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21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

sentiment. One explanation for this discrepancy is that consumers are motivated to use moral disengagement strategies to reduce cognitive dissonance when their desire for a product conflicts with their moral standards. In two studies we... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2008
Working Paper

Behavioral Aspects of Price Setting, and Their Policy Implications

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper starts by discussing consumers' cognitive and emotional reaction to posted prices. Cognitively, some consumers do not appear to make effective use of price information to maximize their consumption-based utility. Emotionally, prices can induce regret and... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Price; Policy; Laws and Statutes; Consumer Behavior; Emotions

April 2013
Article

Rx: Human Nature: How Behavioral Economics Is Promoting Better Health Around the World

By: Nava Ashraf

Why doesn't a woman who continues to have unwanted pregnancies avail herself of the free contraception at a nearby clinic? What keeps people from using free chlorine tablets to purify their drinking water? Behavioral economics has shown us that we don't always act in... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Zambia

20 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Looking to Leave a Mark? Memorable Leaders Don't Just Spout Statistics, They Tell Stories

social programs was a much bigger problem than it was. “Even when unrepresentative of reality at large,” stories “are more easily recalled than statistics,” the study notes. “This selective recall can give rise to misperceptions about... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

11 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 11

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470634251.html Thinking Too Little to Thinking Too Much: A Continuum of Decision Making Authors:Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton Publication:Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Learning By Thinking: How Reflection Improves Performance

Keywords: by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano & Bradley Staats

18 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 18, 2018

learning capabilities intertwine with managerial cognitive capabilities to support the processes of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. We draw from the literature on team learning to develop four categories based on the orientation... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 2023
Article

Can Purpose Foster Stakeholder Trust in Corporations

By: Ranjay Gulati and Franz Wohlgezogen

As part of institutional changes toward more responsible capitalism, firms increasingly articulate a purpose beyond simply profit as a central tenet of their governance. Management scholarship has noted the potential advantages of such purpose-focus for stakeholder... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Management; Moral Identity; Mission and Purpose; Trust; Corporate Governance; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

What were the management trends in 2009? Fascination with social networking and rethinking common wisdom about goal setting. Here are the Top 10 articles and Top 5 working papers that appeared in HBS Working Knowledge in 2009. Enjoy! TOP... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Article

The What and Why of Self-deception

By: Zoë Chance and Michael I. Norton

Scholars from many disciplines have investigated self-deception, but defining self-deception and establishing its possible benefits have been a matter of heated debate—a debate impoverished by a relative lack of empirical research. Drawing on recent research, we first... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking

March 2012
Article

The Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The Evolution of Digital Cameras

By: Mary J. Benner and Mary Tripsas

New industries sparked by technological change are characterized by high technological, market, and competitive uncertainty. In this paper we explore how a firm's conceptualization of products in this context, reflected in its introduction of product features, is... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Transformation; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Product; Values and Beliefs; Mathematical Methods; Power and Influence; Behavior; Experience and Expertise; Design; Market Entry and Exit; Employment Industry; Computer Industry

Article

It's Not Easy Being Green: The Role of Self-Evaluations in Explaining Support of Environmental Issues

By: Scott Sonenshein, K. A. DeCelles and Jane E. Dutton

Using a mixed methods design, we examine the role of self-evaluations in influencing support for environmental issues. In Study 1—an inductive, qualitative study—we develop theory about how environmental issue supporters evaluate themselves in a mixed fashion,... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Evaluation; Cognition and Thinking

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

changing elements of our social interaction in unprecedented ways that may well lead to irrevocable social changes. Already, the follow-on effects of the virus are enough to ensure there will be no normal to... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

March 2020 (Revised June 2023)
Case

EyeControl: Inspiring Communication

By: Paul A. Gompers and Danielle Golan

Eye-controlled communication device startup EyeControl was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2016 by cofounders with a shared personal connection to locked-in syndrome—a neurological disorder that left sufferers cognitively sound, yet paralyzed, with the exception of eye... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Communication Technology; Business Startups; Expansion; Finance; Decision Making; Social Enterprise; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Educators

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16 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 16, 2010

shift in academic thinking about the role of government may be required-involving nothing less than a reversal of the prevailing null hypothesis in the study of political economy. Cognitive Barriers to Environmental Action: Problems and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 3: Expanding Diversity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the third module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Projects; Risk and Uncertainty; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Opportunities; Perspective; Expansion; Goals and Objectives

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14 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

When a Vacation Isn’t Enough, a Sabbatical Can Recharge Your Life—and Your Career

experiences were.” Recover, explore, practice To analyze the data, DiDonna’s fellow researchers, University of Notre Dame Professor Matt Bloom and Kira Schabram, assistant professor at the University of Washington, employed techniques from View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March–April 2015
Article

Why We Think We Can't Dance: Theory of Mind and Children's Desire to Perform

By: Lan Nguyen Chaplin and Michael I. Norton

Theory of Mind (ToM) allows children to achieve success in the social world by understanding others' minds. A study with 3–12 year olds, however, demonstrates that gains in ToM are linked to decreases in children's desire to engage in performative behaviors associated... View Details

Keywords: Theory Of Mind; Self-Esteem; Behavior; Attitudes; Performance; Cognition and Thinking