Publications

13 May 2013
Research & Ideas

How to Spot a Liar

evaded questions about the amount of the endowment, but ultimately offered the receiver less than half). After a graduate student transcribed all the allocator/receiver conversations, the researchers... 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

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

“Fail fast” has become the corporate innovation mantra, but new research suggests that inventions that build on science, with its systematic observation and methodical experiments, may deliver more value to companies. US patent filings... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

2019
Working Paper

‘Organizing’, ‘Innovating’ and ‘Managing’ in Complexity Space

By: Michael C. Moldoveanu

We two-dimensional measure of organizational complexity that distinguishes between the informational and computational dimensions of complexity and aims to function as a maximally context-invariant environment for posing fundamental questions about organizational... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Dynamics; Organizations; Complexity; Adaptation; Innovation and Invention

December 24, 2019
Editorial

Why It’s So Hard to Change People’s Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella Kristal and Ashley Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Satisfaction; Behavior; Employees

March 2020
Article

The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey

By: Shelle Santana, Manoj Thomas and Vicki Morwitz

At each stage in customers’ journeys, they encounter different types of numeric information that they process using different judgment strategies. Relevant numbers might include budgets, price, product attributes, product counts, product ratings, numbers in brand... View Details

Keywords: Numbers; Heuristics; Numerical Cognition; Pricing; Customer Journey; Information; Consumer Behavior

October 6, 2020
Article

Test Your Board's Readiness for the Post-COVID Era

By: Lynn S. Paine

Research suggests that well-run boards take the process of self-evaluation quite seriously, often using a combination of director surveys and personal interviews to assess the functioning and effectiveness of the board, its committees, and its individual members. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Governing and Advisory Boards; Performance Evaluation

Register to Read

Research suggests that well-run boards take the process of self-evaluation quite seriously, often using a combination of director surveys and personal interviews to assess the functioning and effectiveness of the board, its committees, and its individual members.... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Meg Rithmire

My research and course development focus on questions of how markets and market mechanisms interact with concentrated political power, especially in the context of authoritarian or illiberal regimes. Geographically, my expertise is in the political economy of Asia,... View Details

Working Conditions in Supply Chains microsite

This microsite is a new resource for managers of global supply chains, including brands who want to source products from suppliers that avoid problematic working conditions, auditors who assess factory working conditions, and NGOs focused on this area. The site... View Details

30 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest or Colgate?

Companies have long poured time and money into surveying customers. Now, with new research showing artificial intelligence provides plenty of rich data about shopper preferences, could customer surveys become obsolete? Companies turn to... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Research Summary

Utilizing Display, Feature and Price Promotions: Getting the Biggest Bang for the Buck

Firms are continuously looking for more efficient ways to influence consumers to purchase their brand. Professor Lemon is conducting research to understand what motivates consumers' purchases of products and services. Her research suggests new strategies for category... View Details

November 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Bayer Crop Science

By: David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Natalie Kindred and James Barnett

In mid-2019, a year after German conglomerate Bayer Group closed its acquisition of U.S.-based seeds giant Monsanto, the leadership of Bayer’s Crop Science division (which absorbed Monsanto) is reflecting on the opportunities ahead. Some observers have questioned... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consolidation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Change Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Germany

Educators

Purchase

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at HBS, and LISH research scientist Michael Menietti; as well as George Washington University’s Zoe Szajnfarber and Jason Crusan. “Given that these types of decisions can... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

2017
Article

Frictions or Mental Gaps: What's Behind the Information We (Don't) Use and When Do We Care?

By: Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein

Consumers suffer significant losses from not acting on available information. These losses stem from frictions such as search costs, switching costs, and rational inattention, as well as what we call mental gaps resulting from wrong priors/worldviews, or relevant... View Details

Keywords: Information; Consumer Behavior

12 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Customers at the Back of the Line Are Anxious—Can You Keep Them from Leaving?

—Buell explains in a new working paper, “Last Place Aversion in Queues.” "If I can’t look behind me and see someone else is willing to wait longer than me, I start to question whether waiting in line is worthwhile” Buell’s View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service

13 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

The Case Against Racial Colorblindness

on the cards were black, and the other half white, so asking a yes/no question about skin color was a very efficient way to narrow down the identity of the photo on the partner's card. But the researchers... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

The Causes and Consequences of Industry Self-Policing

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Innovative regulatory programs are encouraging firms to police their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily disclose, or "confess," the violations they find. Despite the "win-win" rhetoric surrounding these government voluntary programs, it is not clear why... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governance Compliance; Law Enforcement; Policy; United States