Top-quality research and teaching are essential to understand growing inequalities which hinder the urgently needed ecological transition, to interrogate the ESG factors, and to leverage theory and the most ambitious empirical methods. To do so, HEC scholars work with public and private regulators, peers from leading European academic institutions, CEOs and administrators to develop, test, and evaluate novel strategies, policies and practices designed to tackle inequalities in their field. In this Knowledge@HEC issue, we share academic knowledge and highlight professional experiences on those topics. Find the pdf of that issue here.
Because of Europe’s strong social welfare tradition, the social dimension of business has an additional legitimacy and urgency here. Top-quality research and teaching have an essential role to play in understanding growing inequalities which hinder the urgently needed ecological transition, in interrogating the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, their interplay and their promise and limitations, in leveraging theory and the most ambitious empirical methods. As a leading business school and research center in France and Europe, HEC Paris’ faculty has a responsibility in providing science-based evidence and practical tools to reinvent the business of tomorrow.
The European Commission mandated a group of experts to work on new European corporate social responsibility reporting requirements. Marieke Huysentruyt, Associate Professor of Strategy and Business Policy and Academic Director of the Inclusive Economy Center at the Society & Organizations Institute of HEC Paris, was part of a group that drafted legislation on the question of equal opportunity. She describes how her working group shaped their proposals for a wide, long-lasting impact.
By Marieke Huysentruyt
According to recent research published by the Harvard Business Review, a strong privacy policy can help firms save millions. If privacy policies have indeed become more important for firms and consumers today, the real challenge lying ahead is to ensure compliance within and beyond the firm. A new tool developed at HEC Paris uses artificial intelligence to help managers, data protection officers, and project leaders take privacy-preserving decisions and implement privacy by design.
No other emergency has led to the paralysis of the world economy. No other response to a disaster has led to the home confinement of more than half of the world's population. Professor Alemanno warns that COVID-19 may go down in history as yet another major disaster occurrence with no learnings attached. Yet, as new transboundary disasters – from bioterrorism to climate change – loom on the horizon, neither the world nor risk regulation, as a discipline and practice of government, can hardly afford to let another crisis go wasted. Learn more in this free webinar.
Europe’s democracy is constantly challenged and questioned. In his latest paper published in the German Law Journal (Cambridge University Press) in January 2020, Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris, and engaged academic (Ashoka Fellow and Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum) reminds and explains the importance of citizens participation for the survival of the European project. He calls for the creation of a transnational political space through a better public understanding of all the existing participatory channels available to EU citizens, beyond elections. This interview of Professor Alemanno offers a flavour of his study.
What is the role of the President of the ECB? Why was her nomination particularly scrutinized? Are there fundamental institutional differences between the central banks of the euro area and the United States, and with what consequences? In this two-part article, Jean-Edouard Colliard shares his analysis. Jean-Edouard Colliard is an associate professor of finance at HEC Paris, where he is also the co-holder of the Chair "Business Analytics for Future Banking" (HEC Paris, Natixis and Ecole Polytechnique). Prior, Prof. Colliard was an economist at the European Central Bank.
Legal Data Mining Conference gathered professionals and academics from the technology, Artificial Intelligence and Law fields to discuss the future of Law. The two-day workshop focused on both the fundamental and practical issues of legal data mining. The event was organized by David Restrepo Amariles (Assistant Professor of Law at HEC Paris) and Ken Satoh (Professor at the National Institute of Informatics of Japan) in March 2019 at the Barreau de Paris.
While scientific findings need to be assessed by peers and journal referees, the confidentiality of original data often makes the process arduous. An accredited organization launched by Christophe Pérignon (HEC Paris) and colleagues with access to the original research data can now ensure reproducibility of results. This not only promises huge gains in time and effort for researchers but will also shore up trust in scientific results.
Based on his recent research and work for the EU Commission, "Unlocking Privately-Held Data to Create Public Value", Alberto Alemanno, Professor of European Union Law and Regulation at HEC Paris, discusses the concept of "Data for Good", whereby private data such as those collected by social media, telecoms and banks, can be shared with public authorities so as to save lives, such as in natural disasters, and improve them through better designed and more effective policies.