Publications

December 2024
Article

Human Bias in the Oversight of Firms: Evidence from Workplace Safety Violations

By: Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Andreya Pérez Silva

We study the effects of mood as a source of human bias on regulators’ oversight and enforcement decisions. We use weather at facilities at the time of an OSHA inspection to proxy for the OSHA compliance officers’ mood. We find that during periods of good mood due to... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Happiness; Working Conditions; Safety

April 2006
Background Note

Designing Sustainable Service Models

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Addresses the challenge of designing service models that effectively incorporate a customer operating role, as well as how to align operations to deliver value to both the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Design; Managerial Roles; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Power and Influence; Value

February 2011
Article

The Underdog Effect: The Marketing of Disadvantage and Determination Through Brand Biography

By: Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan, Jill Avery and Juliet B. Schor

We introduce the concept of an underdog brand biography (UBB) to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author an historical account of their humble origins, lack of resources, and determined struggle against the odds. We identify two essential... View Details

Find at Harvard

03 Sep 2024
Research & Ideas

Is It Even Possible to Dam the Flow of Misleading Content Online?

think the social media company is biased, but its action still reduces the potential for a bad outcome. General: For example, “don’t eat GMOs.” With a more general expression, such as a post that genetically modified foods are... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Information Technology; Technology

29 Apr 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Analyzing the Aftermath of a Compensation Reduction

Keywords: by Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert, and Christopher Stanton; Service

2011
Working Paper

Discretion Within the Constraints of Opportunity: Gender Homophily and Structure in a Formal Organization

By: Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart and Michael L. Tushman

Homophily in social relations is widely documented. We know that homophily results from both individual preferences and uneven opportunities for interaction, but how these two mechanisms interact in formal organizations is not well understood. We argue that... View Details

Keywords: Interactive Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Behavior; Internet and the Web; Theory; Information Technology Industry

01 Aug 2023
What Do You Think?

As Leaders, Why Do We Continue to Reward A, While Hoping for B?

(iStockphoto/mikkelwilliam) Often the incentives we put in place to stimulate and reward performance produce unexpected behaviors. Causes vary from one individual to another, depending on what each of us values and what we are willing to do for the organization and the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2009
Working Paper

Innovation Communication in Multicultural Networks: Deficits in Inter-cultural Capability and Affect-based Trust as Barriers to New Idea Sharing in Inter-cultural Relationships

By: Roy Y.J. Chua and Michael W. Morris

Innovative solutions to pressing global problems require effective inter-cultural communication. We propose that a barrier to the sharing of ideas pertinent to innovation in inter-cultural relationships is low affect-based trust, which arise from individuals' deficits... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Sharing; Trust

2010
Chapter

A Contingency Theory of Leadership

By: Jay W. Lorsch

The idea of a contingency theory of leadership is not novel. In the 1960s several scholars conducted research and proposed such an approach arguing that the style of leadership that would be most effective depended upon the situation (Fiedler, Tannenbaum and Schmidt,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Situation or Environment; Behavior; Theory

24 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Want People to Save More? Send a Text

experience planted a seed for Pomeranz's future research: how to promote financial savings among "microentrepreneurs" such as food cart owners, street vendors, and cosmetics saleswomen, whose income is low and often fluctuates. Having View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

04 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com

Keywords: by Michael Luca; Food & Beverage

April 2022
Article

Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the U.S.

By: Enrico Cantoni and Vincent Pons

We measure the overall influence of contextual versus individual factors (e.g., voting rules and media as opposed to race and education) on voter behavior, and explore underlying mechanisms. Using a U.S.-wide voter-level panel, 2008–18, we examine voters who relocate... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Behavior; Geographic Location; Personal Characteristics; Situation or Environment; United States

Find at Harvard

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

which corporate and investor behavior is changing. We did so by analyzing data from more than 2,000 companies in 23 countries, and then ranked those countries based on the degree of integration of corporate environmental and social... View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

2016
Working Paper

Saving More in Groups: Field Experimental Evidence from Chile

By: Felipe Kast, Stephan Meier and Dina Pomeranz

We test the impact of a peer group savings program on precautionary savings through two randomized field experiments among 2,687 microcredit clients. The first experiment finds that the Peer Group Treatment, which combines public goal setting, monitoring in the group,... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Decision Making; Interest Rates; Planning; Performance Effectiveness; Economics; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Social Enterprise; Global Range; Chile

03 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 3

quite limited. The best path forward involves extensive experimentation and careful evaluation. Publisher's link: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo18508109.html August 2013 Advances in Strategic Management The View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (A)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Marketing; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

The Tzu Chi Foundation's China Relief Mission

By: Herman B. Leonard and YiKwan Chu

Tzu Chi is one of the largest charities in Taiwan, and one of the swiftest and most effective relief organizations internationally. Rooted in the value of compassion, the organization has many unusual operating features -- including having no long term plan. This case... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Religion; Natural Disasters; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; China; Taiwan

2014
Working Paper

The Unfairness Trap: A Key Missing Factor in the Economic Theory of Discrimination

By: Jordan I. Siegel, Naomi Kodama and Hanna Halaburda

Prior evidence linking increased female representation in management to corporate performance has been surprisingly mixed, due in part to data limitations and methodological difficulties, and possibly to omission of a fairness factor in the economic theory of... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Fairness; Performance Productivity; Gender; Japan

SSRN

February 9, 2024
Article

Addressing Climate Change with Behavioral Science: A Global Intervention Tournament in 63 Countries

By: Madalina Vlasceanu, Kimberly C. Doell, Joseph B. Bak-Coleman, Boryana Todorova, Michael M. Berkebile-Weinberg, Amit Goldenberg, Eric Shuman and et al.

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Policy; Knowledge Sharing; Values and Beliefs