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Aline C. Gatignon

Assistant Professor of Management

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

My research explains how companies collaborate with NGOs and governments to solve societal challenges in Emerging Markets.

About

I am a multinational management scholar studying partnerships between businesses and nonprofit organizations aimed at solving societal challenges. I seek to better understand how companies and nonprofits can jointly address strategic issues of mutual concern like weak regulations, insufficient education, and inadequate infrastructure. I focus primarily on emerging market settings, where social problems significantly impact business development, government responses are often lacking, and organizations facing resource constraints have had to innovate through cross-sector collaboration.

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How Employee Learning Impacts the Organization

About

My research is situated at the intersection of nonmarket strategy and multinational management. It explains how firms can collaborate with nonprofit organizations and/or governments to solve ESG and sustainability issues of mutual concern. 

My research emphasizes how cross-sector partnerships can enhance both firm performance and the broader institutional environment, diverging from traditional firm-centric approaches. It centers on two main streams:

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  1. Creating Public and Private Value: Exploring how partnerships improve public goods vital for business while amplifying the voices of less powerful stakeholders.

  2. Institutional Influences: Investigating how societal expectations, regulations, and external shocks shape the formation and sustainability of these collaborations, offering a dynamic perspective on firms' political and social activities.

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To address the complexities of these partnerships, my work focuses on three themes:

  • Examining multi-level relationships to uncover interdependencies and trade-offs in partnership governance.

  • Building unique datasets in underrepresented settings.

  • Employing diverse methodologies—from qualitative to large-scale statistical analysis—to provide nuanced insights into underlying mechanisms.

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My fieldwork spans three continents, supported by fluency in four languages and a multidisciplinary background in political science and development economics. The datasets I’ve developed cover diverse industries and include notable studies on CSR in India, health clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa, and corporate relationships in Brazil.

My scholarship has been recognized with prestigious awards and published in top journals like Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science. I actively collaborate with junior scholars, mentor doctoral students, and engage with academic and professional audiences globally. 

Aline Gatignon completed her Ph.D. in Strategic Management at  INSEAD, and previously received a M.A. in Development Economics and a B.A. in Political Science from the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po).

Aline’s research and pedagogical case studies have been recognized with several awards, including the ARCS Emerging Sustainability Scholar Award, the Strategic Management Society Best PhD Paper Award and the European Foundation for Management Development case study competition award. Her work has been listed as part of INSEAD’s “50 Years, 50 Women, 50 Ideas” series. She currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science, sits on the Executive Committee of the STR division for the Academy of Management Association, and is a Representative-at-Large for the Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society.

Aline Gatignon is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School. She is also a member of the Penn Development Research Initiative (PDRI),  a Faculty Affiliate with the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and Penn Center for Africana Studies, and a Senior Fellow with the Global Scope Lab (GLOB-S) at George Washington University.

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