Publications

April 2014
Article

Awards Unbundled: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

By: Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and Scott S. Lee

Organizations often use non-monetary awards to incentivize performance. Awards may affect behavior through several mechanisms: by conferring employer recognition, by enhancing social visibility, and by facilitating social comparison. In a nationwide health worker... View Details

Keywords: Social Comparison; Awards; Optimal Expectactions; Zambia; Status and Position; Performance Expectations; Motivation and Incentives; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Zambia

Web

Predoctoral Experience | Research Associates

Predoctoral Experience Apply Now The Predoctoral Research Associate role is designed to provide research associates (RAs) with exposure to a variety of research areas, while gaining View Details

January 24, 2025
Article

Behaviorally Designed Training Leads to More Diverse Hiring

By: Cansin Arslan, Edward H. Chang, Siri Chilazi, Iris Bohnet and Oliver P. Hauser

Many organizations have shown interest in increasing the diversity of their workforces for various reasons. Collectively, they have spent millions of dollars and countless employee hours on diversity training. Yet, there is little empirical evidence that such training... View Details

Keywords: Training; Diversity; Selection and Staffing; Behavior; Outcome or Result; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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Web

The Experience | Information Technology

The Experience A seamless experience for highly engaged online learning Designed to recreate the look and feel of Harvard Business School’s world-renowned instructional spaces,... View Details

05 Jul 2021
News

Do Companies Really Need Chief Experience Officers to Know Their Customers?

12 Oct 2022
Video

Mike Luca: The Role Experiments Play in Addressing Discrimination

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

the experience at Airbnb provides an important lesson for other businesses with similar web platforms. Companies should be reviewing their web design and building in more anonymity. If it’s necessary to... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Travel

11 Oct 2017
Blog Post

Designing Internship Projects for Greater Impact

managing the recruiting process, and larger institutions may lack the structures needed to accommodate the more entrepreneurial candidate. In either case, large company or small, interns and employers must work together to design an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Digital Designs on the Inner City

Harris, of Playing2Win Technology can also be used to bridge the asset gap and drive down the cost of programs designed to help low-income families, said HBS professor Peter Tufano (HBS MBA '84), who teaches financial management. Tufano... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Article

Considering Concessions: A Survey Experiment on the Colombian Peace Process

By: Aila M. Matanock and Natalia Garbiras-Díaz

Designing peace agreements that can be signed and sustained can be difficult in civil conflict. Many recent cases of successful settlements include electoral provisions, often for rebel groups to participate as political parties. Engaging the electoral process,... View Details

Keywords: Peace Process; Political Parties; Politics; Government; Agreements; Political Backlash; Political Discourse; Civil Unrest; Civil War; Political Issues; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Policy; Conflict and Resolution; Latin America; Colombia

Purchase

07 Jul 2022
Blog Post

Pathlight: Reimagining the Developer Onboarding Experience

to now onboarding. Our first iteration of experiments was around the career discovery space, where we designed a tech career assessment and resource repository of created and curated guides in the tech... View Details

2016
Chapter

Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani

This paper discusses several challenges in designing field experiments to better understand how organizational and institutional design shapes innovation outcomes and the production of knowledge. We proceed to describe the field experimental research program carried... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Research; Knowledge; Innovation and Invention

October 2021
Article

Board Design and Governance Failures at Peer Firms

By: Shelby Gai, J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Andy Wu

Our study introduces board committees as a crucial determinant of board actions. We examine how directors who structurally link different board committees—referred to as multi-committee directors (MCDs)—explain why some board actions are merely symbolic while others... View Details

Keywords: Board Committees; Board Monitoring; New Director Nomination; Peer Financial Restatements; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Performance Effectiveness

04 Sep 2019
Blog Post

A Guided Experience into the World of Entrepreneurship

people start companies, I knew that this was the best program for me.” Stan had already gained an impressive amount of experience at Microsoft where he worked on operating systems and with online payments technology, responsibilities that... View Details

Research Summary

People Are Experience Goods: Improving Online Dating with Virtual Dates

Because internet search mechanisms are designed for finding searchable items, we tend to conceptualize the things we seek online in terms of their objective characteristics. For some pursuits, however, this illuminates a mismatch between processes and goals. In online... View Details

October 2018
Case

Innovation at the Utility: Consolidated Edison's Experience

By: Martha Crawford, Andrew Serpa and Jon Wofsy

In 2014, regulators in New York State released a bold vision for the future of the electric utility industry to try and stay ahead of larger trends of rising customer expectations, stagnant load growth, and climate change. In response, Con Edison created a Utility of... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Utilities; Consolidated Edison; Regulated Monopolies; Electricity Distribution; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Energy; Energy Generation; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry

Educators

11 Oct 2021
News

Nobel Winners Found Economic Experiments in the Real World

2017
Working Paper

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

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

In this paper, we examine how connecting to beneficiaries of one’s work increases performance and argue that beneficiaries internal to an organization (i.e., one’s own colleagues) can serve as an important source of motivation, even in jobs that—on the surface—may seem... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Motivation; Belongingness; Motivation; Job Design; Field Experiment; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy; Job Design and Levels

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