Publications

2024
Working Paper

Should I Stay or Should I Disclose? How Omission Bias Guides Our Disclosure Decisions

By: Elinora Pentcheva and Leslie John

2024
Working Paper

The Agreeable Revealer: Personality Correlates of Self-Disclosure

By: Elinora Pentcheva and Leslie John

2024
Working Paper

Categorical Processing in a Complex World

By: Marco Sammon, Thomas Graeber and Christopher Roth

In real-world news environments, quantitative information is rarely presented in isolation; it is characterized through qualitative comparisons with various reference levels. Company earnings, for example, are commonly compared to analyst forecasts, previous earnings,... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Cognition and Thinking; Communication Strategy

November–December 2024
Article

Group Size and Its Impact on Diversity-Related Perceptions and Hiring Decisions in Homogeneous Groups

By: Aneesh Rai, Edward H. Chang, Erika Kirgios and Katherine L. Milkman

Why do some homogeneous groups face backlash for lacking diversity, whereas others escape censure? We show that a homogeneous group’s size changes how it is perceived and whether decision makers pursue greater diversity in its ranks. We theorize that people make... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Perception; Decision Making; Groups and Teams; Selection and Staffing; Size

November 2024
Article

Stakeholder Amnesia in M&A Deals

By: Caley Petrucci and Guhan Subramanian

Public companies have increasingly embraced environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the course of everyday business. However, these ESG considerations are virtually non-existent in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. Elon Musk’s recent acquisition... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions

October 18, 2024
Article

Why Workplace Well-Being Programs Don’t Achieve Better Outcomes

By: Jazz Croft, Acacia Parks and Ashley Whillans

By 2026, global corporate spending on wellness programs is set to top $94.6 billion, yet anticipated improvements in well-being are not being realized, and, in fact, mental health needs are continuing to rise around the world. Drawing on a large body of recent... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Well-being

October 2024
Teaching Note

Deepa Bachu: Design Thinking at Pensaar

By: Thomas Graeber and Joshua Schwartzstein

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 923-026. View Details

Fall 2024
Article

Redemption Mechanisms in Poison Pills: Evidence on Pill Design and Law Firm Effects

By: Olivier Baum and Guhan Subramanian

We present the first evidence on the incidence of “trip wire” versus “last look” poison pills. Using a hand-collected data set of 130 poison pills implemented and/or amended between January 1, 2020 and March 31, 2023, we find that pills are almost evenly divided... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Negotiation Tactics; Contracts

October 2024
Teaching Note

Teaching Note for Río Curicó: A Six-Party Negotiation Exercise

By: Julian Zlatev, Kathleen McGinn and Rachel Drapper

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 920-056, 920-057, 920-058, 920-059, 920-060, and 920-061. View Details

September 2024
Teaching Note

Teaching Note for Endesa Chile: Raising the Ralco Dam

By: Julian Zlatev, Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine Chen and Rachel Drapper

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 906-014 and 906-015. View Details

September 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Ming Min Hui at Boston Ballet

By: Edward H. Chang, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how Ming Min Hui, the newly appointed executive director of Boston Ballet, should ensure that the company stays true to its art form yet relevant to its times. Hui stood out among ballet leaders as a young, Asian American woman with a Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Change; Diversity; Gender; Race; Theater Entertainment; Leadership; Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

Educators

September 2024
Case

Not Everyone’s Cup of Coffee: Organizing the Café Industry

By: Jillian Jordan and Kathleen McGinn

Educators

2024
Working Paper

Behavioral Attenuation

By: Thomas Graeber, Benjamin Enke, Ryan Oprea and Jeffrey Yang

We report a large-scale examination of behavioral attenuation: due to information-processing constraints, the elasticity of people’s decisions with respect to economic fundamentals is generally too small. We implement more than 30 experiments, 20 of which were... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Behavioral Finance

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2024
Working Paper

Finance Without Exotic Risk

By: Pedro Bordalo, Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta and Andrei Shleifer

We address the joint hypothesis problem in cross-sectional asset pricing by using measured analyst expectations of earnings growth. We construct a firm-level measure of Expectations Based Returns (EBRs) that uses analyst forecast errors and revisions and shuts down any... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Financial Markets; Behavioral Finance; Risk and Uncertainty

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September 2024
Article

Gender Gaps: Back and Here to Stay? Evidence from Skilled Ugandan Workers During COVID-19

By: Livia Alfonsi, Mary Namubiru and Sara Spaziani

We investigate gender disparities in the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market outcomes of skilled Ugandan workers. Leveraging a high-frequency panel dataset, we find that the lockdowns imposed in Uganda reduced employment by 69% for women and by 45% for men,... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Wage Gap; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Employment; Wages; Uganda

September 2024
Article

The Human Side of the Future of Work: Understanding the Role People Play in Shaping a Changing World

By: Jochen I. Menges, Lauren C. Howe, Erika Hall, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Sharon K. Parker, Riki Takeuchi, Abhijeet K. Vadera, Ashley Whillans and Susan K. Cohen

For as long as there has been work, there has been a “future of work,” through humans’ ingenuity and drive to get things done easier, faster, and better. With the industrial revolution, efforts to shape a better future of work were dominated by improvements in... View Details

Keywords: Change; Labor

2024
Working Paper

How Real Is Hypothetical?: A High-Stakes Test of the Allais Paradox

By: Uri Gneezy, Yoram Halevy, Brian Hall, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven

Researchers in behavioral and experimental economics often argue that only incentive-compatible mechanisms can elicit effort and truthful responses from participants. Others argue that participants make less-biased decisions when the stakes are sufficiently high.... View Details

Keywords: Research; Behavioral Finance; Economics; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias

Winter–Spring 2024
Article

Grand Bargain: Negotiating Toward a Better Middle East

By: James K. Sebenius

How can sophisticated negotiation bring about a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East? While a "grand bargain" to accomplish this lofty goal may seem implausible, the potential value of such an agreement would be vast for most Israelis, Palestinians, and key... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; War; Conflict and Resolution; Israel; West Bank

2024
Working Paper

Modest Victims: Victims Who Decline to Broadcast Their Victimization Are Seen As Morally Virtuous

By: Nathan Dhaliwal, Jillian J. Jordan and Pat Barclay

What do people think of victims who conceal their victimhood? We propose that the decision to not broadcast that one has been victimized serves as a costly act of modesty—in doing so, one is potentially forgoing social support and compensation from one’s community. We... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Mathematical Methods; Communication; Perception; Reputation