Patrick Reichert

Term Research Professor at the IMD elea Center for Social Innovation

Patrick Reichert is a Term Research Professor at the IMD elea Center for Social Innovation. His research primarily focuses on how financial innovation can accelerate the speed, scale, and effectiveness of promising social innovations.

Reichert’s research has been published in several internationally recognized scholarly journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, and Oxford Development Studies.

He has won several awards for his research. His doctoral dissertation was highly commended in the finance category of the 2018 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards, and his paper in Oxford Development Studies was awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize for Best Paper of the previous two years (2017-2018).

Reichert holds a PhD in economics and management from The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in Belgium. He also has a master’s degree in microfinance from Solvay and an undergraduate degree in finance from Boston University Questrom School of Business.

Prior to joining IMD, Reichert worked in several areas of finance from private banking to development finance. He also worked for a social enterprise in India, helping the company grow from 10 employees to more than 500 in just over two years while also securing financing from private and public sector donors and commercial investors to help move the organization from startup to scale-up.

Reichert is also an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Small Business Economics, among others.

Academic publications
Article
From fiduciary duty to impact fidelity: Managerial compensation in impact investing
Investors with standard monetary preferences will give a fund manager incentives to increase firm profits, which can be achieved through a share in profits via carried interest. When investors have...
Published 1 September 2022
Article
Blood in the water: An abductive approach to startup valuation on ABC's Shark Tank
Most negotiations over startup valuation take place behind closed doors. As a result, we lack knowledge about how valuation is negotiated between entrepreneurs and investors. We constructed a datas...
Published 1 June 2022
Article
Crowding-in or crowding-out? How subsidies signal the path to financial independence of social enterprises
In today’s multisector configurations, there is little clarity about whether and how public and private subsidies influence social enterprises’ pursuit of financial stability. We address the strate...
Published 1 September 2021
Article
Gender and entrepreneurial propensity: Risk-taking and prosocial preferences in labour market entry decisions
This study examines gender differences in risk-taking and prosociality through a hypothetical labour market entry choice experiment. To explore differences between male and female subjects by risk ...
Published 12 February 2021
Article
Applicants’ fairness perceptions of algorithm-driven hiring procedures
Despite the rapid adoption of technology in human resource departments, there is little empirical work that examines the potential challenges of algorithmic decision-making in the recruitment proce...
Published 12 January 2023
Insight for Executives
Article
Intentional money: Strategies for sustainable finance
The logic of sustainable finance is simple; tell me where you put your money, and I will know what matters to you. But how do sustainable investors actually make their investment decisions and what...
Published 9 August 2022
Article
Bessere Daten führen zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit
The volume of sustainable funds rose to 694.5 billion Swiss francs and now accounts for 52 percent of the total Swiss fund market - this figure surpasses conventional investment funds for the first...
Published 13 June 2022
Report
Impact management: A market analysis of impact objectives and firm policies
Sustainable financial products are rapidly growing. According to the 2021 Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study, sustainable investing assets increased 31% from 2019 to 2020, reaching a total o...
Published 1 June 2022
Taking aim: How shareholder activism is making the workplace more diverse and inclusive
Article
Taking aim: How shareholder activism is making the workplace more diverse and inclusive
In a monumental milestone of what’s come to be called “stakeholder capitalism”, activist hedge fund Engine No 1 successfully claimed three seats on Exxon’s board of directors in 2021 with the...
Published 9 February 2022
Three trends to track as impact investing eyes the mainstream
Article
Three trends to track as impact investing eyes the mainstream
2021 has been another year that has thrown global imbalances and inequalities into sharp relief. For many of us, this has triggered a re-evaluation of how we live, including where we put our money....
Published 6 January 2022
Article
Quand l'activisme des actionnaires rend la culture d'entreprise plus inclusive
By using their voting rights at general meetings, more and more shareholder activists are influencing HR policies and the working climate in these large firms. The investment fund Nia Capital, for ...
Published 10 December 2021
An aspiration for COP26: Accelerating the transition to net zero
Article
An aspiration for COP26: Accelerating the transition to net zero
The global push for net-zero emissions is a massive undertaking, but the existential threat of climate change means that companies must act now.
Published 27 October 2021
How smart subsidies help social entrepreneurs scale impact
Article
How smart subsidies help social entrepreneurs scale impact
To make social enterprise financially viable, investors should optimize subsidy design. In 2007 came one of the most significant events for microfinance: one of Latin America’s largest microfinance...
Published 18 October 2021
Accelerating the sustainability transition
Article
Accelerating the sustainability transition
Where to start and how to maintain the transition to sustainable business models. Companies and asset managers are making substantial progress in the transition to sustainable business models. Most...
Published 1 June 2021
Article
Nachhaltigkeit: schneller, höher, stärker!
The Olympic motto also applies to sustainability in business: Those who want to be first to the finish line or jump further than the competition have to be faster, go further and aim higher than th...
Published 28 May 2021
Report
Social innovation: Mobilizing private capital for impact
By applying novel market solutions to global social and environmental problems, social innovators can play a key role in mobilizing capital for impact. By sharing the value created with society as ...
Published 7 April 2021
Article
Greta Thunberg at Davos: why Gen Z has real power to influence business on climate change
Armed with social media and growing economic clout, Gen Z is best positioned to influence business practices, rather than global climate agreements, where political gridlock appears to be the statu...
Published 24 January 2019
Article
While politicians get protectionist, more businesses are pushing moral agendas
Donald Trump’s delayed reaction to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi shows how the US president’s “America First” campaign is shifting the government’s role towards a more pragm...
Published 2 November 2018