Ongoing theses
Transitioning towards a circular economy: the implementation of circular business models and circular practices
Integrating sustainability into entrepreneurship programs? The use of new teaching models in higher education institutions for sustainable entrepreneurship education
Social capital and community-based entrepreneurship in Africa
Based on a multilevel analysis of social enterprises, we will investigate the tensions faced by social enterprises at the individual level (motivations of social entrepreneurs), at the organisational level (social capital and social networks analysis), and at the societal level (institutional theory). Responding to the call to investigate the mission drift in African settings (Doherty, Haugh, & Lyon, 2014), we already identified a network of social enterprises in the tourism sector in Benin (Africa). The tensions faced by those social enterprises are important, due to several crisis the last years (Boko Haram, Ebola…).
Analysis of the benefits and challenges of implementing the SDGs in SMEs: a comparative study between developed and developing countries
Organizational learning of CSR: Knowledge transfer, distribution and storage within and between Communities of Practice
The role of the corporate taxation system in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The specific goals of my research are: (1) to aggregate the existing scientific knowledge on the extent to which various corporate tax policies influence sustainable practices undertaken by companies in the European Economic Area; to identify (2a) tax instruments that discourage a company from undertaking sustainable practices and (2b) the typical behaviours of companies facing these “problematic” tax instruments; (3a) based on economic literature, to identify the tax instruments that are likely to encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and (3b) to criticise them with regard to fairness, climate justice and good governance.
With this research I intend to contribute to a better understanding of the institutional and regulatory role of states in the achievement of the SDGs. More precisely, I seek to determine whether and how tax policy could provide significant leverage within this overall objective. I also contribute to institutional theory: I confront a theoretical proposal of strategic responses of organisations to institutional processes with the behaviours of companies facing fiscal instruments that push in the opposite direction of sustainability. In addition, tax instruments advocated by economic research to encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices, are critically evaluated regarding climate justice, good governance, and fairness.
Tackling food waste: analysis of the impact of the purchase of suboptimal food on food waste at home
How do individuals develop knowledge about Corporate Social Responsibility? Role of conceptual change and socio-cognitive conflicts in the learning process of a contested concept.
Supervisor: Valérie Swaen
Fundings: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Period: 2019-2024
Defended theses
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PSS, an integrative typology of value propositions and marketing practices to curb obsolescence practices? Understanding consumers’ reactions towards potential solutions.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC 2014/C 67/05; EESC, INT/779) and environmental campaigners (e.g., Terra Nova, 2012; La Fabrique Ecologique, 2016) formulated diverse recommendations to mitigate environmental and social consequences of obsolescence, namely, increasing product intrinsic durability, adopting longer warranties, facilitating repair, increasing product transparency, and shifting from product sales to service offerings. In the marketing literature, we have fragmented research on obsolescence and solutions against obsolescence (Cooper, 2004). Yet, a systematic research on the solutions against obsolescence and consumers’ reactions towards these solutions is lacking.
In this PhD, we suggest that product service-system (Tukker and Tischner, 2006), borrowed from business management, engineering and design literature, is a relevant typology to look at obsolescence and to highlight potential solutions. Besides, we conduct research on a specific solution – displaying product reparability information. We aim to answer the following questions: How, why and under what conditions do product reparability information influence consumers’ reactions (their attitude and willingness to buy)?
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC 2014/C 67/05; EESC, INT/779) and environmental campaigners (e.g., Terra Nova, 2012; La Fabrique Ecologique, 2016) formulated diverse recommendations to mitigate environmental and social consequences of obsolescence, namely, increasing product intrinsic durability, adopting longer warranties, facilitating repair, increasing product transparency, and shifting from product sales to service offerings. In the marketing literature, we have fragmented research on obsolescence and solutions against obsolescence (Cooper, 2004). Yet, a systematic research on the solutions against obsolescence and consumers’ reactions towards these solutions is lacking.
In this PhD, we suggest that product service-system (Tukker and Tischner, 2006), borrowed from business management, engineering and design literature, is a relevant typology to look at obsolescence and to highlight potential solutions. Besides, we conduct research on a specific solution – displaying product reparability information. We aim to answer the following questions: How, why and under what conditions do product reparability information influence consumers’ reactions (their attitude and willingness to buy)?
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Organisational antecedents of voluntary employee green behaviour: An organisational justice perspective
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A study towards understanding the processes underlying Social Entrepreneurship
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Corporate Social Responsibility implementation by non-profit sport organisations (2019)
The scholarly debate about CSR within the sport management field focuses almost exclusively on for-profit sport organisations or “highly profitable not for profit sport organisations” while paying little attention to traditional nonprofit sport organisations (i.e. less profitable). Yet, these organisations are increasingly addressing such issues under the scope of CSR or related notion.
Given this context, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide insights into the implementation of CSR programs by nonprofit sport organisations. This dissertation provides important insights on three main elements of CSR implementation, namely organisational determinants, collaborations and organisational learning.
The focus of this study is on sport federations – those sport governing bodies responsible for the organisation of specific sporting codes and the representatives of their sport. As the study also considers how sport federations build on their sport-federated network, internal and external stakeholders have also been incorporated (e.g., sport clubs, state and national bodies, public authorities, nonprofit partners).
Building on organisational theories, this research examines CSR implementation from a three-fold perspective: 1) determinants of CSR implementation from a resource-based perspective 2) non-profit collaboration to implement CSR practices from an institutional theory and resource dependence perspective 3) the organisational learning process occurring the implementation process. It does so by building on a mixed-method approach, combining classical qualitative research approaches and innovative qualitative comparative research (namely, qualitative comparative analysis, QCA). Data collection comprised survey, interviews, observations and organisational document analysis.
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Essays on the self-interested determinants of prosocial behaviours: The case of charitable giving (2018)
Although charitable giving is not a recent issue, economic and humanitarian upheavals have led to a renewed interest for the topic in recent years. Beyond the institutional changes to which charities have been exposed, a shift in donors has also forced organisations to reconsider their fundraising methods. The limited efforts to integrate both altruistic and egoistic motives of generosity and the static perspective adopted when trying to model charitable giving have been recently pointed in the literature as key priorities for future research in the field.
To address these issues, the present doctoral dissertation offers a contextualised, dynamic and integrative understanding of the decision-making process of donations. Combining four essays, this research explores how the motivations of generosity evolve over time and empirically investigates the interactions between self- and other-oriented determinants of charitable donations. This doctoral research contributes to several debates on the respective influence of personal and more altruistic determinants of generosity, on the public dimension of the behaviour as well as on the role of personal feelings on the decision to donate.
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La formation professionnelle continue face au défi de la justice dans les organisations : le cas des entreprises et universités vietnamiennes (2017)
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The Development of the Paralympic Movement: Towards an Institutional Explanation (2016)
This research focuses on management-related issues of participation in sport for athletes with an impairment. Drawing on the institutional theory, this study is guided by a straightforward research question: how to understand institutional change among the Paralympic Sports over time? Grounded on an extensive multi-step exploratory phase, this work has developed two longitudinal case-studies that examine the role of 1) shifting institutional logic and 2) institutional entrepreneurship during institutional change processes. This study is based on document analysis – i.e. archival records – and follows the Process Tracing method’s guidelines. Embargo was successfully lifted on recent and sensitive documents. Key findings emphasize institutional mechanisms that have constrained, and still prevent, the development of the Paralympic Movement. This research also enriches the institutional theory by providing new insights with regard to the paradox of embedded agency.
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The role of CSR in identities dynamics during a period of organizational change (2013)
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication campaigns towards the consumer: Analysis of their effects during a CSR crisis (2013)
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The use of management control systems in a sustainability context (2011)
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Toward the stakeholder company: Essays on the role of organizational culture, interaction, and change in the pursuit of corporate social responsibility (2010)
- To identify relevant processes and key steps for the integration of CSR principles within the culture, strategy and the daily operations of companies;
- To highlight and evaluate the evolutionary nature of the impact of CSR commitments and their communication on the attitude of various stakeholders groups;
- To analyze and emphasize the influence and potential roles of these various stakeholder groups throughout the development of the CSR integration processes by companies.
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From “nuts and bolts” to CSR. Standardization and democracy. Sociology of ISO 26000 setting process (2009)
This research addresses the question of the democratization of global decision making, focusing on non-state regulations at the international level that have increased over the past thirty years. The setting of multi-stakeholder processes is becoming a prerequisite for non-state actors developing normative instruments in the public policy realm. Is this evolution synonymous of a democratization of these forms of regulation?
This question is addressed through the case study of ISO 26000 developing process. The aim given to this future standard is to provide common guidance to all types of organizations on concept, definitions and method of evaluation linked to their social responsibility. The idea of producing an ISO standard on social responsibility was very controversial and generated a few years of intense debates. Hence new procedural rules were put in place to deal with criticisms fearing the intervention of a non-democratically elected body in the field of public policy. For the first time in ISO’s history, freedom was given to the experts in charge of developing ISO 26000 to change some of its setting process rules. The aim was to improve the inclusivity and the transparency of the procedure. This evolution can be interpreted as an attempt to democratize the International Organization for Standardization (the so-called ISO).
The aim of our empirical analysis is to make an evaluation of this attempt to democratize ISO procedure. Qualitative data - observations, interviews, collection of documents - have been gathered following the process of developing the content of ISO 26000 from 2006 to 2008 in Belgium and internationally. Our evaluation focuses on the potential benefits provided by a democratization of the procedure from an intrinsic point of view – equality of access and influence - and from an instrumental point of view - adhesion to the process and its fruits but also substantial contributions. However, we show that it is impossible to achieve all these objectives.
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Stakeholder involvement in CSR certifications (2009)
1- Who are stakeholders to consider in a CSR certification process?
2- How are they positioned in this process?
3- What are internal and / or external factors that can explain the involvement process?
4- How does stakeholder management allows interests convergence in the CSR certification process?
This research brings together the answers to these questions through three empirical studies in two Belgian companies involved in CSR certification.
The author use an interesting dialogue between two theoretical corpus and offers an analytical framework for all those involved in the management of certifications such as scholars, CSR managers, consultants, researchers, students and NGOs.