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 and brutalization do not confine themselves to politicized and stigmatized communities. HEC Professor Kristine de Valck has explored, with fellow academics Olivier Sibai (University of Bath) and Marius K. Lüdicke (WU Vienna), 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 one such leisure-oriented community, on a phenomenon also observed on Reddit, Twitch and Discord platforms. She suggests ways to mitigate such online brutalization of consumers.
By Kristine De Valck
Since December 2022 and the arrest of Sam Bankman Fried in 2023, the FTX founder has been at the heart of a scandal rocking the world of cryptocurrencies and the on-chain features that underpins its entire existence. But it is also illustrating the impact of off-chain factors involved in blockchain operations. These off-chain characteristics are forms of communication and coordination that need to happen for the technical activities of the blockchain to function. Recent research by professors Dane Pflueger (Assistant Professor in the accounting department HEC Paris), Martin Kornberger (Vienna University) and Jan Mouritsen (Copenhagen Business School) helps to shed light on the complexities surrounding FTX’s accounting. The academics’ December 2022 publication in the European Accounting Review, explores the issues of governance, organizing, and trust that buttress the blockchain accounting systems. In a long interview from his HEC campus near Paris, Pflueger challenges the notion some have that blockchain technology does not need intermediaries like accountants to function.
By Dane Pflueger
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 in remote parts of the DRC.
By Anicet Fangwa , Bertrand Quélin , Marieke Huysentruyt
Gender diversity in corporate boards of directors has long been on the agenda, but whether and when investors reward companies that make efforts towards such inclusion remains an open question. Researchers in Accounting Crystal Shi (HEC Paris), April Klein and Mary Brooke Billings (New York University) investigate whether the #MeToo movement had an impact on investors' perceptions of the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive corporate culture, as reflected by the gender makeup of corporate boards.
By Crystal (yanting) Shi
In 1984, a group of young boys living in poor neighborhoods in Montreal took part in a unique experiment. For two years, they received coaching in social skills like self-confidence and perseverance. A new assessment by HEC Professor of Economics Yann Algan, with Elizabeth Beasley, Sylvana Cote, Jungwee Park, Richard E. Tremblay and Frank Vitaro, now reveals the lifelong benefits of this work, not only in terms of life outcomes for the subjects themselves, but also for society at large.
By Yann Algan
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 Crevlin 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?
By David Twardowski Crvelin
The methods and aims of activist short sellers and financial analysts are often at odds. In a highly competitive environment, there is a battle for narrative authority, with short sellers often criticizing analysts. New research examines this struggle, and how — or if — analysts respond to challenges.
By Hervé Stolowy , Luc Paugam
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 Professor Matteo Winkler the legal, sociological and ethical implications of the Caster Mokgadi Semenya v. IAAF (now World Athletics) case. World Athletics’ regulations target female athletes like Semenya who are born with naturally high levels of testosterone, a characteristic that was labelled first as “hyperandrogenism” and then as “difference of sexual development”. Winkler and fellow academic, Doctor Giovanna Gilleri from the European University Institute published a 40-page study deconstructing the narratives surrounding the case and reflecting on the relationship between the law of sports, politics, gender and bodies – and the West’s sometimes uncomfortable position on femininity in the Global South.
By Matteo M. Winkler
New research analyzes how activist short sellers’ “research reports” convince investors that the companies they target are overvalued. Professors Luc Paugam and Hervé Stolowy of HEC Paris and Yves Gendron of the Université Laval found that the share price of companies targeted by major activist short sellers drop by 11.2%, on average, over three days. Target firms are also more likely to be subsequently delisted, suspended from stock exchanges, or to go bankrupt. Who are activist short sellers and how do they police financial markets?
By Luc Paugam , Hervé Stolowy
A major issue facing companies that use AI, algorithmic bias can perpetuate social inequalities — as well as pose legal and reputational risks to the companies in question. New research at HEC Paris offers a statistical method of tracking down and eliminating unfairness.
By Christophe Pérignon
