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20 Jan 2016
News

The Power of Presence at the Podium

Web

Capstone | MBA

that will advance new drug discoveries and therapeutics with those equally passionate about changing the business of healthcare for the better. 2. The practicalities of business decisions meet the practicalities of hard science. Students... View Details

2010
Working Paper

Preference Intensities and Risk Aversion in School Choice: A Laboratory Experiment

By: Flip Klijn, Joana Pais and Marc Vorsatz

We experimentally investigate in the laboratory two prominent mechanisms that are employed in school choice programs to assign students to public schools. We study how individual behavior is influenced by preference intensities and risk aversion. Our main results show... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Education; Marketplace Matching; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior; Personal Characteristics

September 2022
Article

The Limits of Inconspicuous Incentives

By: Leslie K. John, Hayley Blunden, Katherine Milkman, Luca Foschini and Bradford Tuckfield

Managers and policymakers regularly rely on incentives to encourage valued behaviors. While incentives are often successful, there are also notable and surprising examples of their ineffectiveness. Why? We propose a contributing factor may be that they are not... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Behavior

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Article

Who Will Vote Quadratically? Voter Turnout and Votes Cast Under Quadratic Voting

By: Louis Kaplow and Scott Duke Kominers

Who will vote quadratically in large-N elections under quadratic voting (QV)? First, who will vote? Although the core QV literature assumes that everyone votes, turnout is endogenous. Drawing on other work, we consider the representativeness of endogenously... View Details

Keywords: Voting Turnout; Paradox Of Voting; Quadratic Voting; Pivotality; Elections; Voting; Political Elections; Mathematical Methods

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

By: Chiara Farronato, Alan MacCormack and Sarah Mehta

Set in March 2018, the case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. This product offers a reduced price to riders willing to carpool, walk a short distance to/from their pick-up and drop-off points, and wait a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Decision Making; Technology Industry; California; San Francisco

17 May 2016
First Look

May 17, 2016

2016 New York: Oxford University Press Consumers, Corporations, and Public Health: A Case-Based Approach to Sustainable Business By: John A. Quelch. Abstract—The public health footprint associated with corporate behavior has come under... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2012
Case

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals: Living Healthier, Longer (Abridged)

By: Toby Stuart and James Weber

Describes a set of key strategic decisions facing the scientific founder and CEO of a promising, early stage bio-pharmaceuticals company. Should the company establish a proposed alliance with a pharmaceutical firm? Should it create a nutraceuticals business in parallel... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Pharmaceutical Industry

Article

Managing Perceptions of Distress at Work: Reframing Emotion as Passion

By: Elizabeth Baily Wolf, Jooa Julia Lee, Sunita Sah and Alison Wood Brooks

Expressing distress at work can have negative consequences for employees: observers perceive employees who express distress as less competent than employees who do not. Across five experiments, we explore how reframing a socially inappropriate emotional expression... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Emotions; Perception

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Profile

Maria Brewer

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? During my time in operations, the more I was able to work with multiple areas of the business and see how they interact, the more excited I was by my work. Observing how one decision in a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

today most often is associated with good management practice. It is thought by some to generate the trust that fosters everything from cooperation to speed in decision making and execution. It forces... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

29 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan & Wesley Yin; Financial Services

May 2010 (Revised May 2013)
Case

C.K. Claridge, Inc.

By: James K. Sebenius

Sued for patent infringement, chemical manufacturer C.K. Claridge tries to design a settlement strategy taking into account a decision analysis of litigating v. negotiating. The plaintiffs are the patent holder and its sole licensee, who is also a CKC competitor. (This... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Negotiation Style; Negotiation Tactics; Chemical Industry

October 1994
Case

Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes a decision facing Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. in June 1985: whether to continue to compete in the silicon steel business in the face of stiff competition from imports. Includes a complete description of the company's productivity improvement systems and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Performance Improvement; Management Systems; Technology; Steel Industry

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Profile

Kayode Ogunro

employer. How has HBS prepared you for your new job? My job will require a substantial amount of travel to Europe and Africa and more hands on management of deals and projects than I would face with a typical investment firm. My HBS experience has definitely helped me... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management / Hedge Fund; Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Energy / Extractive Minerals; Manufacturing

April 2002
Case

Knoll Furniture: Going Public

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jon Asher Daniels

This case examines the decisions of John Lynch, president and CEO of Knoll Furniture, to go public in early 1997. Knoll went private in an LBO in 1996 and Warburg Pincus, the LBO sponsor, wants Lynch to take Knoll public. Lynch needs to weigh the positive and negative... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Going Public; Privatization

June 2020
Supplement

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (B)

By: Tsedal Neeley and Briana Richardson

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California