HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: Meet the third cohort of visiting scholars in collaboration with the Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS)!
∙ Jonas Meckling: Political Economy of Decarbonization
∙ Matteo Gasparini: Financial Economics of Sustainability
∙ Ivuoma (Ivy) Onyeador: Reactions to Group-Based Inequality
∙ Victor Ray: Effective DEI Strategies
This year’s cohort will concentrate on how business intersects with the two critical issues of climate change and racial inequality, advancing HBS’s commitment to encouraging pioneering research that shapes the future of business leadership.
BOSTON—For the 2024-2025 academic year, Harvard Business School (HBS) is proud to announce its third cohort of visiting scholars in collaboration with its Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS). This year’s cohort will concentrate on how business intersects with the two critical issues of climate change and racial inequality, advancing HBS’s commitment to encouraging pioneering research that shapes the future of business leadership.
“We are thrilled to welcome our third cohort of BiGS fellows, who stood out in a highly competitive selection process for their extraordinary research. Their involvement here will greatly enhance the local and global conversation on leveraging business to tackle complex societal issues, from climate change to racial inequality,” says Debora Spar, senior associate dean and professor, who leads the institute.
BiGS was established in 2022 with Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar to elevate critical thinking, research, and curriculum around the responsibility of business to address societal challenges, and to educate business leaders who are increasingly expected to confront these pressing issues.
“As the world confronts unprecedented challenges and CEOs consider them, it’s essential that we rethink how we approach and understand capitalism, scholarly research, and business education,” Spar added. “This distinguished group will bring invaluable insights and expertise to the Harvard community, fostering meaningful discussions and driving the innovations we need.”
2024-2025 BiGS Fellows
The four scholars comprising the institute’s third cohort will collaborate with faculty and researchers across Harvard’s schools, units, and programs, such as the Race, Gender and Equity Initiative and the Climate and Sustainability Impact Lab.
Jonas Meckling (Returning BiGS Climate Fellow) – The political economy of decarbonization
Returning to BiGS for a second year of studying the politics of clean energy transitions and probing why some economies are moving faster than others, Meckling plans to continue examining the recent rise of green industrial policy currently shaping markets for low-carbon technologies. He will examine what effective green industrial policy might look like as well as pitfalls such as international conflict to help mobilize effective business investments to create and grow markets for low-carbon technologies. Meckling is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with a PhD in international political economy from the London School of Economics. Before joining Berkeley, he served as senior advisor to the German Minister for the Environment and Renewable Energy, was a research fellow at Harvard University, and worked at the European Commission.
Matteo Gasparini – The financial economics of sustainability and climate change
As business strives to reduce carbon emissions and transition to clean energy, Gasparini plans to study the financial economics of climate change, focusing on the role of financial regulations in facilitating or hindering the transition to net-zero emissions. He will also explore how climate business alliances influence financial institutions’ sustainability initiatives and the implications for market competition. Gasparini holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford and has been a visiting doctoral student at Harvard Business School. He is an advisor to McKinsey & Company.
Ivuoma (Ivy) Onyeador – Understanding reactions to group-based inequality
As the United States reassesses its legal, political, and social commitments to ensuring diversity in business and civil society in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in June 2023, Onyeador plans to accelerate her research into how people judge and respond to group-based disparities and discrimination. Her research examines how dominant and subordinate group members reason about group-based discrimination and disparities. She aims to leverage her research to bolster understanding of and willingness to address inequality. A social psychologist, Onyeador is an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University. She completed her postdoctoral training in psychology at Yale University.
Victor Ray – Examining ways to create effective DEI strategies
In today’s divided nation, Ray plans to advance his research on how businesses and other organizations respond to racial disparities, focusing on individual and systemic responses. His work bridges social science with practical recommendations for designing effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Ray is the F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor at the University of Iowa in the department of sociology and vice president elect of the American Sociological Association. He is a former nonresident fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a former Carr Center Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. To bridge the gap between academic research and mainstream knowledge, he published his first book, On Critical Race Theory: Why it Matters & Why You Should Care, in 2022.
From decarbonization to DEI, BiGS fellows make a difference
Each year, BiGS invites leading scholars to HBS to advance their research on the intersection of business and society, so far hosting 10 scholars.
The institute’s first cohort comprised four scholars focused on DEI, deepening understanding of inequality and influencing practice to build more inclusive organizations. Visiting from Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Virginia Tech, their research explained why the business case for DEI does not work and can backfire and how artificial intelligence (AI) can deepen racial and gender discrimination.
BiGS’s second cohort consisted of six scholars who focused on research aimed at mitigating and adapting to global climate change, including research to develop a framework that identifies cost-efficient emissions-reduction strategies to AI-enabled analysis of the state of electric vehicle (EV) charging in the United States. They visited from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech); University of Oxford; University of Michigan; University of California, Berkeley; Duke University; and University of Mannheim.
For weekly updates on research and actionable intelligence out of the HBS community about the intersection of business and society, visit the institute’s website.
ABOUT HARVARD INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS IN GLOBAL SOCIETY
HBS founded the Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) in 2022 to help business leaders understand and respond to new demands to address societal issues. Building on the strong foundation of work on issues like climate change and inequality that has been underway at HBS for decades, BiGS focuses on integrating and expanding this research while building communities and platforms such as the weekly publication The BiGS Fix to educate leaders and catalyze action on this complex and expanding set of issues.
ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 70 open enrollment Executive Education programs and 55 custom programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, shaping the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.
SOURCE – HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
