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Publications

Filter Results: (28) Arrow Down
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  • All HBS Web  (28)
    • News  (11)
    • Research  (17)
  • Faculty Publications  (2)

Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (28)
    • News  (11)
    • Research  (17)
  • Faculty Publications  (2)
Page 1 of 28 Results →
  • Article

Choice Architects Reveal a Bias Toward Positivity and Certainty

By: David P. Daniels and Julian Zlatev
Biases influence important decisions, but little is known about whether and how individuals try to exploit others’ biases in strategic interactions. Choice architects—that is, people who present choices to others—must often decide between presenting choice sets with... View Details
Keywords: Nudges; Biases; Strategic Decision Making; Social Influence; Choice Architects; Choice Architecture; Reflection Effect; Certainty Effect; Loss Aversion; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Power and Influence
Citation
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Daniels, David P., and Julian Zlatev. "Choice Architects Reveal a Bias Toward Positivity and Certainty." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 151 (March 2019): 132–149.
  • Article

Believe Me, I Have No Idea What I Am Talking About: The Effects of Source Certainty on Consumer Involvement and Persuasion

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Zakary L. Tormala
This research explores the effect of source certainty-that is, the level of certainty expressed by a message source-on persuasion. The authors propose an incongruity hypothesis, suggesting that source certainty effects depend on perceived source expertise. In three... View Details
Keywords: Research; Experience and Expertise; Risk and Uncertainty; Consumer Behavior; Performance Expectations; Interests; Power and Influence
Citation
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Related
Karmarkar, Uma R., and Zakary L. Tormala. "Believe Me, I Have No Idea What I Am Talking About: The Effects of Source Certainty on Consumer Involvement and Persuasion." Journal of Consumer Research 36, no. 6 (April 2010): 1033–1049.
  • 24 Sep 2014
  • Op-Ed

The Climate Needs Aggressive CEO Leadership

change? Harvard Business School faculty share their thoughts. The desire for certainty about the future price of carbon is not new, and it's not unique to small or green-leaning businesses. Duke Energy argues that renewable and clean... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Toffel & Auden Schendler; Energy; Utilities
  • 10 Mar 2022
  • Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Vika Wasyliw

deep engineering knowledge with minimal regard for business requirements. As an engineer who loves working with people even more than circuit boards, I saw an opportunity to bridge these gaps and help others communicate more effectively... View Details
  • 12 May 2021
  • Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

said he knew two things with certainty when he came onto a battleship: He was never going to get handed a cold cup of coffee, and he was never going to hear the whole truth. "You have to be open and candid and say, 'Look, tell me what you... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
  • 27 Feb 2023
  • Research & Ideas

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

as well as signs that the increases were not one-time phenomena. As a result, "understanding the causes and effects [of lateness and absenteeism] should be a key priority of retailers." One tip for managers: Address the problems through... View Details
Keywords: by Ben Rand; Retail
  • 01 Jun 2024
  • News

Quantum Leap

one centimeter on a side and function at the same unimaginably low temperatures as the company’s quantum processors. The latter measure only half a centimeter per side and sit directly on top of the control chips, effectively squeezing a... View Details
Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Chris Sorensen; quantum computing; innovation; leadership; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing
  • 31 Jul 2023
  • News

Striving for Imperfection

beginning of the book is this idea that more new information has been created since 2010 than in all of previous human history, which is staggering to think about. And you write that even though we’re awash in all of this information, this really isn’t the time for... View Details
Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management
  • 01 Dec 2019
  • News

Remix

for Dixon, bringing to the fore a bundle of memories that she had worked hard to bury. She had launched her career at Def Jam back in 1994, working as an artists and repertoire (A&R) executive and reporting directly to Simmons. She knew with terrible View Details
Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Chris Sorensen; #MeToo; DefJam; Arts, Entertainment
  • 04 Apr 2012
  • Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

certainty is almost never attained, said, "If you know that you won't lose their money, you should take it." In fact, whether a founder is willing to risk taking money from friends or family may be a good indicator of whether or... View Details
Keywords: by Noam Wasserman
  • 13 Apr 2016
  • Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

mature industries, nascent markets offer little certainty and plenty of ambiguity—undefined customers, unclear products or features, uncertain customer demand, and even an ill defined set of competitors. Yet, for these startups to have... View Details
Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail
  • 06 Dec 2004
  • What Do You Think?

Why Do Managers Fail to Act on Their Predictions?

short run versus large costs of unknowable certainty in the future. As examples of predictable surprises, they suggest such things as the rise of terrorism, compromises of auditor independence (and its implications for the general decline... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
  • 01 Mar 2004
  • News

Curb Your Overconfidence

threatened with a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. You feel 90 percent confident that the firm will not lose in court. Is this degree of certainty sufficient for you to recommend rejection of an out-of-court settlement? “Now suppose you... View Details
Keywords: HBS professor Max H. Bazerman; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services
  • Web

Strategy for Entrepreneurs - Course Catalog

and predictions about how a firm can make money by solving a problem that the market has yet to solve. As with any new idea, knowing with certainty if your startup idea will work is impossible. Worse yet, a startup idea is a bet with an... View Details
  • 15 May 2020
  • Research & Ideas

Find Your Pragmatic Path through Radical Uncertainty

believe those who claim to have definitive answers to these big questions. The data to answer most corona virus questions with certainty doesn’t exist. We won’t know for five years if immunity lasts five years. We can’t understand... View Details
Keywords: by Howard Stevenson, Eugene B. Kogan, and Shirley Spence
  • 25 Apr 2012
  • What Do You Think?

How Will the “Age of Big Data” Affect Management?

for jobs in data analytics. In addition to less wasteful marketing efforts (we should be able to know, for example, "which half" of advertising is effective, thereby making an old marketing saw obsolete), they should produce more View Details
Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett
  • 09 Jan 2014
  • Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurs Who Invented Economic Forecasting

In the severe economic, social, and scientific turbulence churning at the dawn of the twentieth century, people were eager for any semblance of stability and predictability. From this need for certainty emerged a group of entrepreneurs... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
  • 12 May 2008
  • Research & Ideas

Accounting Information as Political Currency

expected the accounting effect on election outcomes to be minor. When we ran the tests, we found that even a one standard-deviation change in our measure of earnings management could affect election outcomes in some cases. Q: Were you... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
  • 19 Mar 2019
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

innovations might impact—and be impacted by—workers, consumers, organizations, and society. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55845 March 2019 Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Choice Architects Reveal a Bias Toward... View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
  • 06 Jun 2005
  • Research & Ideas

Don’t Listen to “Yes”

outlines concrete steps that managers at all levels can take to spark positive conflict and make sure that all views get a fair hearing, and he outlines as well a fair and open process for making more effective decisions. "Keeping... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
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