At a time of unprecedented social and political change, companies are struggling to manage political risks and challenges from a changing population. The Political Risk and Identity Lab is undertaking a program of activity that explores the relationship between political risk, demographic change, and corporate performance. We aim to help organizations translate political and social uncertainty and transformation into strategies that create, preserve, and realize value by providing academically rigorous, practically relevant research.
Featured Research
Immigration and Business
- Does Employing Skilled Immigrants Enhance Competitive Performance? Evidence from European Football Clubs
- When immigrants come to the U.S., investments often follow
- How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Pave the Way for Foreign VC Investments
- Do Foreign Firms Thrive in Immigrant Enclaves? O Da!
- How Ties to Ethnic Communities Influence Global Firm Expansion
- Common Bonds: How Immigrants Can Influence a Firm’s Foreign Expansion
Business and Conflict Barometer
At the frontier of big data and conflict analysis, The Business & Conflict Barometer dramatically lowers the barriers for interested parties to explore and gain an understanding of the dynamics of the private sector, conflict, and peaceful development in Africa at the granular level of companies, locations, sectors, or contexts: for research; for policy, project, or investment planning; for due diligence; and for monitoring and evaluation.
Practical Application of Geostrategy with EY
Corporate Diplomacy: Building Reputations and Relationships with External Stakeholders »Gold Mine Studies
In three published papers and two working papers, Witold Henisz, Sinziana Dorobantu and Lite Nartey demonstrate the materiality of stakeholder engagement for 19 publicly traded gold mining companies, show that positive stakeholder sentiment is particularly valuable during a crisis, and analyze different strategies for earning and maintaining stakeholder support.
- Spinning gold: The financial returns to stakeholder engagement
- Not All Sparks Light a Fire: Stakeholder and Shareholder Reactions to Critical Events in Contested Markets
- Status Climbing vs. Bridging: Multinational Stakeholder Engagement Strategies
- A Participatory Approach to Stakeholder Engagement: Defining a Hierarchy of Strategic Action
- Proactive Stakeholder Engagement and Stakeholder Preferences for Firm Investments – Paper forthcoming
Faculty Leadership
WITOLD (VIT) HENISZ
Vice Dean, ESG Initiative
Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management
Faculty Co-Director, Political Risk and Identity Lab
EXEQUIEL (ZEKE) HERNANDEZ
Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor
Faculty Co-Director, Political Risk and Identity Lab
A Brief History
Recognizing the emerging needs of its students and society at large, Wharton unified several research centers, each with an extensive history of expertise in environmental, social, and governance topics, to form the ESG Initiative on July 1, 2022. The Political Risk and Identity Lab was uniquely positioned to join the ESG Initiative for its investigation of social issues through the geopolitical lens.