Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,242)
- Faculty Publications (989)
- March 2021 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
Applied: Using Behavioral Science to Debias Hiring
By: Ashley Whillans and Jeff Polzer
The UK government’s Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) needed to hire a new associate and were trying to increase the diversity of their job candidates. This decision was based on academic research showing that recruiters and managers often fell into common traps like... View Details
- March 2021
- Article
Active Choice, Implicit Defaults, and the Incentive to Choose
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Home-delivered prescriptions have no delivery charge and lower copayments than prescriptions picked up at a pharmacy. Nevertheless, when home delivery is offered on an opt-in basis, the take-up rate is only 6%. We study a program that makes active choice of either home... View Details
- Article
Internal Deadlines, Drug Approvals, and Safety Problems
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Danielle Li
Absent explicit quotas, incentives, reporting, or fiscal year-end motives, drug approvals around the world surge in December, at month-ends, and before respective major national holidays. Drugs approved before these informal deadlines are associated with significantly... View Details
- March 2021
- Article
Last Place Aversion in Queues
By: Ryan W. Buell
This paper documents the effects of last place aversion in queues and its implications for customer experiences and behaviors as well as for operating performance. An observational analysis of customers queuing at a grocery store, and four online studies in which... View Details
- February 2021
- Background Note
Jobs to Be Done: A Toolbox
By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Bob Moesta, Iuliana Mogosanu, Shaye Roseman and Katie Zandbergen
The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it... View Details
- February 2021
- Tutorial
What are Agile Teams?
By: Tsedal Neeley
This video explores the elements that constitute agile teams. From its history in the "Agile Manifesto," this philosophy for organizational behavior prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
Consuming Contests: Outcome Uncertainty and Spectator Demand for Contest-based Entertainment
By: Patrick J. Ferguson and Karim R. Lakhani
Contests that are designed to be consumed for entertainment by non-contestants are a fixture of economic, cultural and political life. In this paper, we examine whether individuals prefer to consume contests that have more uncertain outcomes. We look to... View Details
- February 2021
- Article
How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice
By: Ryan W. Buell and Basak Kalkanci
Amid growing calls for transparency and social and environmental responsibility, companies are employing different strategies to improve consumer perceptions of their brands. Some pursue internal initiatives that reduce their negative social or environmental impacts... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing
By: Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack and Ziad Obermeyer
We use the design of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit program to demonstrate three facts about the health consequences of cost-sharing. First, we show that an as-if-random increase of 33.6% in out-of-pocket price (11.0 percentage points (p.p.) change in... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Teaching Note
Maritz Automotive
By: Ashley V. Whillans and Lamar Pierce
This case focuses on Charlotte Blank, the Chief Behavioral Officer at Maritz, as she tries to assist a major automotive manufacturer (CarCo) with increasing their sales by prepaying monthly bonuses to independently franchised car dealers and clawing them back if the... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
Dick's Sporting Goods: Getting Out Of The Gun Business (A)
By: George A. Riedel
Dick's Sporting Goods was one of the top five retailers of a range of firearms in the US. Over the last several years and specifically following the Parkland shooting of 2018, Ed Stack, the CEO and chairman, had wrestled with the question of their role as a leading... View Details
- January 2021
- Case
Value-Based Insurance Design at Onex
By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Amitabh Chandra and Amram Migdal
The operating executives of Health and Benefits for Onex Partners, Megan Jackson Frye and Sam Camens, faced a challenge: Healthcare costs for employees of Onex’s portfolio companies were continuing to rise above the consumer price index, reflecting broader trends... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Finance; Behavioral Finance; Insurance; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Consumer Behavior; Social Psychology; Behavior; Interests; Motivation and Incentives; Perception; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; North America; United States
- January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Teaching Note
The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being (A) and (B)
This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders—the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children’s Social Care—as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur
THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details
Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Preference Prediction; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data
By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli
This case introduces a new Amazon program that has consumers upload their receipts from transactions outside of Amazon, in exchange for money. Through the discussion, the case aims to explore issues in customers’ privacy in the digital age, the value of customers’ own... View Details
Keywords: Data Analytics; Data Privacy; Data Management; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Marketing Communication; Marketing Research; Data-driven Management; E-Commerce Strategy; Ethical Decision Making; CRM; Consumer Protection; Targeted Advertising; Targeted Policies; Data Ownership; Marketing; Research; Marketing Communications; Analytics and Data Science; Management; Customer Relationship Management; Ethics; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; United States
- January 2021 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Aptiv PLC Board of Directors (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
Aptiv’s board must decide whether a joint venture with an auto maker is the right next step in the company’s efforts to develop and commercialize a production-ready autonomous driving system. While many commentators believed that Aptiv’s self-driving technologies had... View Details
Keywords: Automotive Industry; Bankruptcy Reorganization; Board Of Directors; Board Committees; Board Decisions; Board Dynamics; Corporate Boards; Innovation And Strategy; Legal Aspects Of Business; Spin Off; Strategic Alliances; Strategic Change; Strategic Evolution; Supplier Relationships; Technological Change; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Innovation Strategy; Going Public; Joint Ventures; Leadership; Restructuring; Technological Innovation; Transformation; Auto Industry; Europe; United States
- 2021
- Article
Consumer Disclosure
By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie John
As technological advances enable consumers to share more information in unprecedented ways, today’s disclosure takes on a variety of new forms, triggering a paradigm shift in what “disclosure” entails. This review introduces two factors to conceptualize consumer... View Details
- Winter 2021
- Article
Dealmaking Disrupted: The Unexplored Power of Social Media in Negotiation
By: James K. Sebenius, Ben Cook, David A. Lax, Isaac Silberberg and Paul Levy
While social media has had profound effects in many realms, the theory and practice of negotiation have remained relatively untouched by this potent phenomenon. In this article, we survey existing research in this area and develop a broader framework for understanding... View Details
- 2021
- Book
Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise
By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business--and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most... View Details
- January 2021
- Article
Using Models to Persuade
By: Joshua Schwartzstein and Adi Sunderam
We present a framework where "model persuaders" influence receivers’ beliefs by proposing models that organize past data to make predictions. Receivers are assumed to find models more compelling when they better explain the data, fixing receivers’ prior beliefs. Model... View Details