Publications

November 2007 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Maidenform Bras

By: Tom Nicholas

Uses Ida Rosenthal's entrepreneurship in brassieres to explore how economic, social, and demographic changes reshaped gender and business enterprises in early- to mid-20th century America. It shows the importance of timing and geography to Rosenthal's new firm in New... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Gender; Change; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Educators

2011
Chapter

Prospective Codes Fufilled: A Potential Neural Mechanism of Will

By: Thalia Wheatley and Christine E. Looser

One of my few shortcomings is that I can’t predict the future.
Lars Ulrich, Metallica.

Lars Ulrich was right and wrong. He was right in the way we most often think about the future—as a long stretch of time during which multiply... View Details

Keywords: Free Will; Neuroscience; Responsibility; Prospection; Forecasting and Prediction; Science; Cognition and Thinking

Find at Harvard

25 Apr 2023
Blog Post

How Short Intensive Programs (SIPs) Transform Your MBA Learning Journey

your one time to have an understanding of your value to a firm. 2) You can use Donor-Advised Funds to maximize your donation amount through asset appreciation that is not taxed. 3) Budgets and targets... View Details

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

2025
Working Paper

Too Much, Too Soon? Early Funding, Technological Unconventionality, and Innovation Capabilities

By: Harsh Ketkar and Maria Roche

The availability of financial resources significantly shapes firm innovation outcomes, especially for early-stage, innovation-focused technology firms. However, prior research has provided conflicting findings about this relationship: On the one hand, resource... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Technology Strategy; Novelty; Unconventionality; Resource Constraints; Early Stage Firms; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurial Finance

Research Summary

Optimal Heteroskedasticity Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Estimators for GMM Weighting Matrices

This paper considers the optimal bias-variance tradeoff for estimators of the long run covariance matrix used to generate GMM weighting matrices in time series contexts. Minimum MSE HAC estimators do not yield minimum MSE GMM estimators. Instead, achieving... View Details

2004
Working Paper

Effort or Timing: The Effect of Lump-Sum Bonuses

This article addresses the question of whether lump-sum bonuses motivate salespeople to work harder to attain incremental orders or whether they induce salespeople to play timing games (behaviors that increase incentive payments without providing incremental benefits... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Salesforce Management

15 Oct 2021
News

Three Rules for Better Work-Life Balance

June 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Chipmaking in the Desert: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's Global Expansion

By: William C. Kirby and Noah B. Truwit

On December 6, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Executive Chairman Mark Liu outlined the company’s ambitious plans to invest $40 billion to build semiconductor manufacturing plants in Phoenix. The event also celebrated the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitical Units; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan; United States

Educators

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

Find at Harvard

06 May 2015
News

Don’t Let Emotions Screw Up Your Decisions

2010
Book

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

By: John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead

You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead,... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Cost vs Benefits; Problems and Challenges; Interests; Value

Find at Harvard

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

costs of additional investments with several alternative uses of those resources. By encouraging the consideration of multiple options, leaders may help themselves and others recognize how over-commitment to an existing project may be... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

2017
Working Paper

The Benefits of Selective Disclosure: Evidence from Private Firms

By: Joan Farre-Mensa

Private firms’ ability to communicate confidentially with selected investors implies that valuation disagreements between firms and investors are larger at public firms than at private ones. Consistent with the notion that misvaluation concerns lead public firms to... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Equity; Private Companies; Corporate Cash; Precautionary Motives; Share Issuance; IPOs; Selective Disclosure; Private Ownership; Cash; Market Timing; Corporate Finance; Public Ownership; Corporate Disclosure; United States

2022
Working Paper

The Effect of Employee Lateness and Absenteeism on Store Performance

By: Caleb Kwon and Ananth Raman

We empirically analyze the effects of employee lateness and absenteeism on store performance by examining 25.5 million employee shift timecards covering more than 100,000 employees across more than 500 U.S. retail grocery store locations over a four year time period.... View Details

Keywords: Absenteeism; Lateness; Scheduling; Performance Productivity; Employees; Retail Industry

October 2010 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University

By: Boris Groysberg, Maureen Gibbons and Joshua Bronstein

It is October 2009 and Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte LLP, has just returned from the groundbreaking of Deloitte University. When completed, Deloitte University would be a world class learning and development center owned by, and for the exclusive use by the employees... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Teams; Competency and Skills; Training; Employees; Values and Beliefs; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

Educators