Signals - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

consists of (1) two firms competing in a vertically differentiated market in which product quality is a mix of public and private components and (2) a market for developers that firms hire after observing signals of their contributions to... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Jun 2018
News

Q&A with Janet Cahill

example, gifts under $1,000 to the HBS Fund added up to $1.8 million. Gifts of any size signal donors’ pride in and gratitude for their HBS experience, demonstrate their commitment to the HBS mission, and serve as a tangible vote of... View Details

11 Mar 2020
News

Making It Rain

to gather weather data in an entirely new way—by extracting information from things like cell phone signals. When wireless signals hit atmospheric conditions like rain, for example, they lose strength. “We can reverse engineer the View Details

Keywords: Lisa Scanlon Mogolov

01 Jun 2024
News

Outside Voices

In just 15 years, Greece managed to seesaw from one economic extreme to the other, from almost breaking the eurozone at the depth of its debt crisis to becoming one of the fastest growing economies in Europe in 2023, according to the IMF. Now wages are rebounding,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; illustration by Pete Ryan; immigration; repatriation; innovation; public policy; Greece

25 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How Chapter 11 Saved the US Economy

through bankruptcy could have sent a signal to Apollo's limited partners—and to its competitors—that the firm wasn't "willing to support its less successful investments, undermining future fund-raising efforts or its ability to... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

21 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

Leadership Program for Women Targets Subtle Promotion Biases

patterns of their male colleagues," says coauthor Kolb. And without women in high places, younger women lack the role models and mentors to help them succeed. It seems the organization is signaling that being female is a liability,... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

11 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

caring for children, leaders must be sensitive to issues of exhaustion and the difficulty of working during pre-pandemic office hours. "Leadership signaling that working unorthodox hours is okay could make a real difference to their... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

intermediaries—called outsourcing agencies—have emerged in these markets. This paper shows that agencies signal to employers that inexperienced workers are high quality. Workers affiliated with an agency have substantially higher... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Negotiation and All That Jazz

into your strategy right from the start. "There are certain things you won't know until you engage with the other side. In other words, negotiation is a dynamic, interactive process," Wheeler says. Whatever questions, offers, or threats you make are also View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 2, 2009

information. To start closing this gap, we study transfers of income to real-world poor people in the context of dictator games. Our dictators can purchase signals about why the recipients are poor. We find that a third of the dictators... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Managing to Learn: How Companies Can Turn Knowledge into Action

Nike managers failed to pick up the relevant market signals and learn from them. It took them too long to figure out that consumers wanted something different from what Nike was offering at the time. Unfortunately, Garvin states, this is... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

06 Aug 2020
Blog Post

WHY WE STARTED THE HBS BLACK INVESTMENT CLUB

interests of our community. By starting this club, we are sending the signal loud and clear that we will no longer tolerate being shut out. Given the investing world’s tendency to rely on personal networks not only to win deals, but also... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

01 Jan 2004
News

Barbara Hackman Franklin, MBA 1964

years. "President Bush felt strongly about normalizing relations with China and opening that market to American business," says Franklin. "My mission to Beijing to reconvene the Joint Commission was a win-win situation. The sanction was lifted and a View Details

03 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 3, 2018

domestic civil society and when their buyers are more sensitive to such exposure. At the program design level, we find that suppliers improve more when the monitoring regime signals a cooperative approach and when auditors are highly... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

20 Apr 2020
Book

Why COVID-19 Raises the Stakes for Healthy Buildings

(Environmental Insights) COVID-19 Business Impact Center (Harvard Business School) Read COVID-19 coverage from Working Knowledge Many elite companies already use their building’s efficiency or grandeur to send a signal to customers and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Real Estate; Health

10 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Governance in India and Around the Globe

chosen to be a lead adopter of such practices in India for several reasons that we analyze—as a signal of its high quality, to benefit indirectly from positive externalities that its adoption decision had on other software firms in India,... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu; Technology

19 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Building a Powerful Network of Talent at American Tower

Tower’s high touch Leadership Development Program helping her carve a path forward, the signals are clear. Nyanteki-Owusu is heading towards a bright and rewarding future. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Telecommunications

01 Dec 2012
News

Taking Time to Make Time

arrive in your email five minutes before the meeting starts, it's a signal that the person in charge hasn't laid the groundwork for a productive use of time. There should be adequate time in advance for everyone to prepare for a... View Details

Keywords: Time management

17 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 17

thresholds for perceiving minds behind out-group faces (Experiment 3). These experiments suggest that mind perception is a dynamic process in which relevant contextual information such as social identity and out-group threat change the interpretation of physical... View Details