Publications

December 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Akooda: Charging Toward Operational Intelligence

By: Christopher Stanton and Mel Martin

The Akooda case describes the challenges confronting founder and CEO Yuval Gonczarowski (MBA ‘17) in 2022 as he attempts to boost sales. Launched in November 2020, Akooda was an AI company that mined 20 different sources of digital data, from tools like Slack, Google... View Details

Keywords: Data Mining; Productivity; Monitoring; Data Analysis; AI and Machine Learning; Knowledge Management; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Information Industry; Boston; Israel

Ruru Hoong is a PhD candidate in Economics at Harvard & HBS, on the academic job market AY 2025-26.

Her research interests span artificial intelligence, digital economics, privacy, and social media, primarily focusing on the (i) optimal design and integration... View Details

2014
Article

Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal

By: Daniella Kupor, Zakary L. Tormala, Michael I. Norton and Derek D. Rucker

Previous research suggests that people draw inferences about their attitudes and preferences based on their own thoughtfulness. The current research explores how observing other individuals make decisions more or less thoughtfully can shape perceptions of those... View Details

Keywords: Thoughtfulness; Liking; Social Influence; Decisions; Attitudes; Cognition and Thinking; Power and Influence

December 2012 (Revised January 2015)
Technical Note

Early Career LBOs Using the Search Fund Model

By: Howard Stevenson, Michael Roberts and Jim Sharpe

The funded search model is one alternative for individuals who, at some point in their career, want to run their own companies. This note looks at the funded search, as a means to entrepreneurship through acquisition and describes the path to buy and run a business... View Details

Keywords: Search Funds; Search; Entrepreneurial Finance; Investor Behavior; Career Planning; Entrepreneurial Management; Fundraising; Negotiation; Entrepreneurship; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt; Personal Development and Career; Private Ownership; Acquisition; Finance; Leveraged Buyouts

2021
Working Paper

Information Avoidance and Image Concerns

By: Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

A rich literature finds that individuals avoid information, even information that is instrumental to their choices. A common hypothesis posits that individuals strategically avoid information to hold particular beliefs or to take certain actions--such as behaving... View Details

Keywords: Image Motivation; Self-image; Information; Behavior; Identity; Personal Characteristics

21 Jul 2023
Blog Post

Malcolm McClain (MBA/MPP 2023) Named First RISE Career Fellow

Malcolm McClain (MBA/MPP 2023) has been named the first recipient of the Harvard Business School (HBS) RISE (Recognizing Individuals Seeking Equity) Career Fellow, with his income supplemented for one year following graduation so he can... View Details

January 2022
Article

Why is Corporate Virtue in the Eye of The Beholder? The Case of ESG Ratings

By: Dane Christensen, George Serafeim and Anywhere Sikochi

Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Rating Agency Disagreement; ESG Disclosure; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure

2020
Working Paper

Engineering Serendipity: When Does Knowledge Sharing Lead to Knowledge Production?

By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaule, Eva C. Guinan and Karim R. Lakhani

We investigate how knowledge similarity between two individuals is systematically related to the likelihood that a serendipitous encounter results in knowledge production. We conduct a natural field experiment at a medical research symposium, where we exogenously... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Similarity; Knowledge Creation; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Dissemination; Relationships

SSRN

April 1997
Background Note

Using ABC to Manage Customer Mix and Relationships

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Describes applying activity-based costing to manage customer relationships. Links cost-to-serve to net margins earned with individual customers. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Activity Based Costing and Management

Julie Battilana is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, where she is also the founder and faculty... View Details

November, 2021
Article

Self Control and Smartphone Use: An Experimental Study of Soft Commitment Devices

By: Ruru Hoong

Public discussion and discourse amongst researchers suggest that smartphone use is excessive from an individual welfare standpoint, but evidence for this remains limited. I implement a randomized intervention encouraging a subset of 629 participants to adopt soft... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Commitment; Randomized Controlled Trial; Smartphones; Addiction; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Behavior; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Well-being

09 Oct 2013
Video

1,800 Stories at Harvard Business School

30 Mar 2015
Video

Kevin Boyle - Making A Difference

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Data Breach at Equifax

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Quinn Pitcher and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case discusses the events leading up to the massive data breach at Equifax, one of the three U.S. credit reporting companies, the organizational and governance issues that contributed to the breach, and the consequences of the breach. The case supplement provides... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Management; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; United States

March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Creative Capital: Sustaining the Arts

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Creative Capital provides grants to individual artists using a venture capital model—the money comes with guidance and governance. Artists receive money as milestones are reached and also receive guidance on managing their lives and business to increase their... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Financial Services Industry

30 May 2019
News

How to Ensure ESG Investing Isn’t Whitewash

04 Jan 2021
Blog Post

Bringing the Lessons of 2020 into 2021

2020 was a year we won’t soon forget. Individuals and organizations around the globe were faced with unprecedented challenges that pushed their creativity, resolve, and resilience to the limits. We faced a global health pandemic, an... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

2019
Working Paper

Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda and Vincent Yao

Rising student debt is considered one of the creeping threats of our time. This paper examines the effect of student debt relief on individual credit and labor market outcomes. We exploit the plausibly random debt discharge due to the inability of National Collegiate,... View Details

Keywords: Student Debt; Private Student Loans; Legal Settlement; Mobility; Debt Collection; Debt Relief; Borrowing and Debt; Personal Finance; Outcome or Result; United States

SSRN