Publications

SSRN

May 2025
Article

Punitive but Discerning: Reputation Can Fuel Ambiguously-Deserved Punishment, but Does Not Erode Sensitivity to Nuance

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Nour S. Kteily

The desire to appear virtuous can motivate people to punish wrongdoers, a desirable outcome when punishment is clearly deserved. Yet claims that “virtue signaling” is fueling a culture of outrage suggest that reputation concerns may inspire even potentially unmerited... View Details

Keywords: Outrage; Signaling; Ideology; Moralistic Punishment; Reputation; Moral Sensibility

2010
Working Paper

The Unbundling of Advertising Agency Services: An Economic Analysis

By: Mohammad Arzaghi, Ernst R. Berndt, James C. Davis and Alvin J. Silk

We address a longstanding puzzle surrounding the unbundling of services occurring over several decades in the U.S. advertising agency industry: What accounts for the shift from bundling to unbundling of services and the slow pace of change? Using Evans and Salinger's... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Change; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Price; Analytics and Data Science; Surveys; Marketing Strategy; Media; Service Operations; Agency Theory; Mathematical Methods; Advertising Industry; United States

08 Jan 2019
News

HBX Rebrands to Harvard Business School Online to Help Extend Reach of Online Programs

November 2002 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Martha McCaskey

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Bart J. van Dissel

Martha McCaskey, a project leader at a consulting firm, is asked to complete a project at a crucial point in her career. Successful completion of the project would gain McCaskey a promotion and a significant raise. McCaskey, however, cannot see a way to complete the... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Consulting Industry

29 Nov 2021
Research & Ideas

How Bonuses Get Employees to Choose Work Over Family

When your boss asks you to meet with clients for last-minute drinks, are you tempted to clear your calendar, even if it means missing your child’s piano recital? If so, you’re among the many professionals who tend to prioritize professional relationships over personal... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka

January 2021
Supplement

Aster DM Healthcare: Budget Exercise

By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had... View Details

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

01 Jun 2022
Blog Post

Five Lessons From My First Year at HBS

protagonists to make critical decisions in the face of conflict, uncertainty, and ambiguity. There are some cases where I come to class extremely confident that my viewpoint is the only right one. In class,... View Details

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

Find at Harvard

April 2006
Module Note

Cross-Border Financial Opportunities

By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs

Describes the fifth module in the International Finance course at Harvard Business School. This module explores how segmented capital markets create financing opportunities for firms and the mechanisms that evolve to take advantage of those opportunities. The issues... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Capital Markets; Decisions; International Finance; Motivation and Incentives; Taxation

2008
Working Paper

Where Does It Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained

By: Shawn A. Cole, John Thompson and Peter Tufano

In this paper, we analyze the spending decisions of over 1.5 million Americans who vary in their degree of revealed credit constraints. Specifically, we analyze how these Americans spend their income tax refunds, using transaction-level data from a stored-value card... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Credit; Personal Finance; Spending; Taxation; Consumer Behavior; United States

January 2025
Case

Reimagining the Employee Experience at the LEGO Group

By: Amy Edmondson, Mark Mortensen and Elisabeth Powell

In 2024, the LEGO Group faced a decision about the future of LEGO’s Benefits Experience Strategy and the “Best of Both” remote/hybrid work policy. With over 28,500 employees spanning global hubs, retail stores, and manufacturing plants, LEGO leaders had to consider... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Employee Relationship Management; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Alignment; Compensation and Benefits; Europe

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

10 Oct 2016
Book

Why White-Collar Criminals Commit Their Crimes

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

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

20 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Is the MBA Worth It? Hear What Recent HBS Grads Have to Say

full-time MBA experience once in your life. You want to make sure that you pick the right two years personally and professionally. I wouldn't worry so much about the financial component -- just focus on if the time in your life is right... View Details

August 20, 2024
Article

Sexual Assault Victims Face a Penalty for Adjacent Consent

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Across 11 experimental studies (n = 12,257), we show that female victims of sexual assault are blamed more and seen as less morally virtuous if their assault follows voluntary sexual intimacy, a factor we term “adjacent consent”. Moreover, we illuminate a... View Details

Keywords: Perception; Prejudice and Bias; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues

February 1992 (Revised April 1993)
Case

Acid Rain: The Southern Co. (A)

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

The Southern Co., an electric utility, is planning its compliance with the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. The Act established a system of tradeable permits for sulfur dioxide emissions. The company must decide whether to install pollution control equipment and... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Business Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Management; Strategic Planning; Investment Return; Government Legislation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; United States