Publications

23 Oct 2019
News

Negotiators Share Lessons from High-Stakes Global Diplomacy

related to the project, Kissinger the Negotiator (Harper Collins, 2018), analyzes Kissinger’s overall approach to making deals and resolving conflicts. The project’s most impactful outcome so far has been the development of a graduate... View Details

Keywords: University Collaborations

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles, Papers of the Decade

that specific, challenging goals motivate performance far better than "do your best" exhortations. The authors of this article, however, argue that it is often these same characteristics of goals that cause them to "go wild." How Can View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2011
Article

Overconfidence by Bayesian Rational Agents

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Knowledge Acquisition; Risk Management; Prejudice and Bias

Find at Harvard

Read Now

04 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 4, 2008

of these customers. The model was used to help an online auction firm make several critical decisions including its pricing and marketing strategy as well as its overall firm valuation. HBS Focus: The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2004
Article

Capital Controls: A Political Economy Approach

By: Laura Alfaro

This paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping-generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income from... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Voting; Conflict of Interests; Capital; Government and Politics; Wages; Saving; Forecasting and Prediction

April 1991 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Cat Fight in the Pet Food Industry (A)

By: David J. Collis

Describes the pet food industry in the mid-eighties prior to the breakout of a major competitive battle as manufacturers fight for share. Illustrates how when there are benefits to play in multiple markets, competitors will take action in one market to preserve their... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Markets; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Ownership Stake; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

October 2017
Case

Shift Technologies, Inc.

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

June 2011
Teaching Note

Paul Bremer at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (TN)

By: Robert Steven Kaplan

Teaching Note for 411010. View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; Power and Influence; Civil Society or Community; War; Decisions; Iraq; District of Columbia

2009
Introduction

Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments: Touchpoints and Touchdowns in a Distinguished Scholarly Career

By: R. M. Kramer, A. E. Tenbrunsel and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Civil Society or Community

January 1988 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Howard Head and Prince Manufacturing, Inc.

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Deals with the issue of an entrepreneur in a very successful company deciding whether to stay through a period of great growth or to sell. What are the entrepreneur's responsibilities to the organization, to his employees, to the public? As subtopics, the issues of... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Law; Markets; Production; Sales

01 Oct 1998
News

Beyond the Numbers

Lowell Robinson is a numbers guy, with a twist. "A company's numbers tell a story," says the reflective CFO and executive vice president of the Manhattan-based PRT Group Inc., a high-tech services firm. "When you make that story come... View Details

Keywords: Eileen K. McCluskey

March 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Supplement

Celgene (B)

By: Malcolm Baker and Emily McComb

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Public Market Investing; Celgene; Revlimid; Hedge Fund; Growth Stocks; Valuation; Investment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Analysis; Biotechnology Industry

August 2009
Teaching Note

Mina O'Reilly at Logan Airport's TSA (TN)

By: Michel Anteby and Erin McFee

Teaching Note for [409116]. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Labor; Employees; Behavior; Decisions; Air Transportation Industry; Boston

May 2000
Supplement

Bain & Co., Inc.: Phyllis Yale in Conversation with MBA students

By: Ashish Nanda

Phyllis Yale, chairman of Bain's Compensation and Promotion Committee (CPC), discusses how the CPC decided on four promotion cases. She reflects on the impact of the promotion decision-making process on the firm. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

September 1995 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Exporting American Culture

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A large entertainment company, extensively criticized for producing violent, offensive, and anti-social material, is considering whether to sell its material to a semi-illegal operation that is beaming satellite TV into Turkey. The opportunity raises many questions... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Media; Business and Community Relations; Opportunities; Social Issues; Media and Broadcasting Industry