Publications

11 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 11, 2008

at Columbia University, which they had covered together, as all were alumni. They were commiserating about having to submit revised forecasts to their division heads by the end of the week. Alec Hastings, head of Global Institutional... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 15

between firms' CSR ratings and analysts' forecast errors, indicating that learning is unlikely to account for the observed shifts in recommendations. Publisher's link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1507874 August 2013... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2016
First Look

March 1, 2016

credit-market sentiment in year t – 2 also forecasts a change in the composition of external finance: net debt issuance falls in year t, while net equity issuance increases, patterns consistent with the reversal in credit-market... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Organizing the Family-Run Business

especially cautious about appointing company managers to your board. Company managers tend to steer discussion to operations issues and away from more strategic topics, and also make it difficult for the other board members to openly View Details

2012
Working Paper

~Why Do We Redistribute so Much but Tag so Little? Normative Diversity, Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation

By: Matthew Weinzierl

Tagging is a free lunch in conventional optimal tax theory because it eases the classic tradeoff between efficiency and equality. But tagging is used in only limited ways in tax policy. I propose one explanation: conventional optimal tax theory has yet to capture the... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Framework; Policy; Taxation; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Efficiency; United States

SSRN

24 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 24

offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to established markets. For each of several research techniques, specifies conditions... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

LendingClub (A): Data Analytic Thinking (Abridged)

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

LendingClub was founded in 2006 as an alternative, peer-to-peer lending model to connect individual borrowers to individual investor-lenders through an online platform. Since 2014 the company has worked with institutional investors at scale. While the company assigns... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Data Analytics; Investing; Loans; Investment; Financing and Loans; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Model

26 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

Lipstick Tips: How Influencers Are Making Over Beauty Marketing

rising from an estimated $2 billion in 2017 to about $8 billion in 2019. One forecast shows that spending is expected to jump to $15 billion by 2022. In fact, beauty giant Estée Lauder revealed last week that the company is now spending... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Beauty & Cosmetics

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

understanding of the entrepreneurial leader. The program combines self-assessments of their skills and behaviors by entrepreneurs themselves with evaluations of them by peers, friends, and employees. Along the way the data is also... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

decoupling of the company's resource allocation process from the highest-value strategic opportunities. The answer, some experts say, is to dispense with budgets entirely. The answer, some experts say, is to dispense with budgets entirely—and replace them with a system... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

regulations on buybacks as some propose, I’m in favor of boards being much more active in evaluating buybacks, limiting accelerated share buybacks, and changing the accounting treatment of buybacks so that managers are not tempted by... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

People Analytics at McKinsey

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Olivia Hull

A private equity–backed fast food chain has hired McKinsey’s new People Analytics group to help it improve performance. As the final client workshop approaches, Associate Partner Alex DiLeonardo ponders the best way to present the team’s findings, especially those that... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Customer Relationship Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Measurement and Metrics; Performance; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

15 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 15

identifying possible forms of bias, and evaluating methods of verifying whether bias in fact occurs. I then consider possible legal and policy responses, and I assess search engines' likely defenses. I conclude that regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2022 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (C)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting—and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Consulting Industry

January 2024
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting—and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Consulting Industry

May 2006
Case

Nokia in 2003

By: Paul M. Healy

Examines the challenges facing a money manager who owns stock in Nokia, the leading wireless handset provider. Two analysts covering the stock make very different predictions about the economies of the industry, Nokia's future performance, and stock recommendations.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Electronics Industry

11 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 11

forthcoming Journal of Accounting & Economics Career Concerns of Banking Analysts By: Horton, Joanne, George Serafeim, and Shan Wu Abstract—We study how career concerns influence banking analysts' forecasts and how their View Details

October 2002 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

By: Paul M. Healy

Krispy Kreme is a rapidly growing firm with a business model that has excited Wall Street. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Financial Statements; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Reporting; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; New York (city, NY)

Article

The Allure of Unknown Outcomes: Exploring the Role of Uncertainty in the Preference for Potential

By: Daniella Kupor, Zakary L. Tormala and Michael I. Norton

Influence practitioners often highlight a target's achievements (e.g., "she is the city's top-rated chef"), but recent research reveals that highlighting a target's potential (e.g., "she could become the city's top-rated chef") can be more effective. We examine whether... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Evaluation