Publications

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Teaching Interest

Organizational Behavior

Each of us maintains a set of beliefs and general assumptions about humans and their behavior, and those assumptions form the foundation for our beliefs about what motivates individuals; about how individuals make decisions; and about the ways in which the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Leadership; Motivation And Incentives; Decision-making; Culture

March 1982 (Revised April 1989)
Background Note

Industrial Buyer Behavior

May be used as background material for courses in industrial marketing and industrial procurement. Surveys the economic, behavioral, and organizational influences that shape buying decision-making in corporations and other institutions. Also describes the kinds of... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Marketing; Decision Making

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

Sometimes, the loudest, most confident voice in the room might indeed be the best decision-maker. Other times, the person who understands that they don’t know the answer—and therefore holds back in a discussion—may be wiser. Whether View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

to which special-interest groups have corrupted the legislative process. The world's great fishing basins are in decline. New England's proportion of the world fishing harvest is down by ninety percent. Although the warning signs were... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

February 2024
Article

Representation and Extrapolation: Evidence from Clinical Trials

By: Marcella Alsan, Maya Durvasula, Harsh Gupta, Joshua Schwartzstein and Heidi L. Williams

This article examines the consequences and causes of low enrollment of Black patients in clinical trials. We develop a simple model of similarity-based extrapolation that predicts that evidence is more relevant for decision-making by physicians and patients when it... View Details

Keywords: Representation; Racial Disparity; Health Testing and Trials; Race; Equality and Inequality; Innovation and Invention; Pharmaceutical Industry

November 2014
Article

Evidence on Self-Stereotyping and the Contribution of Ideas

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman

We use a lab experiment to explore the factors that predict an individual's decision to contribute her idea to a group. We find that contribution decisions depend upon the interaction of gender and the gender stereotype associated with the decision-making domain:... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizations; Gender

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04 Feb 2010
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Way to Make Careful Decisions?

instead concentrate on ways to make our own decision-making processes more transparent to others and to ourselves. Edward Hare put it this way: "Openness and honesty are the sunlight that's needed to make decision making as effective... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2003 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Flextronics: Deciding on a Shop Floor System for Producing the Microsoft Xbox

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Jim McCusker must guide a group decision-making process aimed at getting input and buy-in from key people in California, Mexico, and Austria to choose a shop floor IT system for Flextronics. McCusker is Flextronics' account manager for the Microsoft Xbox project.... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Power and Influence; Geographic Location; Problems and Challenges; Leadership; California; Mexico; Austria

Teaching Interest

Investment Management Workshop

By: Luis M. Viceira

Investing and Strategic Decision-Making for Principals, Portfolio Managers, and Executives of Asset Management Firms

For nearly 50 years, the Investment Management Workshop (IMW) has convened the world's top principals, portfolio managers, and... View Details

2012
Working Paper

Private and Public Decisions in Social Dilemmas: Evidence from Children's Behavior

Substantial research with adult populations has found that selfish impulses are less likely to be pursued when decisions are publicly observable. To the best of our knowledge, however, this behavioral regularity has not been systematically explored as potential... View Details

Keywords: Research; Age Characteristics; Behavior; Decisions; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Announcements; Situation or Environment

Read Now

October 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Visionary Design Systems: Are Incentives Enough?

By: George P. Baker III and Karin B Monsler

A compensation case about Visionary Design Systems (VDS), a small, high-tech full service systems integration firm based in Silicon Valley with eleven offices throughout the country. All employees, including engineers, administrators, and receptionists, received a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; San Francisco

June 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Betting on Green Steel

By: George Serafeim and Sofoklis Melissovas

'Betting on Green Steel' traces the innovative journey embarked upon by a group of MBA students who have set out to conceive a novel steelmaker that pioneers the production of green steel. The ensemble is confronted with a series of critical choices that will shape the... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Sustainability Management; Technology; Industrialization; Climate Risk; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Technology Adoption; Climate Change; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Family Business; Steel Industry; Middle East; India

19 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Studying How Income Inequality Shapes Behavior

with Anant Thaker (HBS MBA 2011) of the Boston Consulting Group and Howard Rudnick of the Tobin Project, Moss offers an alternative perspective: Perhaps we've been looking at the question the wrong way. Inequality And Making Decisions In... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Integrated Services at Jones Lang LaSalle (2005) (B)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2001 and 2005. Faced with the need to deliver integrated services to corporate clients in 2001, JLL created Corporate Solutions, a group that aimed to draw... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

October 2003 (Revised January 2016)
Exercise

The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: An Exercise

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

This short fictional case forms the basis of a team decision-making exercise. The case, inspired by a real decision facing a major telecommunications company, describes a cross-functional management team convened by the CEO for the purpose of developing a... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Management; Perspective; Product Launch; Internet and the Web; Knowledge Sharing; Telecommunications Industry

April 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Gucci Group: Freedom within the Framework

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Elena Corsi and Vincent Marie Dessain

Gucci Group's CEO had to decide if his decentralized management style was the most effective philosophy in an economic downturn. The sharing of customer information across units and its use in the creative process are key initiatives analyzed in the case. CEO Robert... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Globalized Firms and Management; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership; Management Style; Management Systems; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry