Publications

September 1989
Background Note

Introduction to Decision Making

By: Francis Aguilar

Describes the process of decision making (establish objectives, generate alternatives, and so on) emphasizing the human side of it (using rules of thumb, favoring one's own pet projects) yet demonstrating the role an analytic/quantitative contribution has to make. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Mathematical Methods; Perspective

13 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales

sushi restaurant where customers order from a fixed menu.” Next steps The mathematical model in the paper assumes a situation in which a retailer would sell all styles of a product at the same price (e.g., all fall sandals would be priced... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Fashion

23 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Transaction Costs and the Duration of Contracts

Keywords: by Alexander MacKay

May–June 2018
Article

Data Uncertainty in Markov Chains: Application to Cost-Effectiveness Analyses of Medical Innovations

By: Joel Goh, Mohsen Bayati, Stefanos A. Zenios, Sundeep Singh and David Moore

Cost-effectiveness studies of medical innovations often suffer from data inadequacy. When Markov chains are used as a modeling framework for such studies, this data inadequacy can manifest itself as imprecision in the elements of the transition matrix. In this paper,... View Details

Keywords: Markov Chains; Cost Effectiveness; Medical Innovations; Colorectal Cancer; Health Care and Treatment; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Invention; Mathematical Methods; Health Industry

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March 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Teaching Note

Harmonic Hearing Co. (Brief Case)

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Craig Stephenson

Teaching Note for 4271. View Details

Keywords: Debts; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt

January 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Forecasting the Great Depression

By: Walter A. Friedman

What is proper role of professional economic forecasting in financial decision making? The case presents excerpts from three leading economic forecasters on the eve of, and just after, the stock market crash of October 1929. The first set of excerpts is from Roger... View Details

Keywords: History; Mathematical Methods; Personal Development and Career; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis

April 2006
Background Note

Informing Service Management with Customer Data

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Taught as the third module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Explores the role of data analysis in ongoing service management. Describes how to realize the maximum amount of value from analyses and use this information in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Design; Analytics and Data Science; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Value

Profile

Aspa Lekka

people for immediate help." Aspa, perhaps drawing upon her mathematics perspective, sees HBS as having a multiplier effect. "There’s so much opportunity for us. HBS opens your vision and view. If, before HBS, I had seen '100’ as... View Details

Keywords: Consulting

Student-Profile

Do Yoon Kim

I was born in Seoul, South Korea and spent most of my life there. For my undergraduate degree, I went to Northwestern and majored in Math, Economics, and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS). Since my sophomore year at... View Details

1972
Chapter

Sociotechnical and Cognitive Models

By: Stephen Allen and John J. Gabarro

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Mathematical Methods; Society; Technology

January 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Teaching Note

Pilgrim Bank (B): Statistics Review with Data Desk

By: Frances X. Frei

Teaching Note for 602095. View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Mathematical Methods; Banking Industry

September 1993 (Revised August 2011)
Exercise

ExtendSim® Simulation Exercises in Process Analysis (B)

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Second set of exercises meant to be used with ExtendSim, a simulation package created by Imagine That, Inc. of San Jose, California, that allows students to investigate the impact of adding buffers to simple in-line processes with uncertain processing times. View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Production; Mathematical Methods

2006
Chapter

Interorganizational Cooperation between Not-for-profit Organizations: A Relational Analysis

By: Julie Battilana and Metin Sengul

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cooperation; Mathematical Methods

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Web

Harvard Business School

being named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and receiving the Robert F. Greenhill Award for outstanding service to HBS. Dr. Cash earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Texas Christian University, where his... View Details

05 Jun 2015
Blog Post

The HBS Investment

simple equation for what the cost amounts to from a career or personal growth perspective. Simply having two years to take time and reflect is unreal and shouldn’t be subject to mathematical analysis. Add to this, you get these two years... View Details

Article

Mitigating Bias in Adaptive Data Gathering via Differential Privacy

By: Seth Neel and Aaron Leon Roth

Data that is gathered adaptively—via bandit algorithms, for example—exhibits bias. This is true both when gathering simple numeric valued data—the empirical means kept track of by stochastic bandit algorithms are biased downwards—and when gathering more complicated... View Details

Keywords: Bandit Algorithms; Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; Theory

Read Now

June 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

E Ink in 2005

By: David B. Yoffie and Barbara Mack

Explores the challenges of commercializing a bleeding-edge technology. After seven years, E Ink has spent more than $100 million to commercialize electronic ink. With business momentum picking up, but resources running out, the case examines the key trade-offs in... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Commercialization; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry

01 Oct 1999
News

Finance Conference Explores Research Methodologies

used traditional methods of inquiry - mathematical theory or statistical analysis, for instance - while others employed interviews, primary company materials, surveys, and close examination of the trading of individual securities. A... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Design-Based Inference for Multi-arm Bandits

By: Dae Woong Ham, Iavor I. Bojinov, Michael Lindon and Martin Tingley

Multi-arm bandits are gaining popularity as they enable real-world sequential decision-making across application areas, including clinical trials, recommender systems, and online decision-making. Consequently, there is an increased desire to use the available... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods