Reference Dependence - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 30

103, no. 4 (2012) Abstract When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2015
Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing

By: Sunil Gupta and Joseph Davin

Digital technology has changed how consumers search for information, interact with each other, and buy products. The popularization of these technologies has made it possible for companies to have a better understanding of their customers' decision journey and... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Buzz Marketing; Internet Marketing; Marketing; Marketing Management; Social Media; Social Networks; Viral Marketing; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Digital; Internet; Marketing Channels; Marketing Reference Programs; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

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14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

real estate at Harvard Business School, and director emeritus of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. In addition, the American economy depends on consumers having access to credit. "The challenge is to avoid the temptation of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

2021. By contrast, job postings that included supervisory capabilities decreased by 23 percent. The use of collaborative phrases in newspaper job postings grew 15 percent between 1980 and 2000. Prior to 1980, references to collaboration... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

songs on a music album, television episodes on a DVD, or chapters of a book. "Pure" and "mixed" refer to the condition under which those products are sold. Under a pure-bundling strategy, a firm sells only the bundle,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

25 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Chasing Stars: Why the Mighty Red Sox Struck Out

environment. "In big markets, nobody wants to hear about bridge periods," Groysberg says, referring to times when ball clubs (or companies) decide to sacrifice immediate performance to focus on developing young talent.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports; Banking

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

enough. It depended on how their colleagues were behaving, probably with equally little thought about “enough.” HBS colleague and happiness expert Arthur Brooks refers to this as “the striver’s curse” and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Reducing Risk with Online Advertising

had been referred to its site through the corresponding affiliate, when in fact the affiliate did nothing. In fact, the affiliate did less than nothing: The affiliate wasted some of your bandwidth making you load a site you hadn't... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

You can’t change anything if you don’t accept it, because if you don’t accept it, you’ll try to change something else that you think is reality.” And while Stoicism may colloquially refer to repressing emotion, such repression was never... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

School professors Tarun Khanna, Anthony Mayo, and Nitin Nohria refer to as contextual intelligence. Only with an understanding of the most salient information or the most influential players in a given context can an executive figure out... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

price hikes than others. What does this mean in practice? Even if inflation is slowing down, depending on where you live and what you buy, you may not experience this slowing down to the same degree as the official measures suggest. Let’s... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

06 Nov 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, November 6, 2018

discussion (MD&A) section. Changes in language referring to the executive (CEO and CFO) team, or regarding litigation, are especially informative for future returns. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Supply Chain Inventory Planning

My work studies management decision-making in demand and supply planning contexts with a focus on forecasting and inventory planning decisions. I examine these decision-making processes from both a supply chain (i.e. across firm) and an... View Details

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

reward firms for practices that go above and beyond the requirements of the law. "Self-policing" programs adopted by several agencies shift the burden of monitoring regulatory compliance and reporting noncompliance from the government to the private sector.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

studies were less likely to criticize the actions of others when their behavior eroded gradually, over time, rather than in one abrupt shift. We refer to this phenomenon as the slippery slope effect. Our studies also demonstrate that at... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

need to be paid, if given the choice of where their money would go, most people donating money wouldn’t choose to contribute to the salary of the organization’s CEO,” says Elizabeth A. Keenan, an assistant professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

28 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

Hotels, restaurants, and other businesses in the service industry often thrive or die depending on whether they provide exemplary customer service, but new research shows that the color of a customer’s skin can determine whether the... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

05 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Six Ways to Build Trust in Negotiations

factor in negotiation? You might provide references from mutually trusted third parties that vouch for your character and competence. If appropriate, a third party could communicate with the other side prior to the negotiation—as in the... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

27 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11

depend on the circumstances and, if so, how?” Drawing on 138 interviews with FBI officials and an analysis of 45 congressional testimonies from 2001 to 2013, the paper details the ways in which design change and identity change interacted... View Details