Publications

September 1992
Case

Star Cablevision Group (F): Lessons Learned

By: William A. Sahlman

Last case in a series of six cases. This case describes the company as it reflects back to lessons learned. View Details

Keywords: Learning

Educators

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

1931 of John Wyeth & Brothers. In prescription drugs, the company's initial learning base emerged with the purchase in 1931 of John Wyeth & Brothers, a respected... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Chemical; Health; Manufacturing; Pharmaceutical

21 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Learning from Customers in Outsourcing: Individual and Organizational Effects

Keywords: by Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats

2008
Chapter

When Learning and Performance Are at Odds: Confronting the Tension

By: Sara Jean Singer and A. C. Edmondson

This chapter explores complexities of the relationship between learning and performance. We start with the general proposition that learning promotes performance and then describe several challenges for researchers and managers who wish to study or promote learning in... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Behavior

June 1996 (Revised January 2000)
Case

McKinsey & Co.: Managing Knowledge and Learning

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development of McKinsey & Co. as a worldwide management consulting firm from 1926 to 1996. In particular, it focuses on the way in which McKinsey has developed structures, systems, processes, and practices to help it develop, transfer, and disseminate... View Details

Keywords: Management; Managerial Roles; Management Practices and Processes; Competitive Advantage; Global Range; Knowledge Dissemination; Business Processes; Consulting Industry

Educators

January–February 2022
Article

Algorithm-Augmented Work and Domain Experience: The Countervailing Forces of Ability and Aversion

By: Ryan Allen and Prithwiraj Choudhury

How does a knowledge worker’s level of domain experience affect their algorithm-augmented work performance? We propose and test theoretical predictions that domain experience has countervailing effects on algorithm-augmented performance: on one hand, domain experience... View Details

Keywords: Automation; Domain Experience; Algorithmic Aversion; Experts; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Future Of Work; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Performance

19 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Supply Learning on Customer Demand: Model and Estimation Methodology

Keywords: by Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius & Ananth Raman; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

March 2008
Article

What Have We Learned from Market Design?

By: Alvin E. Roth

This essay discusses some things we have learned about markets, in the process of designing marketplaces to fix market failures. To work well, marketplaces have to provide thickness, i.e. they need to attract a large enough proportion of the potential participants in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Market Design; Market Participation; Market Transactions; Failure; Safety

March – April 2002
Article

The Local and Variegated Nature of Learning in Organizations: A Group-Level Perspective

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Keywords: Learning; Organizations; Perspective; Local Range

14 Mar 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can AI and Machine Learning Help Park Rangers Prevent Poaching?

Keywords: Re: Brian L. Trelstad; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

Article

Towards the Unification and Robustness of Perturbation and Gradient Based Explanations

By: Sushant Agarwal, Shahin Jabbari, Chirag Agarwal, Sohini Upadhyay, Steven Wu and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As machine learning black boxes are increasingly being deployed in critical domains such as healthcare and criminal justice, there has been a growing emphasis on developing techniques for explaining these black boxes in a post hoc manner. In this work, we analyze two... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Black Box Explanations; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Information Technology

June, 2021
Article

Learning from Deregulation: The Asymmetric Impact of Lockdown and Reopening on Risky Behavior During COVID-19

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Ginger Zhe Jin, Benjamin T. Leyden and Michael Luca

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states issued and then rescinded stay-at-home orders that restricted mobility. We develop a model of learning by deregulation, which predicts that lifting stay-at-home orders can signal that going out has become safer. Using restaurant... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Reopening; Impact; Coronavirus; Public Health Measures; Mobility; Health Pandemics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior

March 2023
Article

Learning to Successfully Hire in Online Labor Markets

By: Marios Kokkodis and Sam Ransbotham

Hiring in online labor markets involves considerable uncertainty: which hiring choices are more likely to yield successful outcomes and how do employers adjust their hiring behaviors to make such choices? We argue that employers will initially explore the value of... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Analysis; Decision Choices and Conditions

September 1999
Background Note

Learning from Projects: Note on Conducting a Postmortem Analysis

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky

Describes how firms can learn from projects through postmortem analysis. Focuses on the step-by-step process of preparing and running a postmortem meeting as it is done at Microsoft and other software developers. View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Software; Information Technology Industry

Educators

Article

Overcoming the Winner's Curse: An Adaptive Learning Perspective

By: Yoella Bereby-Meyer and Brit Grosskopf

The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Algorithm-Augmented Work and Domain Experience: The Countervailing Forces of Ability and Aversion

By: Ryan Allen and Prithwiraj Choudhury

Past research offers mixed perspectives on whether domain experience helps or hurts algorithm-augmented work performance. To reconcile these perspectives, we theorize that domain experience affects algorithm-augmented performance via two distinct countervailing... View Details

Keywords: Automation; Domain Experience; Algorithmic Aversion; Experts; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Decision-making; Future Of Work; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Performance

Research Summary

Organisational Learning in Software Requirements Engineering and Management

The current research project addresses the continuing low success rate of software development projects, which has been frequently reported in empirical studies. For example, the 2004 Chaos Report by the Standish Group found that only 29% of 9,236 application... View Details

17 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

What Hospitals Must Learn to Compete

Harvard Business School professors Raffaella Sadun and Leemore Dafny are both economists who have studied hospitals extensively—Sadun’s research has looked at the economics of management, while Dafny’s examines interactions between health... View Details

Keywords: by Alumni Bulletin Staff; Health

2005
Working Paper

Team Learning Trade-Offs: When Improving One Critical Dimension of Performance Inhibits Another

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Ann B. Winslow, Amy C. Edmondson and Gary P. Pisano