Founding - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These VC Partners May Make Your Firm Less Innovative

able to benefit from the experience of earlier competitors, while those that were first to be funded would pay the price. In the case of Mohr Davidow, for example, “it’s pretty clear Navigenics is going to be the one that benefits, perhaps at the expense of 23andMe,”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services; Banking

11 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Politicians Benefited From Using Toxic Loans

loan activity, the researchers looked at municipalities that held elections in the first quarter of 2008. They found that structured loan transactions occurred much more frequently shortly before rather than after political elections.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

03 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Managing Web Advertising Affiliates

on contract or by percentage spent as a result of the ads. In nearly half of all the programs Edelman and Brandi tracked, they found no affiliate fraud at all. But for the most-targeted merchants—typically the largest ones—the pair View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Publishing

01 Feb 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Support for Small Business Misplaced?

survival." Mark Gomulka, found the question of whether or not it is "time to recognize the advantages of bigness when it comes to employment," posed in the column, as "literally infuriating," He added that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

Value Lab at the Digital Data and Design Institute at Harvard. The researchers found that PE investors often turn to digital transformation strategies and technology to help revamp portfolio firms, and this investment often accelerates... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

30 Sep 2019
Book

Book Excerpt: Why a Volume on Race, Work, and Leadership

women grew 67 percent between 2007 and 2012, more growth than women-owned businesses as whole saw (Nielsen Report, 2017). In light of these advances, a recent study by Ernst and Young (2017) found that one-third of Americans surveyed said... View Details

16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

how easily prospective owners found dogs for their families. The algorithm seemed to make logical sense. But in real life, it didn’t work. “We found that what people said they wanted and what they chose was... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

10 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Why We Blab Our Intimate Secrets on Facebook

found the whole thing perplexing. “We show that people are prone to sharing more information in the very context in which it's more dangerous to share.” "I didn't understand why people were putting all this information out there," says... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

because frontline staff is empowered to fix problems, senior leaders should sometimes cede responsibility. Thus, Tucker and Singer's paper puzzled some readers, who found it counterintuitive that improvements came when senior leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry

15 May 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Women Find New Path to Work

primarily looking for their entrepreneurial tendencies and collecting a lot of demographic data as well. When I began to sort by gender, I found that the career paths taken by women from HBS were very, very different. It led me to start... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

07 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Corporate Tax Strategies Mirror Personal Returns of Top Execs

not delve into the psychology behind those choices. He and Silva, now husband and wife, co-authored the 2015 working paper Tax-Minded Executives and Corporate Tax Strategies: Evidence from the 2013 Tax Hikes. A correlation on tax preferences View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

31 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Should the Wisdom of Crowds Influence Our Thinking About Leadership?

into a collective decision." In a variety of situations researchers have found that the median view of members of a crowd is more accurate than all but a handful of individuals, and that no individual is able consistently to make... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How Relationships are Building Biotech

that potential investors pay special attention to the career histories of all involved. Careers Count So what career factors gave biotech a boost? Higgins found three specific advantages in chief executive officers who led a successful... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Mallory Stark

23 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Medical Debt Won't Make Everyone Happier

no impact on overall financial wellbeing or mental health. In fact, those who received debt relief were less likely to repay their other outstanding medical bills. Researchers found no impact on credit use and access or financial distress... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

05 Apr 2016
First Look

April 5, 2016

2016 Harvard Business Review Press HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company By: Ruback, Richard S., and Royce Yudkoff Abstract—Find, acquire, and run your own business. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

22 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Advertising: It’s Not ‘Mad Men’ Anymore

preferences for unbundling among agencies and their clients. Using microdata collected by the US Census Bureau from 1982 to 2007, the researchers found that agencies were more likely to unbundle if they were large and diversified in their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

28 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Sophisticated Investors May Be Harming Fintech Lending Platforms

platforms, LendingClub and Prosper. They found that using the LendingRobot screening model paid off by reducing the average loan default rate by more than 20 percent compared to the average level on the platforms. If peer lending... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Banking; Financial Services

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Companies Must Forget—and Borrow

weeks after students took an exam last summer, HBX leaders found a website selling the test questions. It seemed a daunting task to think about devising an endless list of new questions, so now instructors are crowdsourcing by asking... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education; Advertising

07 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Banning Big-box Stores Can Hurt Local Retailers

census data on retail stores located in England, Sadun found that stricter planning restrictions against big-box stores actually coincided with independent retailers closing down or hiring fewer workers, a signal their business was... View Details