In 2010, Lazonick started a 501(c)(3) organization called the Academic-Industry Research Network, also known as AIRnet, which publishes research from Lazonick and other academics. The organization seeks to foster research regarding economic development, and ways it can become more sustainable and inclusive. Research Economic innovation Lazonick is co-organizer of the Edith Penrose Centenary Conference to be held at SOAS, University of London, on November 14–15, 2014. Financialization Much of Lazonick's research has been devoted to stock buybacks and the alleged financialization of economies. This began during his time at Harvard in the 1980s, where he took note of his colleague Michael C. Jensen, who became a major proponent of mass stock buybacks. Since then, Lazonick has publicly advocated against such buybacks through various research papers and articles, becoming a major voice regarding the matter. Lazonick began this line of research in the late 1980s, becoming an early critic of the belief that companies should be run to maximize shareholder value. In collaboration with Mary O'Sullivan, he continued this work in the 1990s at STEP Group, a research organization directed by Keith Smith in Oslo, Norway, and in the last half of the 1990s and early 2000s at INSEAD, where he directed the European Commission project Corporate Governance, Innovation, and Economic Performance. In recent years, this research has made Lazonick a sought-after adviser to various United States politicians. Lazonick advised both Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign, and Bernie Sander's 2016 Presidential Campaign, as well as Marco Rubio. Impact on innovation Lazonick's 2009 book Sustainable Prosperity in the New Economy? Business Organization and High-Tech Employment in the United States, published by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, won the 2010 Schumpeter Prize, awarded by the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society. References Canadian economists 1945 births Living people Harvard University alumni Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni