decision making - Publications - Faculty & Research

2012
Article

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

By: Francisco J. Gomes, Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Luis M. Viceira

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, it... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Risk and Uncertainty; Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retirement; Policy; Government and Politics

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2017
Working Paper

Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance

By: Diwas S. KC, Bradley R. Staats, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino

How individuals manage, organize, and complete their tasks is central to operations management. Recent research in operations focuses on how under conditions of increasing workload, individuals can increase their service time, up to a point, to complete work more... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity

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22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

Employers looking to fill critical job vacancies may want to turn to a largely untapped pool of willing workers: people with criminal records. Employers are often wary of hiring workers with past convictions, leading to double-digit unemployment rates for formerly... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

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

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October 2022
Case

Ethena: A Go-to-Market Dilemma

By: Rembrand Koning and Stacy Straaberg

In November 2021, Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen, founders of Brooklyn-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Ethena, were looking to expand their compliance training business. The founders hired Arnie Gullov-Singh, an outside revenue consultant, to advise on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

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2022
Article

Reversible Power-to-Gas Systems for Energy Conversion and Storage

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

In the transition to decarbonized energy systems, Power-to-Gas (PtG) processes have the potential to connect the existing markets for electricity and hydrogen. Specifically, reversible PtG systems can convert electricity to hydrogen at times of ample power supply, yet... View Details

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25 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

Collaborating Across Cultures

Working on a $30 million historical epic about the Tang Dynasty to be set in China, Hollywood screenwriter David Franzoni struggled to make the story appeal to Western audiences. Then Franzoni hit upon an idea: tell the tale through the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

13 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

The Case Against Racial Colorblindness

In trying to prevent discrimination and prejudice, many companies adopt a strategy of "colorblindness"—actively trying to ignore racial differences when enacting policies and making organizational decisions. The logic is simple: if we... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Salespeople Struggle at Leading

shouldn’t ever manage, Cespedes cautions. Quite the contrary; sales managers make important decisions that affect salespeople’s lives—doling out territories and quotas—and it’s hard to gain the staff’s... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

28 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Accountability at the World Bank

for better accountability to project-affected communities, or in improving board accountability through greater transparency in decision making, more representative vote allocation, or better parliamentary scrutiny. Before elaborating, I... View Details

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim

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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

08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

Google and Groupon, for instance, a higher percentage of employees work in sales than engineering or data mining. And at Facebook the salesforce's ability to translate 'likes' into advertisers will make or break that company's valuation... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

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Business for Social Impact | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

influence and make an impact. Sustainable Business Strategy Professor Rebecca Henderson Become a purpose-driven leader by learning how to influence key stakeholders and integrate values into your work to catalyze system-level change.... View Details

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

whether it makes sense to continue litigation or put another offer on the table. Even decisions such as whether to put an expert witness on the stand that may seem best made by the litigators require... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

05 Jul 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is “Executive Intelligence” for Leaders?

information that produces decisions Execution is the basic ingredient that makes a great leader." On the other hand, Philip Derrow argued, "Executive intelligence, particularly as Mr. Menkes... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

way to measure the sometimes subjective qualities of what makes a company socially responsible. For that, the researchers relied on survey measures from the World Competitiveness Yearbook, published by IMD business school in Switzerland,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

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Entrepreneurial Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

must have a bias for action. TEM teaches you how to decompose such complex situations, identify critical choices confronting the enterprise, and make high-risk/high reward decisions with limited data.... View Details

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

HBS Alumna Fighting Cancer with a Novel Cell Therapy

started to really think about what I wanted to do, and where a Ph.D. would get me,” Zutshi said. “Did I want to be calling all the scientific shots? Or was I good with being part of a team and helping make things happen?” Realizing her... View Details

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

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