About

The Employee Ownership Research-to-Practice Hub website is designed to serve as a shared toolbox for the employee ownership field.

The first initiative of the Employee Ownership Applied Research Lab at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, the Hub offers open-access resources and research insights to help practitioners and leaders build stronger employee-owned companies.

It turns rigorous research on employee ownership into practical tools that strengthen businesses and expand economic opportunity for the broad working and middle classes.

The Employee Ownership Applied Research Lab is a space within the Rutgers Institute for collaboration that strengthens employee-owned businesses and expands wealth-building opportunities for workers.

Building on more than four decades of research at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing—widely recognized as the leading academic center on employee ownership in the United States—the Lab helps close the gap between scholarship and practice.

The Lab:

• Supports a growing field focused on expanding ownership and strengthening businesses

• Broadens access to wealth-building opportunities for workers

• Translates research into practical tools for real-world implementation

The Lab was created and is directed by Adria Scharf, PhD, with support from The Prudential Foundation and an Anonymous Donor Advised Fund at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Our survey of 100 leaders across business, advisory, nonprofit, labor, and government organizations revealed a clear gap between academic research and the practical needs of those advancing employee ownership—only 5% said existing research effectively answers the questions they face.

At the same time, employee ownership remains relatively rare in the United States, even as many workers lack opportunities to build wealth through their work.

This Research-to-Practice Hub addresses this gap by translating research into practical tools and resources that support implementation and strengthen employee-owned companies.

This Employee Ownership Research-to-Practice Hub website was created by Dr. Adria Scharf with skilled contributions and input from Karen Kahn, Dr. Oyindamola Ijewere,  Melissa Hoover, Dr. AJ Clomax, Diane Ives, and others.

The Applied Research Lab is a program of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at the Rutgers University School of Management, the largest university-based research center dedicating to advancing the understanding of all forms of employee ownership and related forms of financial participation that share wealth and profits broadly. In addition to this Hub, the Institute offers free resources for the field.