Publications

SSRN

Read Now

Dean Srikant Datar Statements & Speeches | About

October 10, 2023 Statement on Supreme Court Decision Harvard University leadership, including Dean Srikant Datar, address the Harvard community after the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Students for... View Details

Accuracy Obsession: Humans Prioritize Immaterial AI Accuracy Over Their Own Compensation — Unless We Educate Them

1. Problem definition: Accuracy isn't everything. In many contexts, high or low sensitivity is more important than overall correctness — and yet, we find that humans prefer accurate algorithms, even to their detriment. Specifically, we identify and address an... View Details

12 Feb 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Management Practices, Relational Contracts, and the Decline of General Motors

Keywords: by Susan Helper & Rebecca Henderson; Auto

Research Summary

Overview

By: Charlotte L. Robertson

Professor Robertson conducts research on the history of financial markets. Her book manuscript and working papers shed light on the evolution of securities markets and the relationship between finance, governance, and society. Some of the topics she pursues include:... View Details

16 Jun 2021
HBS Case

Cruising in Crisis: How Carnival Is Riding Out the COVID-19 Storm

management, accepting the reality of the situation and taking big actions relatively quickly." Carnival’s success has been due in part to investors’ faith in the company’s ability to right itself, but corporate leaders also made some savvy business View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Travel

17 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

How Our Brain Determines if the Product is Worth the Price

neuroscience tools to shed light on how our brains make purchasing decisions. "We were interested in whether considering the price first changed how people thought about the decision process, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

Gulati: The difference between the outside-in and inside-out perspectives is central to the book's arguments. When I began this research, I naively assumed that all firms must indeed have an outside-in orientation whereby they put their customers first in all their... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

April 2020 (Revised June 2022)
Technical Note

Quantitative Analysis in Marketing

By: Sunil Gupta

Marketing is a combination of art and science that requires both qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at effective decisions. This note highlights how quantitative analysis can help in the following marketing decisions: estimating market size, determining... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Marketing; Decision Making; Analysis

Forthcoming
Article

Public Perception and Autonomous Vehicle Liability

By: Julian De Freitas, Xilin Zhou, Margherita Atzei, Shoshana Boardman and Luigi Di Lillo

The deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the accompanying societal and economic benefits will greatly depend on how much liability AV firms will have to carry for accidents involving these vehicles, which in turn impacts their insurability and associated... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Judgments; Legal Liability; Insurance; Perception

Read Now

January 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Forecasting the Great Depression

By: Walter A. Friedman

What is proper role of professional economic forecasting in financial decision making? The case presents excerpts from three leading economic forecasters on the eve of, and just after, the stock market crash of October 1929. The first set of excerpts is from Roger... View Details

Keywords: History; Mathematical Methods; Personal Development and Career; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis

30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

they were in their decision to purchase a product. “Pricing is a big decision,” Ofek observes. If the retailer decides to offer every consumer the same price, the result can drag down the store price and lower profit. “But when you talk... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

29 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 29, 2008

Authors:Yonca Ertimur, Fabrizio Ferri, and Stephen R. Stubben Abstract We document the frequency of implementation of non-binding, majority-vote (MV) shareholder proposals and analyze the determinants and consequences of Boards' decisions... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Channels of Influence

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun & Christopher J. Malloy

November 2021
Case

LKQ-Stahlgruber

By: Guhan Subramanian and Caeden Brynie

Through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, LKQ Corp. became the leading aftermarket auto parts distributor in the U.S. by the early 2000s. Beginning in 2012, the company began similarly consolidating the European marketplace. However, by 2017, the... View Details

Keywords: Consolidation; Acquisition; Decision Making; Strategy; Opportunities; Europe; Germany

10 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Perspectives on Anti-Racism in the HKS Curriculum

In fall 2020, the Harvard Kennedy School incorporated a two-week module on Race and Racism in the Making of the United States as a Global Super power into the MPP core curriculum. The school created this module in response to calls by the... View Details

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist?

human decision making, motivation, and interaction, which of course have strong implications for what drives consumption and savings decisions, worker productivity and effort, and market exchange. Only rarely did he View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Boston.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jon K Rust

How aggressively should an incumbent move when developing an online business that threatens its core product? With Internet competitors taking direct aim at the traditional print newspaper business model, the Boston Globe fought back with its own web initiative,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Change Management; Internet and the Web; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Publishing Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States