Publications

2022
Working Paper

Feeling Seen: Leader Eye Gaze Promotes Psychological Safety, Participation, and Voice

By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Alison Wood Brooks and Ethan Burris

Psychological safety is a hallmark of effective team functioning. Although prior work shows that characteristics of the leader influence employee judgments of psychological safety (and subsequent decisions to speak up), we know very little about “the specific behaviors... View Details

Keywords: Eye Gaze; Psychological Safety; Voice; Participation; Nonverbal Behavior; Verbal Behavior; Ostracism; Conversation; Groups; Groups and Teams; Social Psychology; Safety; Leadership; Behavior

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03 Dec 2007
Research & Ideas

Authenticity over Exaggeration: The New Rule in Advertising

The past 10 years have seen some level of this direct marketing model bear out. But according to an HBS working paper to be published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, consumers are using technology to learn about marketers, rather... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Publishing; Advertising

June 2021
Case

Acelero Learning

By: Mario Small, Kathleen L. McGinn, Amy Klopfenstein and Katherine Chen

In November 2020, Henry Wilde, co-founder and CEO of Acelero, Inc., must decide whether to change his company’s program model for delivering early childhood education to low-income children. One of the only for-profit Head Start providers in the United States, Acelero... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Adoption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Operations; Education Industry; North and Central America; United States

Educators

September 2002
Case

Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (B): The Performance Agenda

Describes the implementation in Seattle Public Schools, under the direction of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske, of a systemwide standards and accountability scheme, known as the Performance Agenda. The Performance Agenda set academic standards for students and defined... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Education Industry; Seattle

Educators

December 1998 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Han Young Labor Dispute (A), The

Examines the evolution of a labor dispute at the Han Young maquiladora in Tijuana, Mexico. The dispute began over union representation at a 120-worker company, but soon escalated into a source of tension between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and a test for the... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; International Relations; Labor Unions; Trade; Labor and Management Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Business and Government Relations; Canada; United States; Mexico

02 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Good Deeds Invite Bad Publicity

it's the right thing to do for the environment or their community." In such cases, it's important to realize that there are consequences. "Sometimes in my interactions with executives, they say, 'We meant really well and we were View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy

Forthcoming
Article

Consumer Choice and Corporate Bankruptcy

By: Samuel Antill and Megan Hunter

We estimate the indirect costs of corporate bankruptcy associated with lost customers. In incentivized experiments, randomly informing consumers about a firm’s Chapter 11 reorganization lowers their willingness to pay for the firm’s products by 17%-28%. Consumers worry... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; Structural Estimation; Experimental Economics; Hertz; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Perception; Consumer Behavior

Research Summary

Modernization Regimes

Professor Fabbe is currently conducting fieldwork for a book project that focuses on how societies respond to crisis and how states seek to use modernization initiatives to strengthen social resilience and cohesion. Towards this end, she is researching local... View Details

06 May 2024
Research & Ideas

The Critical Minutes After a Virtual Meeting That Can Build Up or Tear Down Teams

mask, and what do you unveil?” In studying backstage interactions among employees working for a global company in the United States and China, Perlow found that team members in the two locations often interpreted what happened on the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September–October 2024
Article

The Art of Leading Teammates

By: Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria

When our society talks about leaders, we focus on formal roles, such as the CEO. This view undervalues the role of informal leaders—team members who influence outcomes by the tone they set, how they conduct themselves, and how they interact with their peers. Their job... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Power and Influence; Leadership; Status and Position

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Article

AI Companions Reduce Loneliness

By: Julian De Freitas, Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp, Ahmet K. Uğuralp and Stefano Puntoni

Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping solution to widescale societal loneliness. Behavioral research provides little insight into whether these applications are... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Well-being; Emotions; Applications and Software

September 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Old Mutual

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Kirsty O'Neil-Massaro

Designed to explore the demutualization and listing overseas of one of Africa's largest financial institutions, Old Mutual, and the effects that these actions have on South Africa's domestic capital markets. Explores the particular difficulties that arise as a result... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Capital Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Education; Financial Strategy; Business or Company Management; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; South Africa

June 2009 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Cirque du Soleil -- The High-Wire Act of Building Sustainable Partnerships

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Maxime Aucoin

The case describes the history and business model of Cirque du Soleil (CdS). The case allows for a rich discussion and analysis of Cirque du Soleil's business model with an emphasis on how it interacts with that of MGM Mirage. Le Cirque and MGM's business models... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Investment; Profit; Globalized Markets and Industries; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Partners and Partnerships; Trust; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Educators

May 2012
Article

Incentive Schemes, Sorting and Behavioral Biases of Employees: Experimental Evidence

By: Ian Larkin and Stephen Leider

We investigate how the convexity of a firm's incentives interacts with worker overconfidence to affect sorting decisions and performance. We demonstrate experimentally that overconfident employees are more likely to sort into a non-linear incentive scheme over a linear... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias; Decisions; Employees; Wages

2010
Other Unpublished Work

Fashioning an Industry: Cognitive Processes and the Construction of Worth in the Institutionalization of a New Industry

By: Mukti Khaire

This inductive study of the high-end fashion industry in India explores how the worth of a new industry is constructed. Interviews with entrepreneurs and constituents of the field revealed that the worth of the industry was constructed through framing by early... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Framework; Entrepreneurship; Value; Cognition and Thinking; Industry Structures; Fashion Industry; India

Research Summary

Dissertation: Speaking Up on Boards

My dissertation examines individual and group behavior in corporate boards of directors. I focus on individual traits and group traits that can foster or inhibit the act of speaking up when an individuals views go against the general consensus in the room. Research and... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Where do the Most Active Customers Originate and How Can Firms Keep Them Engaged?

By: Clarence Lee, E. Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh

In this paper, we study how firms offering Web services can acquire and develop an active customer base. We focus on two basic questions. First, how does the method of customer acquisition affect the way customers use the service to meet their own needs and to interact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Hidden Markov Models; Search; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Media; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry