Learning By Doing - Publications - Faculty & Research

"Learning Through Noticing: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment"

We consider a model of technological learning under which people "learn through noticing": they choose which input dimensions to attend to and subsequently learn about from available data. Using this model, we show how people with a great deal of experience may... View Details

19 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

Business Research that Makes for Smarter Public Policy

Academic business research typically travels one-way. From government agencies, scholars gather and process data—say on workplace safety or environmental pollution—perform analysis, and publish the results. Rarely, however, do they take... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Risky Business with Structured Finance

In the wake of the financial crisis, many once-esoteric investment terms have become a familiar part of our vocabulary. The role of structured finance securities such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), for example, and the part played View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

29 May 2001
Research & Ideas

Good News, Not Blues, For the Inner City

becoming more competitive and moving up. "We can't expect government to be on the front line," he stated. "We have to step up and demonstrate the power of the market system." Businesspeople should be thinking about the inner city as a place to View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

27 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

New Cluster Mapping Project Helps Companies Locate Facilities

influenced not just by the decisions it makes and the assets inside the company, but also by the surrounding business environment in the locations at which the company operates. The business environment... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Aug 2021
What Do You Think?

Can Companies with Remote Management Succeed?

idiosyncratic to one organization? All banks operating in a conventional format? All companies relying heavily on collaborative work? All companies with great cultures? Or is it applicable to all companies? Can a company managed from anywhere be great? What View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Blog

Should You Pursue the Certificate of Management Excellence?

choosing from the several program options curated by HBS in each category, you will create a three-year learning path that is right for you. This approach delivers critical flexibility, as you can tailor... View Details

Clubs

French-Speaking Club

08 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Fix a Broken Marketplace

Roth discusses these and other markets in his reflective paper What Have We Learned from Market Design?, which draws from decades of his fieldwork. In the paper, published in 2008 and updated in September 2010, Roth discusses how issues... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

27 Apr 2021
Blog Post

There Are No HBS People, Just People Who Happen to Go to HBS

recounted lessons she learned throughout her life gave me the sense I could pretty much do anything. During my final year of high school, I identified my love for science and beauty, but I didn’t know what I... View Details

31 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The Faculty Reader: Who is Reading What This Summer?

carry over to technology strategy today. Finally, I look forward to learning more about the ultimate enigma of our time in Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. This... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Information; Publishing

11 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Neuroeconomics: Eyes, Brain, Business

why the brain evolved to pay attention to other people.” The problem was that while the film's characters appeared astonishingly human in many ways, their eyes looked lifeless. Viewers were creeped out. Humans are often delighted by... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

has more information on that dog than you do as a potential buyer or pet guardian, and that can lead to adverse situations,” Exley says. “The information asymmetry and search costs were what really motivated Wagaroo.” In his research on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

01 Jun 2025
News

Forward Thinking

The tallest animal to roam the land, giraffes cast long shadows on the dry savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa where they live. But their lands are vanishing, with estimates suggesting that 90 percent of their habitat has already been lost; giraffe populations... View Details

Keywords: Jen Mcfarland Flint; Illustrations by Maria Jesus Contreras; Animal Production and Aquaculture; Agriculture

06 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best

It's well understood that cash bonuses often motivate a sales force to step up its game, but they don't work in every scenario and in some cases can backfire, a new study from Harvard Business School has found. The key variable? Whether the sales rep had to View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

2022
Working Paper

Communicating Corporate Culture in Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings

By: Joseph Pacelli, Tianshuo Shi and Yuan Zou

We examine how firms craft their job postings to convey information about their culture and whether doing so helps attract employees. We utilize state-of-the-art machine learning methods to develop a comprehensive dictionary of key corporate values across the near... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture Significance; Labor Markets; Disclosure; Organizational Culture; Recruitment; Talent and Talent Management

Citation

SSRN

29 Jan 2015
Op-Ed

The Fall of Greece

them by favoring reform based on central government control rather than the forces of competition, meritocracy, and individual accountability. Let me be clear about one thing: the previous government, as most previous governments, failed... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

four leading global food safety firms gives their testing a certain level of external validity that they may not enjoy by doing their own testing, although big companies such as Nestle remain strongly... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

know and control what is done with their information. Q: Do these services do better by focusing on the higher-end market, or is the resistance you describe pretty universal... View Details