Publications

2007
Working Paper

Harnessing Our Inner Angels and Demons: What We Have Learned About Want/Should Conflicts and How That Knowledge Can Help Us Reduce Short-Sighted Decision Making

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman

Although observers of human behavior have long been aware that people regularly struggle with internal conflict when deciding whether to behave responsibly or indulge in impulsivity, psychologists and economists did not begin to empirically investigate this type of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Policy; Behavior; Conflict and Resolution

2008
Working Paper

Media versus Special Interests

By: Alexander Dyck, David A. Moss and Luigi Zingales

We argue that profit-maximizing media helps overcome the problem of "rational ignorance" highlighted by Downs (1957) and in so doing makes elected representatives more sensitive to the interests of general voters. By collecting news and combining it with entertainment,... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Government Legislation; Media; Interests; Power and Influence; United States

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

by Karen Golden-Biddle and Jane E. Dutton. Series in Organization and Management. New York: Psychology Press, 2012 Abstract How can application of a positive lens to understanding social change and organizations enrich and elaborate... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Why We Don’t Study Corporate Responsibility

psychological implications of asking managers to focus on dual objectives. Having to advance economic performance and be socially responsible, some argue, destines managers to do neither. Some fear it is a recipe for distraction,... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

15 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 15, 2017

duties by way of assigning moral agency to business enterprises, we would do better to provide an account of the purpose of the for-profit business enterprises that is not simply about the pursuit of profit. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Motivated Inferences of Price and Quality in Healthcare Decisions

By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz and Peter A. Ubel

Policy makers have increasingly advocated for healthcare price transparency, whereby prices are made salient before services are rendered. While such policies may empower consumers, they also bring price to the forefront of healthcare choices as never before, with yet... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Price Transparency; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Quality; Perception; Consumer Behavior; Decisions; Insurance

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2019
Working Paper

Persuasive Propaganda During the 2015 Argentine Ballotage

By: Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky

We study a propaganda campaign sponsored by the government against the main political challenger in the days preceding the 2015 Argentine runoff presidential election. Subjects in the treatment group watched an “ad” initially aired during soccer transmissions that was... View Details

Keywords: Propaganda; Persuasion; Voting; Political Elections; Government and Politics; Communication Strategy; Power and Influence; Public Opinion; Argentina

June 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Teaching Note

Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear: Bringing the Executive Team Together

By: Boris Groysberg, Tricia Gregg and Katherine Connolly Baden

Teaching Note for HBS No. 417-048. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Communication; Cooperation; Decision Making; Leadership

Purchase

April–May 2017
Article

Career Concerns of Banking Analysts

By: Joanne Horton, George Serafeim and Shan Wu

We study how career concerns influence banking analysts' forecasts and how their forecasting behavior benefits both them and bank managers. We show that banking analysts issue early in the year relatively more optimistic and later in the year more pessimistic forecasts... View Details

Keywords: Sell-side Analysts; Analyst Forecasts; Analysts; Investment Recommendations; Career Advancement; Career Management; Labor Mobility; Labor Market; Prejudice and Bias; Personal Development and Career; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Banking

SSRN

2012
Working Paper

Relational Contracts and Organizational Capabilities

By: R. Gibbons and R. Henderson

A large literature identifies unique organizational capabilities as a potent source of competitive advantage, yet our knowledge of why capabilities fail to diffuse more rapidly-particularly in situations in which competitors apparently have strong incentives to adopt... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Contracts; Competency and Skills; Relationships; Complexity

October 2011
Supplement

Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder, In-class comments 4/8/11

By: David A. Garvin

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry

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April 2011
Exercise

Strategic Foresight: An Exercise

The exercise asks students to perform a strategic analysis of the consulting industry in order to identify untapped strategic opportunities. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Supply and Industry; Strategic Planning; Opportunities; Cognition and Thinking; Strategy; Consulting Industry

February 2010
Article

Managing Know-How

By: Deishin Lee and Eric J. Van den Steen

We study how firms can use a knowledge management system to optimally leverage employee-generated know-how. In particular, we consider the following practical strategic questions for the manager of a knowledge-intensive firm: should her firm develop a formal knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Change; Employees; Information; Knowledge Management; Outcome or Result; Practice; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; System; Value

February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?

By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson

Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Commercialization

Educators

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2007
Article

Convictions, Conventions and the Operational Risk Maze—The Cases of Three Financial Services Institutions

By: Anette Mikes

Making sense of operational risk practices in the financial services sector is a challenge. There is a temptation to explain the wide variety of approaches as a characteristic of the early stage of development in which the genre resides.
Based on the evidence of... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Conflict and Resolution; Organizations; Financial Services Industry

2004
Book

R&D Meets M&A: Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Innovation and Creativity in Chemical R&D

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

Keywords: Research and Development; Mergers and Acquisitions; Conferences; Innovation and Invention; Creativity; Science