Alessandro Iorio

I am an assistant professor in Bocconi University’s Department of Management and Technology. I received my Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Theory from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, where I was awarded the Herbert A. Simon Doctoral Dissertation Award in Behavioral Research in the Administrative Sciences. Prior to my doctoral studies, I received a Master of Science in Management from Bocconi University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Management from University of Rome Tor Vergata.

My research uses a multimethod approach to understand how social networks create competitive advantage for individuals and organizations. He is also interested in investigating the origins and evolution of social network structures, with special emphasis on the link between formal organizational arrangements and informal social relationships. My work has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. I serve as an ad-hoc reviewer for several journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of Management, and Journal of Management Studies.

How do people derive advantages from their social networks? Although prior research has demonstrated the importance of social structures in providing opportunities to achieve superior performance, the mechanisms through which these opportunities may (or may not) translate into concrete performance benefits remain largely unexplored. I am developing a research program, at the intersection of organization theory and strategic management, that investigates why some individuals are able to extract more benefits from their workplace social structures than others. Furthermore, in addition to investigating the mechanisms underpinning network advantage, I am also interested in studying how social networks emerge and change over time, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between an organization’s formal structure and its informal networks. In this second line of research, I examine how both situational and dispositional factors affect how people informally connect with each other.