Professors

Jean-Philippe Bonardi is Professor of Strategic Management and currently the Co-Managing Director for the Enterprise for Society center (E4S). Between 2015 and 2021 he served the University in the role of Dean of HEC Lausanne, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne. He earned his PhD and a Master from HEC School of Management (Paris, France), as well as a Master in Economics from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and was previously Associate Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business of the University of Western Ontario (Canada). He has also held visiting appointments at the University of California Berkeley, Tulane University (USA) and the University of New South Wales (Australia).

His research focuses on Strategy Formulation in general, with some focus on the relationships between firms’ strategies and public policies, including macroeconomic policies and regulations of all kinds and in a global context. He studies not only how firms are impacted by these policies, but also how firms devise strategies to participate in the development of these policies and how they manage the relationships with external stakeholders (media, NGOs, activists, consumer groups, etc.). His research has been published in major international research outlets including the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, and the Strategic Management Journal.

He served as an Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Review between 2008 and 2011.

Professor Bonardi has also acted as a consultant to various companies in Europe and North America, and has taught and designed Executive education programs for companies and international organizations such as the United Nations, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), the RBC Royal Bank, Threadneedle, La Poste, SSL International, UPM, Veolia, DSM and Air France among others.

Additional information

     Google Scholar Citations               Personal website

• Firm nonmarket strategy; lobbying; corporate political activities
• Impact of the media on firms; media bias; media and corporate reputation
• Firms’ relationships with environmental activists and NGOs; Corporate social responsibility
• Regulation, deregulation, trade policies, and firm strategy
• Macroeconomics, globalization and business strategy
• Entrepreneurship and public policies
• Economics of leadership and entrepreneurship
• Competitive dynamics and strategy

Selected publications

• Breitinger, D., Bonardi, J.P. (2017). Firms, breach of norms and reputation damage. Business & Society. 1-34.

• Zehnder, C., Herz, H., Bonardi, J.P. (2017). A productive clash of culture: Bringing economics into leadership research. Leadership Quarterly. 28, 1: 65-85.

• Hadani, M., Bonardi, J.P., Dahan, N. (2017). Corporate political activity, public policy uncertainty, firm outcome: A meta-analysis. Strategic Organization. 15, 3: 338-366.

• Kingsley, A., Vanden Bergh, R., Bonardi, J.P. (2012). Political markets and uncertainty: Insights and implications for integrated strategy. Academy of Management Perspectives. August: 52-67.

• Bonardi, J.P. (2011). Corporate political resources and the Resource-based view of the firm. Strategic Organization. August. 9, 3: 247-255

• Okhuysen, G., Bonardi, J.P. (2011). The challenges of theory building through the combination of lenses. Academy of Management Review. January: 6-12., Editor section.

• Bonardi, J.P., Holburn, G., VandenBergh, R. (2006). Nonmarket performance: Evidence from U.S. electric utilities. Academy of Management Journal. December, 49, 6: 1209-1228.

• Bonardi, J.P., Keim, G. Corporate political strategies for widely salient issues. Academy of Management Review. 30, 3: 555-576.

• Bonardi, J.P., Hillman, A., Keim, G. (2005). The attractiveness of political markets: Implication for firm strategies. Academy of Management Review. 30, 2: 397-413.

• Bonardi, J.P. (2004). Political and international strategies of former telecom monopolies: The Asymmetric behaviors of former monopolies. Strategic Management Journal. February. 25 (2): 101-120.

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Xavier Castañer holds a Bachelor and MBA from ESADE and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota. He is Professor of Strategy at the Department of Strategy, Globalization and Society, HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne (UNIL). Prior to joining UNIL, Professor Castañer  was Assistant Professor at the Business Policy Departments of HEC Paris and ESADE. At ESADE he was the founding executive secretary of the Institute of Public Leadership and Management. He has also taught at the London Business School, the Technion and the University of Geneva, among others. Between 2009 and 2012, he was the co-director for the Cultural Management diploma at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne. He has been interviewed for and featured in different media such as Bilan, Forbes, and NZZ on a variety of managerial and organizational issues.

Professor Castañer's research broadly deals with how actors with different backgrounds and interests engage in collective, hopefully coordinated, action, whether it is owners in the context of corporate governance, partners in alliances, acquiring and target employees in acquisitions or different members in innovation teams. Relatedly, he is interested in how integration is achieved within and across organizations. He is also conducting research on creativity and innovation, including in cultural organizations. Thus, his research spans the fields of corporate governance, strategy, innovation and organizational theory.

He has been or is member of several review boards of scientific journals in management such as Academy of Management Journal, Org Sci or Strategic Management Journal. He is also very active in professional associations such as AOM, CCC or SMS. Currently he is the VP for external relations of EURAM.

Additional information:

    Google Scholar Citations               HEC Blog

• Corporate strategy: choice of organizational boundaries/scope (diversification, geographical expansion, vertical integration)
• Ownership structure & corporate governance impact on strategy
• Choice & management of development modes (internal ventures, alliances, and acquisitions)
• Management of multibusiness & multinational companies
• Innovation & its diffusion
• Management of cultural organizations 

Selected publications

• Bruyaka, O., Philippe, D. and Castañer, X. (2018). Run Away or Stick Together: The Impact of Organization-Specific Adverse Events on Alliance Partner Defection. Academy of Management Review.

• Castañer, X. (2016). Redefining Creativity and Innovation in Organizations: Suggestions for Redirecting Research. International Journal of Innovation Management, 20 (4): 1-23. Reprinted in Brem, Alexander et al (2017). The Role of Creativity in the Management of Innovation. State of the Art and Future Research Outlook. World Scientific, London. Series of Technology Management, 49-71.

• Kavadis, N. and Castañer, X. (2015). Who Drives Corporate Restructuring? Co-Existing Owners in French Firms. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 23 (5): 417–433. Early view online since March 31, 2015.

• Castañer, X., Mulotte, L., Garrette, B. and Dussauge, P. (2014). Governance Mode vs. Governance Fit? Performance Implications of Make-or-Ally Choices for Product Innovation in the Worldwide Aircraft Industry 1942-2000. Strategic Management Journal, 35: 1386-1397 (September issue). Early view 26 July 2013.

• Castañer, X. and Kavadis, N. (2013). Does Good Corporate Governance Prevent Bad Strategies? An Empirical Analysis of Non-Value Creating Financial Diversification in French Companies, 2000-2006. Strategic Management Journal, 34: 863-876. Early view January 2013, published online May 2013.

• Zaheer, A., Castañer, X. and Souder, D. (2013). Synergy Sources, Target Autonomy and Integration in Acquisitions. Journal of Management, 39(3): 604-632. Published on-line in May 2011.

• De Clercq, D., Castañer, X. and Belausteguigoitia, I. (2011). Entrepreneurial Initiative Selling within Organizations: Towards a More Comprehensive Motivational Framework. Journal of Management Studies, 48: 1269-1290.

• Garrette, B., Castañer, X. and Dussauge, P. (2009). Horizontal Alliances as an Alternative to Autonomous Production: Product Expansion Mode Choice in the Worldwide Aircraft Industry, 1945-2000. Strategic Management Journal, 30 (8): 885-894.

• Ketokivi, M. and Castañer, X. (2004). Strategic Planning as an Integrative Device. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49: 337-365.

• Castañer, X. and Campos, L. (2002). The Determinants of Artistic Innovation: Bringing the Role of Organizations. Journal of Cultural Economics, 26: 29-52. Reprinted in Towse, R. (ed) (2007), Recent Developments in Cultural Economics. Edward Elgar.

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Patrick Haack is Professor of Responsible Management in the Strategy Department at HEC Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Haack’s research seeks to integrate psychological and social-constructionist viewpoints within an ideational paradigm to open the “black box” of organizational and institutional processes. His specific interests include the multi-level analysis of legitimacy, the exploration of decoupling from a dynamic perspective, and questions of research design and research methodology, especially the application of experiments and formal modeling approaches in the study of institutionalization and legitimation. Dr. Haack’s research has been published in the Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, and other outlets. He is the winner of the 2017 Best Reviewer Award of the Academy of Management Review and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Review, Business & Society, Journal of Management Studies, and Organization Studies. Dr. Haack is the co-founder of the research network on"Microfoundations of Institutions".

Additional information:

  Google Scholar Citations               CV                  

• Corporate Reputation
• Corporate Scandals and Crisis Management
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Global Governance
• Microfoundations of Organizations and Institutions
• Organizational Legitimacy
• Organization Theory

Selected publications

• Harmon, D., Haack, P., & Roulet, T. (2018). Microfoundations of Institutions: A Matter of Structure vs. Agency or Level of Analysis? (Dialogue paper), Academy of Management Review, forthcoming.

• Haack, P. & Sieweke, J. (2018). The Legitimacy of Inequality: Integrating the Perspectives of System Justification and Social Judgment, Journal of Management Studies, 55: 486-516.

• Suddaby, R., Bitektine, A., & Haack, P. (2017). Legitimacy. Academy of Management Annals, 11: 451–478.

• Haack, P. & Schoeneborn, D. (2015). Is Decoupling Becoming Decoupled from Institutional Theory? A Commentary on Wijen (Dialogue Paper). Academy of Management Review, 40, 307–313.

• Bitektine, A. & Haack, P. (2015). The “Macro” and the “Micro” of Legitimacy: Towards a Multi-Level Theory of the Legitimacy Process. Academy of Management Review, 40, 49–7

• Haack, P. & Scherer, A. G. (2014). Why Sparing the Rod does not Spoil the Child: A Critique of the Strict Father Model in Transnational Governance. Journal of Business Ethics, 122, 225–240.

• Haack, P., Pfarrer, M. & Scherer, A. G. (2014). Legitimacy-as-Feeling: How Affect Leads to Vertical Legitimacy Spillovers in Transnational Governance. Journal of Management Studies, 51, 634–666.

• Haack, P., Schoeneborn, D. & Wickert, C. (2012). Talking the Talk, Moral Entrapment, Creep­­ing Commitment? Exploring Narrative Dynamics in Corporate Responsibility Standardization. Organization Studies, 33, 813–845.

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Guido Palazzo is Professor of Business Ethics at HEC, University of Lausanne. He studied business administration and philosophy at the University of Bamberg (Germany) and wrote his PhD in political philosophy at the University of Marburg (Germany). His research deals with corporate responsibility in global supply chains, the mechanisms of (un)ethical decision making in organizations, social change processes, the fight against organized crime and the impact of storytelling on behavior. His articles have been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics. He is associate editor of the Business Ethics Quarterly and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Management Studies, the Academy of Management Review and Business & Society. One of his recent papers on Cosa Nostra in Sicily was one of three finalists of the prestigious Academy of Management Journal best paper award 2016. Guido Palazzo has received the Max Weber Award for his research on multinational corporations by the German president. His online course (MOOC) on “unethical decision making in organizations” (together with Ulrich Hoffrage) at Coursera has so far been taken by more than 30.000 people.

Additional information:

 Google Scholar Citations               Coursera Courses            

Twitter               TEDx Talk

• Corporate responsibility in global supply chains
• Mechanisms of (un)ethical decision making in organizations
• Social change processes
• Organized crime
• Storytelling

Selected publications

Contracting to (dis)incentivize? An integrative <scp>transaction‐cost</scp> approach on how contracts govern specific investments

Lo Desmond, Zanarone Giorgio, Ghosh Mrinal, 2022/08. Strategic Management Journal, 43 (8) pp. 1528-1555. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI ][WoS ][serval:BIB_2E7EAB8FC196]

Transparency in relational contracts

Fahn Matthias, Zanarone Giorgio, 2022/05. Strategic Management Journal, 43 (5) pp. 1046-1071.

[DOI ][WoS ][serval:BIB_AFB5244F0219]

The role of relationship scope in sustaining relational contracts in interfirm networks

Argyres Nicholas, Bercovitz Janet, Zanarone Giorgio, 2020/02. Strategic Management Journal, 41 (2) pp. 222-245. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI][WoS][serval:BIB_47D794FC6AC2]

Relational Contracting in Developed Economies: Lessons From Slot Exchanges in the <scp>US</scp> Airline Industry

Gil Ricard, Kim Myongjin, Zanarone Giorgio, 2019/09. The Japanese Economic Review, 70 (3) pp. 411-421. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI][WoS][serval:BIB_794D95585FCE]

On the determinants and consequences of informal contracting

Gil Ricard, Zanarone Giorgio, 2018/10. Journal of Economics &amp; Management Strategy, 27 (4) pp. 726-741. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI][WoS][serval:BIB_D5FEC19AA5DC]

Property Rights in Sequential Exchange

Arruñada Benito, Zanarone Giorgio, Garoupa Nuno, 2019/03/01. The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 35 (1) pp. 127-153. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI][WoS][serval:BIB_E113BA8DB430]

Formal and Informal Contracting: Theory and Evidence

Gil Ricard, Zanarone Giorgio, 2017/10/13. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 13 (1) pp. 141-159. Peer-reviewed.

[DOI][WoS][serval:BIB_8FBDA3F3FC87]

Jeffrey Petty has a Doctorate in Management and an MBA in International Management. His primary research and teaching interests are focused on entrepreneurship, including venture capital decision making, new venture financing, and opportunity exploitation. Jeffrey is an AMBA Accreditation Assessor, a member of the EMBA Council’s Board of Trustees, and a member of the EFMD’s Entrepreneurship Education Steering Committee. He is currently the faculty advisor for the UNIL HEC Accelerator and the Academic Director of the HEC EMBA programme.

Additional information:

 Google Scholar Citations

• Entrepreneurship
• New venture funding
• Entrepreneurial ecosystems: policies, programmes & institutions
• Social entrepreneurship
• Innovation management and corporate venturing
• Entrepreneurship and innovation management

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Christian Peukert is Associate Professor of Strategy. Prior to that he was Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Management at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, and a Senior Research Associate at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. He holds a Ph.D. in Management and Economics from the University of Munich (LMU). Prof. Christian Peukert’s research tries to understand how digitization affects consumers, firms and markets, and how this shapes incentives to innovate. He works on topics such as Intellectual Property and Economics of Data and Artificial Intelligence with a particular focus on media and entertainment markets. His research has been published in leading journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Information Systems Research, and Research Policy. Christian is co-founder of the Internet Observatory and the Digital Economy Network.

Additional information:

   Google Scholar Citations          Personal website 

• Economics of Digitization

• Media Economics

• Economics of Innovation

• Platform Strategy

• Video Killed the Radio Star? Online Music Videos and Recorded Music Sales (2020, with Tobias Kretschmer).Information Systems Research.

•   Follow the Money: Online Piracy and Self-Regulation in the Advertising Industry (2019, with Michail Batikas and Jörg Claussen), International Journal of Industrial Organization.

•  Determinants and Heterogeneity of Switching Costs in IT Outsourcing: Estimates from Firm-Level Data (2019),European Journal of Information Systems.

• Demand Variation, Strategic Flexibility and Market Entry: Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry (2018, with Jörg Claussen and Christian Essling), Strategic Management Journal.

• Catch Me if You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement (2018, with Luis Aguiar and Jörg Claussen), Information Systems Research.

• Piracy and Box Office Movie Revenues: Evidence from Megaupload (2017, with Jörg Claussen and Tobias Kretschmer), International Journal of Industrial Organization.

• R&D Outsourcing and Intellectual Property Infringement (2015, with Philipp Buss), Research Policy.

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Déborah Philippe is Professor of Strategy. She joined the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne in 2009 and between 2017 and 2021 she served the University in the role of Vice-Rector for Careers and Society. She holds a PhD in Strategy and Management from HEC Paris (2009), a M.Phil in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Paris Dauphine (2005) and a M.Sc in Management from HEC Paris (2003). During her PhD, she was a visiting scholar at the Yale School of Management (2009) and Ivey Business School (2008).

Déborah’s primary research interests lie at the intersection of organization theory, economic sociology, and strategy. She investigates the role of social evaluations (i.e., status, legitimacy, reputation, and stigma) in shaping organizations’ strategic behavior. Specifically, she looks at organizations’ strategic behavior to manage social evaluations and at the impact of these social evaluations on inter-organizational dynamics. She primarily explores these questions in the fields of corporate environmental responsibility and strategic alliances. Her research has been published in top outlets such Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Management Studies.

Additional information:

  Google Scholar Citations

• Social evaluations
• Inter-organizational dynamics
• Business and the natural environment
• Sustainability
• Discourse analysis
• Organizational sociology

Selected publications

• Feix, A. & Philippe, D. Conditionally accepted. Unpacking the Narrative Decontestation of CSR: Aspiration for Change or Defense of the Status Quo? Journal of Business & Society

• Bruyaka, O., Philippe, D. & Castañer, X. 2018. Run away or stick together? The impact of organization-specific adverse events on alliance partner defection. Academy of Management Review

• Collet, F. & Philippe, D. 2014. From hot cakes to cold feet: A contingent perspective on the relationship between market uncertainty and status homophily in the formation of alliances. Journal of Management Studies, 51(3): 406-432.

•  Philippe, D. & Durand, R. 2011. The Impact of Norm-Conforming Behaviors on Firm Reputation. Strategic Management Journal, 32(9): 969-993. 

See a full list of publications by clicking here.

Sonja Vogt’s research emphasizes the use of behavioral science to promote sustainable economic and social development.  To do so, Vogt’s research uses a mix of lab, online, and field experiments to examine decision making in domains related to public health and gender, education, sustainable land management, and climate change. For example, with respect to gender, she has worked on strategies to reduce female genital cutting in Sudan and sex-selective abortion of females in Armenia. She is currently investigating the use of narratives to improve educational outcomes in South Africa and Malawi. She is also the principal investigator of a large project on digital solutions for sustainable land management among farmers with small land holdings (Agripath) in Burkino Faso, Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, and India. 

Prof. Vogt obtained her doctorate from Utrecht University and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Zurich and the University of Oxford. She has published in journals such as Demography, Biological Conservation, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Nature Human Behaviour, Science, and Nature. 

Additional information:

She is affiliated with Nuffield College, the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences, and the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, and the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern. She is also principal investigator of the Policy and Cultural Evolution Lab (https://pacelab.org/).

• Development research on poverty sustainability, and public health

• Social norms

• Narrative communication

Selected publications

• Schimmelpfennig, R., Vogt, S., Ehret, S., and Efferson, C.  (forthcoming).  Maximizing behavior change when people differ from each other.  Bulletin of the World Health Organization.  Special themed issue on Behavior and Health.  

• Berger, J., Vogt, S., Efferson, C. (forthcoming). Pre-existing fairness concerns restrict the cultural evolution and generalization of inequitable norms in children. Evolution and Human Behavior. 

• Schief, M., Vogt, S., Efferson, C. (forthcoming).  The structure of son bias in Armenia: from implicit associations to explicit behavior.   Demography. 

• Travers, H./Walsh, J., Vogt, S., Clements, T., Milner-Gulland, E.J. (2021).Delivering behavioural change at scale: what conservation can learn from other fields. Biological Conservation. 

• Efferson, C., Vogt, S. & Fehr, E. (2020). The promise and the peril of using social influence to reverse harmful traditions. Nature Human Behaviour. 

• Soraperra, I., Kobis, N., Efferson, C., Shalvi, S., Vogt, S., and Offerman, T. (working paper). A market for integrity. An experiment on corruption in the education sector. 

• Efferson, C. and Vogt, S. (2018). Behavioural homogenisation with spillovers in a normative domain, Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 285(1879)

• Vogt, S., Efferson, C., and Fehr, E. (2017). The risk of female genital cutting in Europe: Comparing immigrant attitudes toward uncut girls with attitudes in a practicing country. Social Science Medicine – Population Health (3): 283-293.

• Vogt, S., Zaid, N.A.M., Ahmed, H.E.F., Fehr, E., and Efferson, C. (2016). Changing cultural attitudes on female genital cutting. Nature, 538(7726): 506-509. (Shared first authorship with Efferson)

• Efferson, C., Roca, C., Vogt, S., and Helbing, D. (2016). Sustained cooperation by running away from bad behavior. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(1): 1-9.

• Efferson, C., Vogt, S., Elhadi, A., Ahmed, H.E.F., and Fehr, E. (2015). Female genital cutting is not a social coordination norm. Science, 349: 1446-1447. (Shared first authorship with Efferson)

How do firms govern their collaborative relationships with partners, suppliers, and employees? How do they integrate and manage the contractual and relational dimensions of governance? How does the legal and institutional environment shape business strategy? Giorgio Zanarone’s research addresses these questions both theoretically, through the lenses of organizational economics and transaction cost analysis, and empirically, by studying collaborative relationships as diverse as franchising networks, supply chains, airline partnerships, and lobbying.

Before joining HEC Lausanne, Giorgio Zanarone was visiting professor at Washington University’s Olin Business School (2019-2022), and associate professor and vice dean for research at CUNEF Business School (2008-2019). He has also been Visiting Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management during 2013 and 2019. He received his PHD from Pompeu Fabra University.

Giorgio Zanarone’s research has been published in leading academic journals in management, economics, and law, including Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Law & Economics, and Journal of Law, Economics & Organization. He has been an elected director, and currently serves as Secretary of SIOE, the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics.

Additional information:

 Personal Website              Google Scholar Citations                           

• Governance

• Contracts

• Organizational economics

• Interplay of governance, business strategy and institutions

• Law & economics

• Non-market strategy and lobbying