Publications

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October 2000 (Revised June 2017)
Case

Vyaderm Pharmaceuticals: The EVA Decision

By: Robert Simons and Indra A. Reinbergs

In 2016, the new CEO of Vyaderm Pharmaceuticals introduces an Economic Value Added (EVA) program to focus the company on long-term shareholder value. The EVA program consists of three elements: EVA centers (business units), EVA drivers (operational practices that... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Economic Growth; Economic Systems; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Evaluation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Washington (state, US)

April 5, 2016
Other Article

An Interview with Raffaella Sadun: "Information" vs. "Communication:" The Battle to Influence Decision Making

By: Raffaella Sadun and Frieda Klotz

I explain how two traditionally connected technologies may appear to pull organizations in opposing directions. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Strategy; Organizations

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March 2018 (Revised September 2023)
Case

X: The Foghorn Decision

By: Robert S. Huckman, Karim R. Lakhani and Kyle R. Myers

In February 2016, Kathy Hannun—a project leader at X, Alphabet Inc.'s so-called "moonshot factory"—had to prepare a recommendation for the senior leadership of X regarding the future of Foghorn, a project she was leading to develop a carbon-neutral process for... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; R＆D Project Management; Radical Innovation; Clean Technology; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Energy; Research and Development; Projects; Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; California

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

How a company decides who is authorized to make what types of decisions can have a profound effect on its business, both in terms of everyday effectiveness and the bottom line. Consider the experience of one... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

symbolic power of their actions and the strength of the signals they send when they make decisions about the formation and structure of work teams in their organizations.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

March 2015 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Behavioural Insights Team (A)

By: Michael Luca and Patrick Rooney

The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Choice Architecture; Public Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Economics; Public Administration Industry; United Kingdom

May 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

AsiaInfo: The IPO Decision

The cofounder and CEO of AsiaInfo, a Chinese system integrator that built 70% of China's Internet backbone, must decide whether to list equity in the United States to fund future growth. Describes the company and the decision. A rewritten version of a previous case. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

Article

How to Tackle Your Toughest Decisions

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

The toughest calls managers have to make come in situations when they have worked hard to gather the facts and have done the best analysis they can, but they still don’t know what to do. Then judgment—a fusion of thinking, feelings, experience, imagination, and... View Details

Keywords: Management; Judgments

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September 2018
Article

Assembling the Sales Team

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts, making each hire a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. Most companies adopt two common practices: They hire on the basis of “experience” and/or look at their best reps and try... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Selection and Staffing

30 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Looking Behind Bad Decisions

political science to explain drivers behind the crafting of public policy. Now Bazerman and coauthors Jonathan Baron and Katherine Shonk are looking into the psychology of decision making to provide a fuller... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

01 Jun 2002
News

Ads Improve Consumer Decisions

in fact we believe consumers are generally ill-informed about products, there's a utility cost to the individual of not receiving ads,” says Anand. “Imagine a world where there's no advertising — essentially we'd be making some very... View Details

Keywords: Laura Singleton (MBA 1988)

31 May 2004
Research & Ideas

How Team Leaders Show Support–or Not

daily diary entries from employees working on creative projects—everything from making a new high-strength fabric to developing a database for a global hotel chain—they were able to chart how and why team... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

31 Oct 2014
News

Identifying the Biases Behind Your Bad Decisions

29 Oct 2013
News

How Anxiety Can Lead Your Decisions Astray

1988
Other Unpublished Work

Structure of the U.S. Government Decision Making Process - HBS Technical Note - See professor

By: J. Ronald Fox

Keywords: Decision Making; Government and Politics; United States

1 Feb 2008
Lecture

The Devil Wears Prada: The Effect of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Ethical Decision Making

By: Roy Y.J. Chua and X. Zou

Keywords: Luxury; Ethics; Decision Making

23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

Is it possible to truly empower employees to make their own decisions—even when those decisions could mean life or death? That is the question posed by Dutch home healthcare organization Buurtzorg, which has... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

February 2014
Article

Gender Differences in Willingness to Guess

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman

We present the results of an experiment that explores whether women are less willing than men to guess on multiple-choice tests. Our test consists of practice questions from SAT II subject tests; we vary whether a penalty is imposed for a wrong answer and the salience... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Decision Making; Microeconomic Behavior; Education Systems; Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Gender; Economics