by Michael Pirson - Publications - Faculty & Research

19 Nov 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Marijuana

against federal law? But in the absence of enforcement action by the United States government, perhaps the better question is, what will the inevitable national market in marijuana shake out? Will it consist of grungy underground head... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

24 Nov 2014
Research & Ideas

Corrupting Silence: Companies Must Speak Up Against Bribes

the cost of investment in developing countries by at least 20 percent. And yet, companies are mostly silent on the subject. "The thing that struck me is how little information there is on corruption because no one wants to talk about it,"... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

23 Mar 2021
Book

Succeeding in the New Work-from-Anywhere World

the Author Michael Blanding is a writer based in the Boston area. [Image: Shutterstock/Min C. Chiu] What do you think it takes to succeed as a remote team? Share your insights in the comments below. Book Excerpt Remote Work Revolution:... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

No More General Tso's? A Threat to 'Knowledge Recombination'

In the current squabble over how many skilled immigrants to let into the United States on H1-B visas, academics have fiercely debated whether they create jobs by bringing new skills to companies or whether they take jobs away View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Food & Beverage; Accounting

11 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

How Hackathons Help Decide Platform Winners and Losers

competitive challenges facing software companies. Their market success depends largely on persuading the above-mentioned developers to write for their platforms. A new research paper suggests that the two sides can serve their own best interests View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

19 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Studying How Income Inequality Shapes Behavior

Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Business, Government and the International Economy unit. "It's striking how much work has gone into examining this question—including by many truly... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

29 Apr 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Use Personal Experience to Pick Winning Stocks

Let's face it: in most cases, the stock market knows what it's doing. With millions of people performing their homework and investing money in stocks they hope will pay off, it's hard for any one person to beat the market in a big way. "Markets are efficient. You... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. Toffel

In fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Digital Transformation; Nonprofit Organizations; Service Operations; Human Needs

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2022
Working Paper

Are Experts Blinded by Feasibility?: Experimental Evidence from a NASA Robotics Challenge

By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Zoe Szajnfarber, Jason Crusan, Michael Menietti and Karim R. Lakhani

Resource allocation decisions play a dominant role in shaping a firm’s technological trajectory and competitive advantage. Recent work indicates that innovative firms and scientific institutions tend to exhibit an anti-novelty bias when evaluating new projects and... View Details

Keywords: Evaluations; Novelty; Feasibility; Field Experiment; Resource Allocation; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Decision Making

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20 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

marketing chicanery almost by accident. He was working on a related project involving a major US-based clothing and accessories brand (he can’t say which), when he noticed something odd happening at their outlet stores. “They never even... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Retail

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as those in the Soviet Union and China, which were tightly controlled by government, packed with party apparatchiks, and stifled honest competition by introducing all... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

17 Apr 2017
HBS Case

This Turkish Debt Collector Is Customer-friendly

relationship with money. The company, Turkasset, has been successful with its heterodox techniques, giving it a competitive advantage over rival debt collection firms. What’s more, it has also provided a boon for companies who held the debt in the first place, View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

17 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Companies Detangle from Legacy Pensions

depleted many pension plans by dramatically reducing the value of investments, even while companies were still responsible for paying predetermined benefits. Increasing the pressure are two other factors. Life expectancy has increased,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Aerospace; Financial Services

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

On August 31, 2016, many investors celebrated the 40th birthday of one of the world’s most successful financial instruments: the mutual index fund, created by Vanguard founder John C. Bogle. Index funds, which automatically track an index... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

19 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Michael W. Toffel

19 Oct 2016
Book

Three Critical Mistakes Digital Businesses Make With Content

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Music

2012
Article

Evidence for the Pinocchio Effect: Linguistic Differences Between Lies, Deception by Omissions, and Truths

By: Lyn M. Van Swol, Michael T. Braun and Deepak Malhotra

The study used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and Coh-Metrix software to examine linguistic differences with deception in an ultimatum game. In the game, the Allocator was given an amount of money to divide with the Receiver. The Receiver did not know the precise... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Cognition and Thinking

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