Finance

RESEARCH TOPICS

The Finance group's research is structured around two main themes: 1) Sustainable finance and innovation, and 2) Market dynamics and stakeholder behavior.

This development more directly reflects the interactions that are present in the team's work. Indeed, behaviors are studied more specifically from a market perspective, and the group has also developed a specialization in the field of innovation, particularly through its link with governance. In particular, it reflects a privileged field of application that has been identified and promoted in the region. In this field of innovation, several projects are 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 focused on agriculture and the environment. As part of a partnership with the Digital Agriculture Convergence Institute^[1]#Digitag, a thesis is currently being written on farmers' behavior in the use of climate hedging on financial markets. Another project is also looking at the impact of climate change on the valuation of wine stocks, in collaboration with theCenter for Wine Economics atUC Davis in California. Several publications on environmental finance are currently being expanded (particularly on the energy and natural resources markets).

The research project emphasizes interactions and interdisciplinarity, which is a key feature of the group. Similarly, generic links to market finance or corporate finance are no longer a relevant classification for our research. The two main areas of focus overlap in part, for example on environmental issues, where the behavior 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, behavior is the main object of study to reflect these tensions; in the second, it is governance. The work is at the intersection of several disciplines: entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting, strategy, and economics.

The group is also heavily involved in promotion and transfer. One of the major aspects of this is reflected in its links with digital technology. Several studies have been and are being carried out on the links between finance and digital technology (crowdfunding, bitcoin, blockchain—see the group's publications), and these are being transposed into teaching. Links between Master's programs are developing in the field of innovation, in collaboration with teacher-researchers from the marketing group. The Disrupt Campus ANR-PIA-CGI project (2018-2020) is one example of this, as is the Management & Technologies Chair, in partnership with Labex Entreprendre.

The finance group is thus developing its research project in line with both educational objectives and the needs of economic actors, particularly in the region. The key areas of focus are broken down into priority fields of application that are fully in line with the scientific objectives of the MUSE project (Feed, Care, Protect), the key areas of focus of the Labex Entreprendre (Area A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation; Axis A2-P3: Governance, Market Strategies, and Sustainable Performance) and the cross-cutting axes of the MRM laboratory (Agri-Food, Innovation & Sustainable Development).

[1]#DigitAg, the Digital Agriculture Convergence Institute, was selected in January 2017. It is one of 10 French Convergence Institutes, funded as part of the Investments for the Future program. The only Convergences Institute dedicated to agriculture, it is also the only Convergences Institute in the Occitanie region and the first of the I-Site MUSE Montpellier University of Excellence.

GROUP MANAGERS

Eric STEPHANY
Group Director
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Justine VALETTE
Deputy Director
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