How Esade’s new chair will turn academic research into meaningful impact

What does it mean for an organization to have a meaningful impact in today’s world? As wars rage, inequalities deepen, and the planet heats up, this question feels ever more urgent. We live in paradoxical times: our knowledge and technologies have never been more powerful, yet our collective ability to solve the world’s challenges often seems to falter. In such a landscape, universities have a vital role—not only as places of learning, but as laboratories for action and shared responsibility. 

At Esade, this conviction has taken shape in the form of the Chair in Social Impact, a pioneering initiative from the Esade Center for Social Impact (ECSI), designed to understand and amplify how organizations create positive social and environmental change. The Chair aims to connect rigorous research with real-world practice, bringing together academics, practitioners, and policymakers who share a common goal: making impact work better. 

A hub for meaningful impact

Led by Professor Lisa Hehenberger, the Chair will explore how organizations generate and measure positive transformation, focusing on themes such as impact investing and philanthropy, impact entrepreneurship, and impact measurement and management, among others. Its mission is ambitious yet grounded: to build awareness, improve practices, generate knowledge, develop talent, contribute to policy debates, and foster collaboration across the growing impact landscape. 

We really need to understand the problems before jumping to the solutions

That impact ecosystem is broad and interdependent—foundations, NGOs, investors, businesses, public administrations, and universities—all shaping the field in different ways. The Chair’s activities reflect this diversity: it will develop new research each year, design leadership and training programs, and host an annual Impact Summit to bring the community together. All this is made possible by its founding partners: the BBK Banking Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Bertelsmann Stiftung, and Impact Bridge Asset Management. 

According to Hehenberger, genuine impact begins not with action, but with understanding. “We really need to understand the problems before jumping to the solutions,” she explains. “Our work is about learning collaboratively, so we can design solutions that truly address the systems behind social and environmental issues.” 

This a “field-insider” approach: research questions come directly from practitioners themselves. One recent project, for instance, examines how foundations communicate and govern their impact internally—how to make sure that conversations in the boardroom are about social outcomes, not just financial ones. And the Chair’s first research project explores the elusive challenge of measuring systemic change: How are European philanthropic foundations approaching the measurement of systems change? How do we define a system, and how can we know when we’ve actually changed it? 

A call to responsibility

For Daniel Traça, Esade’s Director General, the creation of the Chair represents a deeper institutional commitment to action. “Universities play a critical role in today's world,” he said during the Chair’s presentation. “Current challenges demand responsibility from all of us. At Esade, we can bring together a large coalition of people in Barcelona—and around the world—to take action. This is meaningful impact: doing things with a strong sense of purpose to change people’s lives.” 

Knowledge, when guided by purpose, can still change the world

That sense of purpose runs through Esade’s DNA, an institution rooted in the Society of Jesus’ values. This academic and educational tradition translates into a way of researching, teaching, and learning from a humanistic perspective oriented toward justice and the common good. And as Traça put it, this Chair won't be only about generating ideas, but about doing—testing, connecting, and scaling efforts that can help communities. 

When systems meet action

During the launch event, the roundtable Systemic Change in Times of Polycrisis explored how to drive change that goes beyond isolated interventions, one of the Chair’s central questions. The conversation pointed to a key insight: systemic change is not just about scale; it also involves alignment, building trust, and shared purpose among all actors involved. 

Anna-Marie Harling, Senior Philanthropy Advisor at LGT Private Banking, highlighted that systemic change is about “achieving new equilibriums—addressing root causes, not symptoms, and working collaboratively across sectors and actors.” 

A concrete example came from Rocío del Mar, Co-founder of TuTecho, a social enterprise tackling homelessness in Spain. TuTecho combines real estate investment with social purpose, acquiring and renting homes to people in vulnerable situations. “Nobody can rebuild their life without a stable home,” Del Mar said. “Our model shows that social investment can be a key driver of systemic change—aligning investors, philanthropists, and public administrations around a common language and shared values.” 

Arturo Benito, CEO at Impact Bridge Asset Management, emphasized that the path to system change is far from easy. Even collaboration is harder than it sounds. “In theory, it is obvious. In practice, it’s about getting the whole system in the room. It takes humble leadership and a lot of listening.” He also insisted on the importance of incorporating rigorous academic insights into impact investment practices. 

Rethinking the role of business

A second roundtable, The Changing Role of Business in Furthering Social and Environmental Impact, took this reflection further. It explored how companies—and business schools—can help redefine what success means in a fragile world. The speakers also shared their views on some of today’s greatest challenges, and on what business can do to help—rather than simply avoid harm. 

For Miquel Torres, CEO of Familia Torres—a Catalan family winery founded in 1870—the environmental crisis became evident in the soil beneath his feet. “Climate change was destroying what we valued most,” he said. “By turning to regenerative agriculture—mimicking nature rather than exploiting it—we realized we could restore the land and the business at the same time.” 

María Oliva, Impact Manager at MCE Social Capital, described the immense challenge faced by businesses and investors in responding to climate change’s impact on agriculture. Millions of farmers—and the populations that depend on them for food—are facing growing risks. “They face a double squeeze: they need more investment for adaptation and resilience, but investors are becoming more risk-averse toward agriculture,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Pau Vidal, Delegate of the Society of Jesus in Catalonia, turned to the problem of mass migration. Having worked for eight years in refugee camps across Africa, he came to a clear conclusion: “Impact is only successful when it’s locally rooted and people on the receiving end can scale it.” 

On a broader note, Xavi Pont, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Ship2B Ventures, reflected on how individual journeys often feel disconnected from global challenges. “We need to move from individual to collective impact,” he said. For instance, involuntary loneliness and social isolation affect more people every day—a paradox in a hyperconnected world. “We need to bring together different actors to understand the problem and what can be done.” 

A shared commitment to transformation

The Chair will not only study impact, but help shape the field by developing tools, forming communities of practice, and engaging the next generation of leaders. In a time of polycrisis, when challenges intersect and multiply, the initiative stands as both a response and a promise: that knowledge, when guided by purpose, can still change the world.