About us
The BIG IDEAs (Behavioural Insights: Guiding Innovative Designs and Economic Analysis) Initiative is a team of leading academic researchers at Exeter and Harvard working with business leaders to create tailored, evidence-based interventions designed to improve equality in their workplace.
In a world full of complex societal and economic issues, how can organisations address both social inequality and productivity challenges?
It is time we use a systematic, scientific approach to find out what actually works. Not only do these challenges call for new creative ideas individually: there is good reason to believe that organisations with a more diverse, inclusive workforce may be well-placed for improved profitability.
Organisations displaying more corporate responsibility are more likely to attract and retain top talent, and well-led diverse teams can outperform homogeneous teams; but, conversely, poorly managed diversity measures can reveal fault-lines and lead to conflict.
However, little is known about how to improve D&I and productivity outcomes in real organisations.
The goal
The goal of the BIG IDEAs is to create more diverse, inclusive and productive workplaces. It leverages the latest insights from economics, psychology and management to inform the design and co-creation process of new interventions that will be tested in large-scale randomised controlled trials in UK and multinational organisations to improve outcomes of disadvantaged groups and promote more productivity across organisations, contributing to fairer and more productive workplaces.
The BIG IDEAs Initiative is generously funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and the University of Exeter Business School.