Leandro S. Pongeluppe

• Dingyu Xuan, M. Ani Hsieh, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Mackenzie M. Weave, Michael E. Mann, Douglas J. Jerolmack, Hugo N. Ulloa (2026), Climate extremes and urbanization drive flood tipping points at the city–river interface, npj Natural Hazards, 3 (1). Abstract

  Hurricane Ida struck the U.S. East Coast in August 2021, driving the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia to a record discharge nearly 100 times its average flow. Ida exposes the growing challenge of predicting urban flooding arising from coupled rainfall–runoff and river–tide–landscape interactions that coarse models cannot resolve. Here, we address this gap with a street-resolving flood model that integrates LiDAR-derived terrain, bathymetric surveys, and land-use-based surface friction across Philadelphia’s watershed to reproduce Ida’s flood. We show that soil saturation, impervious surfaces, and fragmented infrastructure amplify pluvial flooding, increasing exposure in both low- and high-income communities. Scenario simulations reveal a flood tipping point: for river return periods exceeding 100 years, the inundated area grows logarithmically, with an additional 2–7% increase in flooding when peak discharge coincides with high tide and up to 15% under projected sea-level rise by 2100. As extreme rainfall intensifies and return periods shorten, this tipping point will be crossed more often, demanding integrated forecasting and adaptive planning in vulnerable, low-lying, rapidly urbanizing regions.

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• Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Timothy Kuhn. What Do Corporations Want? Communicative Capitalism, Corporate Purpose, and a New Theory of the Firm in Administrative Science Quarterly, Book Review, 2026. Related
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• Dror Etzion, Lucie Baudoin, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Patrick J. Callery, Cady A. Lancaster, Rajat Panwar (2025), Good Data, Good Questions: Leveraging Comprehensive Direct-Observation Data Sets for Impactful Research on Organizations and the Environment, Organization & Environment. Abstract

  Much research on organizations and the natural environment relies on self-reported corporate data of dubious reliability and accuracy. A new wave of data, originating in satellite observations, forensic genetics, hydrological maps and other sources, can help overcome these shortcomings. We identify several data sets from the natural sciences that are easily accessible and highly accurate, and provide roadmaps for management researchers to utilize them. We further explore the types of research questions these data sets enable, extending beyond the confines of environmental-financial performance relationships that have dominated previous research. By leveraging these and similar data sets, corporate sustainability researchers can obtain clearer insights into corporate environmental impact, opening doors to new avenues of inquiry.

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• Laura Derksen, Anita M McGahan, Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2025), The Lifesaving Impact of Electronic Medical Records for HIV Patients, The Review of Economics and Statistics. Abstract

  This paper shows that replacing paper-based records with electronic medical records (EMRs) improves HIV patient retention and prevents AIDS deaths in the low-income country of Malawi. An event study of 106 HIV clinics shows a 28 percent reduction in annual deaths five years after EMR implementation, with the greatest impact on children. Improvements in health outcomes appear due to efficiency gains, rather than to changes in the medical care provided at visits. These efficiency gains allow clinics to better manage patient data, trace lapsed patients and return them into care, and adapt to higher patient volumes over time.

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• Sergio G Lazzarini, Dirk M. Boehe, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Michael L. Cook (2025), The Normative Core of Relational Stakeholder Strategies: Explaining Open Buyer-Supplier Relations in the Context of the Amazon Rainforest, Business Ethics Quarterly. Abstract

  While from an instrumental perspective stakeholder relations can promote sustained competitive advantage, normative arguments underscore the importance of morally informed principles, especially when relational strategies have uncertain future outcomes and are prone to imitation. This study investigates how such instrumental and normative views can be complementary based on the case study of Natura, a cosmetics company procuring natural inputs from the Amazon rainforest via supplier relations that are open to multiple parties, including competitors. The research shows that Natura developed and reinforced a morally informed normative core specifying how the company and its managers should act. This resulted in a long-term commitment to the open relational strategy, especially when future outcomes were largely uncertain, which in turn promoted emergent instrumental gains via deepened relational attachments and substantive stakeholder engagement. Importantly, the company’s controlling shareholders strongly influenced the normative core, thus underscoring the importance of identifying key shareholders and their values.

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• Gustavo S. Cordeiro, Paulo R. Arvate, Joana Story, Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2025), Heroes or Villains? Agribusiness Leaders in the Amazon Region, Academy of Management Discoveries, 11 (1), pp. 17-38. Abstract

  In recent years, the Amazon rainforest has faced voracious depletion due to logging and farming activities. These activities are often justified as necessary for economic development in the region. However, effective leadership, particularly at the local level, can play a crucial role in promoting simultaneously both economic growth and ecological sustainability. This study examines the effects of leaders’ occupational background in agribusiness on economic development and environmental preservation. We employ a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to compare the performance of marginally elected (almost randomly) agribusiness leaders with non-agribusiness leaders in terms of new firm creation and deforestation rates in Brazilian Amazon municipalities from 2004 to 2016. Our findings suggest that agribusiness leaders are more effective than their non-agribusiness counterparts in promoting the creation of new businesses in their municipalities. This increased economic activity has not necessarily been accompanied by higher deforestation rates. The analysis of mechanisms shows the importance of fiscal policies, which are under the control of local leaders, in promoting economic prosperity without sacrificing environmental sustainability. This study underscores the need to move beyond simplistic notions of “heroes” and “villains” in the quest to reconcile economic and ecological objectives as aimed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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• Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2024), The Allegory of the Favela: The Multifaceted Effects of Socioeconomic Mobility, Administrative Science Quarterly, 69 (3), pp. 619-654. Abstract

  What are the consequences of upward socioeconomic mobility for disenfranchised individuals? This article examines this question in the context of a business training program offered to residents of Brazilian urban slums, known as “favelas.” The study employs a randomized controlled trial complemented by quantile regressions, field visits, and interviews. The results show that training improves favela dwellers’ economic outcomes, such as by increasing income and participation in entrepreneurship, and some socio-psychological outcomes, such as by improving self-efficacy and optimism. However, these income improvements were accompanied by participants’ enhanced experiences of favela stigma, an adverse socio-psychological outcome related to their residential segregation. Both quantitative and qualitative findings demonstrate the multifaceted nature of socioeconomic mobility, through which favela dwellers who prosper economically become more exposed to prejudice from people living outside favelas. The study illustrates, through the “allegory of the favela,” the bittersweet process of socioeconomic mobility. This abductive research contributes to the literature by showing that while interventions designed to enfranchise individuals may effectively achieve economic inclusion in terms of income gains, they may simultaneously lead participants into discriminatory systems that further stigmatize people based on the same characteristics of their prior exclusion.

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• Anita M McGahan and Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2023), There Is No Planet B: Aligning Stakeholder Interests to Preserve the Amazon Rainforest, Management Science, 69 (12), pp. 7860-7881. Abstract

  How do firms address complex collective action problems effectively? Institutional and stakeholder research suggests that firms may avoid the tragedy of the commons by aligning the interests of critical proximate stakeholders in ways that governments cannot accomplish. This phenomenological paper investigates this possibility by analyzing Amazon rainforest preservation by Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company. The results indicate that Natura internalized environmental externalities by linking ecologically conscious consumers with rural Amazonian communities. A differences-in-differences analysis compares forest preservation and fire activity in the municipalities that Natura entered with those in which it did not enter. Natura’s impact is identified through an instrumental variable analysis using missing satellite images, which Natura relied upon to decide which municipalities to enter. Quantitative results tie Natura’s entry into municipalities with forest preservation. Analysis of three mechanisms associates Natura’s involvement with stakeholder decisions to cultivate diverse forest-generated crops instead of clearing the land for conventional agriculture. This study contributes to the management literature by suggesting how firms can address important global challenges, such as rainforest preservation, by investing in stakeholder capability development and by creating institutional arrangements in line with those envisioned elsewhere.

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• Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2022), The Favela Effect: Spatial Inequalities and Firm Strategies in Disadvantaged Urban Communities, Strategic Management Journal, 43 (13), pp. 2777-2808. Abstract

  E-commerce firms make fewer products available and charge higher delivery prices to customers inside Brazilian favelas than they do to customers immediately outside favelas, despite the absence of infrastructure impediments at the favela borders. This phenomenological study uses mixed methods to investigate firm heterogeneity in these practices. The analysis shows that some firms treat favela consumers more equitably than their competitors. These firms (i) invest in physical stores inside and outside favelas, which are complementary to their online marketplaces, and (ii) engage genuinely with employees and consumers, which reflects their stakeholder orientation. By examining how firms operate in disadvantaged communities, scholars can enrich core theoretical constructs in strategic management, particularly by integrating insights from the fields of critical geography and urban economics.

• Luiz F Mesquita, Maria Sylvia M Saes, Sergio G Lazzarini, Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2021), Can trust induce vertical integration? An experimental study of buyer–seller exchanges with distinct competencies and specific investments, Industrial and Corporate Change, 30 (3), pp. 778-798. Abstract

  Research has debated the merits of transaction cost and competence-based explanations of make-versus-buy choices. We advance this discussion by arguing that trust not only promotes markets by reducing the hazards of specific investments (as emphasized by previous work), but alternatively triggers vertical integration when parties would like to internalize distinctive competencies and at the same time avoid hierarchical failure. Our experimental results where players choose between markets and hierarchies lend support for this dual role of trust in boundary decisions.

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Current Courses

• MGMT6110 - Managing Established Enterprises

  This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

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Past Courses

• MGMT6110 - Managing Est Enterprise

  This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

• Wharton Teaching Excellence Awards 2024-25, 2026
• Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative Research Funding, 2024
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Awards 2023-24, 2024
• Cooperative Strategies Best Proposal Award – 43rd Annual Conference of the Strategic Management Society., 2023
• Wiley Blackwell Outstanding Dissertation Award - 83rd Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2023
• Analytics at Wharton Funding, 2023
• Wharton Global Initiatives Research Funding, 2023
• ESG Initiative at Wharton Funding, 2023
• People’s Choice Award – 14th Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Annual Conference., 2023
• Best Paper Award – 13th Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Annual Conference, 2021
• Honorable Mention for the Best Conference Paper Prize – 41st Annual Conference of the Strategic Management Society, 2021
• Stakeholder Strategy Best Ph.D. Student Proposal and Finalist for the Research Methods Paper Prize – 41st Annual Conference of the Strategic Management Society, 2021
• William F. Glueck Best Paper Award – 81st Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2021
• Gies College of Business (UIUC) Research Grant (in collaboration with Carlos Inoue), 2021
• Best Paper Award – 17th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference, 2020
• Winner Conference Ph.D. Paper Prize – 40th Annual Conference of the Strategic Management Society, 2020
• Distinguished Paper Award in Cooperative Strategy – 80th Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2020
• Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics PhD Student Research Award, 2020
• Best Paper Award – 12th Ivey/Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability PhD Sustainability Academy, 2019
• STR Division Best Reviewer – 79th Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2019
• University of Toronto Portuguese Association PIPA Scholarship, 2019
• Best Paper Award on Organization Economics – FEAUSP Ruy Leme on Academic Excellence Award, 2014
• Special Mention of Pioneering Contribution – Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference, 2013

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• When Does AI Assistance Undermine Learning?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/24/2026
• How AI Is Reshaping Human Intuition and Reasoning | Gideon Nave and Steven Shaw, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/24/2026