Publications

Educators

Purchase

Summer 2014
Article

When Does a Platform Create Value by Limiting Choice?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna Halaburda

We present a theory for why it might be rational for a platform to limit the number of applications available on it. Our model is based on the observation that even if users prefer application variety, applications often also exhibit direct network effects. When there... View Details

Keywords: Platform Governance; Direct Network Effects; Indirect Network Effects; Complements; Tragedy Of The Commons; Equilibrium Selection; Coordination; Foresight; Strategy; Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Balance and Stability; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Network Effects

SSRN

April 2002
Article

Internal Capital Markets and Firm-Level Compensation Incentives for Division Managers

By: Julie Wulf

Do multidivisional firms structure compensation contracts for division managers to mitigate incentive problems in their internal capital markets? I find evidence that compensation and investment incentives are substitutes: firms providing a stronger link to firm... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Executive Compensation; Capital Budgeting; Motivation and Incentives; Profit; Decisions; Resource Allocation; Performance; Investment; Contracts

24 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Individual Rationality and Participation in Large Scale, Multi-Hospital Kidney Exchanges

Keywords: by Itai Ashlagi & Alvin E. Roth; Health

Research Summary

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

By: Laura Alfaro

We develop an incomplete-contracts model to jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them. Integration has an option value: it gives firm owners authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve... View Details

February 2024
Article

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

By: Laura Alfaro, Nick Bloom, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros, Andrew F. Newman, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We develop an incomplete-contracts model to jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them. Integration has an option value: it gives firm owners authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve... View Details

Keywords: Boundaries; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty

March 2006
Case

The Whitesides Lab

By: H. Kent Bowen and Francesca Gino

A significant part of the long-term economic growth in developed economies depends on the translation of scientific research into new products and processes. Focuses on the front end of this value creation stream. The laboratory of George Whitesides has a 30-year... View Details

Keywords: Research; Performance Productivity; Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Creativity; Groups and Teams; Value Creation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Leadership; Resource Allocation

Educators

Purchase

Research Summary

When Should Control Be Shared?

The right to participate in control is one of the primary instruments for protecting stakeholder interests in a firm. A basic question is how control should be allocated across a firm's various stakeholders, including investors, employees, customers, and suppliers.... View Details

11 May 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Creating an R&D Strategy

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano

Article

Eliminating Unintended Bias in Personalized Policies Using Bias-Eliminating Adapted Trees (BEAT)

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

An inherent risk of algorithmic personalization is disproportionate targeting of individuals from certain groups (or demographic characteristics such as gender or race), even when the decision maker does not intend to discriminate based on those “protected”... View Details

Keywords: Algorithm Bias; Personalization; Targeting; Generalized Random Forests (GRF); Discrimination; Customization and Personalization; Decision Making; Fairness; Mathematical Methods

02 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

A Rare Find in Health Care: A Simple Solution to Racial Inequity

theories have been proposed to explain the gulf, including income and educational inequality, and bias—intentional or unintentional—among doctors treating patients of color. The new paper, Hospital Allocation and Racial Disparities in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

Forthcoming
Article

Branch-and-Price for Prescriptive Contagion Analytics

By: Alexandre Jacquillat, Michael Lingzhi Li, Martin Ramé and Kai Wang

Contagion models are ubiquitous in epidemiology, social sciences, engineering, and management. This paper formulates a prescriptive contagion analytics model where a decision maker allocates shared resources across multiple segments of a population, each governed by... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Mathematical Methods

Research Summary

Multilateral Bankruptcy Rules

By: Jerry R. Green

A classic problem in economics is the selection of a bankruptcy rule with good normative properties. The problem as usually specified is given by the “estate” E which is to be divided among the “claims” c= (c₁,... View Details

22 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Key Drivers of Successful Implementation of an Employee Suggestion-Driven Improvement Program

Keywords: by Anita L. Tucker & Sara J. Singer.; Health

December 1, 2021
Article

Do You Know How Your Teams Get Work Done?

By: Rohan Narayana Murty, Rajath B. Das, Scott Duke Kominers, Arjun Narayan, Suraj Srinivasan, Tarun Khanna and Kartik Hosanagar

In a research study at four Fortune 500 companies, when managers were asked about their teams’ work, on average they either did not know or could not remember 60% of the work their teams do. This is a major problem because it can lead to unrealistic digital... View Details

Keywords: Leading Teams; Work Recall Gap; Machine Learning; Algorithms; Groups and Teams; Management; Technological Innovation

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

Is there a single best investment allocation strategy for the long-term investor? Some theories favor a one-portfolio-for-all investors approach, emphasizing a best-mix-of-assets program. The more traditional approach, which developed out... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

August 2020
Article

Trust in State and Non-State Actors: Evidence from Dispute Resolution in Pakistan

By: Daron Acemoglu, Ali Cheema, Asim I. Khwaja and James A. Robinson

Lack of trust in state institutions is a pervasive problem in many developing countries. This paper investigates whether information about improved public services can help build trust in state institutions and move people away from non-state actors. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Dispute Resolution; Lab-in-the-field Games; Legitimacy; Motivated Reasoning; Non-state Actors; State Capacity; Trust; Conflict and Resolution; Information; Developing Countries and Economies

03 Nov 2015
First Look

November 3, 2015

Child Left Behind Affects the Allocation of School Leaders By: Li, Danielle Abstract—The move toward increased school accountability may substantially affect the career risks that school leaders face without providing commensurate changes... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

Langnese; and Sunlicht. The name "Unilever" was not used in operating companies or in brand names. Lever Brothers and T. J. Lipton were the two postwar U.S. affiliates. These national operating companies were allocated to either... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

2016
Book

The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation

By: Vijay Govindarajan

How to Innovate and Execute. Leaders already know that innovation calls for a different set of activities, skills, methods, metrics, mind-sets, and leadership approaches. And it is well understood that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership