Publications

08 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Hunt for Talent on Digital Platforms, Not in Resume Piles

When it comes to the job hunt, many of us have a traditional view of what it takes to find a new position: A worker searches for available openings, sends in a resume, and waits for an interview. Much of academic research assumes that’s the way people find jobs, too.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment

Fall 2012
Article

How 'Big Data' Is Different

Many people today in the information technology world and in corporate boardrooms are talking about "big data." Many believe that, for companies that get it right, big data will be able to unleash new organizational capabilities and value. But what does the term "big... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Analytics; Mathematical Methods; Information Management; Information Technology Industry

07 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

What Drives Supply Chain Behavior?

provide prescriptive recommendations, many of these papers pursue an optimizing approach given the assumption of a completely rational decision maker. Testament to the complexity of these activities is the high level of mathematical... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

mathematical puzzles,” receiving Bitcoins as payment for their services. Today, the largest “miner” of Bitcoins is a factory containing 25,000 computers and serviced on a 24/7 basis by 50 employees in Dallad Banner in Inner Mongolia,... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Store24 (A): Managing Employee Retention

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a retailing context in which employee retention strategies are explored through analyzing detailed store-level data. View Details

Keywords: Retention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Analytics and Data Science; Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

2013
Book

Keeping Up with the Quants: Your Guide to Understanding and Using Analytics

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jinho Kim

Managers today need to be able to analyze and make sense of data. They need to be conversant with analytical technology and methods and to make decisions on quantitative analysis. This book offers a variety of practical tools and examples to improve a manager's... View Details

Keywords: Statistics; Business Analytics; Big Data; Analytics and Data Science; Management Practices and Processes; Mathematical Methods; Information Management

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

OPOWER: Increasing Energy Efficiency through Normative Influence (A)

By: Amy J.C. Cuddy, Kyle Todd Doherty and Maarten W. Bos

The case profiles OPOWER, an energy efficiency software company that applies Cialdini's principles of social influence to successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy usage. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard graduates, Dan Yates and Alex... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Attitudes; Entrepreneurship; Energy Conservation; Power and Influence; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; United States

04 Feb 2010
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Way to Make Careful Decisions?

for a more careful approach, suggesting that we place too much emphasis on intuition and personal experience as opposed to the "wisdom of crowds," mathematical models, and systematically-collected data. He argues that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Dec 2007
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Medical Tourism

the U.S. medical profession are still large. In India, the same depth of pool of engineering and mathematical talent for software, offshoring, and outsourcing is there for medicine, too. In the 1950s and '60s, the Indian government... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Compass Maritime Services, LLC: Valuing Ships

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Price; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Negotiation Offer; Mathematical Methods; Ship Transportation; Valuation; Consulting Industry; Shipping Industry

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

all of that, I’ve also been enjoying Mezzanine, a recent book of poetry by my spectacular doctoral student Zoë Hitzig, and Peter Winkler’s newest Mathematical Puzzles compendium. Scott Duke Kominers (@skominers) is the MBA Class of 1960... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

situations into mathematical models. The percentage of MBAs that we hire will go down in the next ten years. A director of a leading consulting firm made much the same point: We now hire a very large number of non-MBAs into our Associate... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

1972
Chapter

Random Walks and Technical Theories: Some Additional Evidence

By: George A. Benington and Michael C. Jensen

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

SSRN

1979
Article

An Extension and Simple Proof of a Constrained Lattice Fix-Point Theorem

By: C. Blair and A. E. Roth

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

Find at Harvard

January 1975
Article

A Lattice Fixed-Point Theorem with Constraints

By: A. E. Roth

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

Find at Harvard

September–October 2023
Article

Interpretable Matrix Completion: A Discrete Optimization Approach

By: Dimitris Bertsimas and Michael Lingzhi Li

We consider the problem of matrix completion on an n × m matrix. We introduce the problem of interpretable matrix completion that aims to provide meaningful insights for the low-rank matrix using side information. We show that the problem can be... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods

2022
Article

Exploring Counterfactual Explanations Through the Lens of Adversarial Examples: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.

By: Martin Pawelczyk, Chirag Agarwal, Shalmali Joshi, Sohini Upadhyay and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As machine learning (ML) models become more widely deployed in high-stakes applications, counterfactual explanations have emerged as key tools for providing actionable model explanations in practice. Despite the growing popularity of counterfactual explanations, a... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning Models; Counterfactual Explanations; Adversarial Examples; Mathematical Methods

November 2021
Article

Panel Experiments and Dynamic Causal Effects: A Finite Population Perspective

By: Iavor Bojinov, Ashesh Rambachan and Neil Shephard

In panel experiments, we randomly assign units to different interventions, measuring their outcomes, and repeating the procedure in several periods. Using the potential outcomes framework, we define finite population dynamic causal effects that capture the relative... View Details

Keywords: Panel Data; Dynamic Causal Effects; Potential Outcomes; Finite Population; Nonparametric; Mathematical Methods

2018
Working Paper

Bundling Incentives in (Many-to-Many) Matching with Contracts

By: Jonathan Ma and Scott Duke Kominers

In many-to-many matching with contracts, the way in which contracts are specified can affect the set of stable equilibrium outcomes. Consequently, agents may be incentivized to modify the set of contracts upfront. We consider one simple way in which agents may do so:... View Details

Keywords: Matching With Contracts; Contract Design; Bundling-proofness; Substitutability; Mathematical Methods

SSRN