“The last few years have taught us that business leaders can’t afford to stay on the sidelines when it comes to world events. Today’s challenges are increasingly complex and require greater collaboration across stakeholders. The Hub, which will bring academia, industry, government, non-profits, and the broader public together, is an essential part of combatting these challenges, and, ultimately, driving true change and impact.”
- Oded Netzer, Vice Dean for Research and Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
Our Mission
The Hub is Columbia Business School's new think tank that explores the most pressing issues shaping the world today. It is centered in the belief that solving the most vexing questions requires the collaboration of scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the broader public. Through research, events, curriculum, and community, The Hub will equip current and future business leaders with the tools necessary to bring about positive change.
We believe that the current societal climate necessitates timely attention and action and that there is an immense opportunity for businesses and policymakers to make a meaningful difference.
Our Current Focus
The theme for The Hub's inaugural term is Business and Society, selected because of the important role that the business world, in general, and business schools, in particular, play in society. Organizations have created tremendous innovation and economic opportunity for all of us, but key questions remain. How can that opportunity be shared? What role should businesses play in societal issues?
The Hub aims to encourage fresh thinking about critical areas, including the Future of Capitalism, Business, AI, and Democracy (BAID), and innovation for the betterment of society.
Our Initiatives
Future of Capitalism
At least four forces are pushing for new ideas about capitalism and many potential areas of inquiry arise from these pressures, including: changes in the economic environment; the roles of investors in influencing business decision-making; effects of social movements on business decision-making; and actions by individual firms or groups of firms to address climate change.
BAID
Democracy is widely believed to be necessary for the sustainability of markets that encourage investment and innovation to achieve private and social objectives. Democracies are living in a moment of crisis. Business is not isolated from these trends. This initiative will explore the impact of social and traditional media, government regulation, misinformation, and new and emerging technologies on democracy.
Think Bigger Innovations
Large businesses and companies recognize and acknowledge the need to innovate, but often struggle with corporate entrepreneurship at scale. Think Bigger Innovations will address this issue, particularly around innovations with societal benefits. As part of this initiative, S.T. Lee Professor of Business Sheena Iyengar, in collaboration with Shiva Rajgopal, will run The Think Bigger Summit, an annual (or bi-annual) forum.
Our Faculty
Faculty from across divisions and disciplines at Columbia Business School and the broader University will work together to address major societal issues through books, research, curriculum development, keynote events, new frameworks and tools, and more.
Our Partners
The Hub is part of Columbia Business School’s broader effort to address societal issues like climate change and social enterprise through our Centers and Programs, including The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise.
R. Glenn Hubbard
Professor Hubbard is a specialist in public economics, managerial information and incentive problems in corporate finance, and financial markets and institutions. He has written more than 100 articles and books on corporate finance, investment decisions, banking, energy economics and public policy, including two textbooks, and has authored The Wall and the Bridge and coauthored Balance, The Aid Trap, and Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise.
Sheena Iyengar
Sheena S. Iyengar is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School, and a world expert on choice and decision-making. Her book The Art of Choosing received the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2010 award, and was ranked #3 on the Amazon.com Best Business and Investing Books of 2010. Her research is regularly cited in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist as well as in popular books, such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance.
Bruce Kogut
Bruce Kogut is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He teaches courses on Governance, Governance and Ethics, and Business Strategies and Solving Social Problems. He has taught in executive programs in the US, Europe, and China.
Gita Johar
Gita V. Johar (PhD NYU 1993; MBA Indian Institute of Management Calcutta 1985) has been on the faculty of Columbia Business School since 1992 and is currently the Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business. Professor Johar received the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIMC in 2019. She served as the school’s inaugural Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from 2019 to 2021, Faculty Director of Online Initiatives from 2014 to 2017, Senior Vice Dean from 2011 to 2014, and as the inaugural Vice Dean for Research from 2010 to 2011.
Oded Netzer
Professor Netzer's expertise centers on one of the major business challenges of the data-rich environment: developing quantitative methods that leverage data to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and guide firms' decisions. He focuses primarily on building statistical and econometric models to measure consumer preferences and understand how customer choices change over time, and across contexts. Most notably, he has developed a framework for managing firms' customer bases through dynamic segmentation.
Andrea Prat
Andrea Prat is the Richard Paul Richman Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Columbia University. After receiving his PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 1997, he taught at Tilburg University and the London School of Economics. He joined Columbia in 2012.
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