Rare Goods - Publications - Faculty & Research

2022
Working Paper

Consumer Demand with Social Influences: Evidence from an E-Commerce Platform

By: El Hadi Caoui, Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton and Robert Schultz

For some kinds of goods, rarity itself is valued. "Fashionable'" goods are demanded in part because they are unique. In this paper, we explore the economics of rare goods using auctions of limited-edition shoes held by an e-commerce platform. We model endogenous entry... View Details

Keywords: Rare Goods; Scarcity; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Auctions

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29 Jan 2018
News

How to Build Trust with Colleagues You Rarely See

2014
Other Unpublished Work

Government-held Equity in Foreign Investment Projects: Good for Host Countries?

By: Louis T. Wells

Host governments have often sought some equity in mining and other foreign investment projects, but as shareholders they have rarely gained what they anticipated. Only in special cases might the benefits to governments outweigh the risks and often unanticipated costs... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Equity; Business and Government Relations

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06 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

John Kotter: Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea

escalating conflict there. These can require immediate attention, but rarely 100 percent of people's attention. With death by delay, the point is to focus people 100 percent on the crisis so that a good idea... View Details

Keywords: by John Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Most Accountants Aren’t Crooks—Why Good Audits Go Bad

recognized? The interpretation and weighting of various types of information are rarely straightforward. As Joseph Berardino, Arthur Andersen's former chief executive, said in his congressional testimony on the Enron collapse, "Many... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, George Loewenstein & Don A. Moore; Accounting; Financial Services

07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

with customers, employees, and investors by being “the real deal,” creating valuable products and services, acting on good intentions, treating people fairly, and taking responsibility for how an organization impacts business and society,... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

who have veto power over ideas, good or bad. Authority is delegated along with responsibility. Everyone acts in the best interests of the organization, assuming knowledge of the objectives and acceptable ways of achieving them. Permission... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Consumer Goods; IPO; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Decision Choices and Conditions

Citation

Educators

Purchase

04 Aug 2014
News

Market Basket Shows the Best and Worst of Family Business

04 Sep 2012
News

Why Most Leaders (Even Thomas Jefferson) are Replaceable

17 Sep 2012
News

How to Manage a Diverse and Dispersed Team

04 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Most Leaders (Even Thomas Jefferson) Are Replaceable

Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Gautam Mukunda leads off his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, with the results of social science research that executives may wish not to consider: individual leaders rarely... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

14 Nov 2023
What Do You Think?

Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?

of power. Happiness is rarely on the list, and the generosity that leads to happiness, if mentioned at all, carries with it a suspicion that a leader could be “giving away the store.” Check out the available literature on generosity, and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 31, 2017
Article

CEOs Should Get Personally Involved in Talent Development

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Jay Galeota and Michael Wong

Estimates indicate that, globally, human capital has a value about 2.3 times that of physical capital. This difference is likely to widen in increasingly service-driven economies. Yet, most companies maintain their equipment better than their people. The issue is not... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Employees; Training

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Article

Best Practices for Differentiated Products Demand Estimation with PyBLP

Differentiated products demand systems are a workhorse for understanding the price effects of mergers, the value of new goods, and the contribution of products to seller networks. Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995) provide a flexible random coefficients logit model... View Details

Citation

15 Sep 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Cases: Developing the Courage to Act

features described by Donham. Typically, they average 10 to 20 pages of text, with 5 to 10 additional pages of numerical exhibits. The best cases describe real, not fictitious, organizations and real business issues. "A good... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin

16 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Advice on Advice

In business, good advice is priceless. Managers who are anxious and confused when confronted with corporate challenges can find that a piece of sound advice from a colleague can instill a sense of calm and clarity that leads to more... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Breakthrough Negotiation: Don’t Leave It On the Table

bad process—one perceived as unfair, illegitimate, or simply confusing—can create unnecessary barriers to agreement and that good process design can promote breakthroughs. Principle 4: Breakthrough Negotiators Foster Agreement When... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins

21 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Going Negative in Political Advertising

For more details, see Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes For Better Democracy by John Quelch and Katherine Jocz (Harvard Business Press 2008). Choice sells, in politics and in the supermarket. Distinct choices on the shelf attract our... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

Article

Innovation Contests for High-Tech Procurement

By: Jin Hyun Paik, Martin Scholl, Rinat A. Sergeev, Steven Randazzo and Karim R. Lakhani

Innovation managers rarely use crowdsourcing as an innovative instrument despite extensive academic and theoretical research. The lack of tools available to compare and measure crowdsourcing, specifically contests, against traditional methods of procuring goods and... View Details