Publications

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March 2016
Technical Note

Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tom Ryder

Communicating persuasively is a critical skill for leaders of any team or organization. Yet, connecting and resonating with an audience can nevertheless be a challenging task. We outline how to effectively mobilize groups through the power of communication. This note... View Details

Keywords: Messaging; Communication; Leading; Public Speaking; Persuasion; Rhetorical Devices; Communication Intention and Meaning; Forms of Communication; Communication Strategy

03 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Ominous Background Music Is Bad for Sharks

Sharks have been stigmatized on screen for decades, from the 1975 movie Jaws, in which a gigantic great white shark terrorizes a resort island off the coast of Massachusetts, to the 2013 movie Sharknado, in which the eponymous spout of shark-infested seawater... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Media & Broadcasting

29 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Creating the Perfect Super Bowl Ad

tracking whether a person smiles, grins, or breaks out in laughter. Continuously measuring smile responses and facial cues allowed the team to determine a person's interest in viewing the ad and their intent to purchase the brand. The ad... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Media & Broadcasting

20 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

researchers also learned that, in some cases, Cook’s activism could potentially lead to increased product sales, although that was not the intent of his opposition. “The people in the group exposed to Cook’s activism, we found, expressed... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

29 Aug 2017
Book

Using Language to Build a Global Company

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

30 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

India’s Ambitious National Identification Program

comes close to this. They are far from the finish line, but it sure is an amazing start!" The UIDAI project provides an interesting lesson for companies that are intent on reaching an enormous, diverse population, says Khanna, who... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2024
Working Paper

Priors, Experiments, Learning and Persuasion in (Bayesian) Entrepreneurial Finance

By: Ramana Nanda

At the heart of entrepreneurial finance lies a persuasion challenge: regardless of the strength of an entrepreneur’s belief in the potential of their idea, they typically need to convince investors to provide the financial capital required for its... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Communication Intention and Meaning; Prejudice and Bias

SSRN

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09 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Hold or Fold? Sizing Up Business Risk

intent going forward. And then we go back for another heart check, just as we did in step 1, the Big Goals, to make sure that we don't have hidden emotion loops pulling us toward an option that is less likely to help us reach the goals we... View Details

Keywords: by Eileen C. Shapiro & Howard H. Stevenson

March 2004 (Revised April 2004)
Background Note

Seeing What's on Red Auerbach's Mind

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and John T. Gourville

Analysis of an interview with Red Auerbach, HBR No. 87201. Alan M. Webber, who conducted the interview, probed for the lessons that Auerbach has learned from a long and productive career coaching and managing the Boston Celtics, a professional basketball team in the... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Research; Sports; Product Development; Communication Intention and Meaning; Sports Industry

November 1978 (Revised January 1995)
Case

McGregor's Ltd. Department Store

President has decided to restructure the discount scheme. Every staff member would be affected, good or bad. Information would have to be tailored to each group--worst off would be managers. Task is to write to managers/supervisors. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Communication Intention and Meaning; Compensation and Benefits; Retail Industry

December 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Background Note

Strategic Use of Music in Marketing, The: A Selective Review

By: Gerald Zaltman and Nancy Puccinelli

Summarizes selected research on music and its impact on mood and shopping behavior, and its impact on the communication of ideas. View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Music Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Behavior

2010
Chapter

Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership

By: Joel Podolny, Rakesh Khurana and Marya Hill-Popper

During the past 50 years, organizational scholarship on leadership has shifted from a focus on the significance of leadership for meaning-making to the significance of leadership for economic performance. This shift has been problematic for two reasons. First, it has... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Economics; Leadership; Performance Improvement; Behavior

January 2024
Case

BWX Technologies

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Yuan Zou and Aldo Sesia

Rex Geveden and Robb LeMasters, CEO and CFO of BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT), were concerned that investors and analysts did not fully appreciate the company's transformation from a nuclear reactor provider to the US Navy and Canadian utilities to a multi-product line... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Communication Intention and Meaning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Valuation; Diversification; United States; Canada

2016
Working Paper

Managers' Cultural Background and Disclosure Attributes

By: Francois Brochet, Gregory S. Miller, Patricia Naranjo and Gwen Yu

We examine how a manager’s ethnic cultural background affects managers’ communication with investors. Using a sample of earnings conference calls transcripts with 26,430 executives from 42 countries, we find that managers from ethnic groups that have a more... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure Tone; Individualism; Conference Calls; Ethnic Group; Management Style; Communication Intention and Meaning; Ethnicity; Corporate Disclosure; Financial Reporting

SSRN

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September 1991
Background Note

Persuasion

Examines the principles that apply in any persuasive business situation. Describes how to analyze the goals and audience; how to devise a persuasive message; and how to execute a persuasive strategy in writing, presentations, and larger corporate communication tasks. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Communication Intention and Meaning; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy