Publications

Research Summary

A major area of Professor Torfason's research is the behavior of individual social network structures. He studies the violation of norms – specifically the use of excessive force in conflict situations – within the empirical context of a large online... View Details

2014
Working Paper

What Courses Should Law Students Take?: Harvard's Largest Employers Weigh In

By: John C. Coates, Jesse M. Fried and Kathryn E. Spier

We report the results of an online survey, conducted on behalf of Harvard Law School, of 124 practicing attorneys at major law firms. The survey had two main objectives: (1) to assist students in selecting courses by providing them with data about the relative... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Law; Higher Education

SSRN

Article

Multitasking While Driving: A Time Use Study of Commuting Knowledge Workers to Assess Current and Future Uses

By: Thomaz Teodorovicz, Andrew L. Kun, Raffaella Sadun and Orit Shaer

Commuting has enormous impact on individuals, families, organizations, and society. Advances in vehicle automation may help workers employ the time spent commuting in productive work-tasks or wellbeing activities. To achieve this goal, however, we need to develop a... View Details

Keywords: In-vehicle User Interfaces; Time-use Study; Automated Vehicles; Knowledge Workers; Commuting

04 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 4

From Crowds to Collaborators: Initiating Effort & Catalyzing Interactions Among Online Creative Workers By: Boudreau, Kevin J., Patrick Gaule, Karim R. Lakhani, Christoph Riedl, and Anita Williams Woolley Abstract—Online collaborative... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

September 2019
Article

The Persistence of Broadband User Behavior: Implications for Universal Service and Competition Policy

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but consumer attention. We examine user priorities over the allocation of their time, and interpret that behavior in light of salient tensions in policy discussions over universal service, data caps, and... View Details

Keywords: Broadband Service; Attention Allocation; Consumer Behavior; Household; Internet and the Web; Competition; Policy

14 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Web Surfers Have a Schedule and Stick to It

In most markets, products and services compete for the consumer’s money. On the internet, however, the coin of the realm is time, not money—websites and other online services fight for the attention of visitors. So understanding when,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Web Services

2020
Book

Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments

By: Stefan Thomke

Don’t fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you. When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition,... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Experiments; Market Research; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Customers; Research

2016
Book

Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 17

By: Shane Greenstein, Josh Lerner and Scott Stern

The seventeenth volume of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Innovation Policy and the Economy provides an accessible forum for bringing the work of leading academic researchers to an audience of policymakers and those interested in the interaction... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Governance; Policy; Economy

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

Conference Proceedings More Amazon Effects: Online Competition and Pricing Behaviors By: Cavallo, Alberto Abstract—I study how online competition, with its shrinking margins, algorithmic pricing... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

Abstract—Do people from different countries and different backgrounds have similar preferences for how much more the rich should earn than the poor? Using survey data from 40 countries (N = 55,238), we compare respondents' estimates of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Teaching Interest

Harvard Business Analytics Program

By: Michael L. Tushman

The Harvard Business Analytics Program is offered through a collaboration between Harvard Business School (HBS), the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

Designed for... View Details

July 2014
Article

Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton

This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name... View Details

Keywords: Diaspora; Outsourcing; oDesk; Networks; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Diasporas; Internet and the Web; Ethnicity; Service Industry; South Asia; India

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

PublicationsThe New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance Authors:Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman Publication:Harvard Business School Press, 2010 Abstract Retailers today are drowning in View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

The Functional Alibi

By: Anat Keinan, Ran Kivetz and Oded Netzer

Spending money on hedonic luxuries often seems wasteful, irrational, and even immoral. We propose that adding a small utilitarian feature to a luxury product can serve as a functional alibi, justifying the indulgent purchase and reducing indulgence guilt. We... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing

2014
Article

Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity

By: Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

People believe that weather conditions influence their everyday work life, but to date, little is known about how weather affects individual productivity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we predict and find that bad weather increases individual productivity and that... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Opportunity Cost; Distractions; Weather; Performance Productivity; Cognition and Thinking

June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Revlon India's Turnaround: Navigating Online-Offline Decisions Using a Balanced Scorecard

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

Revlon India was founded as a joint venture in 1995, pairing the industrial conglomerate UMG with the global beauty brand Revlon, Inc. to bring international color cosmetics to India. After growing rapidly and pioneering the Beauty Advisor (BA) model in India, the... View Details

Educators

2019
Book

Operations in an Omnichannel World

By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. Sales originating at online channels have been steadily increasing, and even for sales transacted at brick-and-mortar channels, a much larger fraction of sales is affected by online channels in... View Details

Keywords: Omnichannel; Omnichannel Retail; Retail; Operations; Management; Supply Chain Management; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2018
Working Paper

What Is Your Problem? The Importance of ‘Problem Storming’ for Crossing Knowledge Boundaries

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf

In this study, I focus on the emergent processes and practices enacted when using crowdsourcing to solve R&D problems that experts are challenged with. While the literature on crowdsourcing focuses on the online process, this study looks at the full process that takes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Nasa; Problem Solving; Problem Formulation; Knowledge Boundaries; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges