Greenwashing, Carbon Emission, and ESG

Team: Sirimon Treepongkaruna (Sasin School of Management), Hue Hwa Au Yong (Monash University), Steen Thomsen (CBS), Khine Kyaw (NTNU Business School)

Objective:

Status: Published in Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 33, No. 8, 12.2024, p. 8526-85

Central Banks and Green Transformation

Team:
Dr. Johannes Zahner (Frankfurt), Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp, PhD Scholar Lion Fischer (Marburg)

Objective: The project uses central banks’ announcements to participate in the Network for Greening the Financial sector to study the relevance of central banks for green transformation.

Status: A working paper has been drafted and presented on a number of conferences. We expect to submit to a journal in May 2025.

Special Issue on Governing for Sustainability: Theorizing Business and Government Interactions.

Guest editing and contribution to

Team: Jean-Pascal Gond, Gregory Jackson, Johanna Järvalä, Jette Steen Knudsen and Jeremy Moon (Tufts University)

Objective:

Status: Accepted article. (forthcoming 2025). Journal of Management Studies. 

National Government Regulation of International Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of Business. 

Team: Erin Leitheiser, Jette Steen Knudsen and Jeremy Moon

Objective:

Status: Article under review

What Difference Do Sustainability Reports Make?  Greening in the World’s Busiest Ports. 

Team: Elizabeth R. Decembres, Jette Steen Knudsen and Molly Elder (Tufts University)

Objective:

Status: Article under review

What Influences Sustainability Decisions? The Case of Port Greening

Team: Elizabeth R. DeSombre, Jette Steen Knudsen and Molly Elder (Tufts University).

Objective:

Status: Article under review

Bæredygtighedsstrategi i bestyrelseslokalet in Bestyrelsesbogen by Prof. Steen Thomsen, 2025. DJØF. Copenhagen, Denmark

Book Chapter

Team: Jette Steen Knudsen

Business Sustainability and the Role of Government. Chapter 2.  Handbook of Research on Sustainability and Governance, 2025 (Edward Elgar, 2025, co-edited by Sébastien Mena, Cristina Aoki Inoue, Kenneth Amaeshi and Dhanasree Jayaram. 

Team: Jette Steen Knudsen

The Danish Growth and Welfare Model.  In National Growth Strategies and Welfare State Reforms edited by Anke Hassel and Bruno Palier (Oxford University Press), 2025.

Team: Jette Steen Knudsen

Central banks sowing the seeds for a green financial sector? NGFS membership and market reactions

Team: Prof. Marc Rapp, PhD Scholar L. Fischer and J. Zahner (Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability)

Objective:

Status: Working paper Series No.198

Teaching case #2 Sustainability in Danske Bank

Team: Prof. Jette Steen Knudsen (CBS) & Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp; research assistance: Agate Mæland (CBS)

Objective: The teaching case explores the following problem: How does a large bank undertake change management to meet new demands for sustainability?

Status: We have carried out interviews and need to write up the case. Expect to submit case to Ivey July 1, 2025.

EU Taxonomy – How much can we trust third-party estimates

Team: Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp (Marburg), Lars Schäfer

Objective: With regulatory pressure increasing in Europe, asset managers, insurance companies, banks, and other European financial institutions are interested in EU Taxonomy KPIs of firms. However, not all firms have to report these KPIs. So, third-party providers step in and provide estimates. The project aims to study the reliability of these third-party estimates.

Status: Data collection has started. A report is expected for summer 2025.

Green Innovation Activities in Family Firms

Team: Prof. Torsten Wulf (Marburg) and Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp (Marburg) (corresp. author), PhD Scholar Melina Roser (Marburg) and PhD Scholar Ramona Waldau (Marburg)

Objective: The paper uses multiple case studies to explore drivers of heterogeneity in green innovation activities in family firms.

Status: The paper has been submitted to “Family Business Review”.

EU Taxonomy – A novel way to quantify green transformation

Team: Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp, PhD Scholar Lion Fischer (Marburg)

Objective: The project aims to make use of the EU Taxonomy reporting to describe the transformation of the largest European firms.

Status: Data collection has started. A report is expected for summer 2025.

Listed Founding Family Firms and Labor Cost Stickiness. Industrial Relations

Team: C. Gnoth and I. Udoieva, Prof. Marc Rapp (Marburg)

Objective:

Status: https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12373 [Online first]

Board-level Employee Representation and Risk Sharing between Shareholders and Employees: Evidence from the German Codetermination Act of 1976

Team: J. Udoieva-Wagner, Prof. Marc Rapp (Marburg)

Objective:

Status: Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (fortchcoming)

Better Safe Than Sorry – Labor Market Regulation and Cash Holdings of Founding Family Firms

Team: Dr. Marcus Fütterer, Dr. Marina Kononova, Prof. Marc Rapp

Objective:

Status: Review of Corporate Finance R&R (minor revision)

Resilience of firms: Economic Policy uncertainty and Founding Family Firms

Team: Prof. Ignacio Requejo (Salamanca) and Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp, Dr. Markus Fütterer (Marburg)

Objective: The paper studies the response of firm valuation to economic policy uncertainty, to shed lights on the resilience of firm valuation. Overall, valuation reacts negatively to increasing economic policy uncertainty. However, the valuation discount is smaller for founding family firms, suggesting that founding family firms add stability to a country’s economy. 

Status: The paper has been invited for a R&R from the Journal of Corporate Finance

Labor and Finance: Labor Market Regulation and Cash Holdings of Founding Families

Team: Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp (corresp. author), Dr. Markus Fütterer (Marburg), Dr. Marina Kononova (Marburg)

Objective: The paper studies the response of firms to strengthening labor market regulation, to shed lights on the labor-finance nexus. The findings suggest a nuanced view: While non-Founding Family Firms reduce cash holdings to strengthen their bargaining power vis-à-vis labor, Founding Family Firms prioritize financial flexibility and thus increase cash holdings.

Status: The paper has been accepted for publication in the Review of Corporate Finance and is scheduled for the first Issue in 2026.

Economic policy uncertainty and the founding family firm premium

Team: Dr. Markus Fütterer, Prof. Ignacio Requejo, Prof. Marc Rapp (Marbug)

Objective:

Status: Revise and Resubmit at journal

Nordic capital markets and in Life-Cycle Perspective

How are the various Nordic capital markets connected – the market for start-ups (angle investors, private funds), for high growth firms (private equity), and for listed firms (IPOs, other issues)?

Team: Prof. Lasse Lien, NHH Norway (conceptual theory paper). Prof. Bruce Hearn (U of Southhampton) and Prof. Lars Oxelheim (IFN Sweden)

Objective: Understand the Nordic capital markets and their life cycle

Status: Draft completed by April 2025.

CEO pay in the Nordics

Team: Prof. Trond Randøy, Øystein Strøm (OsloMET) and research assistant Agate Mæland (CBS)

Objective: How is CEO pay functioning as a corporate governance mechanism in listed Nordic firms?

Status: Working paper where preliminary results were presented at CBS April 3^rd.

Do Retailers Trade Noise? Macroeconomic Luck and the Mispricing of Stocks in Norwegian firms

Team: Prof. Håkan Jankensgård (Stockholm U), Prof. Lars Oxelheim (IFN, Stockholm), Prof. Trond Randøy

Objective:

Status: Working paper. To be presented at a seminar on CBS May 22^nd, 2025

Board Composition and Bank Debt: The Influence of Shared Directors in Private

Team: Assistant Prof. Caglar Kaya, PhD Lars Ohnemus

Objective:

Status: Working paper

The future of European Competitiveness – The Nordic Corporate Governance model a lighthouse or an Illusion?

Team: PhD. Lars Ohnemus (CBS), Ass. Prof. Caglar Kaya (Aalborg University)

Objective:

Status: working paper.

The impact on online board meeting on corporate Governance

Team: Prof. Niels Hermes, Prof. Dennis Veltrop (University of Groningen), Prof. Trond Randøy (CBS)

Objective:

Status: Working paper. To be presented at a seminar on CBS May 7^th, 2025.

Corporate Governance Across the Lifecycle of the Firm: Ownership Competence and Governance Strategies

Team: Prof. Lasse Lien (NHH, Norway), Prof. Trond Randøy

Objective:

Status: Working paper

Book chapter on regulatory changes. Chapter 2: A Rise in State Governance for Sustainability

Team: Prof. Jette Steen Knudsen (CBS). Research Assistant Agate Mæland (CBS).

Objective: To investigate if/how has the governance of corporate sustainability changed around the world?

Status: To be published in Handbook of Research on Sustainability and Governance, 2025 edited by Sébastien Mena (Hertie School), Cristina Y. Aoki Inoue (Radboud University), Kenneth Amaeshi (European University Institute), and Dhanasree Jayaram (Manipal Academy of Higher Education)

Sustainable Corporate Governance Mechanisms: Driving or Decoupled from Environmental Performance?

Team: Prof. Steen Thomsen (CBS) and Prof. Jette Steen Knudsen. Research assistant Juyeong Jeong (CBS)

Objective:  Do sustainable corporate governance practices make companies greener or are they decoupled from sustainability outcomes?

Status: Preliminary results were presented in March 2025.

Teaching case – Sustainability in Danske Bank The teaching case explores the following problem: How does a large bank undertake change management to meet new demands for sustainability?

Team: Prof. Jette Steen Knudsen and Prof. Marc Steffen Rapp (Marburg). Research assistant Agate Mæland (CBS)

Objective: We have carried out interviews and need to write up the case

Status: Expect to submit case to Ivey July 1, 2025

Team: Kasper Meisner Nielsen

Objective: Investigate the financial crisis depress the ability to draw talent to the financial sector? Over 15 years after the Financial Crisis, it seems appropriate to assess its long-term impact on the financial industry’s ability to attract talented employees., including bank defaults and reputational shocks.

Status: Working paper