Publications

October 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Teaching Note

Intel: Strategic Decisions in Locating a New Assembly and Test Plant (A) and (B)

By: Juan Alcácer

The case is used in Harvard Business School's (HBS) elective course "Competing Globally" as the first case in the third module (see "Competing Globally: Course Note for Instructors," HBS No. 713-422). As the first case in the module, it introduces the framework to... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Positioning; Location Choices; Location Strategies; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Global Strategy; Geographic Location; Computer Industry

2013
Book

Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan

By: Francesca Gino

You may not realize it but simple, irrelevant factors can have profound consequences on your decisions and behavior, often diverting you from your original plans and desires. Sidetracked will help you identify and avoid these influences so the decisions you make do... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision-making; Judgment; Decisions; Strategy; Behavior; Ethics; Attitudes

Article

Leaders as Decision Architects: Structure Your Organization's Work to Encourage Wise Choices

By: John Beshears and F. Gino

Everyone from CEOs to frontline workers commits preventable mistakes—for example, underestimating how long it will take to finish a project or focusing too much on information that supports their current view. It is extraordinarily difficult to rewire the human brain... View Details

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2022
Working Paper

When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance

By: Holly Dykstra, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

A common policy problem is that individuals reject recommended options and insist on making their own choices. Via a large-scale experiment, we document and investigate what factors contribute to this preference for agency. Our main results show that individuals’... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Decision Making; Policy; Cognition and Thinking

Article

Assent-maximizing Social Choice

By: Katherine A. Baldiga and Jerry R. Green

We take a decision theoretic approach to the classic social choice problem, using data on the frequency of choice problems to compute social choice functions. We define a family of social choice rules that depend on the population's preferences and on the probability... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Theory; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Society

February 2010 (Revised June 2014)
Supplement

CityCenter (C): Turmoil and Choices

By: John D. Macomber

"CityCenter (C)" follows the (A) and (B) cases chronologically. The (C) case explores the decisions facing MGM MIRAGE following a lawsuit by partner Dubai World and suspension of Dubai World's cash contributions to the project in early 2009. Issues include the... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Private Equity; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Decisions; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict and Resolution; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Nevada

18 Nov 2013
News

The Luck Factor in Great Decisions

Keywords: decisionmaking; negotiation; career choices

September 2014
Article

Structural Models of Complementary Choices

By: Steven T. Berry, Ahmed Khwaja, Vineet Kumar, Andres Musalem, Kenneth C. Wilbur, Greg Allenby, Bharat Anand, Pradeep K. Chintagunta, W. Michael Hanemann, Przemyslaw Jeziorski and Angelo Mele

Complementary choices are important and pervasive yet occasionally elusive. Single consumers make complementary choices in purchase decisions (e.g., chips and salsa), product inter-operabilities (smartphones and networks), and dynamic decisions (current exercise and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior

September–October 2012
Article

One-Switch Conditions for Multiattribute Utility Functions

By: Ali E. Abbas and David E. Bell

We introduce a variety of new independence conditions for multiattribute utility functions that permit preference dependencies among the attributes of a decision problem. The hierarchy of new conditions varies in the degree to which it specifies the functional form,... View Details

Keywords: One-switch; Utility Independence; Risk Aversion; Multiattribute Utility; Decision Making

25 Aug 2016
News

Timeless Advice for Making a Hard Choice

Keywords: decision making; ethics; morality; values; spirituality

01 May 2010
Lecture

Clusters and Start-Up Location Choice

By: William R. Kerr

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Decision Choices and Conditions; Geographic Location

Research Summary

Choice Amnesia: Motivated Forgetting of Difficult Choices

Imagine having to choose between your two favorite flavors of ice cream, chocolate and mint chip. Previous work suggests that whichever option you pick (say, chocolate) will become even more appealing after your decision, and the rejected option (mint chip) will get... View Details

2014
Chapter

Appetite, Consumption, and Choice in the Human Brain

By: Brian Knutson and Uma R. Karmarkar

Although linked, researchers have long distinguished appetitive from consummatory phases of reward processing. Recent improvements in the spatial and temporal resolution of neuroimaging techniques have allowed researchers to separately visualize different stages of... View Details

March 2018
Article

How Context Affects Choice

By: Raphael Thomadsen, Robert P. Rooderkerk, On Amir, Neeraj Arora, Bryan Bollinger, Karsten Hansen, Leslie John, Wendy Liu, Aner Sela, Vishal Singh, K. Sudhir and Wendy Wood

Due to its origins in the literature on judgment and decision-making, context effects in marketing are construed exclusively in terms of how choices deviate from utility maximization principles as a function of how choices are presented (e.g., framing, sequence,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Situation or Environment; Consumer Behavior

September 2012 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Intel: Strategic Decisions in Locating a New Assembly and Test Plant (A)

By: Juan Alcacer and Kerry Herman

In mid-2005, Intel is examining its options for where to locate its next assembly and test plant. On its short list of potential sites include locations in China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam. Each country has its own unique benefits and risks related to... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Positioning; Location Choices; Location Strategies; Technology; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Information Technology; Strategy; Technology Industry; United States; China; India; Thailand; Viet Nam

Educators

Research Summary

Experience and description-based decision making.

Prof. Barron and his co-authors study the effect of the economic environment on decision making. One example involves the effect of rare (low probability) events. People behave as if they overweight these events in some settings (e.g., when buying insurance and... View Details

March 2009
Article

Loyalty-Based Portfolio Choice

By: Lauren Cohen

I evaluate the effect of loyalty on individuals' portfolio choice using a unique dataset of retirement contributions. I exploit the statutory difference that in 401(k) plans stand alone employees can invest directly in their division, while conglomerate employees must... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Retirement; Decisions; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Business Conglomerates; Compensation and Benefits