Hagay C. Volvovsky

I study how individuals and organizations build and sustain cooperation when their interests do not fully align—and how the social structures that make cooperation possible shape subsequent adaptation and innovation.

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A central theme of my research is that cooperation depends on more than incentives, trust, or formal contracts. Actors must also develop shared understandings of what cooperation requires and construct the social structures that support it. My work examines how these cognitive and relational foundations emerge, when they facilitate coordination and exchange, and when they instead become sources of rigidity or power.

 

One stream of my research examines how individuals and organizations develop shared understandings of cooperation in complex and changing environments. A second examines how shared cognitive frameworks facilitate coordinated action but can also constrain organizational adaptation when circumstances change. A third investigates how cooperative behavior itself reshapes social structure—for example, how helping others changes individuals’ network positions and power. Across these projects, I draw on organizational theory, economic sociology, strategy, and law and economics, using experiments, social network analysis, and econometric methods. 

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Before joining the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University, I completed my PhD at MIT Sloan. I previously worked as a corporate lawyer and hold an LL.M. from the University of Chicago Law School, as well as an LL.B. and a B.A. in Accounting from Tel Aviv University.