NEOMA Business School continues its monthly conference series NEO'Insights, where research meets practice. Each edition brings together professors, business leaders and decision-makers to explore pressing issues and turn knowledge into impact.

For this second edition, we invite you to reflect on a crucial question: how does populism influence corporate investment, and to what extent can strong institutions limit its effects?

As one of the defining political phenomena of our time, populism disrupts established systems and creates uncertainty that directly impacts business strategies. 
In their study “Holding Back the Damage: Strong Political Institutions and the Effect of Populism on Business Investment”, Margherita Corina and Alfonso Carballo (NEOMA Business School), together with Christopher Hartwell (ZHAW School of Management and Law), analyse how electoral systems, judicial independence and government accountability can shield firms from populist excesses.

Drawing on a dataset of more than 36,000 firms across 42 countries (1995–2021), their research shows that robust institutional checks and balances can mitigate the negative effects of populism on investment. Yet, it also highlights a sobering reality: the longer populist leaders stay in power, the more these safeguards erode.