CSTIO Seminar with Prof Dovev Lavie (Bocconi University)

Orchestrating a Cooperative Economy Platform as a Solution to Economic Inequality

Abstract

In addressing societal grand challenges such as economic inequality, public policies fall short, while firms struggle to extend their corporate mission beyond shareholder interests. This study reports a field experiment of an innovative solution that leverages design principles that reinforce prosocial behavior in economic exchange. We find that price subsidization in the proposed digital platform enhances economic equality and increases the purchasing power of low earners without reducing participants’ engagement or inflating consumption. Moreover, opportunistic behavior is restrained, with high earners creating sufficient value to subsidize low earners, without substituting personal and community donations. Our study reveals that the proposed solution enhances prosocial behavior and satisfaction compared to the prevalent economic model, demonstrating the merits of private initiatives that leverage innovative solutions to societal challenges. 

About the speaker

Dovev Lavie is Professor of Strategic Management in the Department of Management and Technology of Bocconi University in Milan. Formerly, he served as Professor and Vice Dean of MBA Programs at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion in Haifa. He earned his Ph.D. in Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He also held visiting positions at the London Business School, Imperial College London, University College London, and BI Norway.

Prof. Lavie is a Sloan Industry Studies Fellow, a recipient of the Strategic Management Society’s Emerging Scholar Award, and winner of the INFORMS TMS Best Dissertation Award and the Academy of Management Newman Award. His research interests include societal grand challenges, the interplay of competition and cooperation, value creation and capture in alliance portfolios and ecosystems, and the balancing of exploration and exploitation. He has consulted with and trained executives in various sectors, mostly in technology-intensive industries. His work has been published in leading journals including the Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Organization Science. Lavie has served as Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal and the Strategic Management Journal and on the boards of other leading journals. He also served as Director-at-Large on the board of the Strategic Management Society and held leadership positions at the SMS Cooperative Strategies Interest Group and the Academy of Management STR Division.