Publications

December 24, 2019
Article

Why It's So Hard to Change People's Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella S. Kristal and A. V. Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Motivating People; Time And Wellbeing; Time Stress; Commuting; Behavior; Change; Motivation and Incentives

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March 2022
Teaching Note

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Coffman and Olivia Hull

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 921-006, “Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham." This case invites students to explore the individual and structural factors that lead to an under-representation of women in male-dominated domains, and to think critically about... View Details

Keywords: Inclusion; Gender Gap; Gender Inclusivity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

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December 2015
Article

Introduction: New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structure

By: Viral Acharya, Heitor Almeida and Malcolm Baker

The National Bureau of Economic Research held a symposium titled "New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structures" on April 5–6, 2013 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its call for the submission of theoretical and empirical papers for the symposium, the NBER noted that... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Corporate Finance

2015
Working Paper

Toxic Workers

By: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor

While there has been a strong focus in past research on discovering and developing top performers in the workplace, less attention has been paid to the question of how to manage those workers on the opposite side of the spectrum: those who are harmful to organizational... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Human Resource Management; Misconduct; Worker Productivity; Superstar; Ethics; Performance Productivity; Personal Characteristics; Employees

SSRN

February 1985 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Caterpillar Tractor Co.

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the structure and evolution of the earth moving equipment industry worldwide in the post war era, particularly focusing on developments in the 1960s and 1970s. Describes Caterpillar's strategy in becoming the dominant worldwide competitor (industry market... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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19 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

What Makes Employees Trust (vs. Second-Guess) AI?

When an algorithm recommends ways to improve business outcomes, do employees trust it? Conventional wisdom suggests that understanding the inner workings of artificial intelligence (AI) can raise confidence in such programs. Yet, new View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

The Commercialization of Internet Infrastructure

By: Shane M. Greenstein

Why did commercial Internet service initially develop in some geographical areas and not others? What determines the success of businesses? What determines the value of Internet services? The research stream developed the first analysis of the Internet access... View Details

November 2013
Exercise

People Management (Abridged)

By: Boris Groysberg

Highlights critical gaps between research and practice in the field of strategic human resources management. Also, aims to debunk some myths and preconceptions that general managers bring to their HR decisions. Before class, participants fill out a true-or-false... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Management; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Performance Evaluation

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December 24, 2019
Editorial

Why It’s So Hard to Change People’s Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella Kristal and Ashley Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Satisfaction; Behavior; Employees

April 2012
Article

The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose

By: Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie John and George Loewenstein

Two sets of studies illustrate the comparative nature of disclosure behavior. The first set investigates how divulgence is affected by signals about others' readiness to divulge. Study 1A shows a "herding" effect, such that survey respondents are more willing to... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Surveys; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Judgments; Consumer Behavior; Standards

15 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

supplemented these data with data on employment opportunities and gender inequality across countries. The survey included several pages of questions related to gender attitudes, home life, and career path. The View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 14

innovation in which an innovator uses several research inputs to invent a new good. These inputs, in turn, must be invented before they can be used by the final innovator. As a consequence, the degree of patent protection affects the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Utilizing Display, Feature and Price Promotions: Getting the Biggest Bang for the Buck

Firms are continuously looking for more efficient ways to influence consumers to purchase their brand. Professor Lemon is conducting research to understand what motivates consumers' purchases of products and services. Her research suggests new strategies for category... View Details

Article

Course Research: Using the Case Method to Build and Teach Management Theory

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Paul R. Carlile

Some in the Academy have questioned the usefulness of case studies in teaching sound management theory (Shugan 2006). Our research and experience suggests exactly the opposite-that case studies can unite the development of theory with the teaching of it in a single... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Teaching; Cases; Research; Theory

25 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

Collaborating Across Cultures

today's business environment, says Roy Y.J. Chua, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School who has focused his research on exploring how such collaboration can effectively take place. A... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2017
Article

Frictions or Mental Gaps: What's Behind the Information We (Don't) Use and When Do We Care?

By: Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein

Consumers suffer significant losses from not acting on available information. These losses stem from frictions such as search costs, switching costs, and rational inattention, as well as what we call mental gaps resulting from wrong priors/worldviews, or relevant... View Details

Keywords: Information; Consumer Behavior

01 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

Please fit in accordingly. But research suggests that employee orientation ought to be less about the company and more about the employee. In their paper "Breaking Them In or Revealing Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomers'... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Web Services; Service; Telecommunications

March 2020
Article

The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey

By: Shelle Santana, Manoj Thomas and Vicki Morwitz

At each stage in customers’ journeys, they encounter different types of numeric information that they process using different judgment strategies. Relevant numbers might include budgets, price, product attributes, product counts, product ratings, numbers in brand... View Details

Keywords: Numbers; Heuristics; Numerical Cognition; Pricing; Customer Journey; Information; Consumer Behavior