Publications

19 Apr 2016
Blog Post

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

M. Cable, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats. The first few minutes of new employee orientation, if done right, can lead to happier and more productive workers and, ultimately, increased customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, a lot of... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

September 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Bühler: Mobilizing Industry around a Common Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati, Franz Wohlgezogen and Malini Sen

Bühler Group, a Swiss multinational processing technology provider, started by selling machines for processing grains and later transitioned into selling food processing solutions. A family-owned business in the fifth generation, Bühler’s high-end milling, grinding,... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Customer Focus and Relationships; Machinery and Machining; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Innovation Leadership; Switzerland

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

Abstract—We analyze time-series of investor expectations of future stock market returns from six data sources between 1963 and 2011. The six measures of expectations are highly positively correlated with each other, as well as with past... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

non-democracies. The Value of First Impressions: Leveraging Acquisition Data for Customer Management By: Padilla, Nicolas, and Eva Ascarza Abstract— Managing customers effectively is crucial for firms'... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Social Strategies That Work

Over a billion people use social platforms on the Internet, making them the most frequently visited category of sites. Some platforms, such as eHarmony, MeetUp, and Twitter, allow us to connect to strangers. eHarmony alone is estimated to account for one in six new... View Details

February 2021
Case

Apple: Privacy vs. Safety (A)

By: Henry McGee, Nien-hê Hsieh, Sarah McAra and Christian Godwin

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook debuted the iPhone 6S with enhanced security measures that enflamed a debate on privacy and public safety around the world. The iPhone 6S, amid a heightened concern for privacy following the 2013 revelation of clandestine U.S. surveillance... View Details

June 2018
Case

Verona Group

By: Robert L. Simons and Sarah Abbott

Are a salesperson's struggles her own fault or the result of a problematic job design? Anna George works as a salesperson at Verona Group, a company that designs and wholesales high-end women's apparel. She had spent nearly 20 years in sales with another fashion label... View Details

Keywords: Jobs and Positions; Design; Analysis; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Salesforce Management; Organizational Design

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

A Crash Course in Saving a Family Business

Jiyoon Han (MBA 2021) is getting a taste of what it’s like to be a case protagonist—learning how to pivot while measuring unforeseen challenges against new opportunities. When news broke in March about how COVID-19 would affect the... View Details

16 May 2013
HBS Seminar

Robert Gierkink, Chairman, Datalogix

19 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 19, 2006

provided by multinational firms. Detection Defection: Measuring and Understanding the Predictive Accuracy of Customer Churn Models Authors:Scott Neslin, Sunil Gupta, Wagner Kamakura, Junxiang Lu, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 8, 2008

Abstract We study the correlation between a belief concerning individualism and a measure of luck in the US during the period 1983-2004. The measure of beliefs is the answer to a question related to whether... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July – August 2011
Article

Deliberate Learning to Improve Performance in Dynamic Service Settings: Evidence from Hospital Intensive Care Units

By: I. M. Nembhard and A. L. Tucker

Dynamic service settings-characterized by workers who interact with customers to deliver services in a rapidly changing, uncertain, and complex environment (e.g., hospitals)-play an important role in the economy. Organizational learning studies in these settings have... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Performance Improvement; Quality; Groups and Teams; Cooperation; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

Stefan Thomke (sthomke@hbs.edu), an authority on the management of innovation, is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has worked with firms on product, process, and... View Details

January 2023
Case

Natura: Weathering the Pandemic at Brazil's Cosmetic Giant

By: Brian Trelstad, Pedro Levindo and Carla Larangeira

Brazil's Natura, a multi-brand cosmetics group, has taken several measures to safeguard the livelihoods of its thousands of employees and millions of sales representatives during the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. The company has also made strides in its efforts... View Details

22 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 22, 2008

not occur in non-election years, or in private bank lending. I show capture is costly: elections affect loan repayment, and election year credit booms do not measurably affect agricultural output. Download the paper:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

says Hall, paraphrasing Albert Einstein. It’s hard to do, but Hall advises building into any incentive plan values like teamwork or culture or customer relations that are difficult to measure. This can be accomplished by making subjective... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

12 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 12

reciprocity measured after surprising an employee with a raise is fundamentally different from that posited to explain persistent above-market wages. Download working paper: http://people.hbs.edu/mluca/Papers%20on%20RIS/oDesk.pdf Cases... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

examples of successful and failed leaders, with stories to illustrate their experiences and the author's advice to readers who may face similar crises. Purchase this book: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-55338.html Reorganize for Resilience:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Algorithms Need Managers, Too

By: Michael Luca, Jon Kleinberg and Sendhil Mullainathan

Algorithms are powerful predictive tools, but they can run amok when not applied properly. Consider what often happens with social media sites. Today many use algorithms to decide which ads and links to show users. But when these algorithms focus too narrowly on... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Algorithms; Predictive Analytics; Management; Big Data; Analytics and Data Science