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Kaisa Snellman

Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Biography

Kaisa Snellman is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD where she teaches courses in organizational behavior and organizational theory, she is the Academic Director of the INSEAD Gender Initiative.

Kaisa's work examines inequality based on gender, race, and class in the domains of education, employment, and health. She is interested in both the structural and the cultural-cognitive processes that contribute to inequality. More specifically, she studies how cultural beliefs about gender and race shape outcomes for individuals as well as organizations, and how organizations contribute to economic inequality through their employment practices.

Kaisa's research has been featured in a variety of news outlets, such as the Atlantic, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, The Economist, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. Her research on the diffusion of the shareholder model in Finland received the Louis R. Pondy Best Dissertation Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management in 2012. She was also a finalist for the William H. Newman Award from the Academy of Management.

Kaisa earned PhD and MA degrees in Sociology from Stanford University, and an MSc degree in Economics from Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Prior to joining INSEAD, Kaisa was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Latest posts

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Responsibility

Connecting Across Disconnections

K. Snellman, D. Pollenne

Amid recent pushback, maintaining robust diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives will require a coordinated, comprehensive approach.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Collapse?

L. Fang, K. Snellman, C. Zeisberger, D. G. Munro

Risky investments and a lack of regulatory oversight contributed to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
1 comment

Responsibility

The Impact of Investor Gender on Female Founders

K. Snellman, I. Solal

Female-led start-ups backed only by female venture capitalists have a harder time raising follow-on capital.

Economics & Finance

Social Capital Makes the Difference Between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Buybacks

S Huang, K Snellman, T Vermaelen

Executives who respect both the letter and the spirit of ethical norms aren’t born – they’re shaped by their home communities.

Career

Humans Are Hard-Wired to Hate Networking

Kaisa Snellman

If you loathe the awkwardness and insincerity of networking, you’re not alone. But it needn’t be that way.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Fighting Inequality Starts with Early Childhood Development

Kaisa Snellman

Income inequality may have the greatest impact on society’s most vulnerable: very young children. Without addressing early childhood development, efforts to close class gaps may fall short.
1 comment