May-Anne
Very

May-Anne Very is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at IESE Business School.

Her research lies at the intersection of Strategy, Sustainability, and AI/Data Science. While core strategy and sustainability research have often evolved in separate spheres, she aims at integrating both streams in her studies. Her work mainly explores (i) how companies can use traditional strategy tools to tackle the rising sustainability challenge, and (ii) what the sustainability setting can teach us about firm strategy. Her main stream of research has focused on corporate strategy, with a special emphasis on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). For instance, her papers have delved into the impact of sustainability-driven acquisitions, and recent projects explore the role of climate change in shaping M&A decisions.

While she does not study AI as a topic per se, May-Anne is passionate about the opportunities that AI offers to both address novel questions and provide new insights into established ones. Thus, her research leverages AI and data science tools as a promising way to answer firms' key strategy questions. She is particularly excited about the opportunities offered by AI and data science to (i) unlock the full potential of rising data sources (e.g. text analysis using NLP, big data analysis of the Nielsen data), and (ii) enhance the academic research process (e.g. member of IESE’s ‘AI for research’ taskforce).

At IESE, May-Anne has been teaching Corporate Strategy and Competitive Strategy in the EMBA, MBA, and Master in Management programs. She holds a Ph.D. in Strategy from INSEAD, a M.Sc. in Management from HEC Paris, and she has completed an intensive one-year program specializing in Economics (M1) at Ecole Polytechnique. Prior to joining academia, she has gained international experience in M&A and consulting across Europe and Asia.