Sustainability Report 2021

Research

Research

IMD’s award-winning rigorous, relevant, actionable and insightful research creates impact by building awareness and promoting adoption of best practices in sustainable business, helping leaders and organizations have a positive impact on society.

Academic Research

New Faculty and Researchers

In 2021, IMD bolstered its ranks of faculty and researchers focusing on sustainability and social innovation.

Julia Binder joined as Professor of Sustainable Innovation and Business Transformation at IMD and Director of the institute's new Center for Sustainable and Inclusive Business. Before joining IMD, she initiated and led the sustainability center Tech4Impact at EPFL, pursuing multiple collaborative projects with corporates, NGOs and international organizations like the UN.

Gail Whiteman joined IMD as a visiting professor. She is Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School’s Department of Management, and was previously the Rubin Chair and Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, and Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Ivan Miroshnychenko joined IMD as a research fellow and term research professor. Ivan holds a PhD in Management from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and an MSc in Management & Strategy (Merit) from the University of Sheffield. Ivan’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including Family Business Review and Business Strategy & the Environment.

Amanda Williams joined IMD as a research fellow. She was formerly a senior researcher at ETH Zurich, a research fellow at Copenhagen Business School, and a research associate at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where she worked on the SDG Compass – a guide for corporate action on the SDGs.

Research Centers

Several IMD research centers take a closer look at specific sustainability-related topics such as competitiveness and social innovation.

IMD World Competitiveness Center

The IMD World Competitiveness Center’s (WCC) flagship publication, the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, measures 334 criteria to assess the extent to which an economy fosters an environment in which enterprises can generate sustainable value creation.

The WCC’s Smart City Observatory, in partnership with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), presented in 2021 the third edition of the Smart City Index, which ranks 118 cities worldwide. The index examines a range of topics from sanitation, air pollution, and traffic, through to employment, corruption, and citizenship and measures both the quality and the use of technology to provide improvements.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center and The Hinrich Foundation signed in December 2021 a long-term agreement to produce and publish The Hinrich-IMD Sustainable Trade Index. The Index measures a country’s capacity to participate in the international trading system in a manner that supports the long-term domestic and global goals across three pillars: economic, environmental, and social.

The IMD Global Family Business Center

The IMD Global Family Business Center researches and works closely with business-owning families around the world.

The center’s research in 2021 included strategies and frameworks that challenge the wealthy and influential to turn the developing world green, explore impactful and inclusive family philanthropy, embrace circular economy practices, and leverage new approaches to help achieve the UN SDGs.

The focus on sustainability was reflected in the flagship Leading the Family Business program, in sessions on “Transforming your family business towards sustainability”. In family business custom journeys, more than 50 percent of the team projects focused on societal or philanthropic endeavors.

elea Center for Social Innovation

The elea Center for Social Innovation explores both the supply and demand side of social innovation and is rooted in four thematic pillars: impact investing, blended finance, social entrepreneurship, and corporate social innovation.
The center published research across all of these pillars in 2021 and built relationships with the broader Swiss research community. It served as the academic partner for the first annual Impact Finance Forum, an initiative for Switzerland’s sustainable financial pioneers. In this role, the center participated in a special issue of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper on impact finance. The center also joined two new initiatives as a founding member:

  • the Swiss Sustainable Finance Lab, an initiative from the Graduate Institute of Geneva together with E4S (EPFL, UNIL and IMD), University of Basel, University of Geneva, University of Ghana, Sustainable Finance Geneva, the ICRC, the IFC and the Economics of Mutuality.
  • the Gender Lens Initiative for Switzerland, with a focus on gender lens investing.



New elea Fellows Bolster Research on Social Innovation

The center appointed Katherine Milligan, Maximilian Martin and María Helena Jaén as its first Senior elea Fellows in 2021. The three appointees will focus on timely research projects to enhance the center’s ongoing efforts to lead the conversation on social impact, and to develop the impact economy landscape.

Milligan, Director of the Collective Change Lab, will investigate how to create a new frame for social entrepreneurship beyond the current limited scope of solving individual social problems.

Author of Building the Impact Economy, Martin will conduct research to help business leaders come to terms with, and seize the opportunities of, the emerging new order of business, finance and impact investing.

Jaén is an Honorary Professor at the Universidad de Los Andes, International Professor at IESA and Adjunct Professor at the Miami Herbert Business School. Building on her existing work with Professor Farber, she will produce teaching cases and educational content on the impact of social innovators who lead enterprises that create economic benefits, while also benefitting society and the environment.

Publications

Academic Articles

IMD’s faculty and researchers continued to deliver rigorous and relevant world-class research offering actionable insights on sustainability as well as equity, inclusion and diversity for senior executives and organizations. These included three FT 50 journal articles, 20 articles published in other academic journals, six book chapters, and 10 conference papers.

MIS Quarterly November 2021

Multifarious roles and conflicts on an interorganizational green IS
Dorothy Leidner, Juliana Sutanto and Lazaros Goutas

Human Relations August 2021

The stories that make us: Leaders’ origin stories and temporal identity work
Wei Zheng, Alyson Meister, and Brianna Caza

Journal of Management June 2021

Now you see me, now you don't: A conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of leader impostorism
Ronit Kark, Alyson Meister and Kim Peters

Awards

2021 AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARD

Silver medal in the category Philanthropy/Non-profit/Sustainability:

Family Philanthropy Navigator: The inspirational guide for philanthropic families on their giving journey by Peter Vogel, Etienne Eichenberger and Malgorzata Kurak.

Teaching Cases

IMD published 11 teaching cases related to sustainability, responsible leadership, social innovation and equity, inclusion and diversity. The cases covered a range of industries such as food, finance, and fashion, looking at companies such as Hello Fresh, Triodos Asset Management, Yamaha and Chanel.

Sustainability-focused cases in 2021

IMPAAKT: HARNESSING COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE TO IMPROVE ESG RATINGS
Benoît Leleux/Pablo Percelsi/René Rozendal/ Pietro Valenzano Menada/Stefan Witschi

HELLOFRESH: WILL MEAL KIT HOME DELIVERIES STILL BE HOT POST-COVID-19?
Niccolò Pisani and Ornella Lupoi

JUPITER BACH: COMMITTING TO SUSTAINABILITY
Benoît Leleux, Chris Edwards, Martin W. Hviid, Martin W. Papsø and Roger Wattenhofer

TRIODOS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT -YAMAHA: MAKING MUSIC SUSTAINABLE
Vanina Faber and María Helena Jaén

TOMMY HILFIGER AND CALVIN KLEIN POST-COVID-19: WHAT’S IN STORE?
Niccolò Pisani and Inès Augier

THE FUTURE OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN A POST-COVID-19 WORLD
Niccolò Pisani and Inès Augier

FINANCE FOR A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY AT TRIODOS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT: AN ESG PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT DECISION
Vanina Farber and María Helena Jaén

TOWARDS A 1.5°C WORLD: HOW SUSTAINABILE FINANCE DECARBONIZED PORTFOLIOS
Vanina Farber and Shih-Han Huang

MAISON CHLOÉ: DRIVING PURPOSEFUL TRANSFORMATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Vanina Farber, Stéphane Girod and Lisa Duke

CHANEL 1.5°C: A SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY
Vanina Farber, Stéphane Girod and Martin Králik

GMC MANAGING THROUGH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: SHOOTING FOR THE MOON OR SET UP TO FAIL
Kamran Kashani, Tawfik Jelassi and Abraham Pallivathukkal Cherian


Two sustainability cases were named by the Case Centre in its 2021 bestsellers list, underlining IMD's global reputation for excellence in case writing.

The most sold cases in 2021 included:

  • ECOALF: Because There Is No Planet B by Benoît Leleux
  • Patagonia's Sustainability Strategy: Don't Buy Our Products by Francisco Szekely

TOWARDS A 1.5 C WORLD: HOW SUSTAINABILE FINANCE DECARBONIZED PORTFOLIOS

By Vanina Farber and Shih-Han Huang



This case features Sara Razmpa, Head of Responsible Investment, and Fiona Frick, CEO of Unigestion, at a critical juncture in the Geneva-based asset management firm’s ESG journey: the decision to launch an equities fund that specifically tackles climate change. While Unigestion had launched product families that integrated ESG in the past, this would be a new and more challenging undertaking.

The case opens with the two debating between whether to launch a Climate Transition Fund or the more ambitious Paris-aligned Fund. Both methods aligned with the Paris Agreement by placing the portfolio on a 1.5ºC trajectory, with no or limited overshoot, and heading towards net zero by 2050.

However, they differed in their starting points and stringency. Participants are placed in the shoes of Razmpa and Frick and need to decide which portfolio to launch – while balancing climate impact, commercial considerations and fund performance.

The selection of climate funds is not straightforward. The decision touches on key debate points in sustainable finance: a financial investor’s fiduciary duty, whether to exclude or engage with high emitters and what would be most effective in tackling climate change. Finally, the case includes a practical application exercise where participants can construct their own climate-focused portfolio.

This is a timely case as there is a growing spotlight on climate change. Despite country pledges for net-zero emissions, a UN study found that current fossil fuel production plans set forth by governments worldwide for 2030 is double the level required to limit global warming to 1.5ºC.

“The financial sector, as a key allocator of capital, has a key role to play,” said Professor Vanina Farber. “This case can help participants better understand the role financial institutions can play in the transformation towards a 1.5ºC world, the nuances of building climate positive portfolios and how to critically analyze different climate strategies and their implications.”

Media Articles

IMD and media outlets such as Forbes, Le Temps, Nikkei Asian Review and The Conversation, published almost 100 articles highlighting research by faculty and researchers on sustainability, social innovation, ethics, responsible leadership and philanthropy.

IMD’s new thought leadership platform I by IMD published more than 60 articles on sustainability topics including the role of the chief sustainability officer, the just transition to net zero, ESG impact measurement, and human rights impact of electric car production.