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Networks, Knowledge, and Innovation
 
 
 
Sheen S. Levine
 

How does knowledge flow in organizations? Why do highly-paid professionals sometimes freely share their expertise with strangers? In what way do social networks determine who we interact with, and on what terms? And does it all relate to creating innovation and sustaining competitive advantage?

Trained at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Sheen S. Levine has held appointments at The University of Pennsylvania and Singapore Management University, in addition to visiting positions at Emory University, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and the University of Torino, Italy. Holding academic degrees in Management Science and Applied Economics, Sociology and Anthropology, his primary interest is interdisciplinary in nature, and lies at the interaction of business, society, and technology.

 
Current research projects include:    
  • The Strength of Performative Ties – documents and explains the surprising pattern of support and sharing between professionals in a large, global, professional services firm.
  • Cooperation and Clustering in Networks – focuses on explaining choices of friends and commercial partners, membership in social and business clusters, and the modes of exchange that govern those (with Prof. R. O. Kurzban, Penn).
  • Simulation of Knowledge Exchange – a computer model that simulates organizations to explicate the underpinnings of knowledge flows in them, under varying conditions of problem complexity, individual characteristics, norms of exchange and support, and organizational structure, training, and turnover (with Prof. M. J. Prietula, Emory).
  • Collective Open Source Innovation – proposes a systematic explanation for several puzzling contemporary economic trends, such as the open source software movement and the sharing of music on the internet
 
Sheen's research has been presented in numerous forums, both academic and professional, in the United States and Europe. He serves as a reviewer for the Academy of Management, Organization Science, American Sociological Review, and The European Physical Journal. He has been the recipient of an Organization Science VIP Award, US Dept. of Education CIBER Fellowship, and The Bentley College/HEC Paper Award.

Sheen has taught extensively at the United States and Singapore, as well as in other academic institutions in Europe and Asia. His classes have won student acclaim for the hands-on, interactive learning approach. He stresses not only real life applications, but also life-long thinking skills, such as critical thinking and theory testing. "Students cannot give enough praise to Levine" wrote The Wharton Journal in a profile article.

He is passionate about contributing beyond his professional duties: he has been the chairman of the Wharton Doctoral Council for three years in a row and currently oversees the AIESEC alumni worldwide.