Publications

2024
Working Paper

Incrementality Representation Learning: Synergizing Past Experiments for Intervention Personalization

By: Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This paper introduces Incrementality Representation Learning (IRL), a novel multitask representation learning framework that predicts heterogeneous causal effects of marketing interventions. By leveraging past experiments, IRL efficiently designs and targets... View Details

Keywords: Heterogeneous Treatment Effect; Multi-task Learning; Representation Learning; Personalization; Promotion; Deep Learning; Field Experiments; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization

February 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

IMAX: Scaling Personalized Learning in India

By: John Jong-Hyun Kim, Michael Chu and Rachna Tahilyani

IMAX is a provider of comprehensive testing and personalized content across mid-range and low-cost private K-10 schools in India. It aims to improve learning outcomes by providing schools with an integrated product suite including textbooks, workbooks, assessments,... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Learning; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; India

Research Summary

Personal Development and Interpersonal Feedback

Enabling individual development and learning are key to enabling organizational success as well as employee satisfaction and engagement. Many organizational approaches to employee development visualize feedback processes as mechanisms for illuminating individual... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Personal Development

2025
Working Paper

Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning

By: Liangzong Ma, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Reinforcement learning (RL) offers potential for optimizing sequences of customer interactions by modeling the relationships between customer states, company actions, and long-term value. However, its practical implementation often faces significant challenges.... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Policy; Deep Reinforcement Learning; Representation Learning; Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment; Latent Variable Models; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Foreign Direct Investment; Analytics and Data Science

15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

pivot, layoff, and career choice has underscored for me the importance of planning, learning from mistakes, and leveraging personal experiences to find meaning and purpose. If I had any advice for HBS... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

strengths and added a new level of purpose to my commitment to offering a more personalized advisory service. Every pivot, layoff, and career choice has underscored for me the importance of planning, View Details

2024
Working Paper

Advancing Personalization: How to Experiment, Learn & Optimize

By: Aurelie Lemmens, Jason M.T. Roos, Sebastian Gabel, Eva Ascarza, Hernan Bruno, Elea McDonnell Feit, Brett Gordon, Ayelet Israeli, Carl F. Mela and Oded Netzer

Personalization has become the heartbeat of modern marketing. Advances in causal inference and machine learning enable companies to understand how the same marketing action can impact the choices of individual customers differently. This article provides an academic... View Details

Keywords: Personalization; Targeting; Experiments; Observational Studies; Policy Implementation; Policy Evaluation; Customization and Personalization; Marketing Strategy; AI and Machine Learning

2016
Working Paper

CEO Personality and Firm Policies

By: Ian D. Gow, Steven N. Kaplan, David F. Larcker and Anastasia A. Zakolyukina

Based on two samples of high quality personality data for chief executive officers (CEOs), we use linguistic features extracted from conferences calls and statistical learning techniques to develop a measure of CEO personality in terms of the Big Five traits:... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Personal Characteristics; Management Teams

Find at Harvard

Article

Eliminating Unintended Bias in Personalized Policies Using Bias-Eliminating Adapted Trees (BEAT)

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

An inherent risk of algorithmic personalization is disproportionate targeting of individuals from certain groups (or demographic characteristics such as gender or race), even when the decision maker does not intend to discriminate based on those “protected”... View Details

Keywords: Algorithm Bias; Personalization; Targeting; Generalized Random Forests (GRF); Discrimination; Customization and Personalization; Decision Making; Fairness; Mathematical Methods

January 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Expanding the Culture of Learning at Kraft Heinz

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Carolyn Watson

The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC) was an American food company formed in 2015 by the merger of Kraft Foods Group, Inc and the H.J. Heinz Company. The company sold food products like Heinz Ketchup, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kool-Aid, and Philadelphia cream cheese to supermarkets,... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Culture; Work Culture; Workplace Practices; Mergers; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competitive Advantage; Human Capital; Training; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development; Personal Development and Career; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2011
Article

Up Close and Personal: Developing Foundations for Leader Development through Personalization of Management Learning

By: Gianpiero Petriglieri, Jack D. Wood and Jennifer L. Petriglieri

This paper examines the process through which management students develop personal foundations (such as self-awareness, self-management, and a grounding life narrative) for the ongoing development and practice of leadership. We conducted an inductive, qualitative study... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Innovation and Invention; Personal Development and Career; Curriculum and Courses; Customization and Personalization; Learning; Management Practices and Processes; Business Education

Find at Harvard

05 Aug 2016
Video

Learn New Skills. Learn About Yourself.

01 Mar 2012
News

Making Finance Personal

there’s one thing I’ve learned in business, it’s the power of rapid-fire experimentation: enabling your team to test, rapidly change, iterate, and test again. Run experiments with customers and let them vote, instead of relying on the... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services

Aug 05 2016
Short Film

Learn New Skills. Learn About Yourself.

April 2011
Case

Kay Sunderland: Making the Grade at Attain Learning

By: Linda A. Hill and Heather Beckham

Kay Sunderland is an account director at Attain Learning Inc., a business training solutions company. In January 2011, one of Attain's most important clients, Juan Nunez of Gramen Equipment Company, contacts Sunderland with a request: Nunez would like Attain content... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Interpersonal Relations; Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Creativity; Conflict; Interdepartmental Relations; Talent Management; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Communication Strategy; Power and Influence; Service Industry

Blog

Take Control of Your Personal Brand

Business Administration and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator in the marketing unit at Harvard Business School. She is also faculty chair of the new Executive Education program Creating Brand Value, which features a segment on View Details

Byju’s The Learning App

BYJU’S The Learning App (BYJU’s) is India’s largest K-12 education app with approximately 300,000 annual paid subscribers. The mobile app uses a mix of video lessons and interactive tools to personalize learning for every student. Although there is room to grow... View Details

Mar 26 2018
Testimonial

Making Professional Life More Personal

2021
Article

To Thine Own Self Be True? Incentive Problems in Personalized Law

By: Jordan M. Barry, John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers

Recent years have seen an explosion of scholarship on “personalized law.” Commentators foresee a world in which regulators armed with big data and machine learning techniques determine the optimal legal rule for every regulated party, then instantaneously disseminate... View Details

Keywords: Personalized Law; Regulation; Regulatory Avoidance; Regulatory Arbitrage; Law And Economics; Law And Technology; Law And Artificial Intelligence; Futurism; Moral Hazard; Elicitation; Signaling; Privacy; Law; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Technology; AI and Machine Learning