Publications

October–December 2023
Article

A Practical Guide to Conversation Research: How to Study What People Say to Each Other

By: Michael Yeomans, Katelynn Boland, Hanne K. Collins, Nicole Abi-Esber and Alison Wood Brooks

Conversation—a verbal interaction between two or more people—is a complex, pervasive, and consequential human behavior. Conversations have been studied across many academic disciplines. However, advances in recording and analysis techniques over the last decade have... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Research

07 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 7

driven at least partly by career concerns. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-014.pdf Policy Bundling to Overcome Loss Aversion: A Method for Improving Legislative Outcomes Authors:Katherine L. Milkman, Mary Carol... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2021
Case

A Close Shave at Squire

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth and Michael Norris

In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Pandemics; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Technology Industry; New York (city, NY); San Francisco

17 Jun 2022
News

In Defense of Online Anonymity

September 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Patrimonio Hoy: A Financial Perspective

By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo A. Herrero

Patrimonio Hoy, a program targeting the housing needs of low-income families launched by CEMEX, a major Mexican corporation and a leading global cement company, has gone from a market research project to a highly visible initiative in 22 cities and has earned public... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Housing; Income; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Emerging Markets; Finance; Mexico

February 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Supplement

Shanty Real Estate: Teaching Note Supplement

By: Michael Luca and Jesse M. Shapiro

Shanty is a simulation in which students inhabit the role of either a traditional home buyer or an iBuyer, both bidding on the same condo. The traditional home buyer has access to a “comp sheet” of similar properties that have recently sold, and has done a walkthrough.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Market Timing

04 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 4

Emotional Benefits of Prosocial Spending By: Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Ashley V. Whillans, Adam M. Grant, and Michael I. Norton Abstract—When does giving lead to happiness? Here, we present two studies demonstrating that the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM)

By: Michael E. Porter, Willis M. Emmons III and Christian Fenner

Le Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique S.A. (CSEM)--the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology--was a major nonprofit research institution located in Neuchatel, Switzerland, with roots in the Swiss watch industry. CSEM maintained close links to... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Information Technology; Alliances; Research and Development; Performance Productivity; Innovation and Invention; Nonprofit Organizations; Electronics Industry; Switzerland

January 2021
Article

Chain Stability in Trading Networks

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky and Alexander Westkamp

We show that in general trading networks with bilateral contracts, a suitably adapted chain stability concept (Ostrovsky, 2008) is equivalent to stability (Hatfield and Kominers, 2012; Hatfield et al., 2013) if all agents' preferences are fully substitutable and... View Details

Keywords: Matching; Trading Networks; Chain Stability; Stability; Competitive Equilibria; Full Substitutability; Laws Of Aggregate Supply And Demand; Contracts; Market Design; Balance and Stability

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

PublicationsClusters and Competitiveness: Porter's Contribution Authors:Christian H.M. Ketels Publication:Chap. 10 in Competition and Competitive Advantage: The Ideas of Michael Porter, edited by Robert... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2022
Case

David Crane’s Clean(er) Energy Strategy at NRG

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Tom Quinn

In 2015, David Crane was the CEO of NRG, the second-largest energy producer in the United States. NRG got most of its power from fossil fuels, but Crane – hired as CEO in 2003 as NRG emerged from bankruptcy – had invested heavily in alternative energy, loudly... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Leadership; Corporate Governance; Transformation; Alternative Energy; Energy Generation; Climate Change; Corporate Accountability; Renewable Energy; Energy Industry; United States

March 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Exploratory Data Analysis

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Michael Parzen and Paul Hamilton

This module note provides an overview of exploratory data analysis for an introduction to data science course. It begins by defining the term "data", and then describes the different types of data that companies work with (structured v. unstructured, categorical v.... View Details

Keywords: Data Analysis; Data Science; Statistics; Data Visualization; Exploratory Data Analysis; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis

July 2014
Article

Convergence of Position Auctions under Myopic Best-Response Dynamics

By: Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna Karlin, Scott Duke Kominers, Claire Mathieu and Michael Schwarz

We study the dynamics of multi-round position auctions, considering both the case of exogenous click-through rates and the case in which click-through rates are determined by an endogenous consumer search process. In both contexts, we demonstrate that the dynamic... View Details

Keywords: Sponsored Search; Advertising; Google; Equilibrium Selection; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

Find at Harvard

23 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 23

paper: http://www.whatworksforamerica.org/ideas/inflection-point-new-vision-new-strategy-new-organization/ Customer-Driven Misconduct: How Competition Corrupts Business Practices Authors:Victor Manuel Bennett, Lamar Pierce, Jason A. Snyder, and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2016
News

3-Minute Briefing: Pamela Meyer (MBA 1986)

(photo by Cade Martin) At my 20th HBS reunion I heard faculty member Michael Wheeler describe behavior people engage in when they’re being deceptive. The room was transfixed.... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

Article

Households' Willingness to Pay for 'Green' Goods: Evidence from Patagonia's Introduction of Organic Cotton Sportswear

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Michael Crooke, Forest L. Reinhardt and Vishal Vasishth

To shed light on individuals' willingness to pay for "green" goods (i.e., goods that are supposed to have lower adverse environmental impacts either in production or in use), we study data from the introduction by Patagonia, Inc., of organic cotton sportswear in the... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Consumer Behavior; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry

Find at Harvard

02 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 3, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53646 January–February 2018 Harvard Business Review The New CEO Activists By: Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel Abstract—Though corporations have been lobbying the government and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Jun 2004
News

An Ethical Fitness Quiz for Negotiators

Shady dealings at the negotiating table may work in the short term, but in the end, you’ll undermine trust and tarnish your reputation, warns HBS professor Michael A. Wheeler in the March issue of... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

2003
Other Unpublished Work

Initiative for a Competitive Milwaukee: A Call to Action

By: Michael E. Porter

The inner city of Milwaukee holds great promise, but is not advancing economically. The inner city has been hard hit by the loss of many of its largest employers as a result of relocation, acquisition and failure. According to the 2000 US Census data, thirty percent of... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Society; Poverty; Economy; Growth and Development; Wisconsin