Learning By Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

31 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do

says Amabile. “We wanted to investigate idle time, in part, to raise everyone’s awareness of how widespread and pernicious it can be.” “With idle time, the organization is often hurt by it, and it’s not enjoyable for employees either”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

12 Mar 2024
HBS Case

How Used Products Can Unlock New Markets: Lessons from Apple's Refurbished iPhones

Some of Apple’s most loyal customers think nothing of upgrading to the latest iPhone every time one comes out. But what about consumers who can’t splurge on a $1,000 iPhone 15 Pro? And what about the electronic waste that would accrue if people threw away functional... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Electronics; Information Technology

10 Jul 2007
What Do You Think?

How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater?

upside down." Could we learn more about leadership by studying followership? Is leadership really about followership? What do you think? Original Article The flood of writing about leadership continues.... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

get their other finances in order, and make more substantial contributions to the economy, according to a new research study Second Chance: Life without Student Debt. The study was co-written by Harvard Business School Associate Professor... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

trouble. The chickens will run for the hills.” LESSON ONE: THINK LIKE A CUSTOMER From the beginning, it was clear to the founders of apartment-sharing site Airbnb that they’d need to find people willing to list their homes before finding... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Transportation

02 May 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

How To Ask Better Questions

not in having all the right answers, but rather in asking the right questions. Teaching The DealShowing emotion, asking questions, and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses can be key to a successful agreement. About the Author Kristen Senz is a writer and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

the world has three. I don't mean to boast. And there are lots of things that we've been working on since the eighties. We've been trying to get an HIV vaccine since the 1980s and we've been unsuccessful. Neeley: So, where does this leave us? Frazier: Let me start... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

23 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Brexit: Should Britain Stay or Go?

public was further damaged recently by revelations in the Panama Papers about his stockbroker father’s offshore activities, has presided over two of them. The Scottish independence referendum in 2014 nearly resulted in Scotland’s leaving... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones & Dante Roscini

2020
Working Paper

Algorithm-Augmented Work and Domain Experience: The Countervailing Forces of Ability and Aversion

By: Ryan Allen and Prithwiraj Choudhury

Past research offers mixed perspectives on whether domain experience helps or hurts algorithm-augmented work performance. To reconcile these perspectives, we theorize that domain experience affects algorithm-augmented performance via two distinct countervailing... View Details

Keywords: Automation; Domain Experience; Algorithmic Aversion; Experts; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Decision-making; Future Of Work; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Performance

Citation

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20 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs

management may have won the CEO his job, these tools alone will not keep him there. Finally, the CEO must not get totally absorbed in the role. Even if others think he is omnipotent, he is still only human. Failing to recognize this will... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

30 Apr 2024
Book

When Managers Set Unrealistic Expectations, Employees Cut Ethical Corners

the companies involved in scandals, but for all businesses. Find out more in this excerpt from Paine’s chapter: Research Handbook on Organisational Integrity, edited by Muel Kaptein Excerpt from Chapter 2: “Managing Organisational... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

26 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

marketers think of the customer experience like a play in three acts—pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. However, research by De Freitas and fellow researchers looked more holistically at the customer... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation

07 Aug 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Economic Integration and Democracy: An Empirical Investigation

Keywords: by Giacomo Magistretti and Marco Tabellini

09 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

How Tennis, Golf, and White Anxiety Block Racial Integration

results raise an uncomfortable question: Are the self-segregating behaviors exhibited by many White Americans the result of conscious or unconscious racist thoughts? “To me, that’s a less important question,” says Jachimowicz. “I View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

02 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

What If Closing the Wage Gap Means Everyone Earns Less?

laws that seek to give workers more bargaining power by requiring companies to disclose employee salaries. However, opening up the books for all to see has put 2 to 3 percent less cash in workers’ pockets, at least in the US private... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

lessons of the course was around change. From her service experience, Frei learned that making small changes are often more trouble than their worth-but in order to make big, meaningful changes, you often have to change at a pace faster... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

25 May 2021
Research & Ideas

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

Airbnb began offering a free tool to help all hosts set reasonable rates. The real-time, “smart pricing” program uses machine learning to automatically adjust the property’s nightly fees by considering a... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Accommodations

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

organizations are already organized around product categories or customer categories," Christensen says, "and therefore people only see opportunities within this little frame that they've stuck you in. So you have to think inside of a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

21 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change

Public trust in business remains relatively unshaken amid economic turbulence and a lingering pandemic, even as faith in the media and government falters, but leaders could do more to address social issues, a new global opinion survey shows. However, not everyone... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

Cottringer said, “The two best questions I was ever asked were (a) Do you think people are born good, bad, or neutral and (b) What is the most important thing you learned from one of your worst failures?”... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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