Publications

2016
Teaching Note

Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Teaching note for case 314029. Following a successful military career as an Army Nurse, achieving rank as Major General, becoming the first female Acting Surgeon General of the Army, and the 22nd Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, Pollock developed a vested interest in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Education; Insurance Companies; Military; Leadership Skills; Health Care and Treatment; Education; Insurance; Business Startups; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Change Management; Health Industry; Information Technology Industry

February 2020
Article

Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs

By: Rachel Gershon, Cynthia Cryder and Leslie K. John

While selfish incentives typically outperform prosocial incentives, in the context of customer referral rewards, prosocial incentives can be more effective. Companies frequently offer “selfish” (i.e., sender-benefiting) referral incentives, offering customers financial... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Prosocial Behavior; Judgment And Decision-making; Referral Rewards; Motivation and Incentives; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making

2018
Working Paper

Algorithm Appreciation: People Prefer Algorithmic to Human Judgment

By: Jennifer M. Logg, Julia A. Minson and Don A. Moore

Even though computational algorithms often outperform human judgment, received wisdom suggests that people may be skeptical of relying on them (Dawes, 1979). Counter to this notion, results from six experiments show that lay people adhere more to advice when they think... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; Accuracy; Advice Taking; Forecasting; Theory Of Machine; Mathematical Methods; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Trust

SSRN

2015
Working Paper

The Challenges and Enhancing Opportunities of Global Project Management: Evidence from Chinese and Dutch Cross-Cultural Project Management

By: Ying Zhang, Christopher Marquis, Sergey Filippov, Henk-Jan Haasnoot and Martijn van der Steen

This study investigates the role of national and organisational culture in day-to-day activities of multinational project teams, specifically focusing on differences between Chinese and Dutch project managers. We rely on fieldwork observation and interviews with... View Details

Keywords: Management; Organizational Culture; Projects; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; China; Netherlands

SSRN

2013
Working Paper

Digital Dark Matter and the Economics of Apache

By: Shane Greenstein and Frank Nagle

Researchers have long hypothesized that spillovers from government, university, and private company R&D contribute to economic growth, but these contributions may be difficult to measure when they take a non-pecuniary form. The growth of networking devices and the... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Internet and the Web; Performance Productivity; Applications and Software; Economic Growth; Research and Development

August 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Haier: Taking a Chinese Company Global in 2011

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Phillip Andrews

In 2011, Haier, China's leading appliance manufacturer, had over $20 billion in worldwide sales and had just been named the leading refrigerator manufacturer worldwide. Describes Haier's rise over three decades from a defunct refrigerator factory in China's Qingdao... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Global Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Emerging Markets; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

Educators

2010
Working Paper

Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank

By: Bradley R. Staats and Francesca Gino

Sustaining operational productivity in the completion of repetitive tasks is critical to many organizations' success. Yet research points to two different work-design related strategies for accomplishing this goal: specialization to capture the benefits of repetition... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Working Conditions; Service Delivery; Performance Productivity; Financial Services Industry; Japan

December 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Evan Williams: From Blogger to Odeo (B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Louis-Philippe Maurice

For several months, founder-CEO Evan Williams has felt trapped, unable to control Odeo and its strategic direction. He longs for the “simple” days of Blogger, the previous venture he had co-founded. Although his Blogger experiences had included a major blow-up with his... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy

January 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Rubbish Boys

By: Noam Wasserman and Rachel Galper

It looked like founder-CEO Brian Scudamore might not be able to pursue franchising as a growth option for his junk-removal business after all. Over the years, he had overcome many hurdles, including buying out his "too-fiery" co-founder, firing all of his employees so... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Problems and Challenges; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Franchise Ownership; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Canada; North America

Educators

Nine studies investigate when and why people may paradoxically prefer bad news—e.g., hoping for an objectively worse injury or a higher-risk diagnosis over explicitly better alternatives. Using a combination of field surveys and randomized experiments, the... View Details

Importance of Being Causal

Causal inference is the study of how actions, interventions, or treatments affect outcomes of interest. The methods that have received the lion’s share of attention in the data science literature for establishing causation are variations of randomized... View Details

The Psychosocial Value of Employment

In settings where employment opportunities are scarce, the inability to work may generate psychosocial harm. This paper presents a causal estimate of the psychosocial value of employment in the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh. We engage 745 individuals in a field... View Details

Nailing Prediction: Experimental Evidence on the Value of Tools in Predictive Model Development

Predictive model development is understudied despite its importance to modern businesses. Although prior discussions highlight advances in methods (along the dimensions of data, computing power, and algorithms) as the primary driver of model quality, the value of... View Details

When the Thought Doesn’t Count: The Dynamics of Unhelpful Help in Creative Organizations

We’ve all been there. You ask a colleague for help with something, maybe a tricky research design or a difficult student. They agree to help, but their assistance misses its mark. You wonder what happened and, if you turn to existing research and theory, you... View Details

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

outsourcing is still an established practice, companies have gained experience and can now do much more for themselves that they have looked to outsiders to do in the past. Managers know more about IT, more about the business and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

09 Oct 2020
Blog Post

4 Things To Know About the MS/MBA Biotech

straining experience to place all hope in a clinical trial when facing limited options. Throughout my time working in biotech, I came to realize that having empathy, on a personal level, is the first step to achieving health care reform.... View Details

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

member noticed this, and the patient’s treatment was postponed until they received clearance. Almost happened. The pacemaker status was not checked. The patient had a pacemaker and received radiation, but, by chance, the patient did not View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

Web

Alumnae Circles - Alumni

their Alumni Profile . To provide a positive and cohesive experience for everyone, we are not currently placing new inquiries outside of the enrollment period. Apart from the three default matching factors (region, neighborhood, and... View Details

2007
Text Book

Teaching the Moral Leader: A Literature-Based Leadership Course

By: Sandra J. Sucher

This book is a comprehensive, practical manual to help instructors integrate moral leadership in their own courses, drawing from the experience and resources of the Harvard Business School course "The Moral Leader," an MBA elective taken by thousands of HBS students... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Curriculum and Courses; Moral Sensibility; Body of Literature; Books; Leadership; Personal Development and Career