Knowledge@HEC

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.Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC here.

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. Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC here.

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. Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC here.

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.

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.

When trying to figure out the outcome of a given situation, or the fallout of a sudden event, is it better to reason by analogies and resort to past experience or to think ahead and apply probabilistic reasoning? Researchers present a new mathematical model on making decisions in uncertain circumstances, which takes into account both modes of reasoning.Find the written highlights on Knowledge@HEC here.