IESE Insight - Research Papers

COVID-19: a time for ethical decisions

Fontrodona, Joan; Muller, Philip In times of crisis, leaders must make tough choices. But don't neglect ethics for guiding businesses to stay true to their missions and to identify opportunities for change.

Could a new accounting standard exacerbate the economic damage of the COVID-19 crisis?

López Espinosa, G.; Ormazábal, Gaizka; Sakasai, Yuki Some predicted new accounting standard IFRS 9 could constrain lending, hit banking earnings and harm the economy during times of crisis. Now, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, will this prediction come true? Our analysis points to yes, under certain conditions.

How much will COVID-19 shake the world economy?

Fernandes, Nuno "The potential impacts of the coronavirus crisis are larger than any previously seen in history," warns Nuno Fernandes in a new report. The economies of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are predicted to be among the most affected.

Feedback matters: when colleagues become competitors

Woike, Jan K.; Hafenbrädl, Sebastian Many companies rank employees when giving them feedback. But a new study suggests that this kind of feedback creates destructive competition among workers

Do environmental NGOs contribute to urban sustainability?

Rousseau, Horacio Enrique; Berrone, Pascual; Gelabert, Liliana "Yes" is the short answer. Research by Horacio Rousseau, Pascual Berrone and Liliana Gelabert shows green NGOs have a positive impact on city life, while there are a few mitigating factors to consider.

Pay attention to your dataset: on calculating risk premiums

Raponi, Valentina; Robotti, Cesare; Zaffaroni, Paolo Moving from theories of risk premiums to their managerial implications: IESE's Valentina Raponi breaks down her recent research on estimating and testing beta-pricing models into digestible bits.

When speaking the world's global language comes with unwanted side effects

Reiche, Sebastian; Neeley, Tsedal Multinationals may choose to enforce a single corporate language to improve communication and information flows. Yet, from company morale to turnover intentions, the results are sometimes surprising.

4 ways family firms are letting outside investors in

Neckebrouck, Jeroen; Meuleman, Miguel; Manigart, Sophie More family businesses are opening up to external investors these days. IESE's Jeroen Neckebrouck maps out four main scenarios, based on two key questions, and points to their governance implications.

Gear up for innovation and branding opportunities

van Everdingen, Yvonne; Hariharan, Vijay Ganesh; Stremersch, Stefan When sporting gear companies participate in major competitions, like Formula One, what they stand to gain depends on what they're already spending.

Designing the optimal supply base: how many suppliers?

Martínez de Albéniz, Victor; Wang, Jiao Designing an optimal supply base is challenging, especially for fashion apparel retailers and other companies with many innovative products. New research proposes a modeling framework that can help determine the optimal supply-base size depending on certain circumstances.