Publications

February 2014
Article

'Last-place Aversion': Evidence and Redistributive Implications

By: Ilyana Kuziemko, Ryan W. Buell, Taly Reich and Michael Norton

We present evidence from laboratory experiments showing that individuals are "last-place averse." Participants choose gambles with the potential to move them out of last place that they reject when randomly placed in other parts of the distribution. In... View Details

Keywords: Income; Rank and Position; Attitudes

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May 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Background Note

Outsourcing IT: The Global Landscape in 2004

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

Profiles the history and context of outsourcing, with particular focus on information technology. View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Information Technology

Web

Instant Photography Is Launched | Baker Library

Instant Photography Is Launched Edwin Land, positive test photograph (left) and negative test photograph (right), April 1946. Polaroid Corporation Records Related to Meroe Morse, b. VII.80, f. 5, f. 19. Starting in 1944, the SX-70... View Details

March 2020
Article

Governance Through Shame and Aspiration: Index Creation and Corporate Behavior

By: Akash Chattopadhyay, Matthew D. Shaffer and Charles C.Y. Wang

After decades of deprioritizing shareholders' economic interests and low corporate profitability, Japan introduced the JPX-Nikkei400 in 2014. The index highlighted the country's "best-run" companies by annually selecting the 400 most profitable of its large and liquid... View Details

Keywords: JPX-Nikkei 400 Index; Status Incentives; Return On Equity; Capital Efficiency; Social Norms; Index Inclusion; Reputation Incentives; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Governance; Behavior; Investment Return; Status and Position; Japan

September 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

QuickBase

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Mark Szigety

Describes the challenge that engineers and marketing executives at Intuit Corp. faced when finding markets and applications for their QuickBase product. The breakthrough occurred when they abandoned their conventional modes of market segmentation, and instead strove to... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Engineering; Product Marketing; Segmentation; Jobs and Positions; Consumer Behavior; Information Technology Industry

February 1996 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Toshiba: Ome Works

By: H. Kent Bowen, Janice H. Hammond, Sylvie Ryckebusch and Hiroshi Uchikoga

In 1995, Toshiba was the market leader in portable computer sales worldwide. This case describes the assembly of portable notebook computers in Toshiba's Ome factory in Ome, Japan, providing insights into some of the reasons for Toshiba's success. In addition to... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Employees; Job Design and Levels; Production; Hardware; Japan

August 2003
Article

When Does the Market Matter? Stock Prices and the Investment of Equity-Dependent Firms

By: Malcolm Baker, Jeremy Stein and Jeffrey Wurgler

We use a simple model of corporate investment to determine when investment will be sensitive to non-fundamental movements in stock prices. The key cross-sectional prediction of the model is that stock prices will have a stronger impact on the investment of firms that... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Price; Investment; Equity; Forecasting and Prediction; Rank and Position; Markets

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25 Mar 2022
News

Power Mapping

2023
Working Paper

Job Design and Workers’ Wellbeing: Evidence from a Hospital Setting

By: Susanna Gallani and Jacob Riegler

This study examines the relationship between job design imbalance and workers’ well-being. We build on Simons (2005) framework for the design of high-performing jobs and develop a survey instrument to capture workers’ perceptions of their job design and work... View Details

Keywords: Well-being; Job Design and Levels; Working Conditions; Perception; Work-Life Balance; Health Industry

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

December 2010
Article

Rating the Ratings: How Good are Commercial Governance Ratings?

By: Robert M. Daines, Ian D. Gow and David F. Larcker

Proxy advisory and corporate governance rating firms (such as RiskMetrics/Institutional Shareholder Services, GovernanceMetrics International, and The Corporate Library) play an increasingly important role in U.S. public markets. They rank the quality of firm corporate... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Markets; Rank and Position; Quality; Business and Shareholder Relations; Voting; Change; Information; Outcome or Result; United States

2009
Working Paper

Securing Jobs or the New Protectionism?: Taxing the Overseas Activities of Multinational Firms

By: Mihir A. Desai

Tax policy toward American multinational firms would appear to be approaching a crossroads. The presumed linkages between domestic employment conditions and the growth of foreign operations by American firms have led to calls for increased taxation on foreign... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Policy; Taxation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; United States

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January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Into the Raging Sea: Final Voyage of the SS El Faro

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Mel Martin

Captain Michael Davidson of the container ship SS El Faro was determined to make his planned shipping trip on time—but a hurricane was approaching his intended path. To succeed, Davidson and his fellow officers must plot a course to avoid the storm in the face of... View Details

Keywords: Power Dynamics; Management; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Failure; Groups and Teams; Rank and Position; Decision Choices and Conditions; Shipping Industry; United States

February 2008
Case

Monitor's Opportunities in India (A)

By: Juan Alcacer and Jan W. Rivkin

The CEO of a strategy consulting firm must decide which of the firm's functions, if any, to move to India. In particular, he wonders whether business research--currently conducted by highly paid consultants in developed countries--can be conducted more efficiently and... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Consulting Industry; India

September 2004 (Revised February 2010)
Case

The Passion of the Christ (A)

By: John A. Quelch, Anita Elberse and Anna Harrington

Bob Berney, president of Newmarket Films, must decide on a distribution and marketing strategy for Mel Gibson's controversial new movie, The Passion of the Christ. Fueled by Gibson's star power as well as an extensive prescreening campaign among Christian leaders and... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Film Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Distribution Channels; Religion; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

April 1995
Case

Montague Corporation (A)

By: Norman A. Berg and James Weber

The Montague Corp. is a small company started in 1987 and owned by David Montague, age 31, and his father. The company designs, manufactures in Taiwan, and sells through distributors worldwide a high-quality "bicycle that folds." The company offices are located in... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Financial Strategy; Financial Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Globalized Firms and Management; Family Business; Bicycle Industry; Taiwan; Cambridge

With $100,000 in capital, Baker founded the National Gypsum Company with two colleagues in 1925. When he assumed the CEO position a few years later, he led his company from a newcomer in a highly competitive field, making one product in... View Details

Keywords: Construction & Real Estate

2022
Conference Presentation

Organizational Competition: A Catalyst for Workplace Diversity and Desires for Uniqueness

By: Samantha N. Smith, Edward H. Chang, Erika L. Kirgios and Katherine L. Milkman

Competition is prevalent in organizations. For example, people often compete against their colleagues for status and recognition in the workplace or for opportunities for advancement. Workers also compete against others to get hired into organizations in the first... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior

September 2013
Article

Status Boundary Enforcement and the Categorization of Black-White Biracials

By: Arnold K. Ho, Jim Sidanius, Amy J.C. Cuddy and Mahzarin R. Banaji

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in more than one racial group are not judged as belonging equally to both of their parent groups, but instead are seen as belonging more to their lower status parent group. Why? The present paper begins to establish the... View Details

Keywords: Hypodescent; Social Dominance Orientation; Intergroup Threat; Hierarchy Maintenance; Equality and Inequality; Race; Rank and Position; Attitudes; Identity