Publications

November 2023
Case

Open Source Machine Learning at Google

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Wattenberg, Fernanda B. Viégas, Daniel Yue and James Barnett

Set in early 2023, the case exposes students to the challenges of managing open source software at Google. The case focuses on the challenges for Alex Spinelli, Vice President of Product Management for Core Machine Learning. He must set priorities for Google’s efforts... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Open Source Distribution; Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States

February 2009
Article

Learning in a New Cardiac Surgical Center: An Analysis of Precursor Events

By: Daniel R. Wong, Imtiaz S. Ali, David F. Torchiana, Arvind K. Agnihotri, Richard Bohmer and Thomas J. Vander Salm

Keywords: Learning; Health; Theory

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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

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

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

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

Guest Column

Is Your Company Encouraging Employees to Share What They Know?

By: Christopher G. Myers

Is your company encouraging employees to share what they know? Too much expertise is going to waste. Many of the things we need to know to be successful—to innovate, collaborate, solve problems, and identify new opportunities—aren't learned simply through schooling,... View Details

Keywords: Vicarious Learning; Learning And Development; Learning Organizations; Knowledge Sharing; Organizations; Employees; Learning

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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

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

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

Mar 2020
Conference Presentation

A New Analysis of Differential Privacy's Generalization Guarantees

By: Christopher Jung, Katrina Ligett, Seth Neel, Aaron Roth, Saeed Sharifi-Malvajerdi and Moshe Shenfeld

We give a new proof of the "transfer theorem" underlying adaptive data analysis: that any mechanism for answering adaptively chosen statistical queries that is differentially private and sample-accurate is also accurate out-of-sample. Our new proof is elementary and... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Transfer Theorem; Mathematical Methods

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

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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

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08 Dec 2006
Working Paper Summaries

When Learning and Performance are at Odds: Confronting the Tension

Keywords: by Sara J. Singer & Amy C. Edmondson

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

05 Dec 2017
Research & Ideas

What We've Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets

studied at Harvard Business School. Credit: Bartosz Hadyniak For perspectives on what has been learned so far, HBS Working Knowledge conducted an email interview with four of the key drivers View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

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

Forthcoming
Article

Advancing Personalization: How to Experiment, Learn & Optimize

By: Aurelie Lemmens, Jason M.T. Roos, Sebastian Gabel, Eva Ascarza, Hernan Bruno, Elea McDonnell Feit, Brett Gordon, Ayelet Israeli, Carl F. Mela and Oded Netzer

Personalization has become the heartbeat of modern marketing. Advances in causal inference and machine learning enable companies to understand how the same marketing action can impact the choices of individual customers differently. This article provides an academic... View Details

Keywords: Targeting; Experiments; Observational Studies; Policy Implementation; Policy Evaluation; Customization and Personalization; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Research