Research at Y-SIM

We conduct original research and transform these insights into practical applications.

The Yale School of Management’s academic expertise, coupled with partnerships with C-level leaders and entrepreneurs from industry, offers a rich environment for undertaking the big, complex challenges that emerge when creating long-term value for shareholders and stakeholders.

The Y-SIM interdisciplinary program gathers the strongest minds driven by intellectual curiosity and real-world application across many areas of the school, including Organizational Behavior, Innovation, Economics, Finance, Leadership, and Marketing.

We actively collaborate with Yale faculty, scholars from other academic institutions, and industry leaders across all sectors to advance our research. If you’re interested in exploring collaboration opportunities, we’d love to hear from you—please reach out.

Get Involved

The multidisciplinary program

Brings prominent scholars to campus
Offers postdoctoral fellowships
Supports collaborative research
Provides student internships
Hosts lectures, symposia, workshops and conferences

Featured Study

When Silence is Golden

The Risks of Corporate Activism for Employee and Consumer Response

This research explores the complex dynamics of corporate activism, revealing that taking public stances on polarizing social issues often generates stronger backlash than support, leading to net negative stakeholder engagement. Through five studies with over 9,500 participants, the findings provide actionable insights for companies navigating the balance between activism, stakeholder alignment, and organizational goals.

CEO Interviews

Since 2019, we have been interviewing CEOs, CxOs, and board chairs on the “how” of what many refer to as stakeholder capitalism. These insights form the foundation of our program’s research, with successful examples transformed into original case studies.

See more CEO interviews

Case Studies

Case studies are a cornerstone of Y-SIM’s research. Insights derived from case studies shape our frameworks and tools and play a critical role in our curriculum in the MBA classes and Executive Education programs.

Among other topics, these cases explore how industry leaders have:

Reframed challenges to create and sustain value for shareholders and key stakeholders

Operationalized purpose and values to guide strategy and drive daily decisions

Leveraged a “re-founding" moments to differentiate and reframe relationships with key stakeholders.

Avoided trade-offs by examining challenges through multiple lenses to design solutions.

All case studies

Areas of interest

How do leaders strategically manage polarizing political and societal issues?
How will the social licenses of firms be affected by their AI strategies?
How should entrepreneurial firms best address stakeholders?
How do companies create value in ways that transcend typical trade-offs among competing stakeholder interests?
How are companies leveraging “founding” and “re-founding” moments to undertake a deep examination of the firm’s core purpose, culture, strategy, and relationships with stakeholders?

What we’re learning

Content coming soon.