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- Faculty Publications (83)
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- All HBS Web (126)
- Faculty Publications (83)
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- September 2004
- Article
Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)
Rational agents with differing priors tend to be overoptimistic about their chances of success. In particular, an agent who tries to choose the action that is most likely to succeed, is more likely to choose an action of which he overestimated, rather than... View Details
Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Decision Choices and Conditions; Performance Expectations; Outcome or Result; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Failure; Success; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Characteristics; Values and Beliefs; Ethics
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)." American Economic Review 94, no. 4 (September 2004): 1141–1151.
- 2006
- Working Paper
On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)
This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric J. "On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)." Sloan School of Management Working Paper, No. 4553-05, January 2006. (Available at SSRN.)
- Article
Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision
Can managers have an impact on their firm that goes beyond their direct actions and decisions? This article shows that a manager with strong beliefs about the right course of action will attract, through sorting in the labor market, employees with similar beliefs. This... View Details
Keywords: Organizations; Goals and Objectives; Decisions; Labor; Markets; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Recruitment; Risk and Uncertainty; Values and Beliefs
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision." Journal of Law, Economics & Organization 21, no. 1 (April 2005): 256–283. (Reprinted in The Economics of Organisation and Bureaucracy, Peter M. Jackson (ed.), Edward Elgar (Cheltenham, UK), 2013.)
- August 2017
- Article
A Formal Theory of Strategy
What makes a decision strategic? When is strategy most important? This paper formally studies these questions, starting from a (functional) definition of strategy as “the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices.” The paper shows that this... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric J. "A Formal Theory of Strategy." Management Science 63, no. 8 (August 2017): 2616–2636.
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
Tesla Motors
In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews, had recently raised first-year production targets, and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details
- July 2013
- Teaching Note
Competition Simulator Exercise
- June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
- Technical Note
Strategic Complements and Substitutes
The framework of strategic complements and substitutes can help companies anticipate competitors' responses. It is particularly helpful in deciding on price- or capacity-commitments (or pre-emption), but it can provide more general guidance for analyzing the potential... View Details
Keywords: Competition; Strategic Substitutes; Strategic Complements; Puppy Dog Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Game Theory; Strategy; Economics
Van den Steen, Eric. "Strategic Complements and Substitutes." Harvard Business School Technical Note 713-542, June 2013. (Revised March 2014.)
- June 2013 (Revised November 2022)
- Exercise
Competition Simulator Exercise
In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and... View Details
Keywords: Competition; Economics; Game Theory; Competitive Strategy; Learning; Mathematical Methods; Analysis
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Competition Simulator Exercise." Harvard Business School Exercise 713-804, June 2013. (Revised November 2022.)
- 2009
- Working Paper
Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity
This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture—in the sense of shared beliefs and values—in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Theory
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-003, July 2009.
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Drivers of Value Creation
This note introduces a concise but comprehensive framework for analyzing value creation and value creation advantage, i.e., a firm's superior ability to increase the spread (or gap) between its offering's customer value (or WTP) and supplier cost (or WTS). (While the... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric. "Drivers of Value Creation." Harvard Business School Technical Note 714-487, March 2014.
- June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
- Teaching Note
Bananas (A) and (B)
- June 2012 (Revised December 2017)
- Technical Note
Strategy and Strategic Decisions
This note introduces a framework for formulating strategy that helps a manager identify which decisions are strategic—and thus which decisions to focus on (both when developing strategy and when executing it)—and that provides a practical test for whether a particular... View Details
Keywords: Formulating Strategy; Strategic Theory; Strategy Test; Strategic Analysis; Strategy; Theory; Strategic Planning
Van den Steen, Eric. "Strategy and Strategic Decisions." Harvard Business School Technical Note 712-500, June 2012. (Revised December 2017.)
- December 2011 (Revised April 2013)
- Supplement
Akamai's Edge (B)
In 2009, Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, the leading online content delivery network with a 60% market share, needs to decide how to respond to aggressive market entry, whether and how to pursue the explosive growth in online video, and whether to stay with Akamai's... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric. "Akamai's Edge (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 712-456, December 2011. (Revised April 2013.)
- December 2011 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Akamai's Edge (A)
In 2009, Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, the leading online content delivery network with a 60% market share, needs to decide how to respond to aggressive entry in its market, whether and how to pursue the explosive growth in online video, and whether to stay with its... View Details
Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Market Entry and Exit; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy; Internet
Van den Steen, Eric. "Akamai's Edge (A)." Harvard Business School Case 712-455, December 2011. (Revised April 2013.)
- January 2017 (Revised February 2022)
- Background Note
Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness
This note gives students a systematic and comprehensive framework for analyzing and influencing market attractiveness. It pays explicit attention to value creation, complements, and the dynamics of market attractiveness. It also includes careful sub-frameworks for... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric. "Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness." Harvard Business School Background Note 717-466, January 2017. (Revised February 2022.)
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Performance and Value Analysis
This note introduces the Performance and Value Analysis (PVA) framework, an integrated framework to analyze strategic performance (i.e., performance corrected for temporary and random effects). This framework (quantitatively) decomposes a firm's performance into 3... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Economic Analysis; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Value Capture; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competency and Skills; Competition; Value Creation
Van den Steen, Eric. "Performance and Value Analysis." Harvard Business School Technical Note 714-490, March 2014.
- March 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Teaching Note
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
Strategy and the Strategist
- May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
Strategy and the Strategist
This short case presents a series of brief accounts, observations, and quotations that challenge students to think about the role of the CEO — and of the CEO's (possibly strong) beliefs and convictions — in strategy. It focuses in particular on three issues and their... View Details
Keywords: Belief Systems; Strategic Analysis; Competitive Advantage; Values; Vision; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy; Leadership; Values and Beliefs
Van den Steen, Eric. "Strategy and the Strategist." Harvard Business School Case 713-533, May 2013. (Revised March 2014.)
- 19 Feb 2019
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, February 19, 2019
https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55632 forthcoming Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Active Choice, Implicit Defaults, and the Incentive to Choose By: Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne