Competitive projects

• Principal Investigator: Anna Ginès
• Reseach group: Institute for Labor Studies (IEL)
• Funding body: European Union (H2020)
• Funding: €563,250
• Duration: 48 months

The main aim of the EQUAL4EUROPE project is to contribute to increased gender equality in the European Research Area (ERA). In order to achieve this main aim, the consortium of 8 partners from across Europe have set the following specific objectives:

• Increase gender-awareness at the organizational level – through activities to increase gender awareness, such as workshops, training and continuous communication.
• Engage relevant actors and stakeholders from across the spectrum of gender equality seeking organizations in Europe.
• Develop and implement tailored Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) – each of the 6 academic institutions involved in the project will develop a tailored GEP based on an in-depth assessment of the current situation, entailing a variety of measures that fit the specific context and respond to well identified areas in need of action.
• Monitor and evaluate the impact and results of the implemented GEPs – project partners will develop a methodology for impartially evaluating the progress made on gender equality plans throughout the duration of the EQUAL4EUROPE project. The methodology for the evaluation should be thought of as formative, helping the consortium partners to adapt their GEP’s as necessary at the end of the EQUAL4EUROPE project; also, a summative evaluation will be executed. To ensure that these GEPs are not just ‘paper realities’ the EQUAL4EUROPE project partner PNO will be dedicated to monitoring the implementation of the plans and the evaluation of the effects.
• Foster and promote knowledge exchange
• Create a European network for research institutions GE officers.

• Principal Investigator: Lisa Hehenberger & Ignasi Martí
• Research group: Esade Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI) – Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: Degroof Petercam Foundation
• Funding: €60,000
• Duration: 12 months

Life chances and quality of life are strongly determined by employment (and lack thereof). We will focus, accordingly, in a second part of the research project, on:

• Identifying and mapping those populations that have been either structurally underserved, bypassed or expulsed by the traditional drivers and mechanisms of job creation and those that are at-risk;
• Mapping of existing solutions (or absence of) addressing these populations (public policies, private high impact initiatives, role of entrepreneurship);
• Analyzing the ineffectiveness of existing solutions,
• ldentifying specific topics a foundation could address;
• Prioritizing some of the needs

Esade will set up an international research board that will support the postdoctoral researcher to access data and key information in each of the 4 contexts (France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Europe).

The research will be based on primary sources (access to stakeholders) and secondary sources (documentation and data).

• Principal Investigator: Beatriz Añoveros
• Research group: Patrimonial Law Group
• Funding body: European Union
• Funding: €82,064
• Duration: 24 months

The PAX project –Private International Law in Motion- has been set up as an ambitious project which provides both an adequate follow-up to the earlier JUDGTRUST project (funded by the European Commission under the JUST-JCOO-AG-2017 programme for the period 2018-2020) and an the attempt to take these earlier achievements to the next level via enhanced knowledge and training in EU private international law (i.e. judicial cooperation in civil matters having cross-border implications in the EU, as referred to by Art.81, 1°, TFEU). The still ongoing JUDGTRUST project focuses on the Brussels Ibis regulation and has as its main objective to advance the correct and consistent application of this major piece of EU legislation on private international law. One of its most remarkable components is the launch of a Moot Court Competition to increase students’ awareness of its reach and significance. The first edition of this EU sponsored Moot Court Competition has taken place in the academic year 2018-2019, and has recently been concluded through two-day finals in the Hague at which 11 teams (not only of European, but also of Indian and Russian origin) participated. This Moot Court Competition turned out to an unexpecte d success in many respects: the interest that it has raised far beyond the Union’s borders, the large participation and the active involvement of not only students but also legal professionals and academics from a wide array of universities. Next year, a second edition will be organized, still under the JUDGTRUST project.

• Principal Investigator: Lisa Hehenberger
• Research group: Esade Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI)
• Funding body: Open Value Foundation
• Funding: €20,000
• Duration: 12 months

• Principal Investigator: Sira Abenoza
• Research unit: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: MobilWorldCapital Barcelona
• Funding: €14,950
• Duration: 10 months

Realización de un estudio sobre economía digital y confianza para PIMEs, elaborada para la Digital Future Society (DFS) del MobilWorldCapital.

El resultado es un informe que tiene como objetivo inspirar a profesionales, ser una invitación a la visión de futuro a través del estudio y presentación de 10 casos de empresas digitales que se basan en la transparencia, que son robustas, sostenibles y replicables. Todos estos casos de estudio se incluyen en el informe “Building a trustworthy digital busines: recommendations for SMEs”.

El documento pretende aportar una guía para pequeñas empresas de la economía digital que quieren incrementar la confianza de sus clientes, y evolucionar su modelo de negocio más allá de la monetización de datos. Para hacer realidad esta oportunidad de innovación, las organizaciones deben comprender cuáles son los impulsores del éxito, las barreras y los facilitadores; pasar de los negocios habituales a los negocios responsables, en lo que respecta a la confianza y la transparencia en la economía digital. Sin embargo, la construcción de un entorno transparente y confiable es un proceso continuo.

Output:

Building a trustworthy digital busines: recommendations for SMEs

Autores: Sira Abenoza, Liliana Arroyo

Mayo, 2020

Más información

Evento presentación: 18/05/2020 – “Trust and transparency in eight steps: recommendations for SMEs in the digital economy” (Online)

• Principal Investigator: Núria Agell
• Research group: Research Group on Judgements and Decisions in the Marketplace (JUICE) – Institute for Data-Driven Decisions (Esade D3)
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €8,000
• Duration: 12 months

The main objective of this project is to define a methodology able to find central sentiment and degree of consensus among a set of reviews in a social network context or in news context. In this project, a hybrid methodology is proposed. On the one hand, we will apply content and sentiment analysis on Big Data extracted from media or social media to identify the aspects or topics with positive, negative or neutral sentiment opinions. On the other hand, a methodology based on fuzzy linguistic descriptions will be used to capture from these opinions a fuzzy description of their concerns and emotions and their degree of consensus or agreement on specific topics.

In this framework, sentiment will be extracted from text analysis and then will be expressed in fuzzy linguistic terms. The centralized sentiment will be defined to reflect the specific opinion on a certain domain and a comparison will be made among the positions taken by other users or in other contexts.

• Project Principal Investigator: Ignasi Martí
• Research unit: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: ISSFacilityServices
• Funding: €15,000 + €15,000
• Duration: 12 months

Se trata de una iniciativa centrada en la realización de un ciclo de conferencias con título “Connecting through the Workplace”, que tiene como objetivo crear un foro de opinión, debate y análisis sobre los principales retos, tendencias y estrategias que debe afrontar la empresa del s. XXI para incrementar su sostenibilidad y competitividad a largo plazo.

El lema “Connecting Through the Workplace” sirve como relato transversal para analizar cómo las organizaciones y las empresas innovadoras deberían integrar cuatro ámbitos clave para la gestión y el impacto en las personas y los workplaces del futuro, que son:

1. La conexión con el entorno (liderazgo de impacto y propósito)
2. La conexión con los grupos de interés y la cadena de valor (co-creación, innovación y economía circular)
3. La conexión con las personas: los “workplace” como entornos que potencian la diversidad y talento inclusivo
4. La conexión con el talento del futuro y cómo deberían ser los workplaces del s. XXI

El proyecto incluye la realización de una conferencia y publicación posterior de un breve artículo con las principales conclusiones para cada una de las cuatro temáticas. El proyecto estaba previsto para el año 2020, con tres conferencias presenciales programadas para el curso 2019/20 y una última ya dentro del 2020/21. Sin embargo, en primavera de 2020 se reformuló la propuesta inicial para aplazar el calendario de todas las sesiones al curso 2020/21, y realizar todos los eventos en formato virtual.

Más información

Dentro del curso 2019/20 también se realizaron los dos eventos de presentación del estudio anterior obre RSE y gestión de personas, vinculado a la misma colaboración con ISS y de la que surge este nuevo proyecto como continuidad:

La influencia de la RSE en la gestión de personas: buenas prácticas

Autores: Carlos Cortés, Ignasi Carreras

Septiembre, 2019

Más información y acceso al estudio y resumen

Eventos: 19/09/2019 en Esade Madrid y 20/09/2019 en Esade Barcelona

• Principal Investigator: Annachiara Longoni
• Research group: Business Network Dynamics (BUNED
• Funding body: GENERACION DE CONOCIMIENTO 2019 – MICIU (Ministerio)
• Funding: €48,642
• Duration: 48 months

Other participants: Cristina Gimenez, Vicenta Sierra, Frank Wiengarten

The CrowdWork project aims to empirically investigate the implications of crowdsourced workforce in the last mile delivery industry for organizational efficiency (from the organizational perspective) and occupational health and safety (from the workers perspect ive).

Industries such as crowdsourced last mile delivery are built on the principle of matching supply and demand through digital labor platforms.

Workers in charge of the last mile delivery (i.e., drivers) receive their orders through the digital platform and are only paid on demand when a delivery is performed.

This model breaks the traditional employee-employer relationships to create a more flexible workforce. Digital labor platforms present employers with new opportunities to vastly reduce labor costs and increase flexibility. For sure, these work arrangements allowed the expansion of new digital businesses and the gig economy.

However, there is a growing concern that these new non-standard forms of employment adversely affect workers by creating precarious work. Such precarious work might result in social and economic insecurities, psychological and physiological stress and working conditions negatively affecting worker health and safety.

We propose that from the operational perspective it is possible to identify configurations of best practices that might overcome possible trade- offs of crowdsourced work between efficiency and occupational health and safety. By best practice configurations we refer to human resource management practices, such as training, worker involvement and teamwork; and process design, such as process formalization.

These practices combined to precarious work forms of crowdsourced work might prevent possible negative effects on worker occu pational health and safety and maintaining efficiency in the operational setting. In such research direction it is positioned the CrowdWork project, which ultimately aims to define best practice configurations of crowdsourced work to overcome possible trade-offs between organizational efficiency and worker health and safety.

From a theoretical perspective, this means, firstly, to demonstrate the trade-offs between organizational efficiency and worker health and safety in crowdsourced work environments, such as the last mile delivery industry. Secondly, we aim also to identify possible mitigation strategies for such trade-offs as combining crowdsourced work with human resource management practices and process design respectful of the workers.

From a practical perspective, this means to provide guidelines for crowdsource last-mile delivery companies, as well as digital businesses in general, about work organization design at the operational level (which is about human resource management practices and process design to combine with crowdsourced workforce); and also stimulate governments and institutions to develop regulations considering such aspects of workforce arrangement.

• Principal Investigator: Annachiara Longoni
• Research group: Business Network Dynamics (BUNED)
• Funding body: La Caixa - Call for Social Research la Caixa 2019
• Funding: €51,700
• Duration: 24 months

The aim of this research is to analyse the working conditions in the digital last mile delivery industry in Spain to determine its impact on workers’ occupational health and safety. In doing so we contribute to the definition of new forms of work in the digital service industry taking into consideration occupational health and safety aspects to protect workers as well as benefit the Spanish socio-economic context.

• Principal Investigator: Rebeca Carpi
• Research unit: Patrimonial Law Group
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €4.000
• Duration: 12 months

This research work will analyze the formulas that private law currently offers to the elderly to improve their vital reorganization in this phase, with instruments of both personal and patrimonial protection, and guaranteeing their autonomy to the maximum degree possible. I will look specifically within the Spanish system at the need to devise or adapt (within private law) formulas for residence and coexistence that work with the model of geriatric residences which are subject to the control of the Public Administration, but in many cases offer little guarantee for the well-being of the elderly, and even less with as regards their autonomy.

In the current context, the search for residential alternatives that adapt to the specificities of this vital stage, guarante eing care and attention at the same time as private autonomy and free personal development, requires returning to the subject in a more intense and general way, and encompassing not only the analysis of Catalan regulation, but also the search for convivial formulas that private law facilitates and that are adaptable to the entire national and, perhaps, European sphere.

• Principal Investigator: Santiago Forte
• Research unit: Group for Research in Economics and Finance (GREF)
• Funding body: Generación de conocimiento 2019 – MICIU (Ministerio)
• Funding: €29,161
• Duration: 36 months
• Other participants: Marco Menner, Carlo Sala, Lidija Lovreta Research

The present project comprises four main objectives. The first is to analyse and compare the informational content of equity options and (credit default swaps) CDS regarding future volatilities. For our analysis, we will distinguish between: 1. Equity volatility versus firm asset volatility; 2. Cross-section versus time-series; and 3. Short-run versus long-run. The second objective is to analyse the long-memory properties of equity and firm asset volatility at the firm-level, and its impact on volatility forecasting. The third objective is to expand our knowledge on the design and calibration of structural credit risk models. In particular, we will adopt a model-free approach to derive simple closed-form expressions for the pricing of credit sensitive claims like risky bonds, CDS contracts, and forward CDS contracts (i.e., CDS contracts signed today, but initiated at a future date). Our result will also allow for the time decomposition of credit spreads. Additionally, we will explore in detail the theoretical and empirical properties of the CreditGrades model. The fourth and last objective is to investigate the information content on risk provided by the volatility surface of the option market. Specifically, we will employ different estimation techniques and test the validity of the obtained results using classical backtesting techniques as well as we aim to create new ones. As a key common denominator, all techniques we aim to implement will produce forward-looking profit/loss density estimations. This will be achieved either under the statistical (physical) measure, or under the pricing (risk-neutral) measure. One focus will thereby be on estimation and hedging of downside risk.

• Principal Investigator: Ignasi Carreras
• Research unit: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: Coca Cola Services-Llorente y Cuenca
• Funding: €6,000
• Duration: 12 months

21ª edición del Programa de Dirección y Gestión de ONG y otras organizaciones no lucrativas
Este programa ofrece herramientas para profundizar y abordar los temas de actualidad en la dirección de ONG y otras entidades no lucrativas, con un programa actualizado para que puedan dar la mejor respuesta posible a los retos que afronta el tercer sector. Su objetivo principal es desarrollar el talento directivo, fomentar la capacidad de liderazgo y contribuir a crear una cultura que propicie el cambio organizativo, que favorezca la mejora de la gestión interna y promueva la innovación social. La metodología combina sesiones teóricas con ejercicios prácticos, discusiones de casos, reflexiones en grupo, debates, mesas redondas, etc., que sirven para promover y ordenar el aprendizaje de los participantes. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

14ª edición del Programa de Liderazgo e Innovación Social
El liderazgo, la medición de los resultados, los órganos de gobierno, la colaboración con las empresas, la innovación y la presión política son cuestiones que se tratan en el programa Liderazgo e Innovación Social en las ONG, que aspira a facilitar la formación continua de las personas que tienen responsabilidades de gestión en las organizaciones no lucrativas de nuestro país. El programa consta de cinco módulos, que pueden cursarse íntegramente o bien de forma independiente. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

Más información

• Principal Investigator: Ignasi Carreras
• Research group: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: Fundación Abertis
• Funding: €6,000
• Duration: 12 months

21ª edición del Programa de Dirección y Gestión de ONG y otras organizaciones no lucrativas
Este programa ofrece herramientas para profundizar y abordar los temas de actualidad en la dirección de ONG y otras entidades no lucrativas, con un programa actualizado para que puedan dar la mejor respuesta posible a los retos que afronta el tercer sector. Su objetivo principal es desarrollar el talento directivo, fomentar la capacidad de liderazgo y contribuir a crear una cultura que propicie el cambio organizativo, que favorezca la mejora de la gestión interna y promueva la innovación social. La metodología combina sesiones teóricas con ejercicios prácticos, discusiones de casos, reflexiones en grupo, debates, mesas redondas, etc., que sirven para promover y ordenar el aprendizaje de los participantes. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

14ª edición del Programa de Liderazgo e Innovación Social
El liderazgo, la medición de los resultados, los órganos de gobierno, la colaboración con las empresas, la innovación y la presión política son cuestiones que se tratan en el programa Liderazgo e Innovación Social en las ONG, que aspira a facilitar la formación continua de las personas que tienen responsabilidades de gestión en las organizaciones no lucrativas de nuestro país. El programa consta de cinco módulos, que pueden cursarse íntegramente o bien de forma independiente. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

Más información

• Principal Investigator: Teresa Duplá
• Research group: Conflict Management Research Group
• Funding body: ACM 2020 – Aristos Campus Mundus
• Funding: €5,400 (€4,000 Esade - coordinators)
• Duration: 12 months
• Other participants: Silvia Romboli, David Velázquez Vioque

The main focus of this research project is the family, presented in the context of a current inclusive society. Our goal is to identify and develop a better understanding of current problems and future challenges for legal and social cohesion brought about by modern familial and societal advances. The research starts from a selection of challenges faced by the current family from different areas of law: a) challenges in the private legal field (new parent-child relationships derived from gestation by surrogacy; reformulation of kinship; regional (in)-equalities of new family models); b) challenges in the public legal sphere (aggravating, mitigating and kinship; the right of correction of children; acquittal excuse and defenses in paternal responsibility; fundamental rights and family). Our interest is driven by the need to update the legal system in make it more adaptable to the new familial situations and their consequences. Research will be multidisciplinary and carried out in partnership with Deusto and Comenius universities.

• Principal Investigator: Pedro Rey
• Research group: Group for Research in Economics and Finance (GREF)
• Funding body: Generación de conocimiento 2019 – MICIU (Ministerio)
• Funding: €24,200
• Duration: 36 months

The project ainms to study fairness and efficiency in the design of standrized multiple choice test, which are used to qualify the best students and to select workers in the labour market. We plan to analyze the performance of participants in multiple choice exams (school exams, incentivezed experiments, PISA and MIR exams). We will study gender differences in performance depending on some of the characteristics of these multiple choice tests (order in the level of difficulty of questions, penalties for wrong answers, time limits).

Our main hypothesis is that observed gender differences in behavioral traits such as risk aversion and attitude towards comeptition , make apparetnly neutral exams end up discriminating against women due to some ad hoc and uninetended exam design choices.

The project aims to identify not only the optimal design of such standarized exams, so that they are able to correctly identify the best candidates instead of behavioral differences, but also analyze the job market consequences that incorrectly designed exams may have had over the labor span of workers.

As a sample of the most ambitious study we are proposing,w e have recently signed a collaboration agreeement with Ministerio de Sanidad, in order to have access to the individual data from the 40 years of the MIR exam, which assing public positions to medical doctors. Crossing these data with social security and job market data, we will be able to estimate the cost that incorrectly designed exams may have had over the professional path of doctors in Spain.

• Principal Investigator: Katharina Schmid
• Research Group: Leadership Development Research Center (GLEAD)
• Funding body: Generacion de conocimiento 2019 – MICIU (Ministerio)
• Funding: €84,700
• Duration: 48 months

A key societal challenge in Spain, as in many parts of the world, entails preventing discrimination and social exclusion of immigrants on the one hand, and women on the other, as well as curbing far-right extremism. Recent political trends in Spain reflect a surge in far-right attitudes and discriminatory behaviour towards minority groups, especially immigrants but also women. To address this challenge, the current project will use a highly innovative design that triangulates three quantitative data collection methods (i.e., a general population survey, an implicit association test, and a series of experiments) and that bridges current insights on the interplay between a key antecedent of discrimination, identity threat, as well as a key strategy to prevent such negative tendencies, intergroup contact. By examining previously unexplored conditional factors underlying the complex interplay between contact and threat, this project will offer critical new insights into the drivers of explicit (i.e., consciously held) and implicit (i.e., subconsciously held) attitudes towards immigrants and women that are prominent in the current far-right discourse in Spain. The results of this project will provide applied recommendations to policy makers and other key stakeholders seeking to prevent discrimination, social exclusion and far-right extremism in Spain.

• Principal Investigator: Angel Saz
• Research group: Research Group in Leadership and Innovation in Public Management (GLIGP) - EsadeGov
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €5,000
• Duration: 12 months

Revolving doors and politically connected boards are socially and academically relevant topics which have been widely studied for three decades. However, the research has looked at two dimensions primarily: which are the sectors in which firms hire former public officials and what is the performance of such firms. However, the overwhelming majority of such research has focused on the United States, with some exceptions regarding the EU. In this project we aim at looking at EU members states comparatively, and explore whether there are any differences between the revolving doors phenomenon within Europe, and what may be the reasons for such differences. In this project we analyse a sample of 120 indexed firms and their board directors. We are particularly interested in quantifying the number of former public sector officials on corporate boards in four European states. The research aims at explaining what determines the number of public sector officials sitting in a firm's boards. The main theoretical framework is the Varieties of Capitalism framework which will be tested for explanatory power of the heterogeneity found in the results. Thus, we expect coordinated variants of capitalism to have higher levels of revolving doors in corporate boards. (An initial pilot working paper which attempted at exploring this topic can be found here)

• Principal Investigator: Katharina Schmid
• Research group: Leadership Development Research Center (GLEAD)
• Funding body: La Caixa - Call for Social Research la Caixa 2019
• Funding: €99,850
• Duration: 24 months

A key societal challenge in Spain, and indeed in many parts of the world, entails preventing discrimination and social exclusion of minority and disadvantaged groups in society, as well as curbing far-right extremism. Recent political trends in Spain reflect a surge in far-right attitudes and discriminatory behaviour towards minority groups, especially immigrants. To address this challenge, this project will use a highly innovative design that triangulates three quantitative data collection methods (i.e., a general population survey, an implicit association test, and a series of experiments) and that bridges current insights on the interplay between a key antecedent of discrimination and far-right attitudes, identity threat, as well as a key strategy to prevent such negative tendencies, intergroup contact. By examining previously unexplored conditional factors underlying the complex interplay between contact and threat, this project will offer critical new insights into the drivers of explicit (i.e., consciously held) and implicit (i.e., subconsciously held) attitudes towards immigrants and other minority or disadvantaged groups that are also prominent in the current far-right discourse in Spain, such as women and Muslims. The results of this project will provide applied recommendations to policy makers and other key stakeholders seeking to prevent discrimination, social exclusion and far-right extremism in Spain.

• Project Principal Investigator: Patricia Font
• Research group: Patrimonial Law Group
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €5.425,00
• Duration: 12 months

This research focuses on the impact of the digital economy and the fiscal problems that this entails. It is undeniable that the globalization process has meant that companies, in order to seek greater fiscal optimization, engage in abusive practices that lead to the relocation of profits. This is undoubtedly favored by the rise of the digital economy that fosters business models in which it is not necessary to have a physical presence in the territory in which the income is generated, thus helping to facilitate the relocation of the same. In this context, the concept of permanent establishment as a connection point that allows the income generated to be subject to taxation acquires special relevance, and which has been reviewed by the OECD in the framework of the BEPS Plan. Precisely one of the hot topics currently being debated within the OECD are the challenges posed by the digital economy in the tax field, as well as the possible definition of the concept of digital permanent establishment. The academic analysis of all the above is still underdeveloped, and it is necessary to lay the minimum conceptual foundations so that its approach in tax practice, by the different agents involved, is optimal.

• Principal Investigator: Ignasi Carreras
• Research group: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: Fundacion PwC
• Funding: €53,400
• Duration: 12 months

El Programa ESADE-PwC de Liderazgo Social es una iniciativa conjunta del Instituto de Innovación Social de ESADE y de la Fundación PwC. Creado en 2008-2009, este programa tiene como objetivo generar conocimiento útil para que los líderes del tercer sector puedan afrontar mejor sus desafíos de futuro. Entre las actividades de la iniciativa se incluye la elaboración de un estudio anual, y la realización de sesiones de trabajo (foros de liderazgo) con directores y directoras generales de ONG, así como de los responsables de sus órganos de gobierno.

En noviembre de 2019 se presentó el informe “¿Hacia dónde va el liderazgo social? Nuevas tendencias y competencias”, resultado del estudio del curso anterior, una publicación centrada en el liderazgo en las ONG que identifica las nuevas tendencias y competencias deseables para los líderes del sector.

A lo largo del curso 2019-2020 el tema central del programa fue el emprendimiento en las ONG, realizando una investigación sobre la capacidad emprendedora del sector, los nuevos modelos de financiación, y el paso hacia organizaciones híbridas. Este trabajo se resume en una publicación prevista para otoño de 2020.

Durante el curso se realizaron seis foros con las ONG participantes, cuatro con los directores y directoras (dos de jornada completa y dos breves en formato virtual), y dos encuentros online con sus presidentes y presidentas. Tres de estas sesiones online fueron actividades adicionales no previstas, añadidas dado el contexto con el objetivo de compartir con las entidades el impacto y respuesta frente la pandemia, recogiendo las principales ideas surgidas en el documento El Tercer Sector ante la crisis del Covid-19. Reflexiones y experiencias.

Más información

• Principal Investigator: Monica Reig
• Research unit: Research Group in Leadership and Innovation in Public Management (GLIGP) – EsadeGov
• Funding body: Diputació de Barcelona - Àrea de Desenvolupament Econòmic i ocupació / AGBAR / Everis / La Unió / Domusvi / Suara Cooperativa / TMB / Port de Barcelona
• Funding: €80,000
• Duration: 12 months

The PARTNERS Program was created as an initiative to generate knowledge by focusing on the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of public-private partnerships. The program seeks to provide executives and institutions that operate in the public and the private sectors and are involved in collaborative projects, irrespective of their sphere of operation, with the opportunity to meet and learn from each other.

• Principal Investigator: Ignasi Carreras
• Research unit: Institute for Social Innovation (IIS)
• Funding body: Fundación Chavarri
• Funding: €225,000
• Duration: 36 months

21ª edición del Programa de Dirección y Gestión de ONG y otras organizaciones no lucrativas
Este programa ofrece herramientas para profundizar y abordar los temas de actualidad en la dirección de ONG y otras entidades no lucrativas, con un programa actualizado para que puedan dar la mejor respuesta posible a los retos que afronta el tercer sector. Su objetivo principal es desarrollar el talento directivo, fomentar la capacidad de liderazgo y contribuir a crear una cultura que propicie el cambio organizativo, que favorezca la mejora de la gestión interna y promueva la innovación social. La metodología combina sesiones teóricas con ejercicios prácticos, discusiones de casos, reflexiones en grupo, debates, mesas redondas, etc., que sirven para promover y ordenar el aprendizaje de los participantes. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

14ª edición del Programa de Liderazgo e Innovación Social
El liderazgo, la medición de los resultados, los órganos de gobierno, la colaboración con las empresas, la innovación y la presión política son cuestiones que se tratan en el programa Liderazgo e Innovación Social en las ONG, que aspira a facilitar la formación continua de las personas que tienen responsabilidades de gestión en las organizaciones no lucrativas de nuestro país. El programa consta de cinco módulos, que pueden cursarse íntegramente o bien de forma independiente. Cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Chávarri para el Bien Común.

Más información

• Principal Investigator: Petya Platikanova
• Research group: Group for Research in Economics and Finance (GREF)
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €9,950
• Duration: 12 months

One of the most interesting aspects of any society is the establishment of social norms that encourage trust, mutual respect and cooperation (or high social capital). High levels of social capital facilitate coordinated actions that have the capacity to command scare resources and bring them towards improvement in productivity, worker well-being and social performance.

With the coronavirus lockdown in early 2020, diverse social initiatives have proliferated in the Spanish society with the aim of alleviating the social and economic consequences of the pandemic and helping the efficient functioning of regional economies. Despite such efforts, economic forecasts by international organizations today suggest that the pandemic will certainly have a strong negative effect on long-term economic growth and the pace of recovery will be painfully slow. To mitigate the negative consequences of the global crisis following COVID-19, the discussion around different policy solutions, such as capital injections in the real economy, has been initiated at both national and international level. Although policy interventions may be effective to speed up the process of economic recovery, it is very l ikely that pro-social cooperative attitude can further facilitate the faster recovery of local economies.

The objective of this investigation is to identify and measure the impact of social capital on the economic recovery in post -COVID Spain. This investigation will determine the critical conditions for this social capital to promote economic development of Spanish regions in (post-)crisis times.

• Principal Investigator: Katharina Schmid
• Research group: Leadership Development Research Center (GLEAD)
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €10,000
• Duration: 12 months

A key societal challenge in Spain, as in many parts of the world, entails preventing discrimination and social exclusion of minority and disadvantaged groups in society, as well as curbing extremism. Recent political trends in Spain reflect a surge in extr eme attitudes and discriminatory behaviour towards minority groups, especially immigrants. To address this challenge, this research project will use a highly innovative design that bridges cutting edge insights from the fields of psychology, political science, sociology and behavioural economics, and that triangulates three unique quantitative data collection methods (i.e., a general population survey, an implicit association test, and a series of experiments). Two key factors central to understanding discrimination, social exclusion and far-right attitudes are 1) understanding the antecedents and drivers thereof, and 2) identifying strategies to prevent, minimize or overcome this. In addressing both thes e factors, the project will focus on the role of perceived threat as antecedent of, and on intergroup contact as a strategy to prevent discrimination, social exclusion and far-right attitudes, respectively.

The project will focus on a central antecedent of discrimination and far-right attitudes, identity threat, as well as a key strategy to prevent such negative attitudes, intergroup contact; it will also examine previously unexplored conditional factors that explain the complex interplay between contact and threat. The project will focus centrally on attitudes toward immigrants but will also consider attitudes towards other disadvantaged and/or minority groups that are prominent in the current far-right discourse in Spain (e.g., attitudes toward women’s rights, Muslims). In so doing, the results of this project will offer applied recommendations to policy makers and other key stakeholders seeking to prevent discrimination, social exclusion and far-right extremism in Spain.

• Principal Investigator: Lisa Hehenberger
• Research group: Esade Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI)
• Funding body: BBK
• Funding: €52,000
• Duration: 12 months

El EEI, a través del Center for Social Impact, ha realizado un estudio apoyado por BBK dirigido a entender mejor cómo las fundaciones donantes – particularmente en Europa – están enfocando la medición y gestión de su impacto.

El estudio ha sido dirigido por la Dr. Lisa Hehenberger; y Dr. Leonora Buckland y Deborah Gold

El estudio se presentó públicamente en dos eventos:

• “De la medición del impacto al aprendizaje para el impacto” online, 440 participantes (13/5/20)
• “From management of impact to learning for impact” online, 180 participantes (30/6/20)

• Principal Investigator: George Chondrakis
• Research group: Esade Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI) – Research Group in Entrepreneurship (GRIE)
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 – URL
• Funding: €10,000
• Duration: 12 months

The objective of this proposal is to help initiate and develop a research project focusing on understanding the dynamics of employee mobility across organizations. This topic is key to our understanding of firm performance given the importance of the human and social capital carried by employees (Coff 1997). Clearly, this topic is relevant to academic researchers but also to policy makers as the design of labour market institutions has implications for the incidence and direction of employee mobility (Marx et al. 2009). Besides that, this topic is relevant to managers as a better understanding of employee mobility will help them design human resources strategies with a view to prote cting firm talent (Agarwal et al. 2009).

While the topic of employee mobility is broad, we will focus specifically on a phenomenon called co-mobility, that is the phenomenon where the move of one employee results in other employees from the same firm moving as well (Marx and Timmermans 2017). This is an inte resting angle to explore as the relationships developed while working together can impact subsequent decisions of employment. However, the extant literature has primarily focused on the performance consequences of co-mobility for the individual employees. We know less, however, about the antecedents of co-mobility and its broader impact on firm performance.

Hence, the goals of this project are a) to develop theory that explains the emergence of co-mobility, b) provide data that document this phenomenon and explain its antecedents and, c) develop theory and empirically test the effects of co-mobility on firm performance.

• Principal Investigator: Bart de Langhe
• Research group: Research Group on Judgements and Decisions in the Marketplace (JUICE) – Institute for Data-Driven Decisions (Esade D3)
• Funding body: Ajuts a l'activitat de recerca PDI 2020 - URL
• Funding: €10,000
• Duration: 12 months

Executives make decisions in an environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The decision s they make often have large stakes, and there is little diagnostic feedback about whether the decisions they made were good or bad . I am requesting funding for two studies that examine the psychology of executive decision-making. The first aims to examine how executives develop a sense of understanding, and how that sense of understanding relates to their true understanding. In other words, what makes an executive believe that s/he made a good or a bad decision? And how does that belief relate to the objective quality of decision -making? I hypothesize that exogenous trends, that are not under control of the executive, create an illusory sense of understanding of how the world works. This is because executives come to believe that their actions are responsible for the trend they observe. This illusory understanding can lead executives to make objectively worse decisions. The second study builds on an article I published in Harvard Business Review in September 2019, entitled "The Dangers of Categorical Thinking." The article describes four negative consequences of simplifying complex/continuous environments by dividing it into discrete buckets. For instance, when marketers divide their customer base into a smaller group of segments, they simplify their environment. This facilitates decision-making, but it also implies loss of information, which may harm decision-making. The predictions we make in Harvard Business Review are based on existing research in cognitive science, but have not been empirically examined yet in the context of segmentation and targeting decisions. Segmentation and targeting is at the heart of marketing. There has been much research examining quantitative/statistical aspects of it, but no research has examined it through a psychological/behavioral lens. That's the goal of the second study I am asking funding for.