Publications

Article

Doubting Driverless Dilemmas

By: Julian De Freitas, Sam E. Anthony, Andrea Censi and George A. Alvarez

The alarm has been raised on so-called driverless dilemmas, in which autonomous vehicles will need to make high-stakes ethical decisions on the road. We argue that these arguments are too contrived to be of practical use, are an inappropriate method for making... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Autonomous Vehicles; Driverless Policy; Transportation; Ethics; Judgments; Policy

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January 1983
Article

Uncertainty, Social Location and Influence in Decision Making: A Sociometric Analysis

By: Michael Tushman and E. Romanelli

Keywords: Decision Making

12 Jul 2016
News

Prof. Howard Raiffa, Giant in Game Theory and Decision Analysis, Dies at 92

Keywords: Managerial Economics

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

and insufficient confidence on the other. Leaders must act decisively when faced with challenges, and they must inspire others to do so as well. A lack of confidence can... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

1981
Other Unpublished Work

Comet Energy (A) DoD Incentive Contracting - HBS Analysis and Decision Case

By: J. Ronald Fox and Louis B. Smith

Keywords: Contracts; Business and Government Relations; National Security; Decision Making

October 2009
Article

Negotiation Analysis: From Games to Inferences to Decisions to Deals

By: James K. Sebenius

Exemplified by the pioneering work of Howard Raiffa and often expressed in the pages of the Negotiation Journal, the emergent prescriptive field of "negotiation analysis" progressively developed from Raiffa's early contributions to game theory and to his later... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Game Theory

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Working Paper

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

By: Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Decision Choices and Conditions

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November–December 2019
Article

Making Sense of Soft Information: Interpretation Bias and Loan Quality

By: Dennis Campbell, Maria Loumioti and Regina Wittenberg Moerman

We explore whether behavioral biases impede the effective processing and interpretation of soft information in private lending. Taking advantage of the internal reporting system of a large federal credit union, we delineate three important biases likely to affect the... View Details

Keywords: Soft Information; Lending; Banking; Information; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Decision Making

27 Oct 2014
News

Track Customer Service, but Don't Forget the Financials

Keywords: customer satisfaction; financial results; front line employees; decision making

September 13, 2023
Article

The Myth of the CEO as Ultimate Decision Maker

By: Nitin Nohria

Chief executives are responsible for guiding corporations, so the role inevitably requires making many decisions. But people overestimate the level of personal involvement CEOs have in this process. Instead of making decisions, CEOs tend to shape decisions, by... View Details

Keywords: Problem Solving; Delegation; Leadership Style; Decision Making; Time Management; Power and Influence

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February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (B)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

The ARES team formally proposes that Burlington Northern implement the ARES system. The project meets resistance. In light of financial restructuring and high level of debt, executives wonder whether the company can afford ARES. Weak links during the ARES development... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Restructuring; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Budgeting; Projects; Technology Adoption; Service Industry

November 2012
Case

CSIRO: The Light Metals Flagship Decision

By: Willy Shih, Margaret P. Pierson and Dawn Lau

This case explores the challenge of investing in basic research as a public good. CSIRO was Australia's leading science and research agency, and it was chartered to enhance national prosperity through R&D. Its Flagships program was designed to align research interests... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; housing; gay rights; diabesity; disability; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services

01 Mar 2013
News

Making Change

Foundation Clinton Fellows. Part-time, we also have an urban planner working on policy and an architect. Our annual budget of about $200,000 is part grant-funded and part fees-generated from consulting... View Details

February 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Curtis LLP: A Case on Cases

By: Nikolaos Trichakis

A product market firm faces an inventory investment decision in the face of demand uncertainty. To hedge against some of the uncertainty, the firm contemplates an additional fixed investment that would offer the flexibility of diverting inventory in case of weak sales.... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Decision Making Under Uncertainty; Operations Management; Inventory Management; Real Options; Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Operations

1992
Other Unpublished Work

Productivity on Missile Development Program 309 - HBS Analysis and Decision Case

By: J. Ronald Fox

Keywords: Performance Productivity; National Security; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry

October 2002 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

The night before the launch of the Challenger shuttle, officials from Morton Thiokol (Solid Rocket Booster manufacturer) and NASA participated in a teleconference to discuss whether to postpone the shuttle launch due to predicted low temperatures at Kennedy Space... View Details

Keywords: Process Analysis; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Engineering; Risk Management; Analysis; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry; United States

1981
Other Unpublished Work

Comet Energy (B) DoD Incentive Contracting - HBS Analysis and Decision Case

By: J. Ronald Fox and Louis B. Smith

Keywords: Contracts; Business and Government Relations; National Security; Decision Making