(Newsletter #17) Think differently, act effectively

An essential movement lies at the heart of human history: act, think... think, act.

Growing and powerful forces are mobilising every day on sustainability issues – ‘there's no planet B’ – but we're not there yet. What if we took a step back to keep on imagining and considering, wherever possible, real alternatives – ‘there is a plan B’ – sometimes simple, always effective?

This month, our professors present their latest thoughts on a variety of topics and sectors. And these analyses are anything but abstract: from the North Sea to the coffee fields of Brazil and the Basque Country, they highlight actions and solutions that work and bring us collectively closer to better control of our ecological and social footprint.

Don't forget that all these articles are available in French on our website.

Happy reading!

When the “crowd” invests in “green”: how equity crowdfunding fuels jobs and sustainability

By Magnus Blomkvist - Associate Professor at EDHEC, Anup Basnet - Assistant Professor at Western University and Aristogenis Lazos - Associate Professor at Audencia

Equity crowdfunding allows startups to raise capital directly from individuals, transforming ordinary people into shareholders. The authors analysed nearly 600 successful campaign to understand how startups with explicit environmental missions fared compared to the others. The central question was simple: does a commitment to sustainability help a startup raise more money and hire more people?... Read this article

Can carbon accounting reshape the way we organise corporate events?

By Naeem Ashraf - Professor at EDHEC

The Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) sector may be on track to surpass $2 trillion in market value by 2028... and with it, so is exploding the energy bill. The author, after formalising that each participant emits between 190 and 367 kilograms of CO₂ per event, quantifies how much each aspect weight. In a nutshell, it then allows him to argue that the sustainable approach should start way before the event itself... Read this article

“On the shoulders of…” Joanne Martin (Stanford), by Youcef Bousalham

An interview with Youcef Bousalham - Associate Professor at EDHEC, around the work and influence of Joanne Martin - Fred H. Merrill Professor of Organizational Behavior, Emerita Stanford University Graduate School of Business

(new serie) This title is inspired by a phrase used and adapted over the centuries by many intellectuals, and refers more directly in France to J-C Ameisen's famous programme, Sur les épaules de Darwin. In all modesty, we would like to contribute to this epistemological approach by giving our professors the opportunity to tell us why and how leading figures in research and the economic world have influenced their careers.

Y. Bousalham: Joanne Martin played a decisive role in shaping my intellectual development. She is not only an excellent researcher, but also a pioneer in every sense of the word. She was the first woman to obtain tenure at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, at a time when the university was still very much dominated by male norms [...] Her personal journey seems to me to be inextricably linked to her analytical work on organisations and her way of thinking about them as spaces reproducing implicit norms that they often end up no longer questioning... Read this interview

What if local currencies were more ‘solidarity-based’? The case of the Basque Eusko

By Hayyan Alia Thorey - Senior Lecturer at EDHEC, and Eli Spiegelman - Associate Professor at Burgundy School of Business

Local currencies are monetary systems set up in a certain area to boost the local economy, notably by redirecting consumption towards short supply chains. While their dynamics have largely fuelled theoretical thinking, they have been much less empirically analysed in terms of concrete impact. In this article, the authors examine the Eusko - the leading local currency in Europe - and highlight, through a lab-in-the-field experiment, how and why it seems to strengthen cooperation norms within a committed community... Read this article

How a new model for higher education could (really) enhance sustainability transitions

By Thomas B. Long - Associate Professor at EDHEC, Giacomo Buzzao - Post-doc research fellow at Università Ca'​ Foscari Venezia and Padmaja Argade - Assistant Professor at International University of Monaco

As the need for the net positive transition grows, much of the attention goes to policymakers, corporations, and tech startups. What if we were overlooking one of the most quietly powerful actors in the sustainability transition? The authors shed light on Higher Education actors (Universities and business schools) which have been quietly but steadily shaping a new model for the last few years, where they become active agents of change – particularly in the regions that need it most... Read this article

Beyond competition: how and why businesses are teaming up to tackle sustainability

By Madlen Sobkowiak - Associate Professor at EDHEC, Jan Bebbington - Professor at Lancaster University, Robert Blasiak - Associate Professor at Stockholms universitet, Carl Folke - Professor at Stockholms universitet and Henrik Österblom - Professor at Stockholms universitet

As it appears, companies are not always battling each other for market share: to address problems they can't solve alone - climate change, biodiversity loss, human rights abuses - more and more corporate rivals are becoming collaborators. In this article, the authors examine the different forms that these partnerships might take and what that means for building appropriate accountability frameworks to hold them accountable for the change they promise... Read this article

How to develop sustainability in B2B through customer training

By Joelle Vanhamme - Professor at EDHEC and Academic Director of the Executive MBA, Ariovaldo Alberto da Silva Jr. - Invited Professor at ESPM Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, Alina Ferecatu - Associate Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Stefano Puntoni - Professor at The Wharton School and Rafael Alberto Souza e Silva - Agronomist at Coffee of Andradas

Numerous products can create substantial sustainability risks, particularly if users fail to implement them correctly. In line with the UN fourth Sustainable Development Goal, the authors establish positive effects of customer training, using a design science approach. From a field experiment with Brazilian coffee farmers, they create a 5-step method to enhance knowledge of correct uses of agrochemicals and farming practices, entailing a broader positive impacts on sustainability... Read this article

Meet Hager Jemel-Fornetty, a Professor determined to change perceptions about inclusion and diversity

A portrait of Hager Jemel-Fornetty - Associate Professor at EDHEC, Director of the Diversity & Inclusion Chair, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies

"Today's Hager is the product of a personal and family history that began on the Tunisian shores of the Mediterranean, in Sfax. Country's second largest economic hub, this port city was the backdrop for the early adventures of a young girl steeped in her hometown. ‘Sfax is a crossroads,’ she explains. ‘It's a city with an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong work ethic. Education is also very important here, with the highest number of honours in the country's baccalaureate exams. It's a city with strong values.’ "... Read this portrait

Illustration (header) 2025 - Anne Moreau