Publications

Article

Guanxi versus Networking: Distinctive Configurations of Affect- and Cognition-based Trust in the Networks of Chinese and American Managers

By: Roy Y.J. Chua, M.W. Morris and P. Ingram

This research investigates hypotheses about differences between Chinese and American managers in the configuration of trusting relationships within their professional networks. Consistent with hypotheses about Chinese familial collectivism, an egocentric network survey... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Managerial Roles; Relationships; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Social and Collaborative Networks; Trust; China; United States

May 2018
Article

The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Tianyi Zheng, Emily Haisley and Michael I. Norton

Two samples of more than 4,000 millionaires reveal two primary findings. First, only at high levels of wealth—in excess of $8 million (Study 1) and $10 million (Study 2)—are wealthier millionaires happier than millionaires with lower levels of wealth, though these... View Details

Keywords: Income; Well-being; Happiness; Wealth; Money; Attitudes; Situation or Environment

29 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Do Employees Work Harder for Higher Pay?

boost his or her motivation. It does—under certain conditions. The evolving field of behavioral economics is challenging the assumption that more money inevitably leads to increased effort. In a recent field study that he conducted along... View Details

Keywords: by Chuck Leddy & Harvard Gazette

January 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Endeavor-Determining A Growth Strategy

By: William A. Sahlman and Michael J. Roberts

Describes the progress of a nonprofit organization, Endeavor, focused on nurturing entrepreneurship in emerging markets. At the time of the case, it has successfully expanded to five Latin American countries and is contemplating the next phase in its growth.... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy

Educators

Web

Partners - Case Method Project

Saratoga High School Saratoga, CA Subjects: Grade 12 AP U.S. Government, Grade 12 Standard Economics, Grade 11/12 Psychology elective CA 9 of 65 Deb Christenson Wildwood Middle-Upper School Los Angeles, CA CA 10 of 65 Rhonda Clements... View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Maritz Automotive

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Lamar Pierce

This case focuses on Charlotte Blank, the Chief Behavioral Officer at Maritz, as she tries to assist a major automotive manufacturer (CarCo) with increasing their sales by prepaying monthly bonuses to independently franchised car dealers and clawing them back if the... View Details

Keywords: Loss-framing; Sales; Performance Improvement; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Theory; Auto Industry

June 2008
Article

How Are Preferences Revealed?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Revealed preferences are tastes that rationalize an economic agent's observed actions. Normative preferences represent the agent's actual interests. It sometimes makes sense to assume that revealed preferences are identical to normative preferences. But there are many... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Attitudes; Microeconomics

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

sustained, recipients will flee these threats or otherwise reshape their network to attenuate the negative psychological effects of the threat. Analyzing four years of peer feedback and social network data from an agribusiness company in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2013 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Bay Partners (A)

By: Josh Lerner and Lauren Barley

In April 2010, Salil Deshpande has recently resigned from Palo Alto, California-based Bay Partners (Bay) where he had been a general partner. Although Deshpande had built a successful track record at the venture firm, he resigned with two other Bay general partners as... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Conflict Management; Partners and Partnerships; Resignation and Termination; Policy; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; California

Educators

Winter 2022
Article

Vaccines and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Failure and Success

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Alex Tabarrok

The losses from the global COVID-19 pandemic have been staggering—trillions in economic costs, on top of significant losses of life, health, and well-being. The world made significant and successful investments in vaccines to mitigate the pandemic, yet there were... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Vaccination; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Loss; Outcome or Result; Opportunities; Crisis Management

2020
Working Paper

Do Lenders Still Discriminate? A Robust Approach for Assessing Differences in Menus

By: David Hao Zhang and Paul Willen

We use a new methodology to assess mortgage pricing discrimination by race. We make four main contributions. First, we show that existing estimates of mortgage pricing differences by race can be confounded by a "menu problem," which is the problem associated with... View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Financing and Loans; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; United States

October 2010
Article

Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity

By: Eric Van den Steen

This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture-in the sense of shared beliefs and values in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Organizational Culture; Economics; Information Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Values and Beliefs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Framework; Satisfaction; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Communication

16 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 16, 2010

psychology that accounts for behaviors inconsistent with ethical beliefs and describe how people reconcile their immoral actions with their ethical goals through the process of moral disengagement. We then examine how the mind selectively... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2003
Book

The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850–1896

By: Sven Beckert

This book, first published in 2001, is a comprehensive history of the most powerful group in the nineteenth-century United States: New York City's economic elite. This small and diverse group of Americans accumulated unprecedented economic, social, and political power,... View Details

Keywords: Literacy; Income; Identity; Culture; Economics; Power and Influence

2011
Chapter

Changing Identity, Changing Language

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Jeffrey T. Polzer

Environmental jolts and shifting membership challenge a group's efficacy and survival. Group identity is critical for a shared interpretation of and response to these challenges, but external and internal changes may require corresponding changes in a group's... View Details

Keywords: Change; Spoken Communication; Performance Efficiency; Problems and Challenges; Safety; Identity; California