Publications

Research Summary

Strategy Implementation: Role and Management of the Sales Force

My research concerns the role and management of the sales force as agents of a firm's business strategy and not only as individual or team contributors to profitable growth. This work takes the form of course development, teaching and workshops in HBS executive... View Details

July 2003
Article

Probabilistic Representation of Complexity

By: Nabil I Al-Najjar, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Emre Ozdenoren

We study individuals' behavior in an environment that is deterministic, but too complex to permit tractable deterministic representation. Under mild conditions, behavior is represented by a unique probabilistic model in which the agent's inability to think through all... View Details

Keywords: Complexity; Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Planning

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2010
Working Paper

Agency Revisited

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber

The article presents a comprehensive overview of the principal-agent model that emphasizes the role of trust in the agency relationship. The analysis demonstrates that the legal remedy for breach of duty can result in a full-information efficient outcome eliminating... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Contracts; Agency Theory; Mathematical Methods; Behavior; Trust

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27 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Pro-Social Tasks

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera & Kelsey Jack

Research Summary

Negotiations

My third line of research, on negotiations, also focuses on the improvisational nature of group processes. In one paper (with Kathleen McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo), I test the relationships between communication media (face-to-face vs. electronically mediated),... View Details

February 2023
Case

Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina’s insurance leader, had to decide about the Group’s digital transformation strategy. The Group’s values and history needed to be considered during the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Organizational Culture; Cooperative Ownership; Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Insurance Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina

09 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Habit Formation and Rational Addiction: A Field Experiment in Handwashing

Keywords: by Reshmaan Hussam, Atonu Rabbani, Giovanni Reggiani, and Natalia Rigol

11 Feb 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Will a Five-Minute Discussion Change Your Mind? A Countrywide Experiment on Voter Choice in France

Keywords: by Vincent Pons; Public Relations; Public Administration

Research Summary

Interviewing and Dating in Two-Sided Matching Markets: Coordination and Communication (joint with M. Schwarz)

We introduce the interview assignment problem, which generalizes the one-to-one matching model of Gale Shapley (1962) by including a stage of costly information acquisition. Agents do not know their preferences over potential partners unless they choose to conduct... View Details

2010
Simulation

Change Management Simulation: Power and Influence

By: Linda A. Hill and William Q. Judge

In this single-player simulation, students play one of two roles at a sunglass manufacturing firm and face the challenges associated with implementing an organization-wide environmental sustainability initiative. The initiative seeks to change raw material inputs in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Power and Influence; Problems and Challenges; Environmental Sustainability; Production; Wastes and Waste Processing; Adoption

Article

Lone Wolves in Infinite, Discrete Matching Markets

By: Ravi Jagadeesan

In finite two-sided matching markets, the Lone Wolf Theorem guarantees that the same set of agents remains unmatched in all stable outcomes. I show by example that this assertion is not true in infinite, discrete markets. However, despite the fact that the Lone Wolf... View Details

Keywords: Lone Wolf Theorem; Strategy-proofness; Marketplace Matching

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January 1996 (Revised December 2005)
Case

First Community Bank (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

First Community Bank, a bank-within-a-bank at Bank of Boston, was established in 1990 as a unique venture to serve urban communities. By 1995 it has achieved profitability but must manage relationships with the mainstream at Bank of Boston, serve as a change agent and... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Business Ventures; Business and Community Relations; Agency Theory; Change Management; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Banking Industry; Boston

April 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Evergreen Investments: Mobile CRM (A)

Evergreen Investments has had a troubled history with its customer relationship management (CRM) system. Sales agents feel that they derive no value from it and that it is a tax on their jobs. Evergreen is investigating whether it can improve CRM by making its data... View Details

Keywords: Management; Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry

November 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

New York Life and Immediate Annuities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville

By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Personal Finance; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry

1975
Working Paper

Information, Efficiency and Equilibrium

By: Jerry R. Green

When economic agents receive information over time concerning future events it is likely that prices for commodities whose value is influenced by these events will fluctuate in response to changes in the state of knowledge. If such events occur periodically,... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Supply and Industry; Price

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2008
Working Paper

Some Neglected Axioms in Fair Division

By: John W. Pratt

Conditions one might impose on fair allocation procedures are introduced. Nondiscrimination requires that agents share an item in proportion to their entitlements if they receive nothing else. The "price" procedures of Pratt (2007), including the Nash... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Valuation; Price; Cost

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03 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Platforms and Limits to Network Effects

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda & Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

July 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Amagansett Funds (A)

Amagansett Funds has had a troubled history with its customer relationship management (CRM) system. Sales agents feel that they derive no value from it and that it is a "tax on their jobs." Amagansett is investigating whether CRM can be improved by making its data... View Details

Keywords: Management; Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry

December 2013
Case

Bruce Allyn: Negotiating with the KGB (A)

By: James K. Sebenius

Isolated by the KGB in Moscow, Harvard graduate student Bruce Allyn faces high-pressure negotiation tactics to recruit him for the Soviet spy agency. At the tense height of the Cold War, with CIA agents systematically being exposed and executed in Russia, Allyn was... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Bargaining; Hard Bargaining; KGB; Espionage; Spying; War; National Security; Alliances; Ethics; Negotiation Tactics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Offer; Cambridge; Moscow; Soviet Union