Publications

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

confront the bigger decision of whether or not to invest in solar panels to generate electricity for her home. Although pre-disposed to pursue environmentally friendly alternatives, the project entailed significant up-front expenses and... View Details

August 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Case

High Wire Act: Credit Suisse and Contingent Capital (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

Late in 2010, Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan and his team closed in on the decision of whether or not to issue contingent capital, which Swiss regulators would require by 2019. There were a number of substantial issues facing Dougan and his team, including whether... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Capital Markets; Financial Crisis; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; International Finance; Financial Liquidity; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland

04 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Navigating Consumer Data Privacy in an AI World

advocate for what they want, often under scrutiny from their peers. You also have citizen groups piping up, cautioning, "Hey, let's be careful about that." Eventually, the government steps in, saying, "We'll chat with big tech to make... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

2020
Working Paper

Topic Preference Detection: A Novel Approach to Understand Perspective Taking in Conversation

By: Michael Yeomans and Alison Wood Brooks

Although most humans engage in conversations constantly throughout their lives, conversational mistakes are commonplace— interacting with others is difficult, and conversation re-quires quick, relentless perspective-taking and decision making. For example: during every... View Details

Keywords: Natural Language Processing; Interpersonal Communication; Perspective; Decision Making; Perception

March 2011
Article

Do Sell-Side Stock Analysts Exhibit Escalation of Commitment?

By: John Beshears and Katherine L. Milkman

This paper presents evidence that when an analyst makes an out-of-consensus forecast of a company's quarterly earnings that turns out to be incorrect, she escalates her commitment to maintaining an out-of-consensus view on the company. Relative to an analyst who was... View Details

Keywords: Escalation Of Commitment; Stock Market; Updating; Behavioral Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Consumer Behavior; Financial Markets; Forecasting and Prediction

2011
Working Paper

Naiveté and Cynicism in Negotiations and Other Competitive Contexts

By: Chia-Jung Tsay, Lisa L. Shu and Max Bazerman

A wealth of literature documents how the common failure to think about the self-interests of others contributes to suboptimal outcomes. Yet sometimes, an excess of cynicism appears to lead us to over-think the actions of others and make negative attributions about... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Perspective; Trust; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Into the Raging Sea: Final Voyage of the SS El Faro

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Mel Martin

Captain Michael Davidson of the container ship SS El Faro was determined to make his planned shipping trip on time—but a hurricane was approaching his intended path. To succeed, Davidson and his fellow officers must plot a course to avoid the storm in the face of... View Details

Keywords: Power Dynamics; Management; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Failure; Groups and Teams; Rank and Position; Decision Choices and Conditions; Shipping Industry; United States

17 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Sharing Design Rights: A Commons Approach for Developing Infrastructure

Keywords: by Nuno Gil & Carliss Y. Baldwin

July 2019
Article

I Know Why You Voted for Trump: (Over)inferring Motives Based on Choice

By: Kate Barasz, Tami Kim and Ioannis Evangelidis

People often speculate about why others make the choices they do. This paper investigates how such inferences are formed as a function of what is chosen. Specifically, when observers encounter someone else's choice (e.g., of political candidate), they use the chosen... View Details

Keywords: Self-other Difference; Social Perception; Inference-making; Preferences; Consumer Behavior; Prediction; Prediction Error; Decision Choices and Conditions; Perception; Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction

10 Feb 2020
In Practice

6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting Business Strategy

Innovation Science. 2. Technology is propelling business transformation “While some firms think about technology merely as a different type of capital investment that does not impact their way of doing things, others are adopting new technologies as they View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Web

Resources - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

Method by David Garvin October 2003 Harvard Magazine Making the Case by David Garvin Background Notes 1995, rev. 1996 Choreographing a Case Class by V. Kasturi Rangan Compares four different approaches to case teaching: lecturing,... View Details

September 2009
Case

Culinarian Cookware: Pondering Price Promotion

By: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham

In November of 2006, senior executives at Culinarian Cookware were debating the merits of price promotions for the company's premium cookware products. The VP of Marketing, Donald Janus, and Senior Sales Manager, Victoria Brown, had different views. Janus felt price... View Details

Keywords: Profitability Analysis; Consumer Marketing; Brand Equity; Pricing Policies; Sales Promotions; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Decisions; Goals and Objectives; Price; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Management Teams; Sales; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

May 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Motorola-Penang

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

S.K. Ko managed Motorola's Penang, Malaysia factory, producing telecommunications components and equipment. As a female manager of a multi-ethnic and labor-intensive plant in Asia, Ko faced a number of challenges. She had already promoted quality circles and quality... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Transformation; Decision Making; Ethnicity; Gender; Training; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Problems and Challenges; Technology Industry; Malaysia

March 2021
Article

Deliberately Prejudiced Self-driving Vehicles Elicit the Most Outrage

By: Julian De Freitas and Mina Cikara

Should self-driving vehicles be prejudiced, e.g., deliberately harm the elderly over young children? When people make such forced-choices on the vehicle’s behalf, they exhibit systematic preferences (e.g., favor young children), yet when their options are unconstrained... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Autonomous Vehicles; Driverless Policy; Moral Outrage; Moral Sensibility; Judgments; Transportation; Policy

23 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 23, 2018

benefit from staggered boards, in part because managers make more valuable long-term investments and reduce myopic behavior. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50815 Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

Obama administration. Q: Elsewhere you have described three fundamental decisions facing any business: where to play, how to deliver, and how to win. Taking the first fundamental, how can an entrepreneur think creatively about View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

24 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

SuperCorp: Values as Guidance System

computer companies prominent in 1975; it has entered and exited businesses, but it is recognizably the same institution. Common vocabulary and guidance for consistent decisions. The need for fast decisions and actions in far-flung or... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

Toyota's ever-widening problems are a tragic case study in how not to lead in crisis. Under the media spotlight, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies.... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

March 2021
Article

The Crowd Emotion Amplification Effect

By: Amit Goldenberg, Erika Weisz, Timothy D. Sweeney, Mina Cikara and James Gross

How do people go about reading a room or taking the temperature of a crowd? When people catch a brief glimpse of an array of faces, they can only focus their attention on some of the faces. We propose that perceivers preferentially attend to faces exhibiting strong... View Details

Keywords: Crowds; Social Cognition; Intergroup Dynamics; Emotions; Perception; Judgments; Analysis