Sequential Decision Making - Publications - Faculty & Research

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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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

Article

The Wisdom of Competitive Crowds

By: Kenneth C. Lichtendahl, Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Phillip E. Pfeifer

When several individuals are asked to forecast an uncertain quantity, they often face implicit or explicit incentives to be the most accurate. Despite the desire to elicit honest forecasts, such competition induces forecasters to report strategically and nontruthfully.... View Details

Keywords: Forecast; Forecasting and Prediction

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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

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

13 Jan 2020
News

The Business Case for Becoming a Jack-of-All-Trades

10 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

Has #MeToo Changed How Hollywood Hires?

Female representation in movies has been consistently low, with women making up only 4.5 percent of directors and 14.4 percent of writers for top-grossing films. Worse, many women have endured sexual harassment and abuse. In October 2017,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Media & Broadcasting

09 Apr 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

The Dark Side of Performance Bonuses

several years ago, is that those bank bonuses also caused loan officers to perceive reality differently—they believed those loans would succeed. It’s not just financial incentives that are under study. Employers seek to change the behavior of workers in all manner of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

12 Feb 2014
Working Paper Summaries

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

Keywords: by Susan Helper & Rebecca Henderson; Auto

08 Sep 2015
News

Knowledge Transfer: You Can't Learn Surgery By Watching

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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January 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

DO & CO: Crafting Luxury in the Fast Lane (A)

By: Juan Alcácer, Esel Cekin, Michael Lee and Noah Roberson

In July 2023, Attila Dogudan, the chairman of DO & CO, a renowned international catering firm, found himself in a deep conversation with his two sons about a potential new venture: catering for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a significant step beyond their 31-year history... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Pandemics; Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Luxury; Food and Beverage Industry; Las Vegas

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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

Web

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

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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01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

Illustration by Shane Cluskey Like pet owners everywhere, Katie Spies (MBA 2019) would do anything for her dog. In 2014, when her Italian greyhound, George, started experiencing seizures and other health problems that didn’t respond to medications, the vet recommended... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

28 Jun 2021
Blog Post

7 Things HBS Taught Me the Last 2 Years

helped enrich the class’s understanding around cases in tech, marketing, and strategy. #3 The case method teaches you to lead in the unknown. The protagonists in almost all of the 500 cases we read and discussed had imperfect information. They had to View Details

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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