Natural Field Experiment - Publications - Faculty & Research

December 2019
Article

Communicating with Warmth in Distributive Negotiations Is Surprisingly Counterproductive

By: M. Jeong, J. Minson, M. Yeomans and F. Gino

When entering into a negotiation, individuals have the choice to enact a variety of communication styles. We test the differential impact of being “warm and friendly” versus “tough and firm” in a distributive negotiation, when first offers are held constant and... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Communication Strategy; Perception; Performance Effectiveness; Outcome or Result

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21 May 2012
Research & Ideas

OSHA Inspections: Protecting Employees or Killing Jobs?

measures. When he and colleague David I. Levine heard of a program at California OSHA to conduct randomized inspections of workplaces, they realized they had the perfect real-world experiment to settle the debate over workplace... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

results .” Kamal Gupta, citing his experience with corporate bureaucrats, said, “We have a word for it; we call these people ‘zombie managers.’ They keep on pushing papers round and round, and then the actual decision goes to a guy who... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

2016
Chapter

Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani

This paper discusses several challenges in designing field experiments to better understand how organizational and institutional design shapes innovation outcomes and the production of knowledge. We proceed to describe the field experimental research program carried... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Research; Knowledge; Innovation and Invention

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Research Summary

The Psychology of Conversation

By: Alison Wood Brooks

Conversation is a profound part of the human experience. To share our ideas, thoughts, and feelings with each other, we converse face to face and remotely—via phone, email, text message, online comment boards, and in contracts. Conversations form the bedrock of our... View Details

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

In the 1920s, on pitch black nights in rural eastern Montana, the farmhouse owned by the parents of brothers Marcellus and Joe Jacobs stood out for one reason: it had light, although located far from power lines and gasoline supplies. It was a beacon in the dark that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Jon M. Jachimowicz

Jon M. Jachimowicz is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the Leadership and Organizational Behavior course (LEAD) in the Required Curriculum. He studies... View Details

Research Summary

Relational Motivation & Need Expectations

My current research in this area explores the ways in which the nature of relational interactions at work facilitate, or supress, important individual and organizational outcomes such as motivation, engagement and personal well-being. Much of my work in this... View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Relationships; Engagement; Manufacturing Industry

November 2015 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Nestle's Creating Shared Value Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer, Kerry Herman and Sarah McAra

This case considers Nestlé’s creating shared value (CSV) strategy, which focused on the three categories of nutrition, water, and rural development. In the packaged food and beverage industry, pressure had mounted since the 1990s to improve supply chain sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health And Wellness; Nutrition; Health; Labor; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Operations; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; Europe; Africa; Latin America; North America; Asia

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04 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

Introverts: The Best Leaders for Proactive Employees

Journal next year. The three professors commenced their research with field data from a national pizza delivery chain, mailing out questionnaires and successfully surveying fifty-seven pizza store managers and 374 employees about their... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Edward H. Chang

Edward Chang (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches Inclusion in the MBA required curriculum and Negotiations in the MBA elective curriculum.
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15 Jul 2012
News

Using research to solve real world problems

15 Apr 2025
HBS Seminar

Hal Hershfield, University of California, Los Angeles

29 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Do Disasters Rally Support for Climate Action? It's Complicated.

Environmental disasters like wildfires can ignite awareness of climate change and boost eco-friendly politicians’ careers. But do voters perceive a tradeoff between environmental policies and local economic growth? In Brazil, home to a majority of the Amazon tropical... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Katherine Wang

Katherine is a doctoral student in the Business Economics program. She is interested in labor, public, and development economics with a focus on issues of gender and gender-based violence. Prior to joining HBS, Katherine led field experiments as a data scientist on the... View Details

20 Sep 2019
News

Why Asking for Advice Is More Effective Than Asking for Feedback

Forthcoming
Article

The Effect of a System for Sharing Best Practices Within Pre-existing Peer Networks

By: Shelley Xin Li and Tatiana Sandino

Peer networks, such as enterprise social networks (ESNs), can facilitate knowledge transfer across employees. However, such systems can also lead to information overload or difficulty in finding useful information. We examine data from a natural field experiment where... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Best Practices; Enterprise Social Media; Management Accounting And Control Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication Technology; Knowledge Sharing; Sales; Social Media; Retail Industry

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April 2023
Article

Learning Down to Train Up: Mentors Are More Effective When They Value Insights from Below

By: Ting Zhang, Dan Wang and Adam D. Galinsky

Although mentorship is vital for individual success, potential mentors often view it as a costly burden. To understand what motivates mentors to overcome this barrier and more fully engage with their mentees, we introduce a new construct, learning direction, which... View Details

Keywords: Mentoring; Learning Direction; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Leadership Development

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