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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,883)
- News (476)
- Research (2,211)
- Events (43)
- Multimedia (14)
- Faculty Publications (1,423)
- Research Summary
Board Independence and the Design of Executive Compensation
In this project, I analyze the compensation
decisions of boards of directors. Compensation decisions not only serve to motivate executives, but also
affect a board's reputation for independence. Although greater managerial influence over
the board has the obvious... View Details
- January 2025
- Technical Note
AI vs Human: Analyzing Acceptable Error Rates Using the Confusion Matrix
By: Tsedal Neeley and Tim Englehart
This technical note introduces the confusion matrix as a foundational tool in artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) for assessing the performance of classification models, focusing on their reliability for decision-making. A confusion matrix... View Details
Keywords: Reliability; Confusion Matrix; AI and Machine Learning; Decision Making; Measurement and Metrics; Performance
Neeley, Tsedal, and Tim Englehart. "AI vs Human: Analyzing Acceptable Error Rates Using the Confusion Matrix." Harvard Business School Technical Note 425-049, January 2025.
- August 2023
- Article
Explaining Machine Learning Models with Interactive Natural Language Conversations Using TalkToModel
By: Dylan Slack, Satyapriya Krishna, Himabindu Lakkaraju and Sameer Singh
Practitioners increasingly use machine learning (ML) models, yet models have become more complex and harder to understand. To understand complex models, researchers have proposed techniques to explain model predictions. However, practitioners struggle to use... View Details
Slack, Dylan, Satyapriya Krishna, Himabindu Lakkaraju, and Sameer Singh. "Explaining Machine Learning Models with Interactive Natural Language Conversations Using TalkToModel." Nature Machine Intelligence 5, no. 8 (August 2023): 873–883.
- March 2024
- Article
What Makes Groups Emotional
By: Amit Goldenberg
When people experience emotions in a group, their emotions tend to have stronger intensity and to last longer. Why is that? This question has occupied thinkers throughout history, and with the use of digital media it is even more pressing today. Historically, attention... View Details
Goldenberg, Amit. "What Makes Groups Emotional." Perspectives on Psychological Science 19, no. 2 (March 2024): 489–502.
- 2023
- Article
Conduit Incentives: Eliciting Cooperation from Workers Outside of Managers' Control
By: Susanna Gallani
Can managers use monetary incentives to elicit cooperation from workers they cannot reward for their efforts? I study “conduit incentives,” an innovative incentive design, whereby managers influence bonus-ineligible workers’ effort by offering bonus-eligible employees... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior Modification; Peer Monitoring; Persistence Of Performance Improvements; Crowding Out; Implicit Incentives; Compensation; Healthcare; Social Pressure; Image Motivation; Incentives; Motivation; Performance; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; California
Gallani, Susanna. "Conduit Incentives: Eliciting Cooperation from Workers Outside of Managers' Control." Accounting Review 93, no. 3 (2023): 1–28.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Cognitive Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice
By: Benjamin Enke and Thomas Graeber
This paper studies the relevance of cognitive uncertainty – subjective uncertainty over one's utility-maximizing action – for understanding and predicting intertemporal choice. The main idea is that when people are cognitively noisy, such as when a decision is complex,... View Details
Keywords: Cognitive Uncertainty; Intertemporal Choice; Cognition and Thinking; Complexity; Decision Choices and Conditions
Enke, Benjamin, and Thomas Graeber. "Cognitive Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29577, December 2021. (R&R at The Quarterly Journal of Economics.)
- 2014
- Working Paper
Principals and Their Car Dealers: What Do Targets Tell About Their Relation?
By: Jan Bouwens, Eddy Cardinaels and Jingwen Zhang
In this study we describe target setting and target achievements for a car dealership. Car dealers are eligible for a discount on the purchase price conditional on their achieving the sales targets set by the franchisor. We show that car dealers (franchisees) who... View Details
Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Motivation and Incentives; Franchise Ownership; Auto Industry; Retail Industry
Bouwens, Jan, Eddy Cardinaels, and Jingwen Zhang. "Principals and Their Car Dealers: What Do Targets Tell About Their Relation?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-107, April 2014.
- Article
Power, Competitiveness, and Advice Taking: Why the Powerful Don't Listen
By: L. P. Tost, F. Gino and R. Larrick
Four experiments test the prediction that feelings of power lead individuals to discount advice received from both experts and novices. Experiment 1 documents a negative relationship between subjective feelings of power and use of advice. Experiments 2 and 3 further... View Details
Tost, L. P., F. Gino, and R. Larrick. "Power, Competitiveness, and Advice Taking: Why the Powerful Don't Listen." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 117, no. 1 (January 2012): 53–65.
- Article
Temporal View of the Costs and Benefits of Self-Deception
By: Zoe Chance, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely
Researchers have documented many cases in which individuals rationalize their regrettable actions. Four experiments examine situations in which people go beyond merely explaining away their misconduct to actively deceiving themselves. We find that those who exploit... View Details
Keywords: Hindsight Bias; Lying; Motivated Reasoning; Self-enhancement; Social Psychology; Perception; Performance Expectations
Chance, Zoe, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino, and Dan Ariely. "Temporal View of the Costs and Benefits of Self-Deception." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. S3 (September 13, 2011): 15655–15659.
- Article
How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?
By: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how... View Details
Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Natural Environment; Pollutants
Chatterji, Aaron K., David I. Levine, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?" Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 18, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 125–169.
- June 2004
- Article
Market Liquidity as a Sentiment Indicator
By: Malcolm Baker and Jeremy Stein
We build a model that helps to explain why increases in liquidity-such as lower bid-ask spreads, a lower price impact of trade, or higher turnover-predict lower subsequent returns in both firm-level and aggregate data. The model features a class of irrational... View Details
Keywords: Markets; Financial Liquidity; Price; Trade; Sales; Equity; Information; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Accounting Industry
Baker, Malcolm, and Jeremy Stein. "Market Liquidity as a Sentiment Indicator." Journal of Financial Markets 7, no. 3 (June 2004): 271–299.
- April 2025
- Background Note
Climate Change Adaptation with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
By: Michael W. Toffel and Nabig Chaudhry
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have emerged as powerful tools to address climate change. This note summarizes a wide range of the uses of AI/ML to drive climate change adaptation and resilience, the measures organizations and governments are... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
Time Dependence and Preference: Implications for Compensation Structure and Shift Scheduling
By: Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim and Byoung G. Park
This study jointly examines agents’ time dependence—period effects within instantaneous utility—and time preference—behavior on discounting future utility. The study considers the start- and end-of-period effects for time dependence and exponential and hyperbolic... View Details
Keywords: Time Preferences; Present Bias; Hyperbolic Discounting; Compensation; Dynamic Structural Models; Identification; Time Management; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Performance; Compensation and Benefits
Chung, Doug J., Byungyeon Kim, and Byoung G. Park. "Time Dependence and Preference: Implications for Compensation Structure and Shift Scheduling." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-121, April 2021.
- Article
Applying Random Coefficient Models to Strategy Research: Identifying and Exploring Firm Heterogeneous Effects
By: Juan Alcácer, Wilbur Chung, Ashton Hawk and Gonçalo Pacheco-de-Almeida
Strategy aims at understanding the differential effects of firms’ actions on performance. However, standard regression models estimate only the average effects of these actions across firms. Our paper discusses how random coefficient models (RCMs) may generate new... View Details
Alcácer, Juan, Wilbur Chung, Ashton Hawk, and Gonçalo Pacheco-de-Almeida. "Applying Random Coefficient Models to Strategy Research: Identifying and Exploring Firm Heterogeneous Effects." Strategy Science 3, no. 3 (September 2018): 481–553.
- 2017
- Article
Blunted Ambiguity Aversion During Cost-Benefit Decisions in Antisocial Individuals
By: Joshua W. Buckholtz, Uma R. Karmarkar, Shengxuan Ye, Grace M. Brennan and Arielle Baskin-Sommers
Antisocial behavior is often assumed to reflect aberrant risk processing. However, many of the most significant forms of antisocial behavior, including crime, reflect the outcomes of decisions made under conditions of ambiguity rather than risk. While risk and... View Details
Keywords: Ambiguity; Neuroscience; Neuroeconomics; Choice; Psychology; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Health Disorders
Buckholtz, Joshua W., Uma R. Karmarkar, Shengxuan Ye, Grace M. Brennan, and Arielle Baskin-Sommers. "Blunted Ambiguity Aversion During Cost-Benefit Decisions in Antisocial Individuals." Art. 2030. Scientific Reports 7 (2017).
- July 2017
- Article
The Impact of 'Display-Set' Options on Decision-Making
By: Uma R. Karmarkar
The way a choice set is constructed can have a significant influence on how individuals perceive and evaluate their options and make decisions between them. Here, I examine whether a “display set” of visible but unavailable options can exert these same types of... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making Process; Heuristics; Similarity; Categorization; Marketing Insight; Marketing; Choice; Choice Architecture; Choice Sets; Display; Retail; Consumer Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Decision Making; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry
Karmarkar, Uma R. "The Impact of 'Display-Set' Options on Decision-Making." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 30, no. 3 (July 2017): 744–753.
- October 2014
- Article
Good Cop, Bad Cop: Complementarities Between Debt and Equity in Disciplining Management
By: Alexander Guembel and Lucy White
In this paper we examine how the quantity of information generated about firm prospects can be improved by splitting a firm's cash flow into a "safe" claim (debt) and a "risky" claim (equity). The former, being relatively insensitive to upside risk, provides a... View Details
Guembel, Alexander, and Lucy White. "Good Cop, Bad Cop: Complementarities Between Debt and Equity in Disciplining Management." Journal of Financial Intermediation 23, no. 4 (October 2014): 541–569.
- 2014
- Article
Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity
By: Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats
People believe that weather conditions influence their everyday work life, but to date, little is known about how weather affects individual productivity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we predict and find that bad weather increases individual productivity and that... View Details
Keywords: Productivity; Opportunity Cost; Distractions; Weather; Performance Productivity; Cognition and Thinking
Lee, Jooa Julia, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats. "Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity." Journal of Applied Psychology 99, no. 3 (May 2014): 504–513.
- November 2004
- Article
Unemployment Benefits As a Substitute for a Conservative Central Banker
By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch
In the many years since their introduction, positive theories of inflation have rarely been tested. This paper documents a negative relationship between inflation and the welfare state (proxied by the parameters of the unemployment benefit program) that is to be... View Details
Di Tella, Rafael, and Robert MacCulloch. "Unemployment Benefits As a Substitute for a Conservative Central Banker." Review of Economics and Statistics 86, no. 4 (November 2004): 911–23.
- 23 Jun 2023
- HBS Case
This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions
middle managers. What about efficiency? As the nursing shortage is predicted to become more severe, all health organizations, including Buurtzorg, will be under pressure to become more efficient with nursing time. A traditional approach... View Details