Media Releases

Four Chief Scientists Appointed to University of Toronto’s Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) Centre

July 26, 2017

Toron­to, ON – Four pro­fes­sors at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to have been appoint­ed as chief sci­en­tists at the Behav­iour­al Eco­nom­ics in Action at Rot­man (BEAR) Cen­tre.

The new appointees will lead research part­ner­ships and oth­er activ­i­ties in the four areas of behav­iour­al insights applied to con­sumers, cit­i­zens, orga­ni­za­tions, and mar­kets. BEAR is a cen­tre at the UofT’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment that com­bines decades of research in deci­sion-mak­ing with empir­i­cal­ly test­ed tools to facil­i­tate behav­iour­al change. The Cen­tre looks at social and eco­nom­ic prob­lems from a behav­iour­al sci­ence lens and designs solu­tions that go beyond the tra­di­tion­al approach­es of apply­ing incen­tives, penal­ties or pro­vi­sion­ing infor­ma­tion.

“Our lead­ing-edge research offers a unique behav­iour­al lens on rel­e­vant chal­lenges faced by indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions,” says Prof. Dilip Soman, co-direc­tor of BEAR who also holds the Corus Chair in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Strat­e­gy. “These appoint­ments will strength­en our work as we con­tin­ue to pub­lish our find­ings in peer-reviewed aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals as well as white papers and reports that are geared towards the prac­ti­tion­er.”

Lu Han is Petro-Cana­da Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis and Pol­i­cy and aca­d­e­m­ic direc­tor of the Cen­tre for Real Estate and Urban Eco­nom­ics at the Rot­man School. Her research exam­ines hous­ing mar­ket dynam­ics and poli­cies, mort­gage insur­ance, the real estate bro­ker­age indus­try, as well as green ameni­ties.

Tan­jim Hos­sain is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of mar­ket­ing in the depart­ment of man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga, and is cross-appoint­ed to the Rot­man School and UofT’s depart­ment of eco­nom­ics. His main research inter­ests include behav­iour­al eco­nom­ics and indus­tri­al orga­ni­za­tion, espe­cial­ly using field and lab­o­ra­to­ry exper­i­ments to test the valid­i­ty of the­o­ret­i­cal pre­dic­tions in the real world.

Sonia Kang is an assis­tant pro­fes­sor of orga­ni­za­tion­al behav­iour and human resource man­age­ment in the depart­ment of man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga, and holds a cross-appoint­ment to the Rot­man School.  Her research explores the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties of diver­si­ty, includ­ing strate­gies for mit­i­gat­ing the far-reach­ing effects of stig­ma and har­ness­ing the pow­er of diver­si­ty for soci­ety and orga­ni­za­tions alike.

Nico­la Lacetera is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of strate­gic man­age­ment in the depart­ment of man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga, with a cross-appoint­ment to the Rot­man School and UofT’s depart­ment of eco­nom­ics. He is the fac­ul­ty lead at the ICube busi­ness accel­er­a­tor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga.  His research con­cerns the eth­i­cal con­straints to mar­kets, the moti­va­tions for altru­is­tic behav­ior, and var­i­ous top­ics in indus­tri­al and inno­va­tion eco­nom­ics.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416–946-3818
E‑mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca