leaders in navigating the complexities of a world in flux.
For a long time, addressing sustainability problems has been regarded as a technological challenge. Today, supporting the transition to a more sustainable world has transcended this technological status and emerged as a quintessential management, economic, and behavioral challenge. Within this realm, research in social sciences and management assumes a pivotal role, offering insights across various crucial dimensions of the transition.
The Mazars “Purposeful Governance” Chair is the new chair of the S&O Institute’s Purpose Center. Thanks to the engagement of researchers and professionals, Mazars, an international leader in consulting and audit, aims to redefine legal, strategic, financial, accounting, and governance decisions to face ecological and social challenges. Luc Paugam, Associate Professor in Accounting and Management Control, holds the chair and collaborates with Mazars to advance transformative business models. We interviewed Luc Paugam and Maximilien Rouer, Partner Sustainability leader at Mazars, to gain insight into their joint projects and collaborative efforts.
A company that produces submarine electric cables and installs them between countries to electrify the world is under close scrutiny in a context of rising energy demand and the need to preserve natural resources. Yet, Nexans has emerged as a pure player in low-carbon electrification. In this interview, CEO Christopher Guérin discusses how his audacious approach saved the company and shares the essence of Nexans’ partnership with HEC Paris, with the Orchestrating Sustainable Business Transformation Chair, directed by Sebastian Becker, Associate Professor of Accounting and Management Control, under the S&O Climate & Earth Center.
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.
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.
The propagation of the coronavirus Covid-19 and the consequent preventive measures and restrictions taken worldwide have had an impact on the global economy. In this interview, Tomasz Michalski, Associate Professor of Economics at HEC Paris, explains the effects of this recession and shares his insights on the policies just launched by France.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, we observe starkly divergent approaches being experimented across the European Union. In this interview, Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris, explains this lack of coordination between the governments and its consequences, and shares his insights on what could be improved in this diverse decision-making setting.
In an article published this month in the journal Business & Society1, Aurélien Feix, research fellow at HEC, and Déborah Philippe, HEC alumna and professor at the University of Lausanne, analyze narratives that promote voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices as a privileged means to combat social inequality and environmental degradation. In view of the similarities that exist between these narratives, the authors argue that they must be conceived of as variants of one and the same “metanarrative of CSR”. They show that this metanarrative stays ambivalent about crucially important questions, including that of the results that can realistically be expected from activities performed voluntarily by business firms that are bound by profitability constraints, and subjected to the capitalist growth imperative. Therefore, they call for challenging the comforting, but largely inconsequential, rhetoric of the metanarrative of CSR.