Publications

06 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: June 6, 2017

decision strategic and what makes strategy valuable, the paper considers the effect of commitment, reliability, and irreversibility of a decision; the presence of View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Aug 2024
In Practice

Election 2024: What's at Stake for Business and the Workplace?

electric school buses to jeopardize consumer support and make your innovations controversial again. The choice is stark. In a climate-denying administration, this may set back the industry for years, letting... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

May 1986
Article

Inertia, Environments and Strategic Choice: Quasi-Experimental Designs for Comparative Research

By: E. Romanelli and Michael Tushman

Keywords: Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Design; Research

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

uncertainties of the future and the strains of the present." Acknowledge the feelings. When sharing difficult news—or even beginning an ordinary staff meeting, some days—acknowledge the View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

Web

Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy - Course Catalog

and economic institutions are able to coordinate private decisions on stable and productive paths. Where institutional development is weak - as seems to be the case in much of... View Details

Article

De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution

By: Benjamin B Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl

The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Income; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

September 2011
Article

Information Risk and Fair Value: An Examination of Equity Betas

By: Edward J. Riedl and George Serafeim

Using a sample of U.S. financial institutions, we exploit recent mandatory disclosures of financial instruments designated as fair value level 1, 2, and 3 to test whether greater information risk in financial instrument fair values leads to higher cost of capital. We... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Assets; Cost of Capital; Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Corporate Disclosure; Information; Risk and Uncertainty; Value; United States

SSRN

Katherine Coffman is the Piramal Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiations, Organizations & Markets unit. Before joining HBS, she was an assistant professor of economics at The Ohio State University and a visiting assistant professor of... View Details

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

versus Posted Prices in Online Markets By: Einav, Liran, Chiara Farronato, Jonathan Levin, and Neel Sundaresan Abstract—Auctions were very popular in the early days of internet commerce, but today online sellers mostly use posted prices.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability Course | HBS Online

Download our guide to learn more about this limited-time offer. Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability $1,850 Next 6-week session starts August 13th Enroll Now Develop a toolkit for making tough leadership View Details

August 2018
Case

Digital Transformation at Brazilian Retailer Magazine Luiza

By: Thales S. Teixeira, Leandro A. Guissoni and Tania Modesto Veludo-de-Oliveira

By late 2017, Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza's CEO was convinced that the company could significantly grow sales and accomplish its aspirations of digital transformation. What was unclear in his mind was whether he should act as a tech company and grow as fast as... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Ecommerce; Retailing; Brazil; Bricks And Mortar; Pricing; Customer Lifetime Value; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retail Industry; Brazil

24 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 24, 2017

their decision rights within firms, but managers can seek permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to dismiss proposals. We find that managers seek to exclude 39% of all proposals they... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Dec 2010
What Do You Think?

Making Right Choices: Art or Science?

of information one can access through "hookup density" in the brain. Paul Nicholas agreed, "We tend to make choices and decisions based on feelings; our... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

March 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Emeritus: Achieving Impact, Providing Access (A)

By: Ashish Nanda and Zack Kurtovich

In June 2019, Emeritus cofounders Ashwin Damera (HBS MBA 2005) and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu were thrilled with the rapid growth of Emeritus. Damera and Kalipatnapu believed that Emeritus, established in July 2015 to offer online executive education, was only in the early... View Details

Keywords: Education Technology; Professional Service Firm; Startup; Digital Strategy; Global Business; Global Firm; Platform Business; Business Startups; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Executive Education; Strategy; Education Industry; India

January 26, 2016
Article

Hiding Personal Information Reveals the Worst

By: Leslie K. John, Kate Barasz and Michael I. Norton

Seven experiments explore people's decisions to share or withhold personal information and the wisdom of such decisions. When people choose not to reveal information—to be "hiders"—they are judged negatively by others (experiment 1). These negative judgments emerge... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Transparency; Policy-making; Privacy; Information; Corporate Disclosure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Trust

Read Now

09 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 9, 2018

Surprise Donation Ask By: Exley, Christine L., and Ragan Petrie Abstract—Individuals frequently exploit "flexibility" built into decision environments to give less. They use View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2006 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Fritidsresor Under Pressure (A): The First 10 Hours

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

When a tsunami hit Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004, the leadership team at a Swedish tour company must manage a devastating crisis affecting thousands of its customers and employees in Thailand. Documents the challenges the company faced in the first ten hours of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Crisis Management; Natural Disasters; Tourism Industry; Thailand; Sweden