ESSCA School of Management

How context and organizational neglect shape the experience of meaningful work

This study investigates how individuals working under conditions of high risk, social stigma, and institutional neglect come to perceive their work as meaningful. Focusing on electricity disconnection agents operating in Brazilian favelas, we explore how these workers construct m...

Soft propaganda and the marginalized childcare policy in China

Childcare policies across all national contexts are deeply embedded within broader macroeconomic and political logics. China vividly illustrates this pattern: the transition from the single-child to the universal three-child policy signifies an increasingly growing and highly vis...

Water Efficiency and Corporate Carbon Performance: The Roles of CSR, Regulation, and Industry Intensity

ABSTRACT This study examines whether firm‐level water management efficiency is associated with corporate carbon emissions, and whether this association is moderated by corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance, environmental regulatory stringency, and industry water inten...

Board gender diversity and accounting quality: on the moderating role of national culture and legal origins

Purpose Motivated by the growing literature on the role of board gender diversity in shaping firms' outcomes, and by the recent challenges and discussions around accounting quality, this paper proposes to study the extent to which board gender diversity influences accounting qual...

Sustained academic effort in short-duration online learning environments

Academic success in Online Learning Environments (OLEs) depends on sustained effort, yet little is known about how initial motivation translates into engagement over time. In this paper we examine motivation, effort, and performance in a five-week online programme, focusing on th...

Speed of external technology transfer and SME resilience during crisis

Purpose Research on how quickly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) source and integrate new technology during crises is scant, despite an assumption that speed is important for an SME's ability to cope. Rapid technology transfer may be subject to time compression diseconom...