ESRI Signature Event, April 30th, 2026
Workshop on Research Integrity
The INSEAD Ethics and Social Responsibility Initiative (ESRI) is pleased to host an invitation-only workshop on Research Integrity on 30 April at Le Cercle, INSEAD Europe Campus. Chaired by Professors N. Craig Smith (INSEAD) and Nina Strohminger (Wharton and ESRI Visiting Professor, INSEAD), the workshop will bring together faculty and researchers for a day of focused discussion on key challenges shaping the future of academic research.
The INSEAD Ethics & Social Responsibility Initiative gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Dreyfus Foundation and Yves Burrus in making this event possible, as well as the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance.
Programme: Thursday, April 30th, 2026 | Location: INSEAD Europe Campus, Fontainebleau - Amphi T, Le Cercle
08:30 - 09:00 Registration and refreshments (adjacent to Amphi T, Le Cercle)
09:00 - 09:15 Welcome and Introduction to the Workshop
- Peter Joos, INSEAD Dean of Faculty
- N. Craig Smith, INSEAD
- Nina Strohminger, Wharton, ESRI Visiting Professor, INSEAD
09:15 - 10:00 Opening keynote address: Simine Vazire, University of Melbourne, “Lessons from Psychology’s Replication Crisis”
10:00 - 10:15 BREAK
10:15 - 11:15 Panel I: Data Analysis & Management : Role of Journals, Reviewers and Editors
- Vibha Gaba, INSEAD
- Ana Martinovici, Erasmus University
- Ella Miron-Spektor, INSEAD
- Christopher S. Tang, UCLA Anderson School of Management
- Spyros Zoumpoulis, INSEAD
- Moderator: N. Craig Smith, INSEAD
11:15 - 12:00 Second keynote: Leif Nelson, University of California, Berkeley, “Finding Lies from the People Who Create the Truths”
12:00 - 13:00 Panel II: Data Analysis & Management: Open Science, Replicability
- Vilius Dranseika, Jagiellonian University
- Nadav Klein, INSEAD
- Michael Park, INSEAD
- Marcel Zeelenberg, Tilburg University
- Moderator: Monique Van Donzel, INSEAD
13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH at Le Cercle with remarks in review of the morning by Lily Fang, INSEAD Dean of Research and Innovation
14:00 - 14:45 Third keynote: Nina Strohminger, Wharton, ESRI Visiting Professor, INSEAD, “The Informavore’s Dilemma”
14:45 - 15:45 Panell III: Beyond Statistics: The role of Intentional study Design and Theory in Scientific Reform
- Simona Botti, London Business School
- Martin Schweinsberg, ESMT Berlin
- Kaisa Snellman, INSEAD
- Klaus Wertenbroch, INSEAD
- Moderator: Nina Strohminger, Wharton, ESRI Visiting Professor, INSEAD
15:45 - 16:00 BREAK
16:00 - 17:00 Panel IV: AI Challenges & Opportunities for Research Integrity
- YJ Choe, INSEAD
- Anton Ovchinnikov, INSEAD
- Phanish Puranam, INSEAD
- Nihar Shah, Carnegie Mellon University
- Moderator: Ilgin Dogan, INSEAD
17:00 - 17:50 Concluding plenary discussion on implications
17:50 - 18:00 Wrap up remarks by N. Craig Smith, INSEAD and Nina Strohminger, Wharton, ESRI Visiting Professor, INSEAD
18:00 - 19:30 Closing reception, Le Cercle
Abstracts
Simine Vazire, Professor of Psychology Ethics and Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
"Lessons from Psychology’s Replication Crisis"
What makes a discipline scientific? How can a discipline recover from a crisis of credibility, and bolster its trustworthiness? Psychology's replication crisis and credibility revolution provide a valuable case study. I review psychology's response to its crisis, and draw lessons for other disciplines that may face similar crises. Psychology's crisis was triggered by failures to replicate, fraud, and questionable research and publication practices. The most important avenues for improving the integrity and credibility of our field have been: increasing transparency, improving journals and peer review, and supporting post publication critique. Without attention to these fundamental issues, the 'self-correcting mechanisms' of science, including meta-analysis, cannot save a discipline.
Leif Nelson, Ewald T. Grether Professor in Business Administration & Marketing, Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow, Distinguished Teaching Fellow, Co-founder, Data Colada, University of California, Berkeley
"Finding Lies from the People Who Create the Truths"
Scientists are tasked with identifying truths about the world. When the scientists find them, they are rewarded with jobs, promotions, grants, and prestige. Therefore, it is inevitably the case that, when real truths are hard to find, scientists will do what they can to make results look as true as possible. In the extreme, that might mean that they lie. As consumers of science, we need to learn how to detect the presence of truth and the absence of lies. The presentation will consider exactly those methods of detection, and will therefore be the telling of detective stories. In these stories, sometimes the lies are sifted from the truths, but also sometimes the detectives get a whole lot of criticism along the way.
Nina Strohminger, Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, Wharton
"The Informavore’s Dilemma"
Information asymmetries are inherent to knowledge-exchange networks; they are also the chief vehicle of fraud and error in science. To completely eliminate the doubt introduced by information asymmetries means to erase the benefit of outsourcing expertise to other minds (this is the informavore’s dilemma). In this talk, I discuss the problem of information asymmetries in psychology research, and propose some ways of combating the inefficiencies it introduces.
ESRI Signature Event, December 5th, 2024
When Should Business Speak Out on Political and Social Issues?
By-Invitation Workshop on Corporate Political Activism
Earlier this year, Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank, chose the bank’s annual reception in Berlin to speak out about the threat right-wing extremism poses for the bank’s investors. Stefan Traeger, CEO of Jenoptik, has asserted his hope for an "open, free and democratic" country, saying "That’s what we need in order to move the company forward.” Numerous companies and their CEOs in Germany have also recently stepped forward to raise their concerns as well. They see the negative impacts that the proposed policies of right-wing movements and parties—relating to immigration, the European Union and man-made climate change—could have for the German economy.
While the threat posed to business—if not democracy—is acute, this is not the only issue that has prompted business leaders to speak up in recent years, with topics ranging from Black Lives Matter, to LGBTQI+ policies, to gun control, and Brexit. However, their contributions have not always been welcomed. Some object because they disagree with the position taken, others object more fundamentally, questioning the legitimacy of unelected corporate officials speaking from the platform provided by their organization.
When is it appropriate for business leaders to speak up, if at all? Does failure to speak up or remaining neutral constitute complicity? What strategies can business leaders use to be effective in speaking up? Who should sit at the table in deciding whether and how to speak up? How can the risks of speaking up be mitigated?
This exclusive workshop of 50 leading thinkers and practitioners, together with INSEAD faculty, will examine these questions in depth, drawing on insights from business leaders as well as civil society and academic researchers. Its purpose is to generate ideas for further research and guidance for practice.
We intend to give particular attention in the first part of the day to the situation in Germany. Our opening keynote speaker, Stefan Traeger, CEO of Jenoptik, is one of several German business leaders who have spoken up about the threats posed to business and society by the rise of the extreme right in Germany. He will explain why and how he has spoken up.
A panel comprised of businesspeople and related stakeholders (e.g., board member and union representative) will follow our keynote and further explore the German example. Following that, a second practitioner panel will explore the issue in other contexts and geographies, including Europe and the U.S. during the recent election. With the stage set in this way, the subsequent academic speakers and panellists will explore the implications for research and practice of the examples discussed and include presentations of research on corporate political activism.
Programme: Thursday, December 5th, 2024
at INSEAD Fontainebleau (amphi S, Le Cercle)
08:30 – 09:00 Registration and Refreshments
09:00 - 09:15 Welcome and Introduction to the Workshop
- Francisco Veloso, Dean of INSEAD
- N. Craig Smith, INSEAD
- Markus Scholz, TU Dresden
09:15 – 09:45 Opening Keynote Address
- Stefan Traeger, CEO, Jenoptik
09:45 - 10:45 Business and the Rise of the Extreme Right in Germany (Panel I)
- Matthias Diermeier, German Economic Institute
- Martin Fischer, Celanese
- Britta Jacob, Democratic Strategy Initiative
- Maxi Leuchters, Commerzbank AG
- Stefan Traeger, Jenoptik
- Markus Scholz, TU Dresden (Moderator)
10:45 – 11:15 BREAK
11:15 – 12:15 Business and Politics: International Perspectives (Panel II)
- Rana Islam, McKinsey
- Claudia Oeking, Airbus
- Eric Orts, Wharton
- Joe Zammit-Lucia, Radix
- N. Craig Smith, INSEAD (Moderator)
12:15 – 13:00 Current Research on Business and Politics: Directions and Gaps (Panel III)
- Zena Al-Esia, University of Bath
- Christopher Hartwell, ZHAW
- Andreas Scherer, University of Zurich
- Georg Wernicke, HEC
- Ilze Kivleniece, INSEAD (Moderator)
13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH
14:00 – 15:30 Research Presentations Session
- Matthias Diermeier, German Economic Institute: “Business and Populism in Germany: The End of Party-Political Neutrality?”
- Benedikt D. S. Kapteina, TU Dresden: “Business and Politics: Why Some German Companies Resist Right-Wing Populism”
- Daniel Nyberg, University of Queensland: “Decarbonization in an Era of Representative Crisis”
- Reilly Steel, Columbia Law School: “The Political Transformation of Corporate America”
- Dorothee Winkler, University of Zurich: “Robust CEO Activism: How Elon Musk Gained (and Lost) Two-Sided Alignment and Legitimacy in the Polarized US Media Landscape”
15:30 – 16:00 BREAK
16:00 – 17:15 Developing a Research Agenda on Business and Politics (Panel IV)
- Andrew Crane, University of Bath
- Patricia Crifo, Ecole Polytechnique
- Jonathan Doh, Villanova University
- Jean-Pascal Gond, Bayes Business School
- Arno Kourula, University of Amsterdam
- Dorothee Winkler, University of Zurich
- Douglas Webber, INSEAD (Moderator)
17:15 – 17:30 Concluding Remarks
- N. Craig Smith, INSEAD
- Markus Scholz, TU Dresden
Business and Politics Should Never Mix—Or Should They?
See INSEAD Knowledge article by Markus Scholz and Craig Smith
The Normativity Project
Do business researchers and businesses give sufficient attention to normative considerations? This project includes participation in a special issue for Business Ethics Quarterly.
