;

Aharon Cohen-Mohliver

Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

PhD (Columbia)

Professor Mohliver is a Strategy scholar studying business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). His research helps organizations understand why misconduct emerges, and thus help them pre-empt behaviours that harm the organization or its broader stakeholder environment. In a related stream Aharon studies the implications of social polarization for firms wanting to engage in CSR.

Aharon’s research asks what drives firms or their employees to engage in behaviours that are viewed unfavourably by the broader stakeholder environment; for example, the information network in which the firm is embedded, competitive pressures, regulation, the firm’s own history and internal processes of hiring and promotion. Aharon studies these social antecedents of misconduct in a variety of settings; option backdating in financial markets, plagiarism in universities, neglect and abuse in elderly care-homes and over-prescribing of the drugs that fuel the prescription crisis.

In a related research stream, Aharon examines the implications of social polarization on the effectiveness of CSR.

Aharon’s research is published in leading academic journals such as Management Science, Organization Science and Administrative Science Quarterly, he serves on the editorial board of the Strategic Management Journal and his dissertation was cited in primary legislation separating financial and non-financial holdings in Business Groups in Israel (2013). 

Before joining London Business School, Aharon served with Israeli PM Naftaly Bennett in the office of MP Benjamin Netanyahu (2005-2007) as his senior domestic policy advisor. Aharon advised the Israeli Securities Authority and the Committee on Competitiveness in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office (2010-2012). 

Aharon holds a PhD in Management from Columbia Business School, and Masters degrees from Columbia University (MA) and the Hebrew University (MA, Finance and Strategy). He was a Visiting Scholar at Yale School of Business in 2020.

Aharon is currently an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School where he taught courses on Strategic Management, Strategic Analysis, Sociological Foundations of Strategy and Behavioral Strategy to EMBAs, MBAs, Masters in Management, Executive Programs and PhD students. Aharon is the academic co-director of the LGBTQ+ ExecEd programme

Awards and Honours


  • Israel Securities Authority research grant for the study of Israeli Business Groups, 2011. (8,000 USD)

  • Donald C. Hambrick award for Excellence in the Ph.D. Program, Columbia Business School, 2009.

  • Corson Scholarship, Hebrew University, 2007-2008. (16,000 USD)

  • The Levi Eshkol Institute for Social, Economic and Political Research in Israel, Hebrew University, Research grant for project titled: "Family ownership and performance of Israeli largest firms" 2004- 2006. (3,000 USD)

  • Dean List of Excelence, Hebrew University Economics Department, 2004.

  • Ethics
  • Corporate governance and economic sociology
  • Corporate Social Responsibility

2023

The Certification Effect of New Legislation: CEO Accountability for Misconduct After Sarbanes-Oxley

Mohliver A; Moore C; Pozner J

Research in the Sociology of Organizations 2023 Vol 85

2022

Corporate social counterpositioning: How attributes of social issues influence competitive response

Mohliver A; Crilly D; Kaul A

Strategic Management Journal 2022 Online first

Religious Affiliation and Wrongdoing: Evidence from U.S. Nursing Homes

Mohliver A; Ody-Bresier A

Management Science 2022 Vol 69:1 p 533-554

Where is all the deviance? Liminal prescribing and the social networks underlying the prescription drug epidemic

Zhang V; Mohliver A; King M

Administrative Science Quarterly 2022 Vol 68:1 p 228-269

2019

How misconduct spreads : auditors’ role in the diffusion of stock-option backdating

Mohliver A

Administrative Science Quarterly 2019 Vol 64:2 p 310-336

Shine a light: how firm responses to announcing earnings restatements changed after Sarbanes-Oxley

Pozner J E; Mohliver A; Moore C

Journal of Business Ethics 2019 Vol 160:2 p 427-443

2018

To stop misconduct, you’ve got to know where to look

Mohliver A; Johnston A

London Business School Review 2018

2017

Are recessions good for morality? : evidence that ethics improve when the economy falters

Bianchi E; Mohliver A

Academy of Management Proceedings 2017:1

CEOs who began their career during booms tend to be less ethical

Bianchi E C; Mohliver A

Harvard Business Review Digital Articles 2017

2016

Do good times breed cheats? : prosperous times have immediate and lasting implications for CEO misconduct

Bianchi E C; Mohliver A

Organization Science 2016 Vol 27:6 p 1488-1503

2015

Paying attention to misconduct : how firm misconduct is interpreted differently in post-Sarbanes-Oxley era

Pozner J-E; Mohliver A; Moore C

Academy of Management Proceedings 2015:1

2012

IPO pricing and ownership structure around the world: the business group effect

Mohliver A; Gur-Gershgorn G; Chatopadhyay S

in Levis, M & Vismara, S (eds) Handbook of research on IPOs, Edgar Publishing 2012 p 327-344

2020

Sofar Sounds: Charting the next stage of growth

Birkinshaw J; Mather D; Stroube B; Mohliver A C

 

Teaching portfolio

Our teaching offering is updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.