The management literature has focused primarily on Cross-Sectoral Partnerships (CSPs) as the best organizational tool to address grand challenges. This is because CSPs bring together the capabilities and interests of the government, the private sector, and society. They thus appear best suited to problems as complex, multifaceted, and thorny as grand challenges. The presented paper calls for broadening the approach. 

Based on qualitative data, an analysis is provided of how the part of the Swiss disaster insurance system that is based on public sector monopolies is successful in addressing the grand challenge of protecting and adapting the building stock in the face of more frequent and intense weather events caused by a changing climate. 

By showing how a public sector solution can operate successfully toward addressing a grand challenge, it is suggested that the management literature needs to reconsider its current assumptions about the role and capabilities of the public sector. An empirically grounded framework and a conceptual map are developed to help management scholars and practitioners more fully address the potential role of the public sector in addressing grand challenges.​

This research is part of the study “Beyond Cross-Sectoral Partnerships in Grand Challenges: Public Sector, Disaster Insurance, and Climate Adaptation in Switzerland”, co-authored by Eugenia Cacciatori, Paula Jarzabkowski, Rebecca Bednarek, and Konstantinos Chalkias.

Prof. Eugenia Cacciatori is a Reader in Management at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. Her research focuses on innovation processes, particularly how organizations create and share knowledge in science- and technology-driven environments. She has studied the development of HIV vaccines and, more recently, disaster insurance and resilience.​

Currently, her work explores the intersection of disaster insurance and climate adaptation, as well as the ethical implications of implementing AI in organizations.​

Eugenia is a member of the Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice and the Ethics Community of the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich. She co-directs the Master's in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership (MICL), serves on Bayes' Learning and Teaching Committee, and is part of the Task Force on AI and Teaching.​

She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Policy and an MSc in Technology and Innovation Management from SPRU at the University of Sussex. She also earned a degree in Industrial Engineering with Management from Politecnico di Milano. Before joining Bayes, Eugenia was a Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich and an Assistant Professor at Bocconi University, where she was affiliated with the research centers CRORA and CROMA.