On 27 January, Mines Paris-PSL hosted the Second Academic Day of Mission-Driven Companies \u2014 Theories and Practices, a major event that brought together some fifty researchers and practitioners to examine the evolution of Mission-Driven Companies, a status created by the Pacte Law (2019) and rooted in academic work, particularly that of i3, which developed a conceptualisation of the company as a place conducive to collective creation.<\/p>\n
Dans un contexte international marqu\u00e9 par des nouvelles tensions g\u00e9opolitiques et par des critiques renouvel\u00e9es \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9gard des crit\u00e8res ESG, J\u00e9r\u00e9my L\u00e9v\u00eaque et Fran\u00e7oise Dany, organisateurs de la journ\u00e9e ont soulign\u00e9 la vitalit\u00e9 du dispositif. Pr\u00e8s de 2 300 entreprises, repr\u00e9sentant plus d\u2019un million de salari\u00e9s, ont \u00e0 ce jour choisi de devenir Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 Mission. Pour la recherche, deux enjeux majeurs se d\u00e9gagent : d\u2019une part, \u00e9tudier cette ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nologie organisationnelle nouvelle que constituent les Soci\u00e9t\u00e9s \u00e0 Mission \u2013 par exemple le fonctionnement des comit\u00e9s de mission ; d\u2019autre part, tirer parti des sp\u00e9cificit\u00e9s de ce cadre juridique et de gouvernance pour aborder, avec un ancrage empirique renouvel\u00e9, des questions \u00ab\u00a0classiques\u00a0\u00bb de la recherche en sciences de gestion \u2013 les tensions entre autonomie strat\u00e9gique et financement par exemple.<\/p>\n
In an international context marked by new geopolitical tensions and renewed criticism of ESG criteria, J\u00e9r\u00e9my L\u00e9v\u00eaque and Fran\u00e7oise Dany, organisers of the event, emphasised the vitality of the scheme. To date, nearly 2,300 companies, representing more than one million employees, have chosen to become Mission-Driven Companies. Two major research challenges emerge: firstly, studying this new organisational phenomenology represented by mission-driven companies \u2013 for example, how mission committees operate; on the other hand, taking advantage of the specific features of this legal and governance framework to address, with a renewed empirical foundation, “classic” issues in management science research \u2013 such as the tensions between strategic autonomy and financing, for example.<\/p>\n
Highlights included presentations on employee engagement and experiences, governance and law, the process of transforming into a mission-driven company, the attractiveness and impact measures of mission-driven companies, and the work experience and regulation by mission in the artificial intelligence sector. During a round table discussion, Elsa Brachet (CFDT) and Olivier Favereau (Paris-Nanterre University) debated the support needed by mission-driven companies today. Yohan Penel, Director of the Observatory of Mission-Driven Companies, presented a call for research partnerships aimed at facilitating secure access to data in order to stimulate academic work \u2013 methodological but not financial support. It provides researchers with access to data (and companies) in a secure and compliant environment. Finally, it enriches the observatory with its findings and by guiding future work towards areas relevant to research.<\/p>\n
Participants were invited to share their ideas on the following topics: gaining a better understanding of mission-driven companies through data from the observatory, supporting an epistemic community on mission-driven companies, developing vigilance and alert capabilities, and teaching about the transformations associated with mission-driven companies.<\/p>\n
The day ended with a call to consolidate the scientific community, strengthen vigilance and disseminate knowledge about the transformations associated with mission-driven companies. The presentations will be published very soon and the ideas put forward by the participants will be examined, according to Val\u00e9rie Brisac, Director of the Mission-Driven Companies Community, and Kevin Levillain.<\/p>\n