Neighborhoods - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

that Uber was charging people in poor neighborhoods systematically higher prices than those in richer areas. Whether it's purposeful or not, we don't know for every company, obviously, but we believe that it’s likely not intended. That... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

consequence of the ban is that, once traditional banks are ordered to stop using the high-to-low practice, they often shut down branches in neighborhoods where people with low incomes live, the research shows. This finding suggests that... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

21 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job to Find More Meaning in Life

atrocious.” In a second study, the research team examined how the “sensibility” of a person’s activities affects how meaningful people thought the person’s life was. This time, participants were told about people like Naomi, who either painted the buildings in her... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

by shopping at neighborhood businesses. Indie bookstores won customers back from Amazon, Borders, and other big players by stressing a strong connection to local community values. Curation: Independent booksellers began to focus on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

09 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge

For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of technology—artificial intelligence, in particular—and public policy has long been an area of focus for... View Details

Keywords: by Glen Justice

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

identify which borrowers have high-growth opportunities. Microfinance often operates in environments that are information-scarce, in terms of screening borrowers. Ten years ago, India didn’t have social security numbers, so that is a first-order constraint. We have... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Financial Services

26 Apr 2022
Book

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

sends them into the field to help distribute glasses to children in need. The departing team member went to a school in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx to present a new pair of eyeglasses to an eighth grader with severely impaired... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Algramo

By: Michael Chu, Monica Silva and Mariana Cal

Founded in 2013 by José Manuel Moller in Chile, Algramo first became known for addressing the “poverty tax” (the surcharge paid by lower income families for staples sold in smaller sizes) through specially-designed dispensers in low-income neighborhood grocery stores... View Details

Keywords: Packaging-as-a-wallet; Plastic Waste; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Reusable Packaging; Alliances With FMCGs To Meet ESG Goals; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Value Creation; Goals and Objectives; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

Citation

Educators

Purchase

31 Jul 2017
HBS Case

It’s Hard to Fix the Family Business Without Offending the Family

finds equally beneficial lessons in a much different setting: a small family-owned Vietnamese restaurant in Boston’s inner-city neighborhood of Dorchester. Challenges lie in navigating complex family relationships, transitioning from... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

but can benefit from more information about their neighborhood spots. "Yelp is somewhat of a substitute for traditional forms of reputation," says Luca. "People are not using Yelp to find out about McDonald's." But... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

25 May 2021
Research & Ideas

White Airbnb Hosts Earn More. Can AI Shrink the Racial Gap?

example, a 2017 study found that across 72 predominantly Black New York City neighborhoods, Airbnb hosts were five times more likely to be white. And the same study found that white Airbnb hosts in Black neighborhoods earned an estimated... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Accommodations

04 Oct 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Make Sure the Right People End Up with Power in Organizations?

leaders, and cooperation between the police and neighborhoods in the control of crime. Still, he found himself facing questions from the public about the improper behavior of members of the force. He concluded that one reason was that too... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

14 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Pay Attention To Your ‘Extreme Consumers’

interview consumers of their type of product in neighborhoods near the Harvard Business School campus. Boston. Frequently, however, they found that students would only seek out people much like themselves, such as middle-class students in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

Noting that many urban youth lacked tech skills, she and her husband Derek Pearson launched Code Fever, a company offering training camps and hackathons for young people, and transformed a vacant building in a historically Black View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

and one woman hired a boy in the neighborhood to run errands. During the other weekend, the same people were given $40 to spend on a material item. People bought a variety of things, including new clothes, board games, and wine.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

From neighborhood to neighborhood—even from block to block—customers have different tastes in the products they buy and the retail experience they find most enjoyable. As a business owner operating stores across multiple markets, is it... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

07 Jun 2021
Book

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

readers of this book are what I call prospective community-level philanthropists. This covers everything from the neighborhood music school to the local community hospital. The recommendations become more complex with a trustee being more... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

02 Mar 2021
HBS Case

The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

Early on the morning of June 1, 1921, more than 5,000 white residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma, invaded the African-American neighborhood of Greenwood. They came armed with guns, sticks, and other weapons—some supplied by the city’s police... View Details