Signals - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

society, it’s not my problem.’ It is your problem as a leader. You need to take steps to make sure you're contributing to solutions rather than to problems.” You Might Also Like: How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels Gender Bias Complaints... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Travel

02 May 2025
Blog Post

How to Work with Search Firms

for recruiters. As a result, they tend to be highly risk averse, favoring candidates referred by trusted sources and profiles that don’t signal urgency or desperation. Find the Right Practice, Not Just the Firm Search firms are structured... View Details

01 Jun 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Benefits of Oversharing

said they "frequently" tried to gain access to another person's email account, for instance, or faked a sick day at work. "We like people who are honest," concludes John. "It signals trustworthiness, and that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Nov 2019
What Do You Think?

Should Non-Compete Clauses Be Abolished?

commented that, “When a non-compete clause is required it can signal a lack of trust If your ethics are being questioned the time of hire, question the company ethics.” This may help explain why RCD said that, “I have walked away from... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Smart Cities are Complicated and Costly: Here's How to Build Them

Chombosan Much promotion of smart cities assumes that municipalities will take a proactive, top-down, technology-first approach to urban progress. Thus far, these initiatives look for some forward-thinking city official (or immensely deep-pocketed private investor) to... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction; Green Technology

04 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Maersk’s Journey to Decarbonize Shipping

e-methanol) by buying 19 massive ships that will be powered on green methanol over the next three years. This sends a signal to suppliers to develop more of the fuel by guaranteeing that they will purchase it. One of our speakers... View Details

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

tried to prevent customers from showrooming. They considered changing the barcodes on products to make them hard to search for online. The company even tried to use signal jammers, like the ones they use to keep prison inmates from using... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

Web

In the News - Creating Emerging Markets

Professor Geoffrey Jones, Flipkart's sale to Walmart didn't signal that founders of the online retail firm were less patriotic than an earlier generation of business leaders. It meant they were driven by different value system. 08 Jun... View Details

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

When Silence Spells Trouble at Work

prevalent in organizations. ... How easy it is for a boss to send a powerful signal that a worker should be quiet. —Leslie A. Perlow Silence often starts when we choose not to confront a difference. Given the dissimilarities in our... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

20 Oct 2010
Op-Ed

Export Competitiveness: Reversing the Logic

be designed, it does not ignore the important role that exports play in the growth process. And there is also a significant overlap in terms of the individual policies that are suggested. Exports are an important diagnostic tool that can help View Details

Keywords: by Christian Ketels

01 Dec 2022
News

My First Job

there is no wave. If one expends energy efficiently, lives life authentically, and eliminates noise to focus on the signal when it matters, things tend to work out well. And it leaves a ton of time to be on the water, kitesurfing. —Bill... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

01 Jun 2004
News

Working the Street

Stripped to the waist in a clinic examining room, Mike, a burly white guy in his late 30s, is an illustrated man. His arms, chest, and neck are a tattooed maze of letters, numbers, and designs signaling his allegiance to the Aryan Nation... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; tattoo; removal; program; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

question: The data and analysis in the latest IPCC report amplified the reality that climate change is widespread, rapidly intensifying, and attributable to human activity. It also signaled both a responsibility and a real opportunity to... View Details

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

human driving but not others, such as sending a more explicit signal that the AV is about to stop. “The solution is not to make AVs quickly accelerate through a crosswalk, as humans often do,” says De Freitas. More broadly, although... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

24 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

identities in their emails, city councilors were about 25 percent more likely to respond to the queries than when they didn’t. In a second study, about 1,200 undergraduate students received a request for research help from “Demarcus Rivers,” a fictitious graduate... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

21 Feb 2019
Blog Post

Machine Learning and Behavioral Economics

more – we can understand each person’s baseline health, making it easier to detect signals of disease before they fully manifest themselves. It’s a proactive versus reactive approach.” Applying a general management perspective to machine... View Details

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

curate and share knowledge between the corporate and academic worlds better, so that managers don’t have to decipher the ever-expanding corpus of journal articles, Krieger says. “Managers need more than just a search engine for scientific articles; they need maps and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

28 Feb 2023
Blog Post

Celebrating Socioeconomic Diversity and Inclusion at HBS (Part 1)

do,and realizing that you aren’t the only one out there struggling, and accepting that it is who you are,and seeing how far you’ve come. Jerome Fulton, Jr., Class of 2023 Being a first-generation college student is a badge of honor. It View Details

06 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Strategic Intelligence: Adapt or Die

opposed to blindly continuing on a path when all the signals in your competitive environment suggest you need to change course. When I've looked more carefully at why companies fail, oftentimes they see a problem but their structure gets... View Details