Mentor Areas
Witold J. Henisz is the Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management in Honor of Russell E. Palmer, former Managing Director at The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania. He is also Director of the Wharton Political Risk Lab and the founder of the Wharton ESG Analytics Lab. His research examines the impact of political hazards on international investment strategy including efforts by multinational corporations to engage in corporate diplomacy to win the hearts and minds of external stakeholders. His research has been published in top-ranked journals in international business, management, international studies and sociology and he is the author of the book “Corporate Diplomacy: Building Reputations and Relationships with External Stakeholders”. Witold has won multiple teaching awards at the graduate and undergraduate levels and also teaches extensively on the topic of Corporate Diplomacy in open enrollment and custom executive education programs. He is currently a principal in the political risk management consultancy PRIMA LLC whose clients span multinational firms, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.
Description:
Working on multiple projects through the Wharton Political Risk Lab and ESG Analytics Lab highlighting the financial materiality of stakeholder perceptions of organizations with a particular focus on environmental, social and governance factors using non-traditional datasets. Current research questions include
- What sort of foreign capital inflows exacerbate rather than ameliorate conflict risk and why?
- Is greater interest in ESG factors by investors and creditors, in fact, leading to better ESG performance by companies?
- How should ESG issues be operationalized for municipal and public debt?
- What internal or external pressures are most effective in triggering positive change in a company's (or public entity's) ESG performance?
- What political and social events reported in (social) media are material for which asset classes?
Preferred Qualifications
- Interest in the intersection of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and business.
- Strong writing skills
- Ability to synthesize large quantities of secondary information
- Willingness to help build and maintain quantitative databases on ESG factors and events
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.