Daniel Halbheer Awarded for his Work on Carbon Footprinting and Pricing

Daniel Halbheer, Associate Professor of Marketing and holder of the FII Institute chair on “Business Models for the Circular Economy” at HEC Paris, has his research on Carbon Footprinting and Pricing Under Climate Concerns awarded the 2021 Rigor & Relevance Research Award by the Swiss Academy of Marketing Science.

The research paper entitled, “Carbon Footprinting and Pricing Under Climate Concerns” that was awarded the 2021 Rigor & Relevance Research Award by the jury of the Swiss Academy of Marketing Science, is joint work by Marco Bertini (Esade), Stefan Buehler (University of St. Gallen), Daniel Halbheer (HEC Paris), and Donald R. Lehmann (Columbia Business School). The Rigor & Relevance Award honors research work that is both highly recognized in the scientific community and makes a significant contribution to solving problems in marketing practice.  

The paper has just been published in the current issue of the Journal of Marketing in March 2022.

The research points to the possibility that, despite the fact that climate concerns of consumers and governments provide incentives to reduce the carbon footprint of products and organizations, overall emissions can increase due to the increase in demand for products with a lower product carbon footprint—a case where marketers become victims of their own success.

“Drawing on their findings, the authors offer implications for marketers on how to respond to the changing climate preferences of market participants. The authors find that by taking into account the changing preferences of consumers and regulators, marketers can make a critical contribution to reducing the carbon footprint of products and organizations. In addition, optimal product design may form the basis for profit-maximizing carbon offsets and investments in green technologies” (Swiss Academy of Marketing Science)

Daniel Halbheer adds, “Importantly, the logic here can be applied beyond carbon emissions. Examples include other pollutants and water or plastic footprints, and ecological footprints more broadly, which all play an important role in the management of corporate social responsibility.”

In his research, Daniel Halbheer aims to tackle phenomena that are relevant for business and society at large—including green product design, circular business models, and corporate social responsibility—through the lens of marketing. 

His research appeared in leading international journals including the Journal of Marketing, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and Games and Economic Behavior. He is the winner of the 2014 IJRM Best Paper Award.

At HEC Paris, Daniel currently teaches the module Data-Driven Marketing in the EMBA program, the MathCamp in the MBA program, and the course Marketing Science in the PhD program.

Read the full paper here and find a summary of this research on Knowledge@HEC here: “The Role of Marketing in Climate Change: Carbon Footprinting and Pricing.”