Publications

Research Summary

Interviewing and Dating in Two-Sided Matching Markets: Coordination and Communication (joint with M. Schwarz)

We introduce the interview assignment problem, which generalizes the one-to-one matching model of Gale Shapley (1962) by including a stage of costly information acquisition. Agents do not know their preferences over potential partners unless they choose to conduct... View Details

2016
Chapter

How Moral Flexibility Constrains Our Moral Compass

By: F. Gino

Cheating, fraud, deception, uncooperative actions, and many other forms of unethical behavior are among the greatest personal and societal challenges of our time. While the media commonly focuses on the most sensational scams (e.g., Enron, Bernard Madoff), less... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Organizations; Attitudes

05 Jul 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Campus Scandals on College Applications

Keywords: by Michael Luca, Patrick Rooney, and Jonathan Smith; Education

April 2015
Case

Who Owns the Whale? (Abridged)

By: Thales S. Teixeira and David E. Bell

Judge William Wright considers the case of the dispute of a whale carcass wherein several whaling ships claim ownership based on each one's contribution to its killing. The judge must weigh in the differing efforts and costs of three ships who each played a role at... View Details

Keywords: Whaling; Attribution; Norms-of-ownership; Transaction Costs; Deadweight Losses; Free-rider Problem; Advertising; History; United States; United Kingdom

August 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Background Note

Take Advantage of Your Diaspora Network

By: William R. Kerr and Daniel J. Isenberg

Diaspora networks (DNs) are an important resource for global entrepreneurs. Discusses several features of DNs, combining both academic and practitioner perspectives. Describes the history and prevalence of DNs in many ethnicities, documents the broad resources DNs can... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Markets and Industries; Social and Collaborative Networks

13 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding

biographies especially prevalent and popular now? A: Underdog stories about overcoming great odds through passion and determination are particularly resonant during difficult times. They inspire and give hope when the outlook is bleak.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Nov 2015
Book

Dear Internet: You Are Extraordinary, But Not Exceptional

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Computer; Telecommunications

14 Dec 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Real Exchange Rate, Innovation and Productivity

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger, and Yanping Liu; Manufacturing

August 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Consumer Payment Systems — United States

By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu

In 2008, the U.S. consumer payments landscape was characterized by the ongoing prevalence of credit and debit card networks, the decline of checks, the rise of stored value cards, and the growth of new payment methods such as PayPal, Bill Me Later, and decoupled debit.... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financial Management; Personal Finance; Digital Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; United States

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Navigating Software Vulnerabilities: Eighteen Years of Evidence from Medium and Large U.S. Organizations

By: Raviv Murciano-Goroff, Ran Zhuo and Shane Greenstein

How prevalent are severe software vulnerabilities, how fast do software users respond to the availability of secure versions, and what determines the variance in the installation distribution? Using the largest dataset ever assembled on user updates, tracking server... View Details

Keywords: Cybersecurity; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Consumer Behavior

Research Summary

Overview

Prof. Altman's research interests include innovation, strategy, organizational change, platform-based businesses and their related ecosystems. Her work focuses on the impact to incumbent organizations as platform-based highly networked business models become more... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Multi-sided Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Organizational Change; Paradox; Organizational Identity

Article

Narrow Networks on the Health Insurance Marketplaces: Prevalence, Pricing, and the Cost of Network Breadth

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Igal Hendel, Victoria Marone and Christopher Ody

Anecdotal reports and systematic research highlight the prevalence of narrow-network plans on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance Marketplaces. At the same time, Marketplace premiums in the period 2014–2016 were much lower than projected by the Congressional... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost; United States

2014
Working Paper

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca

Online marketplaces often contain information not only about products, but also about the people selling the products. In an effort to facilitate trust, many platforms encourage sellers to provide personal profiles and even to post pictures of themselves. However,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Race; Trust; Renting or Rental; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

SSRN

Read Now

December 2002
Other Article

The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy

By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy

Register to Read

27 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

When Researchers Cheat (Just a Little)

have received significant media attention recently, "less flagrant transgressions of research norms may be more prevalent and, in the long run, more damaging to the academic enterprise." In an attempt to get researchers to... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston; Education

January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Microsoft Server & Tools

By: Marco Iansiti and Alain Serels

In 2011, Microsoft's Server & Tools Business (STB) was large, fast growing and highly profitable on the strength of traditional packaged product lines led by the Windows Server operating system. Even as the current packaged business was performing exceptionally well,... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Computing; Enterprise Computing; Servers; Cloud Computing; Microsoft; Technology Evolution; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

Article

Scenario Generation for Long Run Interest Rate Risk Assessment

By: Robert F. Engle, Guillaume Roussellet and Emil N. Siriwardane

We propose a statistical model of the term structure of U.S. treasury yields tailored for long-term probability-based scenario generation and forecasts. Our model is easy to estimate and is able to simultaneously reproduce the positivity, persistence, and factor... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Stress Testing; Interest Rates; Forecasting and Prediction; Risk Management; United States