Automation - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Feb 2017
What Do You Think?

Is the Next Jobs Crisis Just Ahead?

the perspective. Sandeep offered that one of the key factors to be considered global demographics. “You have an aging population in the West, which when coupled with increased barriers on cross border immigration would result in acceleration of View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

01 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

Two Decades Later, is the 'New Economy' Finally Here?

create platforms to automate peer-to-peer engagement, and leverage assets by sharing and renting vs. owning. They emphasize experimentation (“fail fast” without career limiting consequences) versus long-range strategic planning, operate... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work

example. Rather than simply following an automated routine, many people in our study would often tailor their conduct toward the victim in ways that reflected the specific challenges of the situation or the needs of the victim. They... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

20 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, March 20, 2018

automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ friendly companies, while still closely tracking the overall stock market performance. In 2017, bolstered by $3.25 million in seed funding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 9

.com sites, and we crawl more than 285,000 of these domains to analyze their revenue sources. We find that 80% are supported by pay-per-click ads, often advertising the correctly spelled domain and its competitors. Another 20% include static redirection to other sites.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

or relax. There are also important environmental benefits—no local emissions, flexible power sources, and reduced energy consumption thanks to lightweight vehicles and automated guidance to prevent unnecessary starts and stops. All this... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Reality of Web Services

"take it or leave it" proposition. Amazon and eBay don't renegotiate Web services standards with each seller; they simply publish their standards and wait for other companies to adopt them. So far Web services are being used to View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant

11 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Shrinking the Racial Wealth Gap, One Mortgage at a Time

racial makeup of loan officers—a job that’s become more nuanced in a largely automated mortgage origination process, Sunderam says. Loan officers are critical to the process Loan officers play an important role for would-be borrowers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

26 Sep 2024
HBS Case

If a Car Can Drive Itself, Can It Make Life-or-Death Decisions?

What would Aristotle think about self-driving cars? As the abilities of artificial intelligence systems to automate complex tasks accelerate, warnings about the dangers of outsourcing life-and-death decisions to machines are pumping the... View Details

Keywords: by Tom Quinn; Auto; Technology

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

want to follow suit. “AI automations of clinical documentation offer significant benefits for physician productivity and well-being.” Critics of the push from volume to value often argue that reducing the emphasis on patient volume may... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Wrapping Your Alliances In a World Wide Web

less well defined in advance than those of the procurement cycle; there is, therefore, the added challenge of process definition before automation can take place. At present, Internet technologies are being widely deployed to meet these... View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

the issues facing Julia Gillard and her Labor Party, with a very thin majority. Purchase this case:http://hbr.org/search/713015-PDF-ENG Automating the Paris Subway (A) Anteby, Michel, Elena Corsi, and Emilie BillaudHarvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Widening Rift Between Corporations and Society

of Internet banking. We expect these efforts to be further refined and developed. We also anticipate that anything that can be automated will be automated. Systems and process that once could not "talk" with one another will be... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

29 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Whence IT Value?

question around which many IT vendors design and sell their products. Instead, functionality continues to be king. New releases of everything from ERP to office automation software tout the new functionality they provide — in other words,... View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

http://hbr.org/product/Opening-the-Valve--From-S/an/415016-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-023 Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Sophisticated Investors May Be Harming Fintech Lending Platforms

traditional banking system had no information about applicants nor any idea how their capital would be deployed. In addition, decisions were made by bankers using largely subjective criteria, or, as Vallée puts it, “He had a soft shake so I’m not going to lend to him.”... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Banking; Financial Services

12 Feb 2016
Op-Ed

The Real Jobs Tragedy in the US: We've Lost the Skills

could aspire to a more prosperous future. Second, when jobs disappear, the skills of a workforce atrophy over time. That is especially true of the middle-skills jobs that require some post-secondary training but don’t require a college degree. With companies preferring... View Details

Keywords: by Joe Fuller and Matt Sigelman; Manufacturing; Electronics

05 Dec 2017
Research & Ideas

What We've Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets

exploring how to automate access to some of the video interviews. It’s trickier than we thought but we’re making progress. So far, it still seems simpler to manually extract relevant quotes since the software for View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

IT Links for Boundaryless Companies

processes and procedures and on complementing process automation with deep content knowledge. Upton also outlined three key challenges for B2B hub builders. First is the domain expertise. ("Important in making the thing work, but... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

09 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Warring Algorithms Could Be Driving Up Consumer Prices

prevalent, and their use will likely receive greater scrutiny as policymakers try to understand the implications for competition. In their paper, MacKay and Brown suggest that one potential policy solution would be restricting the use of competitor pricing as an input... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

Publications