Publications

September–October 2012
Article

One-Switch Conditions for Multiattribute Utility Functions

By: Ali E. Abbas and David E. Bell

We introduce a variety of new independence conditions for multiattribute utility functions that permit preference dependencies among the attributes of a decision problem. The hierarchy of new conditions varies in the degree to which it specifies the functional form,... View Details

Keywords: One-switch; Utility Independence; Risk Aversion; Multiattribute Utility; Decision Making

Find at Harvard

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

Working PapersIncorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting Authors:Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur, and Ananth Raman Abstract As numerous papers have argued, sales,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Economic Gains from Trade, The: Theories of Strategic Trade

The theory of competitive advantage is one of the most widely accepted economic principles among economists. The theory, as well as substantial historical evidence, suggest that free trade raises national income, while government intervention in trade relations... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Trade

27 Jun 2019
News

Long-Term Investing, Short-Term Thinking

09 Aug 2017
News

Non-Executive Directors Need To Align With Managers -- Without Losing Their Independence

April 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Road Well Traveled, The (Condensed)

Presents the conclusions of a 1992 mail survey of Harvard MBAs who started their own businesses. Questions focused on 4 areas: 1) development of the business concept, 2) sales and marketing, 3) finance, and 4) building a staff. The entrepreneurs surveyed include 24 in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

April 1996
Case

The Road Well Traveled: A Note on the Journeys of HBS Entrepreneurs

Based on a 1992 mail survey of Harvard MBAs who started their own businesses. Questions focused on 4 areas: 1) development of the business concept, 2) sales and marketing, 3) finance, and 4) building a staff. The entrepreneurs surveyed include 24 in consulting, 17 in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

April 2009
Case

Invest Early: Early Childhood Development in a Rural Community

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Invest Early was an early childhood development partnership in rural northern Minnesota between 14 different organizations, which worked together through an advisory board, governing board, and leadership team in order to deliver coordinated early childhood services to... View Details

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Rural Scope; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks

Find at Harvard

January 2019 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Angola Starts Now

By: Jeremy Friedman and Sophus A. Reinert

After five centuries of colonialism, four decades of civil war, an extended experiment with Marxism-Leninism, and nearly four decades of rule by a single man, José Eduardo Dos Santos, Angola finally has a chance to realize its enormous economic potential. A country... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Government and Politics; History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Social Issues; Angola

July 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors: Bringing Systematic Investment to Philanthropy

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Alexander Bischoff and Sophia Pan

Melissa Berman, CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), evaluated her client’s philanthropy project and its mediocre performance. RPA was a segment of the Rockefeller Family Office’s Philanthropy Department, becoming an independent charity in 2002. Consistently... View Details

23 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

China’s 60-Year Road from Revolution to World Power

from around the world. The resulting book includes several of the papers and lectures that were presented at the conference, providing a wide range of views about China's past, present, and future. In this... View Details

Keywords: by William C. Kirby

2017
Working Paper

Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks

By: Paul Green Jr., Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Many organizations employ interpersonal feedback processes as a structured means of informing and motivating employee improvement. Ample evidence suggests that these feedback processes are largely ineffective, and despite a wealth of prescriptive literature, these... View Details

Keywords: Developmental Feedback; Self-concept; Positive Illusions; Social Network; Threat; Identity; Social and Collaborative Networks; Behavior; Performance; Social Media

SSRN

Read Now

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

Working PapersSell Side School Ties Authors:Lauren H. Cohen, Andrea Frazzini, and Christopher J. Malloy Abstract We study the impact of social networks on agents' ability to gather superior information about firms. Exploiting novel data... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Jan 2008
Working Paper Summaries

The Political Economy of “Natural” Disasters

Keywords: by Charles Cohen & Eric D. Werker

May 2006 (Revised February 2012)
Case

General Electric's 20th Century CEOs (Abridged)

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson

General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Style

24 Oct 2023
HBS Case

From P.T. Barnum to Mary Kay: Lessons From 5 Leaders Who Changed the World

formerly enslaved people born in Louisiana in 1867, Sarah Breedlove was an orphan by seven and a widowed single mother by 19. She was determined to escape the poverty and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details