Leandro S. Pongeluppe

• 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.

  Related
  Links
• 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.

  Related
  Links
• 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.

  Related
  Links
• 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.

  Related
  Links
• Aline Gatignon, Julien Clement, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Luk Van Wassenhove (Under Review), Resource-Poor but Network-Rich: A Configurational Approach to Stakeholder Engagement for Scaling Social Innovation. Abstract

  We investigate how local managers in social organizations can leverage internal and external stakeholder relationships to deliver healthcare services to underserved populations, focusing on the North Star Alliance’s HIV/AIDS clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative and survey data from 17 clinics between 2015 and 2016, we employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore how different configurations of stakeholder relationships impact service delivery. We identify two successful approaches for resource-constrained clinics. A “potluck” model combines external resource contributions with internal support for managing donors, leveraging resource synergies between internal and external relationships. A “community kitchen” model acts as a hub for more diverse external partners who contribute fewer resources, using internal support to grow these networks through relational synergies. Conversely, clinics underperform when they fail to build strong relationships or attempt to engage stakeholders indiscriminately. The study’s contribution lies in demonstrating how effective stakeholder management enables social innovations to scale across countries under resource constraints, offering insights into stakeholder synergies for social organizations seeking to address global challenges such as healthcare access.

  Description

  We investigate how local managers in social organizations can leverage internal and external stakeholder relationships to deliver healthcare services to underserved populations, focusing on the North Star Alliance’s HIV/AIDS clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative and survey data from 17 clinics between 2015 and 2016, we employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore how different configurations of stakeholder relationships impact service delivery. We identify two successful approaches for resource-constrained clinics. A "potluck" model combines external resource contributions with internal support for managing donors, leveraging resource synergies between internal and external relationships. A "community kitchen" model acts as a hub for more diverse external partners who contribute fewer resources, using internal support to grow these networks through relational synergies. Conversely, clinics underperform when they fail to build strong relationships or attempt to engage stakeholders indiscriminately. The study’s contribution lies in demonstrating how effective stakeholder management enables social innovations to scale across countries under resource constraints, offering insights into stakeholder synergies for social organizations seeking to address global challenges such as healthcare access.

• 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.

• Sergio G Lazzarini, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Nobuiuki C. Ito, Felippe de Medeiros Oliveira, Armen Ovanessoff (2020), Public capacity, plural forms of collaboration, and the performance of public initiatives: A configurational approach, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 30 (4), pp. 579-595. Abstract

  We assess conditions that explain plural forms of public and private action using a comparative study of 24 public initiatives in Brazil, India, and South Africa. Measuring performance as evidence of positive outcomes to their target populations, we compare cases of high and low performance. Our configurational approach examines combinations of conditions leading to positive outcomes: public operational capacity, diverse collaborations nurtured by public units (with for-profit firms, with nonprofit organizations, and with other units in the public bureaucracy), and stakeholder orientation (permeability to multiple sources of input to design and adjust the project). We apply fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to unveil configurations consistent with high performance. Our configurational analysis reveals two distinct paths to high performance. A path with higher private engagement involves concurrent collaborations with for-profit and nonprofit actors, whereas an alternative path with higher internal (public) engagement relies on collaborations within the public bureaucracy complemented by high permeability to inputs from multiple stakeholders. Our results also confirm that strong public capacity is necessary in all high-performance configurations. An important implication is that externalization and multiple forms of collaboration are not substitutes for weak governments. Furthermore, our configurational perspective contributes to the literature by operationalizing a multiple-actor, multiple-logic perspective describing alternative paths to high performance.

• Guilherme F. A. Monteiro, Luciana Luk-Tai Yeung, Silvia Morales Q. Caleman, Leandro S. Pongeluppe (2019), Indigenous Land Demarcation Conflicts in Brazil: Has the Supreme Court’s Decision Brought (In)Stability?, European Journal of Law and Economics, 48 (2), pp. 267-290. Abstract

  We investigate judiciary decision-making patterns regarding property rights conflicts between native Brazilians and rural farmers in the Midwest region of Brazil. Our main contribution is the use of the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method for the evaluation of the issue. We use QCA to examine a unique database composed of cases heard by a regional federal court in Brazil between 1999 and 2013. Our empirical analysis is based on the outcomes of the individual judicial procedures along with the specific laws and jurisprudences evoked by the federal judges in making their decisions. We find evidence that a major case settled by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2009, celebrated as a landmark in national jurisprudence and expected to bring stability to the conflicts, did not have this effect on lower courts’ judgments. In fact, the 2009 decision triggered a proliferation of different interpretations among judges about how to analyze the land conflicts, thus changing the structure of the judges’ decisions. Based on these findings, we can shed new light on the dynamics of judicial decision-making regarding property rights conflicts of indigenous lands in Brazil.

• Raghav Narsalay, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, David Light (2015), The Hidden Pitfalls of Inclusive Innovation, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter (), pp. 47-53.
• All Research from Leandro S. Pongeluppe »

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 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
• Wharton Global Initiatives Research Funding, 2023
• Analytics at Wharton 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

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Markets Brace for Tariffs and Look to AI for Relief, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/27/2025
• The New Science of Pitching and Hitting With Travis Sawchik, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/25/2025
• How AI Is Reshaping Customer Experience and Expectations, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/25/2025
• How Private Equity Firms Are Coping With Tariffs, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/24/2025
• The AI Efficiency Trap: When Productivity Tools Create Perpetual Pressure, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/24/2025
• What’s the Best Strategy to Grow Your Business?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/24/2025
• Private Finance, Public Power | Peter Conti-Brown, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/24/2025
• How Tariffs Are Disrupting Retail and Consumer Confidence, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/20/2025
• Recapping the U.S. Open With Daniel Rapaport, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/18/2025
• From Amateurism to Paychecks: College Athletics in Transition, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/18/2025