Social Influencers - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2023
Article

Authentic First Impressions Relate to Interpersonal, Social, and Entrepreneurial Success

By: David M. Markowitz, Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino, Jeffrey T. Hancock and Ryan L. Boyd

This paper examines how verbal authenticity influences person perception. Our work combines human judgments and natural language processing to suggest verbal authenticity is a positive predictor of interpersonal interest (Study 1: 294 dyadic conversations), engagement... View Details

Keywords: Authenticity; Impression Formation; Natural Language Processing; First Impressions; Communication; Perception; Success

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October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Engine No.1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil

By: Mark Kramer, Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi and T. Robert Zochowski

ExxonMobil, the world's fifth largest source of carbon emissions, remained committed to aggressively expanding its oil & gas business despite global warming. During the COVID pandemic this strategy resulted in massive losses as the price and demand for oil declined. ... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Global Warming; Impact Investment Funds; Hedge Fund Activism; Leadership Development; Business Model; Renewable Energy; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards

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11 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Why South Korea's Samsung Built the Only Outdoor Skating Rink in Texas

4 to 30 percent once a suit was filed there. “These are big numbers,” says Cohen. They do not even include advertising on social media, where companies can target specific locations and demographics. “I think what we are seeing is just... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Legal Services

30 Aug 2006
Op-Ed

The Compensation Game

in setting executive pay, as we document in our research, directors have not been guided solely by the interests of shareholders. Instead, they have had various economic incentives, reinforced by social and psychological factors, to go... View Details

Keywords: by Lucian Bebchuk & Rakesh Khurana

07 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

allegations Because social media posts can affect short-term demand for specific coins or tokens, securing promotion by influencers is big business that has ensnared some big names. In February 2021, Lindsay... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

February 4, 2013
Guest Column

How Facebook Can Totally Undermine Apple and Google in the Platform Games

By: Andrei Hagiu

Today, Facebook seems like the juggernaut crushing everything in its path, most recently Twitter's Vine app and Yandex's social app. And in its last quarter, Facebook's mobile usage surpassed its web usage—for the first time ever. This is important because Facebook has... View Details

Keywords: Technology Industry

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02 Jul 2022
News

Faith and Assimilation: Italian Immigrants in the Us

23 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 23

Publications 2013 pub Does Social Connection Turn Good Deeds into Good Feelings?: On the Value of Putting the 'Social' in Prosocial Spending By: Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Gillian M. Sandstrom, and Michael I. Norton... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

Awa Ambra Seck

Awa Ambra Seck is an Assistant Professor in the View Details

11 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

When Parents Tell Kids to ‘Work Hard,’ Do They Send the Wrong Message?

“Work hard, and you’ll be successful.” How often do we tell children that the key to success is putting forth effort? That advice might seem like admirable inspiration to encourage kids to work hard as they pursue their goals. However, new research in the Journal of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

2007
Chapter

Career Patterns and Organizational Performance

By: Monica C. Higgins and James R. Dillon

Traditional research on careers examines how organizations and individuals affect career outcomes. This chapter reviews several specific ways in which career histories have been found to influence organizational outcomes. While we incorporate both upper echelons... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Personal Development and Career; Performance

Citation

25 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway

records of graduate business schools, which tend not to consider situational influences in their evaluation of applicants, and are more likely to accept students from schools with lenient grading norms. Applicants with a GPA that is one... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Secino; Education; Employment

2023
Working Paper

The Party and Firm

By: Joris Mueller, Jaya Y. Wen and Cheryl Wu

This project documents the rise of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on firms in China over the last decade. We propose novel quantitative measures of Party influence and present recent trends in those measures. We corroborate qualitative work and find a sharp... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Economic Systems; Power and Influence; Government Administration; Policy; China

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07 Sep 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Decision-Making by Precedent and the Founding of American Honda (1948–1974)

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and John Heilbron; Auto

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

she enters the corner store." What's more, these protections, which have been on a dramatic increase over the last forty years, vary in nature and intent from country to country, influencing the diversity of products that consumers buy.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

2008
Book

Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal About the Minds of Consumers

By: Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman

Why do advertising campaigns and new products often fail? Why do consumers feel that companies don't understand their needs? Because marketers themselves don't think deeply about consumers' innermost thoughts and feelings. Marketing Metaphoria is a... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Nonverbal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Books; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Failure; Nonprofit Organizations; Behavior; Emotions

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Research Summary

Research Summary

By: Ranjay Gulati

My research has focused on interorganizational relationships, with an emphasis on interfirm strategic alliances, which include voluntary exchange or co-development of products, technologies, or services between firms. I examine the factors that influence the... View Details

22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

you. It doesn’t rely on what you say. It observes what you do and choose not to do and builds a model of who you are.” Ghosh’s analysis debuts at a time when TikTok is drawing fresh scrutiny related to how its Chinese owners influence... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

22 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Does Impact Investing Make the Biggest Impact?

The idea of supporting social change has propelled impact investing assets to more than $1 trillion. But what if those funds aren’t as impactful as investors expect? Recent Harvard Business School research indicates that while impact... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 2009 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Barack Obama: Organizing for America 2.0

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Laura Winig and Aaron Smith

Less than a week before Barack Obama was due to be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Obama for America (OFA), the president-elect's official campaign organization, announced the formation of a post-election organization, Organizing for America. The... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Political Elections; Marketing Communications; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet

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