PhD Dissertations

Ongoing theses

Researcher: Selenia Anastasia

Supervisor: Amélie Jacquemin

Period: 2021-2026

The first entrepreneurship course was born in 1947 at Harvard Business School (Nabi and al., 2017). Since this time, education for entrepreneurship evolved with the international growing interest in sustainable development. Entrepreneurs are seen as key actors in the process of achieving societal challenges through their business (Fernald, 2010; Hermann & Bossle, 2020) and higher education institutions play a crucial role in shaping the future of society through education (Grindsted, 2016; Ramos-Monge and al., 2019). In this way, new types of courses on sustainable entrepreneurship in such institutions are growing (Lans and al., 2014). According to York & Venkataraman (2010), the V.U.C.A. world in which we live demands entrepreneurial skills to act in favor of the planet. At the heart of this growing hot topic of research, academics such as Biberhofer & al. (2019), Halberstadt & al. (2019), Obrecht (2016), and even Sharma and al. (2020) question themselves about the construction and implementation of SE programs in higher education institutions. In this vein, Lans & al., (2014) inform us that one important aspect to consider when speaking about entrepreneurial education is the question “what to teach”. The answer is generally represented by teaching-objectives articulating through list of competences. In fact, nowadays, we don’t speak any longer about the time-based teaching or objective-based but about competences-based teaching in the scholar context (Crahay, 2006; Foster & Jones, 2020; Legendre, 2001). As a result, more and more scholars have developed diverse frameworks of competences for SE enabling higher education institutions to articulate the teaching-objectives for students enabling them to initiate business at the heart of the Triple Bottom Line Model (Lans & al., 2014). We can quote those of Foucrier & Wiek (2019) or Ploum & al. (2018) for example. This research aims to enhance the existing understanding of competences for SE and their applications in higher education institutions through a critical look at frameworks of competences for SE in the literature while challenging the very notion of competences as defined in the educational sciences. The interdisciplinary aspect of the research between the field of SE education in management sciences and the field of competences in educational sciences can also be noticed. Results would provide practical implications through the reflexivity brought on the construction of a SE education program. Our research helps to better understand the concept of competence as defined and used in the educational sciences to bring clear instruction about its application in SE courses. Next to those practical implications, theoretical ones would also be pinned down. The interdisciplinarity aspect of the research would permit to emphasize multiple research avenues allowing the expansion of the field.

Researcher: Méno Tamno

Supervisor: Valérie Swaen

Period: 2018-2024

The awareness of the importance of corporate sustainability is growing as we can see with the adoption of the SDGs by the United Nations in 2015. However, despite the importance of SMEs in the overall economy, they have received less attention than large firms in the field of corporate sustainability research. Among SMEs, corporate sustainability research mostly focuses on formal businesses, with limited discussions of informal businesses. Therefore, this research aims to understand SMEs’ and informal businesses’ responses to the adoption of the SDGs, and their contribution to the achievement of the global sustainable goals which represent a universal common language that requires a strong involvement of all members of society, especially businesses, for its implementation. Since the SDGs are not legally binding and are challenging in their translation into concrete activities and practices, the purpose of our research is to develop a theoretical understanding of the sensemaking of the SDGs by SMEs and informal businesses in developed and developing countries, the motivations sustaining the integration of SDGs, the tools they use, the challenges they face and the benefits they obtain by implementing the SDGs, and to build a framework of processes and practices leading to the SDG implementation by SMEs and informal businesses.

Researcher: Sabrina Courtois

Supervisor(s): Valérie Swaen

Period: 2019-2024

Recently, organizational learning has been analyzed as a business strategy in the development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. Organizations and individuals continuously learn by interacting at different levels, inside and outside the organization, in both formal and informal settings. A significant extent of CSR knowledge is developed informally, which is a largely invisible process resulting in the production of explicit but also tacit knowledge. Current discourse is dominated by explicit and codified knowledge; it is therefore crucial to find ways to leverage both explicit and tacit knowledge from ongoing practice and disseminate it. Among informal settings, we focus on Communities of Practice i.e. social and spontaneous communities that are driven by common interests and passions (here, CSR). First, we observe what type of knowledge of CSR is produced and shared within these communities. Second, we analyze how participants act as gatekeepers between the community and the organization by extracting and translating CSR knowledge. Finally, we look at how this knowledge is disseminated and stored in the organizational memory.

Researcher: Grégory de Boe

Supervisors: Marie Lamensch, Valérie Swaen

Period: 2020-2025

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) provide a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all"; companies are expected to contribute through sustainable practices. The question arises, however, whether companies are effectively driven by the current tax policies to achieve the SDGs or can be discouraged from doing so. In fact, it currently remains unclear to what extent the corporate taxation system is an important lever in achieving a sustainable development.
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.

Researcher: Pauline de Montpellier d’Annevoie
Supervisor: Valérie Swaen
Fundings: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Period: 2019-2024

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been defined as the contribution of companies to sustainable development. As CSR is an essentially contested concept, individuals (i.e., consumers, employees, or leaders) may have a different understanding of its meaning and its applications by companies. This further influences their reactions to corporate actions. In this context, the goals of the project are: first, to identify the different perceptions individuals have about CSR, and analyse how the framing of perceptions vary with their individual and cultural profile; second, to analyse the evolution of individuals’ CSR perceptions while interacting with sustainable development experts and other individuals; and third, to investigate pedagogical mechanisms that foster constructive debate about CSR and allow conceptual learning of the concept by individuals. For this purpose, we focus on micro-CSR literature to analyse the processes by which individuals interpret and evaluate CSR. We put into perspective the development of individuals’ knowledge about CSR by two conceptual learning theories from educational science research - i.e., conceptual change and socio-cognitive conflict theories. To answer our research questions, we analyse the CSR perceptions and learning process of more than 23,000 registered participants (up to now) in a MOOC on CSR through a mixed-method approach. The expected contributions concern first, the development of micro-CSR research with respect to the framing of individuals’ CSR perceptions and conceptual learning of the concept, and second, the potential change of consumers, employees and leaders’ mentalities necessary to trigger the most beneficial actions and decisions for the transition to a more sustainable society.

Defended theses

Even though the concept of a circular economy is not new, it has gained worldwide momentum in the last years and it has been recognised by both academia and policymakers as a tool towards a more balanced development. To transition from a linear economy, characterised by taking materials from the Earth, making products from them and end up discarding them as waste; to a circular one, based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use at their highest value and regenerating the naturals systems, requires firms to innovate and to question their business models by applying new policies and practices that make not only environmental sense but also economic and financial sense. However, little is known about the implementation of circular business models in practice and about how to transform a linear business model into a circular one (Rosa et al., 2019). My thesis will focus on contributing to fill this research gap by analysing two main subjects. Firstly, the identification of the circular business models and circular practices implemented by companies, and the main stakeholders involved. Secondly, we will carry out case studies to gain a deep understanding of the process of implementation of circular strategies, by investigating key aspects such as dynamic capabilities, the role of the top management team, and other aspects related to change and inertia, that might play an important role in the implementation process.

Researcher: Laurent Lahaye

Supervisor: Frank Janssen

Final defence forseen

This study will investigate the threat of mission drift faced by social enterprises, and the strategies set up by social entrepreneurs in order to maintain their hybridity. Social entrepreneurship is a growing research topic in the literature. One of the specificities of social enterprises is particularly interesting: their hybrid nature (Battilana & Lee, 2014). Social enterprises are hybrids because they are coupling a social mission with an economic activity. There is a need to study the fragile equilibrium of social enterprises maintaining their hybridity. If they focus on the social mission, they may endanger their financial survival. But if social enterprises favour the business objectives at the cost of the social mission, it is called mission drift (Cornforth, 2014; Ebrahim, Battilana, & Mair, 2014).

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…).

Researcher: Pauline Munten

Supervisor(s): Valérie Swaen, Joëlle Vanhamme

Final defence: December 2021

Who among us has never replaced a printer because it was not reparable, bought a new phone because our current model broke down just after the guarantee expired, or switched to a new coffee machine that offers an exciting, trendy new option? Many durable products are being replaced and discarded more frequently, because of what we refer to as obsolescence. Obsolescence supports economic growth, by increasing sales and eliminating second-hand markets. Yet it also creates societal concerns (e.g., pollution, waste generation, overconsumption of natural resources, purchase on credit and indebtedness among consumers).
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)?

Researcher: Corentin Hericher

Supervisors: Ina Aust, Valérie Swaen

Defended in 2020

This doctoral dissertation highlights the link between perceived natural environment-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organisational citizenship behaviour toward the environment (OCBE). Natural environment-oriented CSR refers to organisational practices that limit the impact the company has on the natural environment. OCBE encompasses discretionary behaviour that contributes in aggregate to the company’s environmental performance. I rely on three different theoretical perspectives to answer the same research question: to what extent does perceived natural environment-oriented CSR impact OCBE? The three theoretical perspectives are the deontic model of organisational justice theory, the social identity theory, and the job-demands and resources model.

Researcher: Paulami Mitra

Supervisor: Frank Janssen

Defended in 2019

This doctoral project aims at understanding how the process of social entrepreneurship (SE) is undertaken at the micro-level, meso-level and macro level once the venture has been created. The study attempts to respond to the call on extending, elaborating and creating a balance to understand social entrepreneurship as a “process” (Dacin et al, 2011; Haugh, 2007; Tracey et al, 2011).

Author: Géraldine Zeimers

Supervisors: Thierry Zintz (UCLouvain) & Annick, WIllem, (UGent)

Defended in 2019

Sport is believed to create positive economic, cultural, health and social values, while at the same time facing ongoing ethical, social and environmental crises. Through CSR programs, sport organisations may stimulate sport’s positive social side and counter and/or prevent sport’s negative side. CSR is broadly described as “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the [direct] interests of the firm [organisation] and that which is required by law” (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001: 117). In a CSR perspective, sport organisations have, next to their economic (or their core missions) and legal duties, ethical and discretionary responsibilities towards society and are considered as potential change agents.
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.

Author: Etienne Denis

Supervisor(s): Claude Pecheux, Per Joakim Agrell

Defended in 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.

Author: Thi Thu Thao Lê

Supervisor(s): Matthieu de Nanteuil

Defended in 2017

Face au problème universel de l’inégalité d’accès des salariés actifs à la FPC, nous nous interrogeons sur les logiques d’action des acteurs. Les enjeux de justice en la matière se trouvent non seulement sur une proportion importante d’inégalité d’accès, mais la liberté d’action, la question du choix et les relations au travail constituent autant de questions qui touchent aux sphères de justice. Dans cette thèse, nous avons examiné les principes de justification qui ont légitimé l’engagement des acteurs dans cette pratique. Nous nous sommes intéressés également aux mécanismes institutionnels, socioéconomiques et culturels susceptibles d’influencer ces justifications. En partant d’une approche constructiviste et centrée sur les acteurs, nous avons étudié le sens de la justice en matière de FPC des salariés vietnamiens des secteurs manufacturier et universitaire. Les résultats de notre recherche montrent que l’inégalité d’accès en soi, ne constitue pas forcément un problème de justice en matière de FPC. Cette inégalité dissimule la pluralité des critères de justice des personnes concernées

The Development of the Paralympic Movement: Towards an Institutional Explanation (2016)

Author: Simon GÉRARD

Supervisor: Thierry Zintz

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.

The role of CSR in identities dynamics during a period of organizational change (2013)

Author: Kenneth De Roeck

Supervisor: Valérie Swaen

The main objective of this PhD research is to study the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) dimensions on the dynamics of identity in times of organizational change. We would like to investigate if the promotion of CSR attributes can enhance employees’ organizational identification and therefore their acceptance and support to the organizational change. Indeed, it seems that highly identified employees develop more proactive behaviors and attitudes in order to support organization’s objectives.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication campaigns towards the consumer: Analysis of their effects during a CSR crisis (2013)

Author: Catherine Janssen

Supervisors: Valérie Swaen and Joëlle Vanhamme

In the last few years, numerous companies have faced crises involving their socially responsible activities (such as Ikea, The Body Shop, Nike…). Our research seeks to examine whether promoting the company as socially responsible is likely to backfire and/or protect the company in the case of a corporate crisis involving CSR matters, which the exiting literature does not currently allow to clearly establish. Furthermore, our research aims at carefully examining the consumers’ psychological processes that could potentially explain such effects and also seeks to uncover the boundary conditions of those effects of CSR communication.

The use of management control systems in a sustainability context (2011)

Author: Marc Journeault

Supervisor: Yves De Rongé

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of management control system to support sustainability development within organization. More specifically, it looks to the capacity of eco-control systems to support environmental strategy in order to increase environmental performance. Also, this thesis has as objective to shed a light on how ecocontrol systems may assist organization to create organizational capabilities providing competitive advantage that lead to financial performance improvement as well as environmental performance improvement.

Toward the stakeholder company: Essays on the role of organizational culture, interaction, and change in the pursuit of corporate social responsibility (2010)

Author: François Maon

Supervisors: Valérie Swaen and Adam Lindgreen (Hull Business School)

Beyond the traditional objectives of supplying services and goods, companies encounter more than ever before pressures to address and respond to the societal concerns arising from their activities. As a result, environmental excellence and the well-being of people within and outside the organization increasingly represent issues that companies try – to a variable extent – to integrate into the core of their culture, strategy and practices. Such a move towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) isn’t an easy task as organizational embedment of CSR principles entails members of the organization internalizing CSR-related values at all levels and the companies to dialogue and interact with their key stakeholders and the world at large. In accordance with this idea, the three main objectives of this doctoral research project are:

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.

From “nuts and bolts” to CSR. Standardization and democracy. Sociology of ISO 26000 setting process (2009)

Author: Coline Ruwet

Supervisors: De Munck, Jean & Gosseries, Axel

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.

Stakeholder involvement in CSR certifications (2009)

Author: Manal El Abboubi

Supervisor: Valérie Swaen

Stakeholder involvement is a managerial challenge for organisations engaged in CSR certifications. Following a qualitative and an abductive approach, this research offers answers to the following questions:

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.

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