Charles Ayoubi

Assistant Professor

ESSEC

Charles Ayoubi is an Assistant Professor at ESSEC Business School whose research explores how organizations generate, evaluate, and diffuse innovative ideas. By combining field experiments, and observational analyses, he reveals the diverse human and organizational factors that shape innovation processes—emphasizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing creativity. His work pays particular attention to the evaluation stage, where decisions about which ideas merit further development can significantly influence an organization’s long-term success. In more recent work, Charles has been examining how generative AI redefines collaboration, decision-making, and knowledge sharing within teams. Prior to joining ESSEC, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Business School and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, investigating innovation challenges across scientific institutions, corporations, and governmental agencies such as NASA. He holds a PhD in Innovation Management from EPFL. Through his research, Charles aims to offer evidence-based insights that inform how organizations and policymakers can leverage emerging technologies—particularly AI—to enhance creativity, improve evaluation processes, and ultimately drive more effective innovation outcomes.