image: Dilip Soman is a professor of marketing and the academic director, Evening MBA & Executive MBA Programs at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics and was the founding director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR]. He researches behavioral economics and applications to welfare and policy. He is the co-author of Managing Customer Value (2022), author of The Last Mile (2015) and co-editor of The Behaviorally Informed Organization (2021) Behavioral Science in the Wild (2022), Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies (2023), and What Works, What Doesn’t (and When) (2024). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Credit: Rotman School of Management
September 5, 2025
Research Project on Behaviourally Informed Organizations Led by Rotman School Professor is a Finalist for an Impact Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Toronto – Dilip Soman, a professor of marketing at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, has been named as one of three finalists for an Impact Award in the partnership category from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He is receiving the honour for his work leading the Behaviourally Informed Organizations (BI-Org) partnership which was funded through a SSHRC Partnership Grant. The Impact Awards are a major national award for academic research in Canada.
“This recognition underscores the importance of Professor Soman’s work on how organizations and governments can take into account human behaviour when they interact with citizens, customers and their own employees,” says Dean Susan Christoffersen of the Rotman School, who also holds the William A. Downe BMO Chair in Finance. “The academic work led by him, beginning with the founding of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR] to the Behaviorally Informed Organizations partnership, has had a direct impact on the activities of both government and industry benefitting consumers, clients and residents.”
The BI-Org partnership examined how behavioural insights can best be embedded in organizations to achieve better outcomes, improve the efficiency of processes, and maximize stakeholder engagement. Prof. Soman rallied 24 researchers from three continents and 21 partner organizations operating across 45 countries including Canadian federal ministries and the Privy Council office; the UK Government’s Behavioural Insights Team; the Government of the Western Cape, South Africa; the Commonwealth Bank of Australia; and the World Bank, as well as industry partners such as BEworks, the Consumers Council of Canada, Deloitte, Manulife and PwC Consulting.
The output of the partnership included five edited books, 40 journal articles (with more being written and submitted), a special issue of the Rotman Management magazine, 37 op-ed and popular press articles, many hours of video and audio content in the form of videocasts and webinars, over 30 white papers and reports, and over 10 toolkits and how-to guides. There was also a significant direct impact including projects which used behavioural science to encourage uptake of existing financial and social services, with immediate local results. One project of note was with the Mexican pension authority to increase voluntary pension contribution rates in the country, using behavioural interventions in two large-scale randomized trials. This work was scaled and resulted in significant increases in pension contributions in the Mexico pension system, reducing geriatric poverty in the process. In a second example, members of the partnership worked with the government of Ontario to redesign the organ donation system in the province to remove frictions to the organ donation process. Their interventions increased consent rates by an impressive 143%.
Dilip Soman is a professor of marketing and the academic director, Evening MBA & Executive MBA Programs at the Rotman School. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics and was the founding director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR]. He researches behavioral economics and applications to welfare and policy. He is the co-author of Managing Customer Value (2022), author of The Last Mile (2015) and co-editor of The Behaviorally Informed Organization (2021) Behavioral Science in the Wild (2022), Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies (2023), and What Works, What Doesn’t (and When) (2024). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
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For more information:
Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
E-mail:mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca