Publications

Find at Harvard

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

may file for an initial public offering by the end of 2011, according to the New York Times. "Groupon has attracted remarkable interest," says Harvard Business School professor Benjamin G. Edelman. "With the economy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

2015
Working Paper

Crowdfunding as 'Donations': Theory & Evidence

By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Lars Bo Jeppesen, Toke Reichstein and Francesco Rullani

For a wide class of crowdfunding approaches, we argue that the reward structure (for funders) is closer to that of charitable donations to public goods than it is to traditional entrepreneurial finance. Many features of the design of crowdfunding platforms can... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding Platforms; Entrepreneurial Finance; Free-riding; Voluntary Contributions To Public Goods; Online Technology; Entrepreneurship; Social and Collaborative Networks; Finance; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

November 2016
Case

But, It's For a Good Cause

By: Elizabeth Keenan and John Gourville

Companies have long tried to enhance consumers’ perceptions of their firms and the products they sell in a variety of ways. Such efforts include the development of a brand image that the public views favorably, as in the case of Apple. It extends to the development of... View Details

Keywords: Social Change; Marketing And Society; Social Marketing; Brands and Branding; Customers; Perception; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Partners and Partnerships; Trends; Environmental Sustainability

Educators

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

design with features that many people may not consider to be good value for the money. To return to the car analogy, it might demand a heated seat in every vehicle. As for public insurance, it ignores real... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

May 2020
Article

The Creation and Evolution of Entrepreneurial Public Markets

By: Shai Bernstein, Abhishek Dev and Josh Lerner

This paper explores the creation and evolution of new stock exchanges around the world geared towards entrepreneurial companies, known as second-tier exchanges. Using hand-collected novel data, we document the proliferation of these new stock exchanges that were... View Details

Keywords: Stock Exchanges; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Initial Public Offering; Capital; Entrepreneurial Finance

Find at Harvard

15 Nov 2018
Book

Can the Global Food Industry Overcome Public Distrust?

levels a blistering attack on food companies that put profit ahead of public good. “You really have discouraged me in trying to find a glimmer of hope for the future,” Goldberg laments to Nestle at one point. But Goldberg’s outlook... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Agriculture & Agribusiness

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

Can the art and science of management help public schools improve student performance? In the fall of 2001, faculty and staff from the Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) began to discuss how... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

2023
Working Paper

Can Digitalization Improve Public Services? Evidence from Innovation in Energy Management

By: Robyn C. Meeks, Jacquelyn Pless and Zhenxuan Wang

This paper examines how digitalization impacts public service provision through a study of the U.S. power sector. We exploit the staggered timing of electric utilities’ investments in “smart” meters and find that electricity losses per unit sold decrease by 3.6%. This... View Details

Keywords: Electric Utility; Energy Management; Smart Meters; Energy; Climate Change; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; United States

February 2023
Article

Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times

By: Christine L. Exley, Nils H. Lehr and Stephen J. Terry

Need fluctuates over the business cycle. We conduct a survey revealing a desire for nonprofit activities to countercyclically expand during downturns. We then demonstrate, using comprehensive U.S. nonprofit data drawn from millions of tax returns, that the public's... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business Cycles; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

25 May 2016
Research & Ideas

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

Editor's note. In the United States, a primary provider of health care is through employers. "Every corporation is a player in public health," writes John A. Quelch in a new book of case studies, Consumers, Corporations, and... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Health

2014
Working Paper

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

By: Abigail Allen and Reining Petacchi

We examine the lobbying behavior of state governments in the development of recently issued public pension accounting standards GASB 67 and 68. Consistent with opportunistic motivations, we find that states' opposition to the liability increasing provisions embedded in... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Industry; United States

March 1, 2022
Article

Widespread Use of National Academies Consensus Reports by the American Public

By: Diana Hicks, Matteo Zullo, Ameet Doshi and Omar Isaac Asensio

In seeking to understand how to protect the public information sphere from corruption, researchers understandably focus on dysfunction. However, parts of the public information ecosystem function very well, and understanding this as well will help in protecting and... View Details

Keywords: Reports; Surveys; AI and Machine Learning; Knowledge Dissemination; Knowledge Use and Leverage

2017
Other Book

Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices

By: Matthew Taylor, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol and Paul Broadbent

I was not the only person appointed to the Review. My fellow Review team members, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol and Paul Broadbent have not only been an important source of ideas and wisdom throughout the process but have led in engaging with key groups of... View Details

Keywords: Future Of Work; Labor Relations; Marketplaces; Employment; Labor and Management Relations; Labor; Markets

01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

makes us feel pleasure and “releases a hormone called oxytocin that helps modulate social interactions and emotion. Being kind is good for our own and our employees' mental health." And that translates to improved morale and performance.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Reinforcing Values: A Public Dressing Down

performance to improve, only to be bitterly disappointed. For some reason, the right things still don't happen. Why is change so hard? First of all, most people are reluctant to alter their habits. What worked in the past is good enough;... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin & Michael A. Roberto

2024
Working Paper

What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?

By: Shawn Cole, Leslie Jeng, Josh Lerner, Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth

In recent years, impact investors – private investors who seek to generate simultaneously financial and social returns – have attracted intense interest and controversy. We analyze a novel, comprehensive data set of impact and traditional investors to assess how the... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Socially Responsible Investing; Investment Decisions; Public Goods; Impact Investment; Investment; Private Equity; Venture Capital

19 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior

to do, like save for retirement—which are both for the good of society and for their own good. Here’s an example. On the first day of a new job, the paperwork is coming at you fast and furious, including a packet of information about how... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

February 2024
Article

An Economic Framework for Vaccine Prioritization

By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Eric Budish, Piotr Dworczak and Scott Duke Kominers

We propose an economic framework for determining the optimal allocation of a scarce supply of vaccines that become gradually available during a public health crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Agents differ in observable and unobservable characteristics, and the... View Details

Keywords: Vaccine; Fairness; Public Finance; Public Goods; Allocation Problems; Allocative Efficiency; Allocation Rules; Social Welfare; Pandemics; Inequality; COVID-19; COVID-19 Pandemic; Public Sector; Resource Allocation; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Public Administration Industry

September 2010
Article

Do Inventory and Gross Margin Data Improve Sales Forecasts for U.S. Public Retailers?

By: Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur and Ananth Raman

Firm-level sales forecasts for retailers can be improved if we incorporate cost of goods sold, inventory, and gross margin (defined here as the ratio of sales to cost of goods sold) as three endogenous variables. We construct a simultaneous equations model, estimated... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Forecasting and Prediction; Distribution; Goods and Commodities; Cost; Public Sector; Profit; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; United States