Publications

April 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Hewlett-Packard-Compaq: The Merger Decision

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Jonathan Barnett

Hewlett-Packard's proposed $24 billion acquisition of rival Compaq marked the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. The merger was Hewlett-Packard's response to sweeping changes impacting the technology industry. The severity of the stock market's... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business and Shareholder Relations; Computer Industry; Technology Industry

October 1980 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

Introduction to Decision Analysis

By: Paul A. Vatter

Keywords: Decision Making; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

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

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

June 2021
Article

The Role of Beliefs in Driving Gender Discrimination

By: Katherine B. Coffman, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

While there is ample evidence of discrimination against women in the workplace, it can be difficult to understand what factors contribute to discriminatory behavior. We use an experiment to both document discrimination and unpack its sources. First, we show that, on... View Details

Keywords: Gender Discrimination; Behavioral Decision Making; Gender; Attitudes; Prejudice and Bias; Economics; Behavior; Decision Making

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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Other Unpublished Work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

2023
Working Paper

The Complexity of Economic Decisions

By: Xavier Gabaix and Thomas Graeber

We propose a theory of the complexity of economic decisions. Leveraging a macroeconomic framework of production functions, we conceptualize the mind as a cognitive economy, where a task’s complexity is determined by its composition of cognitive operations. Complexity... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Complexity; Perception; Consumer Behavior; Production

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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

March 2006
Module Note

Financing Decisions within the Firm

By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs

Describes a core module in the International Finance course at Harvard Business School. The module focuses on the financial and managerial issues that confront managers who make financial decisions within multinational firms: how subsidiaries should be financed and... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; International Finance; Taxation; Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Framework; Performance Evaluation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

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)

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

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)

07 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Effective Leaders Share the Spotlight with Their Teams

During a 2017 Amgen earnings call, CEO Robert Bradway began answering an analyst’s question, then turned to colleague Sean Harper and said, “Sean, I'll let you talk about the specifics.” Bradway’s simple act of calling on Harper to add insight is the type of engagement... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

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