Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,559)
- Faculty Publications (150)
- Article
Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization
By: Shoshana Zuboff
This article describes an emergent logic of accumulation in the networked sphere, 'surveillance capitalism,' and considers its implications for 'information civilization.' The institutionalizing practices and operational assumptions of Google Inc. are the... View Details
- February 2015 (Revised June 2016)
- Case
AltSchool: School Reimagined
By: John J-H Kim, Kyla Wilkes and Christine S. An
Max Ventilla and his team launches in 2013 AltSchool, a new network of tech-savvy independent K-8 "micro-schools." AltSchool is born out of Ventilla's frustration with the education options available for his young daughter. During his search, Ventilla comes to the... View Details
Keywords: Education Technology; School Models; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Talent Development And Retention; Social Impact Investment; Information Technology; Business Model; Education; Business Startups; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; United States
- October 2014 (Revised June 2016)
- Case
MasterCard: Driving Financial Inclusion
By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred
MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga was investing significant time and attention to increase financial inclusion among individuals with historically no access to banking or financial services in countries around the world with large underserved populations. The effort included... View Details
- Fall 2014
- Article
Seesaws and Social Security Benefits Indexing
The price indexation of Social Security benefit payments has emerged in recent years as a flashpoint of debate in the United States. I characterize the direct effects that changes in that price index would have on retirees who differ in their initial wealth at... View Details
- July–August 2014
- Article
Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships
By: Jill Avery, Susan Fournier and John Wittenbraker
Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: people now expect companies... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Who Uses the Roth 401(k), and How Do They Use It?
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances.... View Details
- Article
Turnkey or Tailored? Relational Pluralism, Institutional Complexity, and the Organizational Adoption of More or Less Customized Practices
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn
We examine how the organizational adoption of new practices is influenced by relational pluralism, i.e., an organization's multiple ties to actors inside and outside its industry. We theorize that institutional mechanisms of practice diffusion underlying relational... View Details
- 2014
- Article
Executive Compensation and Human Capital Investments Through Industry Selection
By: Boris Groysberg and Eric Lin
We use proprietary data capturing compensation levels of executives placed by a global search firm to investigate how executives evaluate rewards and risks of human capital investment choices. Our findings suggest that more isolated industries with lower opportunity to... View Details
- July–August 2013
- Article
Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity among Professionals
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Katherine L. Milkman
We investigate the role of workgroup sex and race composition on the career mobility of professionals in "up-or-out" organizations. We develop a nuanced perspective on the potential career mobility effects of workgroup demography by integrating the social... View Details
- Article
Contagion of Cooperation in Static and Fluid Social Networks
By: Jillian J. Jordan, David G. Rand, Samuel Arbesman, James H. Fowler and Nicholas A. Christakis
Cooperation is essential for successful human societies. Thus, understanding how cooperative and selfish behaviors spread from person to person is a topic of theoretical and practical importance. Previous laboratory experiments provide clear evidence of social... View Details
- June 2013
- Article
What Is Privacy Worth?
By: Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie K. John and George Loewenstein
Understanding the value that individuals assign to the protection of their personal data is of great importance for business, law, and public policy. We use a field experiment informed by behavioral economics and decision research to investigate individual privacy... View Details
- February 2013 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers
By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred
This case illustrates the importance of choosing a primary customer as the basis for organization design. Cross Country Group managers adjusted resource allocation, organization design and performance measures over time to transform Cross Country Group from an... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Gap; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; Insurance; Performance Management; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Pressure; Decisions; Family Business; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry
- Article
Effects of Description of Options on Parental Perinatal Decision-Making
By: Marlyse F. Haward, Leslie K. John, John M. Lorenz and Baruch Fischhoff
Objective: To examine whether parents' delivery room management decisions for extremely preterm infants are influenced by (a) the degree of detail with which options-comfort care (CC) or intensive care (IC)-are presented or (b) their order of presentation. Methods: 309... View Details
- December 2012
- Article
Grand Innovation Prizes: A Theoretical, Normative, and Empirical Evaluation
By: Alan MacCormack, Fiona Murray, Scott Stern and Georgina Campbell
This paper provides a systematic examination of the use of a Grand Innovation Prize (GIP) in action—the Progressive Automotive Insurance X PRIZE—a $10 million prize for a highly efficient vehicle. Following a mechanism design approach we define three key dimensions for... View Details
- September 2012
- Article
The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures
By: Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse
Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review, we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality, such... View Details
- April 2012
- Article
Bouncing Out of the Banking System: An Empirical Analysis of Involuntary Bank Account Closures
By: Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and Peter Tufano
Using a new database, we document the factors that relate to the extent of involuntary consumer bank account closure resulting from excessive overdraft activity. Consumers who have accounts involuntarily closed for overdraft activity may have limited or no access to... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Span of Control and Span of Attention
By: Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat, Raffaella Sadun and Julie Wulf
Using novel data on CEO time use, we document the relationship between the size and composition of the executive team and the attention of the CEO. We combine information about CEO span of control for a sample of 65 companies with detailed data on how CEOs allocate... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised November 2012)
- Case
Michael Lester at Lachlan Consulting
By: Anthony J. Mayo and Joshua D. Margolis
Michael Lester, a consultant with Lachlan, was frustrated by his client's unwillingness to provide key data for an important presentation. Lester must decide how best to confront Nadine Robert, his client, knowing that his personal success and the reputation of his... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Lawful but Corrupt: Gaming and the Problem of Institutional Corruption in the Private Sector
This paper describes how the gaming of society's rules by corporations contributes to the problem of institutional corruption in the world of business. "Gaming" in its various forms involves the use of technically legal means to subvert the intent of society's rules in... View Details
- October 2010 (Revised November 2010)
- Background Note
Plavix: Drugs in the Age of Personalized Medicine
By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mara G. Aspinall and Rachel Gordon
PIavix, one of the world's best selling drugs in 2010, appears to have a limited future. Its patent was due to expire soon, and recently new data had been discovered that indicated that a small subset of the population would be at risk for stroke, heart attack, or even... View Details