Publications

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2006
Working Paper

Too Motivated?

I show that an agent's motivation to do well (objectively) may be unambiguously bad in a world with differing priors, i.e., when people openly disagree on the optimal course of action. The reason is that an agent who is strongly motivated is more likely to follow... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employees; Wages; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance; Agency Theory; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

2001
Dissertation

Essays on the Managerial Implications of Differing Priors

Keywords: Management; Conflict and Resolution

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2009
Working Paper

Authority versus Persuasion

This paper studies a principal's trade-off between using persuasion versus using interpersonal authority to get the agent to "do the right thing"; from the principal's perspective (when the principal and agent openly disagree on the right course of action). It shows... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

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Web

Events - Business History

Abdelal (HBS) May 28 28 May 2021 BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW: SPECIAL ISSUE WORKSHOP “Business and Slavery” Marlous van Waijenburg and Sophus Reinert (HBS), sponsoring faculty Presentations by Justene Hill... View Details

August 2017
Article

A Formal Theory of Strategy

What makes a decision strategic? When is strategy most important? This paper formally studies these questions, starting from a (functional) definition of strategy as “the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices.” The paper shows that this... View Details

Keywords: Strategy Development; Strategy; Decisions

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March 2014
Technical Note

Drivers of Value Creation

This note introduces a concise but comprehensive framework for analyzing value creation and value creation advantage, i.e., a firm's superior ability to increase the spread (or gap) between its offering's customer value (or WTP) and supplier cost (or WTS). (While the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

Bananas (A) and (B)

June 2012 (Revised December 2017)
Technical Note

Strategy and Strategic Decisions

This note introduces a framework for formulating strategy that helps a manager identify which decisions are strategic—and thus which decisions to focus on (both when developing strategy and when executing it)—and that provides a practical test for whether a particular... View Details

Keywords: Formulating Strategy; Strategic Theory; Strategy Test; Strategic Analysis; Strategy; Theory; Strategic Planning

December 2011 (Revised April 2013)
Supplement

Akamai's Edge (B)

In 2009, Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, the leading online content delivery network with a 60% market share, needs to decide how to respond to aggressive market entry, whether and how to pursue the explosive growth in online video, and whether to stay with Akamai's... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage

December 2011 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Akamai's Edge (A)

In 2009, Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, the leading online content delivery network with a 60% market share, needs to decide how to respond to aggressive entry in its market, whether and how to pursue the explosive growth in online video, and whether to stay with its... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Market Entry and Exit; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy; Internet

March 2014
Teaching Note

Tesla Motors

In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews, had recently raised first-year production targets, and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Production; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Auto Industry; United States

Web

Finance Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

the Ieke van den Burg Prize for Research on Systemic Risk awarded by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) for “Liquidity Transformation in Asset Management: Evidence from... View Details

July 2013
Teaching Note

Competition Simulator Exercise

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Technical Note

Strategic Complements and Substitutes

The framework of strategic complements and substitutes can help companies anticipate competitors' responses. It is particularly helpful in deciding on price- or capacity-commitments (or pre-emption), but it can provide more general guidance for analyzing the potential... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Strategic Substitutes; Strategic Complements; Puppy Dog Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Game Theory; Strategy; Economics

14 Aug 2009
News

Something for the weekend

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

practical implications to the literature on organizational change, emotions, and language in global organizations. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55473 December 2018 Strategy Science The Strategy in Competitive Interactions By: View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

January 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Case

SoundCloud: Subscription Streaming?

By: Ashish Nanda, Eric Van den Steen, Andy Wu, Jeffrey Boyar and Bonnie Bennett Slater

Established in 2007, SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists by early 2014. Yet, its founders were questioning the robustness of the firm’s... View Details