Strategy and Business Environment
25th Anniversary Conference
Strategy for the Great Challenges of Our Time:
Climate, Health, Data, and Democracy
May 2-3, 2025
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Strategy in today’s business environment must increasingly confront and address the great challenges of our time. Progress on the climate transition, public health, the responsible use of big data and artificial intelligence, revitalizing democratic institutions and social justice will require trillions of dollars of investments. Failure to make such investments risks tens of trillions of dollars of losses. The necessary investments are beyond the capacity of the public and philanthropic sectors requiring a tapping of private capital through the demonstration of business cases that realize societal gains while capturing sufficient returns for investors, workers, suppliers, communities and other stakeholders. We invite the submission of rigorous academic papers from across disciplines and methodological traditions that contribute insight into strategy for the great challenges of our time.
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Strategy and the Business Environment Conference series. The conference will return to The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA where it was founded. The lead sponsor will be the ESG Initiative whose mission is to harness the power of business “to solve the social problems incident to our civilization” – Joseph Wharton.
To view a summary of research presented at the conference over the past 25 years, please see HERE.
For a full list of conference attendees and their institutional affiliations, please see HERE.
The 2026 conference will be held at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University co-hosted by Brayden King and Georgy Egorov.
Schedule
Friday, May 2
8:00 AM
Breakfast and Welcome
Jon M. Huntsman Hall 265
9:00 AM
Session 1
Jon M. Huntsman Hall 260
Integrated Strategy
Shirley Tang, Daniel Elfenbein, Tatenda Pasipanodya
Discussant: Tim Werner
The Role of Business in Solving Grand Challenges: Evidence from Corporate Climate Lobbying
Benjamin Leffel and Tom Lyon
Discussant: Ken Shotts
10:40 AM
Break
11:00 AM
Session 2
Geopolitics
Higher Highs and Lower Lows: Political Connections, Geopolitical Risk, and International Investment
Benjamin Egerod, Jan Stuckatz, Michael Mueller, and Flladina Zilja
Discussant: Aseem Kaul
Sinziana Dorobantu, Thomas Lindner, Laurenz Tinhof
Discussant: Leandro Pongeluppe
12:40 PM
Lunch
JMHH 265
1:30 PM
Session 3
Social Pressures
Social Production of Corporate Targets by the ESG Countermovement
Tony He, Kate Odziemkowska, and Witold Henisz
Discussant: Lori Yue
Discussant: Kate Odziemkowska
3:10 PM
Break
3:30 PM
Session 4
Ideology
Krishnan Nair, Marlon Mooijman
Expectations, polarizing social issues, and criticism for corporate silence: Theory and evidence from Georgia’s Election Integrity Act
Christopher Bruno, J. Adam Cobb, Tim Werner, and Tyler Wry
VRscores: A Voter Registration-Based Approach for Measuring Workforce Politics
Max Kagan, Justin Frake, and Reuben Hurst
Discussant: Brayden King
4:45 PM
Rising Scholars Reflections on 25 Years of Strategy and the Business Environment
Sinziana Dorobantu, Kate Odziemkowska, Mae McDonnell, Jiao Luo, Tim Werner, and Vanessa Burbano
6:00 PM
Reception
The Study at University City
7:00 PM
Dinner
The Study at University City
Saturday, May 3
8:00 AM
Breakfast
JMHH 265
9:00 AM
Session 5
JMHH 260
Regulatory Scrutiny
Atypical Regulatory Targets, Deviance, and Strategic Interactions with Typical Targets
Min-Seok Pang and Rajiv Kohli
Discussant: Jeff Macher
Reputational Costs of Revealing Political Connections: Evidence from Electoral Bonds In India
Self-enforcing Global Private Governance
Discussant: Nan Jia
10:40 AM
Break
11:00 AM
Innovation, Imitation, and Political Cleavages in International Trade and Patent Protection
Substitution Over Compliance? Strategic Innovation between Data Privacy and Security Under Regulatory Scrutiny
Albert Roh, Nan Jia and Milan Miric
Discussant: Dennis Yao
11:50 AM
Senior Scholars Reflections on 25 Years of Strategy and the Business Environment
Bruce Kogut, Daniel Diermeier, Dennis Quinn, and Ruth Aguilera,
Discussants: Dennis Yao and Witold Henisz
12:30 PM
Lunch
JMHH 265
1:20 PM
Session 6
Climate Disclosure
Real, Disclosure and Spillover Effects of U.S. State-Level Climate Change Regulations
Discussant: Caroline Flammer
Governance & Governments: The Effects of Shareholder Engagement & Climate Laws on Firm CO2 Emissions
Kevin Chuah, Kenneth Chung and Witold Henisz
Discussant: Tom Lyon
3:00 PM
Break
3:20 PM
Session 7
Climate Risk, National Security Risk, and Firm Strategy
How do Firms Respond to Climate Risks?
Discussant: Magali Delmas
Shielding or Stifling? How Policies Restricting Foreign Acquisitions of Domestic Technologies Affect U.S. Entrepreneurial Innovation
Qing He, Kenneth Huang and Nan Jia
Discussant: Mike Lenox
5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
Program Committee
The Program Committee for the conference will collectively evaluate conference submissions and participate in the event as discussants and audience members.
Vanessa Burbano, Columbia University
Magali Delmas, UCLA
Sinziana Dorobantu, New York University
Caroline Flammer, Columbia University
Vit Henisz, The Wharton School (co-chair)
Nan Jia, University of Southern California
Aseem Kaul, University of Minnesota
Brayden King, Northwestern University
Mike Lenox, University of Virginia
Jiao Luo, University of Minnesota
Tom Lyon, University of Michigan
Jeff Macher, Georgetown University
Mae McDonnell, The Wharton School (co-chair)
Kate Odziemkowska, University of Toronto
Ken Shotts, Stanford University
Michael Toffel, Harvard University
Tim Werner, University of Texas at Austin
Dennis Yao, Harvard University
Lori Yue, Columbia University