Publications

2010
Book

A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy

By: Amar Bhide

Our prosperity requires the enterprise of innumerable individuals and businesses who exercise their imagination and judgment—and bear responsibility for outcomes. And it is through dialogue and relationships that widespread enterprise is fostered, not merely prices in... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Banking; Banks; Finance; Economics; Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

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September–October 2013
Article

Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services

By: Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

The ongoing fragmentation of work has resulted in a narrowing of tasks into smaller pieces that can be sent outside the organization and, in many instances, around the world. This trend is shifting the boundaries of organizations and leading to increased outsourcing.... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry

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02 May 2023
What Do You Think?

How Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated—if at All?

that, “High-risk AI systems should be designed and developed in such a way that natural persons can oversee their functioning.” Regulation raises a complex set of challenges. For example, the set of databases on which AI learns will determine how accurate and unbiased... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Information Technology; Technology

Research Summary

Overview

Downstream businesses that utilize global suppliers frequently use auditing programs to monitor their suppliers’ working conditions and are often deployed to address reputational concerns associated with procuring from unregulated suppliers. Despite their widespread... View Details

Keywords: Audit Quality; Remote Work; Outsourcing; Econometric Analysis; Switching Costs; Service Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Retail Industry; Service Industry

2023
Article

Probabilistically Robust Recourse: Navigating the Trade-offs between Costs and Robustness in Algorithmic Recourse

By: Martin Pawelczyk, Teresa Datta, Johannes van-den-Heuvel, Gjergji Kasneci and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As machine learning models are increasingly being employed to make consequential decisions in real-world settings, it becomes critical to ensure that individuals who are adversely impacted (e.g., loan denied) by the predictions of these models are provided with a means... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mathematical Methods

Research Summary

Customer-Centricity as a Vehicle for Organic Growth

By: Ranjay Gulati

This body of work examines the mechanics of how firms grow profitably in commoditizing markets. Underlying the "customer-centricity" that many firms embrace today is a factor that will determine their success with this effort: enabling collaboration across... View Details

Article

DEA Model with Shared Resources and Efficiency Decomposition

By: Yao Chen, Juan Du, H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proved to be an excellent approach for measuring performance of decision making units (DMUs) that use multiple inputs to generate multiple outputs. In many real world scenarios, DMUs have a two-stage network process with shared input... View Details

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Efficiency; Intermediate Measure; Performance Efficiency

January 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

First to Fight? Culture, Tradition, and the United States Marine Corps (USMC)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Akhil Iyer and Joel Malkin

Over a history of more than 240 years, the United States Marine Corps has forged a distinct culture and institutional identity centered on its “warrior ethos.” In the wars of American history, Marines fought with uncommon valor, rising to international prominence for... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Government Administration; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Effectiveness; United States

Educators

2022
Working Paper

The Disagreement Problem in Explainable Machine Learning: A Practitioner's Perspective

By: Satyapriya Krishna, Tessa Han, Alex Gu, Javin Pombra, Shahin Jabbari, Steven Wu and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As various post hoc explanation methods are increasingly being leveraged to explain complex models in high-stakes settings, it becomes critical to develop a deeper understanding of if and when the explanations output by these methods disagree with each other, and how... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods

2012
Report

Sweden's Position in the Global Economy

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

In the spring of 2012, the Swedish economy is, as many of its peers, facing a difficult and uncertain economic environment. While these challenges are real, the Swedish economy looks much better prepared to deal with them than many of its peers. Following its own... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Policy; Globalization; Competitive Advantage; Sweden

16 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

The Messy Link Between Slave Owners and Modern Management

determine how far they could push their workers to get the most profit. Using the account books, slave owners could see how many pounds of cotton each slave picked and compare it to their output from previous years—and then create minimum... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

in fear of losing their jobs. In times of crisis, bosses must alter their expectations. As Bryce Covert wrote in a New York Times op-ed, "Keeping output steady while maintaining our physical and mental health just cannot be done. We have... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

Article

Moving Beyond Schumpeter: Management Research on the Determinants of Technological Innovation

By: Gautam Ahuja, Curba Morris Lampert and Vivek Tandon

Schumpeter's conjecture that large monopolistic firms were the key source of innovation in modern industrial economies has been the underpinning for much work on the topic of innovation. In this review paper we consciously move beyond the Schumpeterian tradition of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Management; Strategy

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

AI system contain bias, she contended, the outputs will contain the same bias, a problem that multiplies as the size of the dataset grows. In 2020, Gebru and Emily Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, led the... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

Educators

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

macroeconomics: output, money, and expectations. Can you talk generally why these are important to understand? A: When you think about these three things, output should be in big letters, and the other ones in smaller letters. View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Jun 2023
What Do You Think?

Is the Anxious Achiever a Post-Pandemic Relic?

infrastructure (support systems).” They have accounted for a substantial portion of the output and productivity of the world’s most developed economies. Now the anxious achievers occupying many leadership positions are confronted with a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is Quality of Labor? And How Is It Achieved?

is to assume that quality of labor is genetic ." Flavius Chircu said, "I would simplify the analysis by substituting 'quality of labor' with 'quality of output,' be that output a product, service, or mix thereof." In Sneh... View Details

Keywords: by by Jim Heskett

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Technical Note

Rechargeable Batteries, 2017: Gigafactory Wars in the Offing?

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by... View Details

Educators