Research Papers

Tacit knowledge as a source of competitive advantage for esports teams: an effect dependent on the nature and context of the task (with W. De Moor, C. Durand and M. Terrien)

• • Journal of the knowledge Economy - June 2025

Abstract: Esports is a fast-growing industry, and its expansion raises a number of many managerial issues. The sector also represents a new empirical laboratory to test hypotheses linked to strategic management. The aim of this of this article is to analyze the role of tacit knowledge, formed by the shared experience between players, on team performance. However, this study also also takes into account the role of the context and nature of the task observed, in order to show that these parameters can circumvent the effect of performance factors.

Keywords: Tacit Knowledge, Resource based-view, Knowledge based-view, Esport, Competitive advantage

Shareholder wealth effects of corporate sustainability reporting regulations (with W. Boungou)

• • Finance Research Letters, May 2025

Abstract : In this article, we investigate the impact of the European Union (EU)’s corporate sustainability reporting regulations (i.e., CSRD and ESRS) adoption events on EU firms' stock market performance. To do this, we mobilize financial data from 19,443 firms located in OECD countries over the period from January 01, 2020, to February 16, 2024, consisting of more than 18 million daily observations. Using a Difference-in-Differences framework, we observe that the implementation of the new legislation (CSRD and ESRS) leads to an underperformance of firms located in affected countries (EU) compared to non-affected ones.

Keywords: CSRD, ESR 

Le subventionnement des clubs sportifs (semi)professionnels par les départements et les Régions françaises (with M. Terrien, Y Carin and W. Andreff)

• • Gestion et Management Public, May 2025

Abstract: Si de nombreux travaux se sont intéressés aux politiques sportives locales, assez peu se sont penchés sur les échelons des Départements et des Régions et encore moins ont analysé spécifiquement l’allocation des subventions accordées aux clubs (semi)professionnels. Cet article exploratoire entend éclairer les logiques de subventionnement de ces organisations sportives d’élite en convoquant un cadre théorique pluridisciplinaire mêlant économie, management public et sociologie. L’analyse repose sur l’accès à des données financières transmises par les organismes de contrôle de plusieurs championnats (semi)professionnels et des entretiens avec différentes collectivités territoriales. Le croisement de ces données quantitatives et qualitatives permet d’identifier différentes logiques influençant l’allocation des subventions. Les résultats permettent notamment de comprendre les tensions entre les paramètres économiques, sportifs et politiques qui orientent les soutiens par les collectivités aux clubs (semi)professionnels français.

Keywords: Subvention, sport professionnel, collectivité territoriale, politique sportive

 Energy uncertainty index and European banks (with W. Boungou, M. Fawaz and DP Dash)

• • Economics Letters Vol 247, February 2025.

Abstract: In this article, we investigate how energy uncertainties influence bank behavior. To achieve this objective, we use a dataset of 4632 banks in the Eurozone from 2000 to 2022. We observe that, in response to rising energy uncertainties, customers deposit more cash with their bank. This additional liquidity improves banks' incentives to lend by reducing the cost of credit and an increase in the supply of loans (particularly corporate loans). These responses from banks thus improve their performance. In a nutshell, our results highlight banks' exposure to rising energy uncertainties and how they take profiteering advantage of this situation.

Keywords : Energy uncertainty index, lending behavior, bank performance.

EU ETS Phase IV and industrial performance (with Whelsy Boungou)

• Economics Letters, vol 236, Mar 2024.

Abstract: This article studies the reaction of sectors regulated by the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) to the announcement of Phase IV. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach and data from 347 sectors located within the OECD over the period 1995–2019, we show that regulated sectors reacted immediately after the announcement by gradually increasing their R&D spending. Furthermore, these increases in investment boosted the competitiveness of firms in the regulated sectors through higher output, despite a reduction in total employment. Consequently, our results show that the EU ETS leads to a progressive substitution of labor by more productive capital. Overall, we provide evidence on firms' responses to Phase IV of the EU ETS. 

Keywords: EU ETS, Competitiveness, Firm performance, Difference-in-Differences 

French amateur football clubs’ finance and revenue volatility: The determinants of demand shocks (with M. Terrien, Y Carin and W. Andreff)

• Applied Economics Letters, vol 30, p2355-2359, 2022.

Abstract: The article addresses financial troubles in French amateur football clubs and their origins. Previous literature has demonstrated that – in particular in French football – club bankruptcies are triggered by demand shocks. The present research intends highlighting the determinants of demand shocks on those clubs playing French amateur football top two tiers with a longitudinal analysis (2009/2010-2019/2020). Various exogenous elements that influence club demand (i.e. revenues) are taken on board, namely, macroeconomic variables, such as the variation of GDP growth rate between two football seasons, a dummy for the Covid-19 sanitary crisis, and a sport dummy for the effect of the French national team winning the 2018 male football World Cup. The latter is used to check a potential trickle-down effect on amateur elite football. None of these variables do explain demand shocks except if the heterogeneity of clubs’ economic models is taken into account. The determinants of shock demands appear to be clubs’ strategic orientations (towards win maximization vs. a stable economic organization). 

Keywords: Amateur Football, demand shocks, economic crisis, Covid-19, Thickle-down effect 

Analyse des facteurs sociaux déterminants un choix de type de crowdfunding (with Loic Harriet)

• Management & Prospective (Gestion 2000), fev 2022, pp 19-42

Abstract: Crowdfunding is a financing practice that is developing by offering companies financing “by the crowd”. This practice comes in several forms : equitycrowdfunding, crowdlending, donation and donation with consideration. This contribution aims to understand, in the field of business project financing (Joffre and Trabelsi, 2018), what are the motivations that direct companies towards one or the other of these forms of crowdfunding. Through data collection from eighty-five companies and statistical processing via a PCA, it turns out that the challenges of sustainability, socialization, contributor profile, and bypassing difficulties in accessing traditional financing appear to be decisive motivations for the choice of the type of crowdfunding by companies. 

Keywords : Crowfunding, ACP, Investment

The Economic Models of French Amateur Football Clubs: What mutation(s) between the two crises? (with M. Terrien, Y Carin and W. Andreff)

• Journal of Global Sport Management, 8(3), 630-650, 2023

Abstract This article presents economic models at work in French amateur soccer clubs playing National 1 and National 2 tiers. Teams’ sporting performance and clubs’ financial results as well as their revenue and expenditure statistical distribution are analysed by means of Principal Component Analysis. Then a k-means methodology is implemented in view to defining archetypical clusters that characterise French amateur soccer clubs during the 2008-2020 period. The latter span of time opens a window of opportunity for understanding transformations in club economic models since the subprime crisis and up to current global economic recession triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the club taxonomy, a comparative static analysis shows that more amateur soccer clubs are in more satisficing financial shape at the dawn of the sanitary crisis than when they have been facing the subprime crisis. The so-called “virtuous modesty” cluster includes a greater number of clubs in 2019/20 than in 2008/09. 

Keywords: Amateur Football, economic crisis, Covid-19, Economic model

Under revision

Institutional communications

• Concilier taxe carbone et compétitivité européenne, c’est possible ? – The Conversation - 2019 [Link]

• TERRIEN, M. & DUFAU, B., « Crise sanitaire, modèles économiques et vulnérabilité financière : Application à trois ligues sportives professionnelles françaises », Jurisport : Revue Juridique et Economique du Sport, 2020, 209, 42-45, (Liste AERES Droit, 2010) - (with M. Terrien, University of Lille) [Link]

• DUFAU, B. « The influence of a carbon tax on cost competitiveness» Working Paper, Chaire Economie du Climat,. [link]