Knowledge@HEC

The FTX cryptocurrency scandal illuminates the critical caveats to the world of blockchains. Since December 2022 and the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, this affair has rocked the world of cryptocurrencies and the on-chain features that underpins its entire existence. It also reveals the impact of off-chain factors involved in blockchain operations. Recent research by professors Dane Pflueger (HEC Paris), Martin Kornberger (Vienna University) and Jan Mouritsen (Copenhagen Business School) sheds light on the FTX and other scandals that are unfolding. Their December 2022 publication in the European Accounting Review, explores the issues of governance, organizing, and trust that buttress blockchain accounting. Speaking from the HEC campus near Paris, Pflueger challenges the notion some have that blockchain technology does not need intermediaries like accountants to function.Read the summary on Knowledge@HEC here.

Around 1,200 participants congregated in Toronto for the first in-person CDL Super Session in four years. The two-day event featured intense exchanges between startups from the 24 CDL streams, mentors, researchers and academics. There were equally hard-hitting exchanges on AI, geopolitical shifts in innovation and the advancement of humanlike intelligence. HEC Paris sent a strong delegation to Canada to exchange on its growing involvement in this objective-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage companies. A Breakthroughs special brings you an extended program highlighting the key exchanges during this third in-person Super Session.

On the eve of the 11th annual D-Tea (promoting Dialogues between Theory, Experimental findings and Applications of decision-making, hence the acronym), we talk to its co-organizer Professor Itzhak Gilboa. Last year, Itzhak was ranked by Stanford University in the world’s top six theoretical economists. His main interest is in decision under uncertainty and decision models whereby uncertainty can’t be quantified. That is called non-Bayesian decision models – as opposed to the Bayesian approach which assigns probabilities based on experience or best guesses. Itzhak questions these axioms, or self-evident truths. He believes his research can help answer unforeseen crises, called black swans, like the war in Ukraine, health pandemics or the climate crisis.

HEC Associate Professor Guillaume Vuillemey explores how the maritime shipping industry has evolved in the past 40 years to systematically evade its corporate responsibilities. In his groundbreaking research Vuillemey reveals how this industry – which handles over 80% of global trade flows – uses flags of convenience and limited liability to flout international and moral law. This has repercussions on the environment and basic human rights. In a long interview, Vuillemey outlines his approach of this industry and its links to what some are calling the “dark side of globalization”. The exchange is followed by an on-the-ground report from ChangeNOW 2023 Summit on its analysis to the shipping sector.Read the summary on Knowledge@HEC.

It’s been over five years since #MeToo began to draw global attention to the sexual abuse and harassment women have been subjected to in the workplace. But just what impact has this protest movement had on US companies and their boards of directors? HEC Paris Assistant Professor Crystal Shi examined the behavior of over 2,000 American firms to gauge the evolution in policy and attitude of investors and board members in their respective companies. Shi and two fellow academics at New York’s Stern School of Business identified 37 MeToo events in the year after the Harvey Weinstein scandal. They then looked for any abnormal market return based on the boardrooms’ gender structure and culture. Finally, the researchers studied the costs of the companies’ gender-inclusive or -exclusive cultures.Read the summary on Knowledge@HEC.

Et si, en enseignant l’empathie et la coopération à de jeunes garçons, l’école pouvait transformer des vies ? Dans une recherche cosignée par Yann Algan, professeur d'économie et doyen associé de l'ensemble des programmes pré-expérience à HEC Paris, les résultats sont sans appel. Ce spécialiste du bien-être au sein des organisations nous livre le bilan d’une recherche unique qu’il a menée pendant 33 ans auprès d’enfants à risque de décrochage venant de quartiers pauvres de Montréal.Retrouvez le résumé de l'étude, en anglais sur Knowledge@HEC.

Gilles Vermot Desroches est ingénieur de formation. Mais c’est au cœur de la stratégie et de l’innovation de Schneider Electric qu’il a piloté les actions de développement durable de Schneider pendant les 25 dernières années. Il répond à nos questions sur sa compréhension des critères de notation de l’ESG et partage ses observations de l’évolution des tendances de la question de l’impact, de la responsabilité de l’Europe dans ses efforts stratégiques et des manières de mesurer l’ESG. Mais, tout d’abord, le Directeur de la Citoyenneté et des Relations institutionnelles à Schneider retrace les étapes clés de la stratégie ESG de la société depuis 1998.Ce podcast coïncide avec la signature d’une Convention de Mécénat entre Schneider Electric, HEC Paris et la Fondation HEC. Ce partenariat a pour ambition d’accroître la compréhension et les avancées des entreprises face aux défis environnementaux et sociaux face à la nécessité d'une transition équitable vers une économie décarbonée et inclusive.Retrouvez l'article résumé en anglais sur Knowledge@HEC.

Why is the SOCIAL element of Environmental, Social and Governance performance (ESG) neglected or ignored? Three HEC academics have joined forces with an S&P Global researcher on ESG to better understand this negligence. They have published a landmark report on how ESG frameworks cover this issue – or don’t. “What Gets Measured” also suggests ways to ensure that what gets measured, in the authors’ own words, “matters for businesses, the people and the communities they impact”. For, ignoring social concerns like workers’ rights in the supply chain can have serious consequences, as France's gilet jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement illustrated. Read more on Knowledge@HEC.