Award for a doctoral thesis that advocates fighting fuel poverty

María José Manjón has received the "José Ramón de San Pedro Award" from Comillas for the best doctoral thesis defended in the Faculties of Law, Economics and Business (Comillas ICADE) during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years. Entitled "Conectando puentes a través del emprendimiento social para combatir la pobreza energética", the work studies the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship in the fight against this type of poverty and proposes a transformative approach in the European context to be adopted by energy companies.

The thesis proposes the creation of a Social Energy Department, integrated into the energy business with hybrid profiles of social intrapreneurs (business and social) that can collaborate with other strategic departments within organisations. "The aim is to transfer the logic of social transformation to energy service corporations through an organisational model that takes energy poverty to the strategic heart of the company", says Manjón, who is convinced that "energy companies can assume a proactive role in the eradication of energy poverty, allocating more resources and turning this fight into a central pillar of their action in the just energy transition".

Amparo Merino, researcher, lecturer in the Department of Business Management at Comillas ICADE and co-director of Manjón's thesis with Iain Cairns, from Strathclyde University, mentioned that "it is essential to delve deeper into how social innovation can accelerate the just energy transition, advancing in social transformations in the fight against energy poverty that transform corporations from the bottom up, promoting deep systemic changes". And for this, "social enterprise can play a role as a connector between the multiple actors involved", adds Manjón.

The academic impact of the thesis has been realised through its presentation at numerous conferences and seminars, as well as through three articles published in high-impact scientific journals: Energy Research & Social Science, Social Enterprise Journal and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship.

In addition, Manjón acknowledges the support of the Programa de Doctorado en Competitividad Empresarial y Territorial, Innovación y Sostenibilidad (CETIS) at Comillas; the ICADE Doctoral Department; the ICAI Chair in Energy and Poverty; the ICAI Institute for Technological Innovation; and the ICADE Chair of Social Impact, which were instrumental in the development of this research.