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- All HBS Web (311)
- Faculty Publications (89)
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- 2013
- Chapter
Market Imperfections and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Dennis Yao
This chapter reviews the main theories in strategic management that seek to explain persistent differences in profitability across companies. We argue that these differences are ultimately explained by market imperfections. Studying differences in financial performance... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Management; Market Imperfections; Five Forces Framework; Competitive Advantage; Profit
Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Dennis Yao. "Market Imperfections and Sustainable Competitive Advantage." Chap. 12 in Oxford Handbook of Managerial Economics, by Christopher R. Thomas and William F. Shughart II, 262–277. Oxford University Press, 2013.
- Article
On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)
This article shows how corporate culture, in the sense of shared beliefs and values, originates (often unintentionally) through screening, self-sorting, and manager-directed joint learning. It shows that such culture will be stronger among more important employees and... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Culture; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Employees; Decisions; Power and Influence; Performance; Perspective
Van den Steen, Eric J. "On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)." RAND Journal of Economics 41, no. 4 (Winter 2010): 617–648.
- Article
Temporal View of the Costs and Benefits of Self-Deception
By: Zoe Chance, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely
Researchers have documented many cases in which individuals rationalize their regrettable actions. Four experiments examine situations in which people go beyond merely explaining away their misconduct to actively deceiving themselves. We find that those who exploit... View Details
Keywords: Hindsight Bias; Lying; Motivated Reasoning; Self-enhancement; Social Psychology; Perception; Performance Expectations
Chance, Zoe, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino, and Dan Ariely. "Temporal View of the Costs and Benefits of Self-Deception." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. S3 (September 13, 2011): 15655–15659.
- September–October 2017
- Article
Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?: Neither Great Leadership Nor Brilliant Strategy Matters Without Operational Excellence
By: Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom and John Van Reenen
A recurring message in business education is that you can’t compete on the basis of management processes because they’re easily copied. Operational effectiveness is table stakes in the competitive universe, it is often assumed, and thus cannot serve as a sustainable... View Details
Keywords: Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Effectiveness
Sadun, Raffaella, Nicholas Bloom, and John Van Reenen. "Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management? Neither Great Leadership Nor Brilliant Strategy Matters Without Operational Excellence." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 5 (September–October 2017): 120–127. (Winner of 59th Annual HBR McKinsey Award.)
- 16 Sep 2008
- First Look
First Look: September 16, 2008
ethical dilemma for managers: Is it appropriate to let mere social category lines interfere with profit maximization? Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/06-033.pdf Performance Persistence in... View Details
- July 2022
- Article
The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others
By: Ke Wang, Erica R. Bailey and Jon M. Jachimowicz
Employees are increasingly exhorted to “pursue their passion” at work. Inherent in this call is the belief that passion will produce higher performance because it promotes intrapersonal processes that propel employees forward. Here, we suggest that the pervasiveness of... View Details
Keywords: Passion; Self-fufilling Prophecy; Lay Beliefs; Interpersonal Processes; Employees; Performance; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Social Psychology
Wang, Ke, Erica R. Bailey, and Jon M. Jachimowicz. "The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 101 (July 2022).
- 2024
- Working Paper
Long-run Returns to Impact Investing in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
By: Shawn Cole, Martin Melecky, Florian Mölders and Tristan Reed
We provide the first evidence on the long-run returns to private equity in emerging and frontier markets using the cash flows from every equity investment made by the International Finance Corporation across 130 countries over 58 years. Risk-adjusted returns are... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Investment; Emerging Markets; Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Return
Cole, Shawn, Martin Melecky, Florian Mölders, and Tristan Reed. "Long-Run Returns to Private Equity in Emerging Markets." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-138, June 2021. (Revised September 2024. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 27870, September 2024)
- September 2019 (Revised December 2022)
- Case
Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (A)
By: Susanna Gallani, Francesca Gino and Raffaella Sadun
Plant management at Pasta Serafina, a pasta producer in the south of Italy, is struggling to contain employee absenteeism. While the misbehavior is concentrated in a minority of the workers, its effects impact not only the plant’s performance, but also the climate and... View Details
Keywords: Absenteeism; Moral Hazard; Employees; Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employee Relationship Management; Performance Productivity; Decision Making
Gallani, Susanna, Francesca Gino, and Raffaella Sadun. "Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-013, September 2019. (Revised December 2022.)
- Research Summary
A Temporal View of the Costs and Benefits of Self-Deception
Researchers have documented many cases in which individuals rationalize their regrettable actions. Four experiments examine situations in which participants go beyond merely explaining away their misconduct to actively deceiving themselves. We find that those who... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
The Consequences of Export Controls in Target Countries
By: Xueyue Liu, Yu Liu and Jaya Y. Wen
Export controls are a common instrument of national security, but their economic consequences
are not well understood. This paper evaluates how these controls affect firm performance
and adaptation in targeted countries. We use variation in a 2007 US policy,... View Details
Keywords: National Security; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Policy; Performance Productivity; Adaptation
Liu, Xueyue, Yu Liu, and Jaya Y. Wen. "The Consequences of Export Controls in Target Countries." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-004, August 2024.
- Article
Medium-term Business Cycles
By: Diego Comin and Mark Gertler
Over the postwar period, many industrialized countries have experienced significant medium-frequency oscillations between periods of robust growth versus relative stagnation. Conventional business cycle filters, however, tend to sweep these oscillations into the trend.... View Details
Keywords: Business Cycles; Fluctuation; Information Technology; Research and Development; Resource Allocation; Framework; Trends; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity
Comin, Diego, and Mark Gertler. "Medium-term Business Cycles." American Economic Review 96, no. 3 (June 2006).
- Summer 2021
- Article
The Origin and Development of Firm Management
By: Michela Giorcelli
This paper examines the historical origin and diffusion of management practices. Despite their centrality in the modern world, the concepts of ‘management’ developed fairly recently. Only with the Industrial Revolution, due to the increased firm size, owners needed a... View Details
Keywords: Productivity; Kaizen; Management; Management Practices and Processes; History; Performance Productivity; Technology
Giorcelli, Michela. "The Origin and Development of Firm Management." Oxford Review of Economic Policy 37, no. 2 (Summer 2021): 259–275.
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected But Not Accounted For
By: Christine L. Exley and Kirby Nielsen
We investigate how the gender gap in confidence affects the views that evaluators (e.g., employers) hold about men and women. If evaluators fail to account for the confidence gap, it may cause overly pessimistic views about women. Alternatively, if evaluators expect... View Details
Keywords: Confidence; Experiments; Gender; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Evaluation; Analysis
Exley, Christine L., and Kirby Nielsen. "The Gender Gap in Confidence: Expected But Not Accounted For." Working Paper, October 2022.
- Article
Overcoming the Winner's Curse: An Adaptive Learning Perspective
By: Yoella Bereby-Meyer and Brit Grosskopf
The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said... View Details
Bereby-Meyer, Yoella, and Brit Grosskopf. "Overcoming the Winner's Curse: An Adaptive Learning Perspective." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 21, no. 1 (January 2008): 15–27.
- 14 Oct 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Reversing the Queue: Performance, Legitimacy, and Minority Hiring
- Article
Mission-Driven Governance
By: Raymond Fisman, Rakesh Khurana and Edward Martenson
The purpose of this paper is to provide a useful, easily applied theory of governance performance. The existing model is fundamentally adversarial, rooted in the paradigm of principal-agent conflict. At its base is an image of governance as a never-ending struggle... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Knowledge Management; Standards; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation
Fisman, Raymond, Rakesh Khurana, and Edward Martenson. "Mission-Driven Governance." Stanford Social Innovation Review 7, no. 3 (Summer 2009).
- November 1995 (Revised April 1996)
- Case
ENTel and the Privatization of Argentine Telecommunications
Growing fiscal deficits, persistent economic recession, and underinvestment in the nation's telecommunications infrastructure lead the Argentine government to privatize its state-owned monopoly provider of telecommunications services, ENTel, in late 1990. The... View Details
Keywords: Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Communication Technology; Privatization; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Development Economics; Policy; Government and Politics; Performance Effectiveness; Telecommunications Industry; Argentina
Emmons, Willis M., III. "ENTel and the Privatization of Argentine Telecommunications." Harvard Business School Case 796-065, November 1995. (Revised April 1996.)
- June 2021
- Case
Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment
By: Luis M. Viceira, Emily R. McComb and Dean Xu
This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and... View Details
Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Banking; Growth Management; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Interest Rates; Competition; Cost Management; Risk Management; Financial Liquidity; Performance Evaluation
Viceira, Luis M., Emily R. McComb, and Dean Xu. "Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment." Harvard Business School Case 221-101, June 2021.
- October 1993 (Revised October 1996)
- Case
Paragould City Cable
Unhappy with the prices provided by the local, privately owned cable television operator, the city of Paragould, Arkansas constructs a competing municipally owned cable system. Once in operation, Paragould City Cable faces vigorous competition from the incumbent... View Details
Keywords: Business Strategy; Television Entertainment; Competitive Strategy; Distribution Channels; Media; Public Sector; Programs; Growth and Development Strategy; Cost; Performance Improvement; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Arkansas
Emmons, Willis M., III. "Paragould City Cable." Harvard Business School Case 794-030, October 1993. (Revised October 1996.)
- July 1999
- Article
Analysts' Forecast Accuracy: Do Ability and Portfolio Complexity Matter
By: Michael B. Clement
Prior studies have identified systematic and time persistent differences in analysts’ earnings forecast accuracy, but have not explained why the differences exist. Using the I/B/E/S Detail History database, this study finds that forecast accuracy is positively... View Details
Clement, Michael B. "Analysts' Forecast Accuracy: Do Ability and Portfolio Complexity Matter." Journal of Accounting & Economics 27, no. 3 (July 1999): 285–303.