Finance

RESEARCH TOPICS

The Finance group's research is structured around two main themes: 1) Sustainable Finance and Innovation and 2) Market Dynamics and Player Behavior.

This development is a more direct reflection of the interactions present in the team's work. Indeed, behaviors are more specifically studied from a market perspective, and the group has also developed a specificity in the field of innovation, in particular through the link with governance. In particular, it reflects a privileged field of application identified and promoted in the region. In this field of innovation, several projects are currently underway on the link between innovation and governance. Another project, in entrepreneurial finance, is studying changes in the seed capital market.

In addition to innovation, the fields of application are particularly dedicated to agriculture and the environment. Within the framework of a partnership with the Institut de Convergences Agriculture Numérique^[1]#Digitag, a thesis is in progress on the behavior of farmers in the use of climate hedges on financial markets. A project is also underway with the Center for Wine Economics at UC Davis in California, looking at the impact of climate on the valuation of wine stocks. Several publications in environmental finance are currently being extended (notably on the energy and natural resources markets).

The research project emphasizes interaction and interdisciplinarity, which is a strong feature of the group. In the same way, generic links to market finance or corporate finance no longer constitute a relevant classification of our research. In fact, the two main areas of research overlap to some extent, for example on environmental issues, where the behaviour of market players is confronted with questions of sustainable finance. Overall, these tensions between sustainability and responsibility, on the one hand, and market logic, on the other, are at the heart of both areas. In the first, behaviour is the main object of study to translate these tensions, in the second, governance. Our work is at the crossroads of several disciplines: entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting, strategy and economics.

The Group is also heavily involved in technology transfer. One of the major aspects is reflected in the links with digital technology. A number of research projects have been and are being carried out on the links between finance and digital technology (crowdfunding, bitcoin, blockchain - see group publications), and are being transposed into teaching methods. Links between Masters programs are being developed in the field of innovation, and in collaboration with lecturers from the marketing group. The Disrupt Campus ANR-PIA-CGI project (2018-2020) is an illustration of this, as is the Management & Technologies Chair, in partnership with Labex Entreprendre.

In this way, the finance group develops its research project in line with both teaching and the needs of local economic players. The group's structuring themes are based on specific fields of application that are fully in line with the orientations of the MUSE scientific project (Feed, Soigner, Protéger), the structuring themes of Labex Entreprendre (Axe A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and technological innovation; Axe A2-P3: Governance, market strategies and sustainable performance) and the cross-disciplinary themes of the MRM laboratory (Agri-food, Innovation & Sustainable Development).

[1]#DigitAg, the Convergences Agriculture Numérique Institute was selected in January 2017. It is one of 10 French Convergences Institutes, funded under the Investissements d'Avenir program. The only Convergences Institute dedicated to agriculture, it is also the only Convergences Institute in the Occitanie region and the first in the MUSE Montpellier Université d'Excellence I-Site.

GROUP MANAGERS

Eric STEPHANY
Group Managing Director
Contact

Justine VALETTE
Assistant Manager
Contact