Publications

Read Now

June 2019
Article

Learning to Become a Taste Expert

By: Kathryn A. Latour and John A. Deighton

Evidence suggests that consumers seek to become more expert about hedonic products to enhance their enjoyment of future consumption occasions. Current approaches to becoming expert center on cultivating an analytic mindset. In the present research the authors explore... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Experience and Expertise; Analysis; Perception

July 1994 (Revised August 1998)
Case

The King-Size Company

By: David E. Bell and Dinny Starr Gordon

King-Size is a mail-order company specializing in apparel for big and tall men. The case describes their operations in some detail. Issues include appropriate marketing decisions and expansion strategy. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Operations; Perception; Expansion; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Web Services Industry

Educators

August 1995 (Revised May 2008)
Teaching Note

Jensen Shoes (TN)

By: James I. Cash Jr. and Mary C. Gentile

Teaching Note for (9-395-120) and (9-395-121). View Details

Keywords: Perception; Race; Groups and Teams; Employees; Apparel and Accessories Industry

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

Business School Press), a new book by HBS professor Dorothy Leonard and Professor Walter Swap of Tufts University. The authors not only disprove the stereotypical perception of group creativity as an oxymoron but show how the group... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

21 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

Leadership Program for Women Targets Subtle Promotion Biases

behaviors can be seen as abrasive instead of assertive, arrogant instead of self-confident, and self-promoting instead of entrepreneurial. These perceptions can hold women back. "We cannot just tell women that if they want to take... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

6 Jun 2002 - 9 Jun 2002
Conference Presentation

Perceived Individual Creativity in Organizational Teamwork as a Function of Personality and Gender

By: Giovanni Moneta, Teresa M. Amabile, Elizabeth Schatzel and Steven J. Kramer

Keywords: Gender; Organizations; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Identity; Perception

February 2020
Article

Being 'Good' or 'Good Enough': Prosocial Risk and the Structure of Moral Self-regard

By: Julian Zlatev, Daniella M. Kupor, Kristin Laurin and Dale T. Miller

The motivation to feel moral powerfully guides people’s prosocial behavior. We propose that people’s efforts to preserve their moral self-regard conform to a moral threshold model. This model predicts that people are primarily concerned with whether their... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Moral Sensibility; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior; Perception

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Take a Trim Tab Approach to Climate Change

The "bully pulpit"—a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt back when the word "bully" meant terrific—originally referred to the US presidency and its tremendous potential for speaking out and influencing public opinion. Nowadays, the term describes any position with the... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Energy; Utilities

July, 2024
Article

Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing

By: Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Bradley Larsen and Erik Brynjolfsson

We study the demand and supply implications of occupational licensing using transaction-level data from a large online platform for home improvement services. We find that demand is more responsive to a professional's reviews than to the professional's... View Details

Keywords: Occupational Licensing; Consumer Protection; Perception; Experience and Expertise; Public Opinion; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Demand and Consumers

19 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 19, 2007

countries between 1985 and 2000, we find that the growth effects of FDI increase when we account for the quality of FDI. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-072.pdf How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 20, 2024
Article

Sexual Assault Victims Face a Penalty for Adjacent Consent

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Across 11 experimental studies (n = 12,257), we show that female victims of sexual assault are blamed more and seen as less morally virtuous if their assault follows voluntary sexual intimacy, a factor we term “adjacent consent”. Moreover, we illuminate a... View Details

Keywords: Perception; Prejudice and Bias; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues

Read Now

November 2022
Article

Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains

By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton

Seven preregistered studies (N = 2,890) conducted in the field, lab, and online document opportunity neglect: a tendency to reject opportunities with low probability of success, even when they come with little or no objective cost (e.g., time, money,... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Behavior; Risk and Uncertainty; Success; Perception

March 2000
Background Note

Fall Before Rising, A: The Story of Jai Jaikumar (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Richard Compton Squire, Sarah Patricia Vickers-Willis and Harry James Wilson

What is the relationship between good fortune, professional success, and a moral obligation to other people? Jai Jaikumar, who as a youth was saved by a shepherd woman after a tragic mountaineering accident in the Himalayas, and who later rose to the top of his... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; History; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Familiarity; Perception; Welfare

Educators

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Identify Emerging Market Opportunities

executives need to figure out how the product, labor, and capital markets work—and don't work—in their target countries. This will help them understand the differences between home markets and those in developing countries. In addition, each country's View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

customer perceptions of service quality, or success in developing talent, should be injected in some way into the calculation. Regardless of the solution favored, Daniel Pink reminds us that all of these practices run counter to a great... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

The Best of Both Worlds: Integrating Conscious and Unconscious Thought Best Solves Complex Decisions

Two studies address the debate over whether conscious or unconscious mental processes best handle complex decisions. According to Unconscious Thought Theory (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006), both modes of thinking have particular advantages: conscious thought can follow... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Values and Beliefs; Information; Knowledge Management; Management Skills; Management Style; Measurement and Metrics; Success; Research; Cognition and Thinking; Personal Characteristics; Perception

January 2023
Article

Calculators for Women: When Identity-Based Appeals Backfire

By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz, Michael I. Norton and Leslie K. John

From “Chick Beer” to “Dryer Sheets for Men,” identity-based labeling is frequently deployed by marketers to appeal to specific target markets. Yet such identity appeals can backfire, alienating the very consumers they aim to attract. We theorize and empirically... View Details

Keywords: Categorization Threat; Stereotypes; Identity; Labels; Gender; Perception; Consumer Behavior