The team
The project is led by a multidisciplinary team, engaged in the legal, economic and territorial analysis of mission-based enterprise models and alternative forms of governance.
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An alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, with an agrégation in economics and management, a DEA in advanced public law from the University of Paris 1, a magistère in European law and a doctorate in public law, Matthieu Caron is an HDR lecturer in law at the Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France and Sciences Po Lille. He is also certified by HEC Paris in Sustainable Transition Management and by ESSEC in CSR and sustainable development.
He currently heads Sciences Po Lille's Master's degree in Responsible Corporate Management, the Sciences Po-Edhec graduate program in public management, as well as Sciences Po Lille's preparation program for major administrative competitions. He is also Managing Director of L'Observatoire de l'éthique publique and holder of the Chair Société à mission européenne.
His work focuses on governmental law, public ethics, legal analysis of the economy and, more recently, business ethics.
Since the start of his career, he has taught both political economy (History of economic thought, history of economic and social facts, social and environmental economic news, economic analysis of law, economics of public finance), public law (constitutional law, public finance law and European Union law) and management (Leadership, public influence, Business Ethics, refounding corporate governance and introduction to management sciences).
Tentative publications (related to the project) :
- Éthique publique des affaires, collective work co-edited with Mathieu Disant and Mathias Amilhat, to be published in early 2026 by LGDJ.L'éthique des affaires, Que sais-je, PUF, October 2025.
- "L'Union européenne doit défendre le modèle de l'entreprise responsable", (in collaboration with Stéphane Vernac, PP n°16 OEP, March 2025.
- "L'éthique publique des affaires, Essai de définition et déclinaison de nouveaux champs de recherches", note n°41 OEP, March 11, 2025.
- "Faisons de la France une pionnière en matière d'éthique des affaires", collective tribune, Le Monde, January 13, 2020.
Stéphane Vernac is an agrégé in private law and professor of law at the Université de Picardie Jules-Vernes (UPJV), where he currently heads the Centre de droit privé et de sciences criminelles d'Amiens (CEPRISCA-Centre Antoine Loisel). He is also co-director of the Master de droit social de l'UPJV at the Faculté de droit d'Amiens. He has editorial responsibilities as scientific director of the journal Lexbase social. He is also section editor and member of the editorial board of the Revue de droit du travail (Dalloz), and co-responsible for labor law panoramas for the Recueil général Dalloz.
An alumnus of ENS Cachan and an agrégé in economics and management, he is also a research associate at the Centre de gestion scientifique de Mines ParisTech and a member of the Observatoire de l'Éthique Publique. He is also a member of the scientific council of the Communauté des entreprises à missions (CEM).
Aside from publications in the field of labor law, his work also concerns the corporate world. He is particularly interested in the power that structures companies - which he calls organizational power - as well as their governance and responsibilities. Between 2009 and 2018, he took part in the corporate research program at the Collège des Bernardins (Paris). In 2013, as part of a post-doctoral research project at the Ecole des Mines, he took part in the design and definition of the legal regime for the "Société à objet social étendu" (which would become the société à mission) alongside specialist management science researchers (A. Hatchuel, B. Segrestin, K. Levillain). He then contributed, as technical advisor to the Ministry of the Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS), to the drafting of the provisions of the ESS law of July 31, 2014 relating to the Coopérative d'Activité et d'Emploi (CAE). He will also contribute, with a member of parliament and academics, to the drafting of a bill on the duty of vigilance, which will become the law of March 27, 2017 on the duty of vigilance of parent companies and ordering companies. On several occasions, he has been heard by parliamentarians on various issues at the National Assembly and the Senate, notably on the question of the status of platform workers.
Tentative publications:
- ""Companies, Responsibilities and Civilizations. Towards a new cycle of sustainable development", edited by K. Levillain, B. Segrestin, A. Hatchuel and S. Vernac, Presse des Mines, 2020
- ""Government, participation and the mission of the company ", B. Segrestin and S. Vernac, pref. J.D. Senard, post. B. Roger, ed. Hermann, Oct. 2018
- "L'entreprise, point aveugle du savoir", edited by B. Segrestin, B. Roger and S. Vernac, Paris, ed. Sciences humaines, 343 p., 2014
- ""The "Société à Objet Social Étendu". Un nouveau statut pour l'entreprise ", edited by B. Segrestin, K. Levillain, S. Vernac, A. Hatchuel, Paris, Presses des Mines, 122 p. 2015
- "Multinationals and the constitutionalization of the world power system", Collective work edited by A. Lyon-Caen, J.P. Robé and S. Vernac, Preface by J. Ruggie, ed. Routledge, 2016 (English language)
- ""Les responsabilités de l'entreprise face aux risques: du droit du gouvernement de l'incertain au droit du gouvernement de l'inconnu", in L'entreprise résiliente, I. Desbarats (dir.), LexisNexis, Coll. Planète Social, 2023.
- "La pérennité de l'entreprise en quête de modèles ", in La pérennité de l'entreprise, sous dir. G. Bargain, F. Juredieu, éd. Lexis Nexis, 2022, p. 135.
- " L'entreprise et sa raison d'être ", Semaine sociale Lamy n°1807, 19 mars 2018
- ""La RSE ou l'essor de l'entreprise-providence", S. Vernac with A C. Hannoun, in "A droit ouvert", Mélanges en l'honneur d'Antoine Lyon-Caen, ed. Dalloz, November 2018.
- " Du bon gouvernement de l'entreprise en société", Revue de droit du travail 2018, p. 261, also published in "La mission de l'entreprise responsable. Principes et normes de gestion", ed. B. Segrestin and K. Levillain, Paris, Presses des Mines, Oct. 2018 - Prix du livre RH Science Po, Le Monde Syntec).
- "L'objet social étendu": une voie pour réaligner le droit et la théorie des parties prenantes", S. Vernac, with B. Segrestin, A. Hatchuel and K. Levillain, Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, vol. 17, n°3 September 2014.
- " Quelle finalité(s) de l'entreprise. De l'entreprise déformée à l'entreprise réformée", in Entreprise et responsabilité sociale en questions, Savoirs et controverses, ed. J.-P. Chanteau, K. Martin-Chenut, M. Capron, ed. Classiques Garnier, 2017, p. 185-200
Sarah Vandenbroucke holds a PhD in law from the University of Leiden (Netherlands). She also holds a Bachelor's degree in law from the University of Lille 2, an LL.M. in European law from Leiden Law School (2017) and a double Master's degree in labor law and organizational sociology (University of Toulouse 1 Capitole & Graduate School of Social Sciences of Amsterdam, 2018). She previously worked at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Equality and Non-Discrimination Commission, Strasbourg), at the International Labor Organization (ILO) Regional Office for South-East Asia (New Delhi), and as a consultant for European institutions on employment and social policies in Brussels.
Past academic responsibilities and duties include coordinating the Empirical Legal Studies Lab at Leiden University for 4 years, a six-month stint as Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute (Florence), and teaching activities at Leiden Law School (Advanced Master in European and International Human Rights) and Sciences Po Lille (Master in Responsible Business Management). Today, she is a director of the Observatoire de l'Éthique Publique (OEP), a member of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research, and works as a consultant for several institutions, including Expertise France (EU-Mexico technical cooperation) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
His work focuses on responsible corporate conduct, business ethics and the analysis of alternative modes of governance aimed at promoting corporate social, environmental and societal responsibility. Her interdisciplinary approach combines law and sociology, articulating empirical field surveys and legal analysis.
Tentative publications:
- Vandenbroucke S.E.M. (2025), Navigating corporate responsibility in global supply chains using codes of conduct, PhD thesis, Leiden University, Meijers-reeks MI-433.
- Vandenbroucke S.E.M., Kantorowicz J.J. & Erkens M.Y.H.G. (2024), "Decoding supplier codes of conduct with content and text as data approaches", Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 31(1): 472-492.
- Vandenbroucke S.E.M., Pluut H., Erkens M.Y.H.G. & Kantorowicz J.J. (2024), "Do companies walk the talk? Commitments and actions in global supply chain labor standards", International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 9:17.
- Vandenbroucke S.E.M. (2024), "The evolution of codes of conduct to ensure labor rights in global supply chains", AJIL Unbound, 118: 297-302.
Alix Vanmeervenne is a research engineer at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France. Attached to the Sociétés et Humanités laboratory, she is associated with the FEDER Société à mission Europe project, dedicated to the analysis and experimentation of business models oriented by a social and environmental mission.
Specifically, her work focuses on the mission-driven company, the social and economic history of the Hauts-de-France region, as well as the animation and structuring of communities of academic, economic and institutional players, within a research-action logic aimed at creating lasting bridges between the academic and economic worlds.
A magna cum laude graduate of Sciences Po Lille's Master's degree in Responsible Business Management, her academic career was built at the intersection of social sciences and management sciences, with the aim of supporting organizations in their economic, social and environmental transitions. In parallel with her first year of the Master's program, she worked as a solidarity consultant with Impulso, developing a keen interest in helping organizations address sustainability issues. She then completed her first work-study placement at Représente.org, a cooperative specializing in supporting social and economic committees (CSE) on decarbonization trajectories, as a communications and awareness-raising officer on ecological issues.
She continued her career with a second work-study period at Parangone, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) consultancy, where she worked as a project manager. In this capacity, she contributed to the creation and launch of GenAct, an association dedicated to the promotion of the regenerative economy, from its genesis to its public deployment and the launch of its digital platform.
Following her graduation, she wrote a study entitled "Les différents modèles de gouvernance d'entreprises en Europe", before joining the Société à mission Europe project, within which she notably coordinates two collective works:
- Les entreprises du Nord, une histoire sociale singulière
- These entrepreneurs from the North who are changing the world
Doctoral research
A graduate of Sciences Po Lille's Management Responsable des Entreprises master's program, Pablo Maria is a 1st-year doctoral student in management at the Université Polytechnique des Hauts de France and ESPOL, and attached to the Sociétés & Humanités (LARSH) research laboratory.
His research focuses on an initial exploration of a European model of the Purpose-Driven Company, with the research angle studying the role of "territory" in the spread of so-called responsible governance practices.
His work focuses on a comparative analysis of the territorial implantation of the Société à Mission within the Lille metropolis, the Societa Benefit around the Roman territory as well as the Sociedad de Beneficio e Interés Común (SBIC) within the Barcelona metropolis.
Pablo Maria is also co-founder of the startup Intersektion, which supports companies in their social and ecological transition. Both doctoral student and entrepreneur, he participates in the Société à Mission Europe action-research project through his doctoral research and his contribution to the many productions and events planned.
Follow-up and valorization
Jean-Marie Massonnat is a senior professor of economics and management.
A former student at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, he holds an agrégation in economics and management, a diplôme d'études approfondies in management science (Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas) and a master's degree in law (Université Rennes I).
Jean-Marie Massonnat teaches economics in preparatory classes for the grandes écoles in Nantes, at the Institut d'administration des entreprises (IAE) in Nantes in the Master's program in Management and Business Administration (MAE) and at the Institut d'études politiques (IEP) in Lille in the Master's program in Responsible Business Management (MRE).
His main areas of interest and work concern the regulation of the economy by law, theories of growth and post-growth, the theory of the firm, corporate responsibility, the extra-financial evaluation of the firm, the new business model(s) to be thought of to assert, defend and promote French and European values in the face of the challenges of our time.
Jean-Marie Massonnat is a founding member and director of the Observatoire de l'éthique publique (OEP), convinced that business ethics are consubstantially linked to public ethics and convinced that business has an essential role to play in society, that it is part of the solution to transform the world.
He is a member of the team behind the ERDF project Société à mission Europe as rapporteur for the said project. As a privileged actor and witness to the entire process, his role is to report on the project itself, its history and its progress, notably and most particularly through the publication of a final book recounting and synthesizing all the contributions of the research program.