From concepts is his new book, Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovation, Stanford Professor Hayagreeva Rao presents the idea of market rebels — those that create radical innovations by challenging preexisting cultural norms. Social movements and activists create social innovation, transform markets, and bring about collective action through techniques that Rao introduces as "hot causes" and "cool mobilizations." With case studies from the automobile industry, the microbrewery movement, and a campaign from a nonprofit health organization, Rao provides an outline of how market rebels apply these techniques to drive innovation. He spoke at the 2009 Nonprofit Management Institute, an event convened by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, a publication of the Center for Social Innovation.
Hayagreeva Rao is an Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Professor Rao’s research focuses on the subprocesses of organizational change, including the role social movements have in driving organizational change. He teaches courses on leading organizational change, building customer focused cultures, and organization design to both MBA students and executives. Professor Rao has consulted several Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and governmental organizations. He is the author of Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovation (Princeton University Press, 2008). Professor Rao has received many awards for his work, including the W. Richard Scott Distinguished Award for Scholarship from the American Sociological Association. He received his BA from Andhra University in India, a postgraduate diploma from Xavier Labour Relations Institute in India, and his PhD from Case Western Reserve University.
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