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06 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Climbing Down from the Ivory Tower

researchers design an experiment among themselves, only going to the field when they're ready to conduct the experiment on members of the community. In this case, though, the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education; Health

17 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 17, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=807123 Project Finance Acronyms Harvard Business School Note 207-086 Contains two parts: Part I contains a list of more than 500 acronyms for official institutions and other project finance terms; Part II... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Microfinance

"Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines." (with Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin) Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 2, 2006.
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Research Summary

Overview

I am an ethnographer and field researcher studying how people experience and interpret their work and cultural contexts, as well as how this shapes inequality and organizational outcomes like normative control. I specialize in utilizing in-depth, inductive field... View Details

Keywords: Qualitative Research; Ethnography; Corporate Culture; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Theory; Working Conditions; Consulting Industry

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

What Great American Leaders Teach Us

Are there certain characteristics that all leaders possess? Could Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton be equally successful today running another company? Harvard Business School's Leadership Initiative is attempting to answer these and other questions about the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream: How Technology Is Transforming Lending and Shaping a New Era of Small Business Opportunity

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream describes the needs of small businesses for capital and demonstrates how technology—novel data sources, artificial intelligence, machine learning—will transform the small business lending market. This market has been... View Details

March 2015
Article

Vulnerable Banks

By: Robin Greenwood, Augustin Landier and David Thesmar

We present a model in which fire sales propagate shocks across bank balance sheets. When a bank experiences a negative shock to its equity, a natural way to return to target leverage is to sell assets. If potential buyers are limited, then asset sales depress prices,... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Europe

2010
Chapter

A Resource Belief-Curse: Oil and Individualism

By: Rafael Di Tella, Juan Dubra and Robert MacCulloch

We study the correlation between a belief concerning individualism and a measure of luck in the US during the period 1983-2004. The measure of beliefs is the answer to a question related to whether the poor should be helped by the government or if they should help... View Details

Keywords: History; Natural Environment; Non-Renewable Energy; Values and Beliefs; Price; Poverty; Policy; Economy; United States

Research Summary

Technology Adoption

Professor Ashraf's research in technology adoption addresses the puzzling question of why easy and accessible technology is not used, even when it has the potential to save lives or significantly increase income.

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2018
Article

Overcoming Barriers to Time-Saving: Reminders of Future Busyness Encourage Consumers to Buy Time

By: A. V. Whillans, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton

Spending money on time-saving purchases improves happiness. Yet, people often fail to spend their money in this way. Because most people believe that the future will be less busy than the present, they may underweight the value of these purchases. We examine the impact... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Sharing Economy; Opportunity Cost; Time-as Money; Well-being; Time Management; Happiness; Perception; Behavior

Purchase

Research Summary

Other research activities

Apart from my dissertation research on the EU ETS, I am interested in topics such as foreign direct investment, global strategy, institutions and sustainability. I am currently working with several faculty members at Harvard Business School on issues ranging from... View Details

Article

Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization

By: Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons and Tavneet Suri

We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within... View Details

Keywords: Ethnic Diversity; Organizational Behavior; Labor Management; Groups and Teams; Diversity; Performance

August 8, 2017
Article

Buying Time Promotes Happiness

By: A.V. Whillans, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Paul Smeets, Rene Bekkers and Michael I. Norton

Around the world, increases in wealth have produced an unintended consequence: a rising sense of time scarcity. We provide evidence that using money to buy time can provide a buffer against this time famine, thereby promoting happiness. Using large, diverse samples... View Details

Keywords: Time; Money Funds; Well-being; Money; Happiness; Satisfaction

Article

Price and Quality Decisions by Self-Serving Managers

By: Marco Bertini, Daniel Halbheer and Oded Koenigsberg

We present a theory of price and quality decisions by managers who are self-serving. In the theory, firms stress the price or quality of their products, but not both. Accounting for this, managers exploit any uncertainty about the cause of market outcomes to credit... View Details

Keywords: Causal Reasoning; Self-serving Bias; Strategic Orientation; Managerial Decision-making; Price; Quality; Decision Making; Theory

2012
Working Paper

Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity

By: Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

People believe that weather conditions influence their everyday work life, but to date, little is known about how weather affects individual productivity. Most people believe that bad weather conditions reduce productivity. In this research, we predict and find just... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Opportunity Cost; Distractions; Weather; Performance Productivity; Social Psychology; Mathematical Methods

2020
Chapter

Consensual Assessment

By: B. A. Hennessey, J. S. Mueller and T. M. Amabile

Over time, the field of creativity research has seen a gradual shift away from an almost exclusive emphasis on the creative person towards a more balanced inquiry that centers both on individual difference issues and questions about the nature of creative products and... View Details

Keywords: Consensual Assessment Technique; Product Creativity; Creativity; Research

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

that impact perceptions of leadership. These observations suggest actionable opportunities to improve team leadership behavior. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52114 The Effects of Quota Frequency on Sales Force Performance: Evidence... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Extend Fertility

By: Myra M. Hart and Sylvia Sensiper

Focuses on the search for opportunity, the generation and evaluation of business concepts, creation of a business plan, and the start-up process. Follows experienced entrepreneur Christy Jones as she combines her business skills and personal experience to generate new... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; Gender; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry