Sequential Decision Making - Publications - Faculty & Research

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Strategy - Faculty & Research

disciplines, including economics, sociology, and political science, and focuses on both domestic and global competition. The objective of the work is to generate findings and develop concepts that will help managers improve their strategic View Details

09 May 2021
Blog Post

Meet the MoMBAs – Persisting Through a Difficult Year

similarly nuanced effect on Americans. For mothers, particularly student mothers, COVID-19 has brought about a host of new challenges, including childcare, isolation, a million decisions on risk tolerance, and increased burdens. It also... View Details

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (D): The Threat of Direct Digital Distribution

Examines the emergence of technologies for delivering video content to consumer homes via direct digital distribution and investigates the strategic options facing video rental giant Blockbuster Inc. as it tries to respond to the new technological substitutes. Examines... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

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19 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Celebrating Black History: Elevating the Voices of Our Student and Alumni Communities

lives – and yet it can be hard in the moment to see the big picture. To see that the small decisions we make every day are in fact the stepping stones and the dots that connect to shape and frame how we’ll... View Details

May 2012
Article

To Zap or Not to Zap: How to Insert the Brand in TV Commercials to Minimize Avoidance

By: Thales S. Teixeira, Michel Wedel and Rik Pieters

Huge amounts of money are spent on TV advertising. In an environment of rising per-viewer rates for advertisers and increased skipping past ads by consumers, it is necessary for advertising managers to understand the determinants of commercial avoidance. In order to... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Television Entertainment; Advertising; Decisions

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26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

research on secondary products or customers. Now, nice-to-knows that are not essential will have to wait. Enlist trusted partners. Marketers and research suppliers who trust each other and have established long-term relationships can jointly plan how to extract more... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

March 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Looking for Opportunity in Adversity: Iqbal Quadir and Grameenphone (A)

By: Bhaskar Chakravorti and David Lane

Iqbal Quadir, a former New York investment banker, set about to bring universal telecommunications to his native Bangladesh. He was convinced that, GSM, the same advanced wireless technology that penetrated developed countries in Europe was also the right solution for... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Bangladesh

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18 Nov 2016
Conference Presentation

Rawlsian Fairness for Machine Learning

By: Matthew Joseph, Michael J. Kearns, Jamie Morgenstern, Seth Neel and Aaron Leon Roth

Motivated by concerns that automated decision-making procedures can unintentionally lead to discriminatory behavior, we study a technical definition of fairness modeled after John Rawls' notion of "fair equality of opportunity". In the context of a simple model of... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Algorithms; Fairness; Decision Making; Mathematical Methods

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April 2025
Supplement

Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics (B)

By: Linda A. Hill, James I. Cash and Lydia Begag

This case is a supplement to “Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics” (A) and is set against the backdrop of the 2024 NBA Finals. It describes the impact of Mazzulla’s decision to rally his team with an aggressive “go for the kill” mindset instead of choosing language... View Details

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Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

investor sentiment measures that it makes available to researchers and the broader public. Please visit our About page for more information about the project. Data Research Invisible Primes: Fintech Lending with Alternative Data By: Marco... View Details

01 Mar 2023
News

How Much Does 'Deep Purpose' Matter to the Bottom Line?

May 1998
Teaching Note

Development Relationships TN

By: David A. Thomas and Emily Heaphy

The final class of the Career Development module of the Self-Assessment and Career Development course (SACD) uses the topic of mentoring and developmental relationships to encourage students to think beyond the point of finding and accepting a suitable job offer. The... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Curriculum and Courses; Job Offer; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Strategy

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July 1984 (Revised September 1986)
Case

CML Group, Inc.: Going Public (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a series of decisions confronting Charles Leighton, co-founder and chairman of the CML Group. CML is a successful participant in the leisure time industry with two lines of business: specialty retailing and recreational consumer products. The key issues in... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Going Public; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Investment Banking; Financing and Loans; Planning; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry

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16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

customers by matching them “by hand” with early suppliers (e.g., Etsy scoured craft fairs to sign up artisans); acquiring them in bulk (Uber ran promotions during concerts and events); and doing whatever it took to make their offerings... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

23 Nov 2021
Book

What It Takes to Build an Organizational Culture That Wins

produce desired behaviors. That slows down decision making and execution. Employees (and, as we will see) customers are loyal only to a point. This is a culture designed to support one strategy. It may be a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Article

Nudging: Progress to Date and Future Directions

By: John Beshears and Harry Kosowsky

Nudges influence behavior by changing the environment in which decisions are made, without restricting the menu of options and without altering financial incentives. This paper assesses past empirical research on nudging and provides recommendations for future work in... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Situation or Environment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making

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26 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

hindering the company’s DEI efforts, they might have made different decisions. “Make whatever decision you want,” says Jackson, “but make it consciously and not because you're driven there by these... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Profile

Fatima Albassam

In 2017, when Fatima Albassam was working in her home country of Saudi Arabia as a business development analyst for Saudi Aramco, she began making volunteer service trips to Jordan to support Syrian refugees. “While there,” Fatima says,... View Details

April 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Moderna: Pioneering a People Platform to Accelerate Science Innovation

By: Tatiana Sandino, Emil Dy and Samuel Grad

Moderna was founded in 2010 to explore how messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) could be used to create breakthrough medicines by encoding instructions for the body to create antibodies. When Stéphane Bancel (HBS 2000) took over in 2011, he bet on the potential of this... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Strategy; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Alignment; Employee Relationship Management; Science-Based Business; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

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August 2020
Case

This Old House of Worship: St. Anthony Shrine (A)

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This multimedia case asks students to consider how leaders of non-profit organizations manage difficult financial, operational, and cultural turnarounds. Since its founding in 1947, St. Anthony Shrine had been a central partner in serving the Downtown Boston community.... View Details