Publications

24 Jun 2022
Blog Post

On Pride and Community

PRIDE friends that said, “I feel like every month of HBS has been my own personal Pride Month,” so I’m lucky to have gotten to celebrate all year! That said, I love having the reminder in June to reflect more deeply on the history of... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Does Pension Automatic Enrollment Increase Debt? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Experiment

By: John Beshears, Matthew Blakstad, James J. Choi, Christopher Firth, John Gathergood, David Laibson, Richard Notley, Jesal D. Sheth, Will Sandbrook and Neil Stewart

Does automatic enrollment into retirement saving increase household debt? We study the randomized roll-out of automatic enrollment pensions to ~160,000 employers in the United Kingdom with 2-29 employees. We find that the additional savings generated through automatic... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Saving; Personal Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Compensation and Benefits

March 2016
Article

The Cost of Friendship

By: Paul A. Gompers, Vladimir Mukharlyamov and Yuhai Xuan

We investigate how personal characteristics affect people's desire to collaborate and whether this attraction enhances or detracts from performance in venture capital. We find that venture capitalists who share the same ethnic, educational, or career background are... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics

Find at Harvard

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

are not necessarily all talk when they say they’re pro-diversity. Maybe the diversity values are there, but they just haven’t been translated from the person who writes the job ad to the person who is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

23 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Keep Employees Productive: Support Caregivers

In December 2023, Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah made headlines with a blunt company-wide email: “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.” The missive... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

Article

Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century

By: Tom Nicholas

This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Personal Finance; Property; Biography; History; Acquisition; Wealth; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Integration; Transformation; Market Transactions

Find at Harvard

January – February 2011
Article

Stop Holding Yourself Back

By: Anne Morriss, Robin J. Ely and Frances X. Frei

After working with hundreds of leaders in a wide variety of organizations and in countries all over the globe, the authors found one very clear pattern: when it comes to meeting their leadership potential, many people unintentionally get in their own way. Five barriers... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics

Find at Harvard

25 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Being a Team Player: Why College Athletes Succeed in Business

“Because I think that they're likely to have those other kinds of skills that are just far more difficult to achieve.” You Might Also Like: University of the Future: Finding the Next World Leaders in Higher Ed The Best Person to Lead Your... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

November 2012
Case

The Universalization of L'Oréal

By: Rajiv Lal and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In 2010, half of the world's cosmetics sales came from the so-called emerging markets for the first time; L'Oréal opened three new subsidiaries, in Egypt, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan; and the Paris, France-based cosmetics and personal care powerhouse declared its... View Details

Keywords: Retailing; Marketing; Cosmetics Industry; L'Oreal; India; R＆D; Globalization; Product Development; Research and Development; Emerging Markets; Retail Industry; Latin America; Asia; Middle East

May 2009
Case

Who is the Fairest of Them All? Choosing a Leader at Deronde International

By: Nitin Nohria and Martha Spaulding

Alain Deronde, the CEO of a French personal care company, has to choose a successor to head global product development from a diverse set of candidates with different backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses. The candidates include Elise Bernier, Vice President of... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Management Succession; Diversity; Management Teams; Product Development; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; France

18 May 2006
News

They'd Sooner Fix Medicaid

02 Oct 2020
News

Computer Simulations Are Better — and More Affordable — than Ever

TeachingInterests

Real Property

By: John D. Macomber

This course is intended for any student serious about a career in managing, developing, or investing in real estate. Due to its rigor, it will be more than sufficient for those thinking about real estate as a hobby or for those considering real estate for limited... View Details

November 2007 (Revised February 2011)
Case

The Ice King

By: Tom Nicholas and Sandra Nicholas

Provides an opportunity to examine the risk-reward tradeoff and the travails of entrepreneurial venturing in the nascent U.S. economy. Traces the origins and development of Frederic Tudor's Ice Company, a business which developed during the 19th century to hack chunks... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Cost vs Benefits; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Business History; Operations; Risk and Uncertainty; United States

31 Dec 2010
News

Entrepreneur for the World Award

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

Souls, Healthy Minds by philosopher John Kaag. This book is a fantastic summary of the life and work of William James, the father of modern psychology, and a professor right here at Harvard. James endured intense personal struggles and is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

October 10, 2024
Article

Characteristics of Creative Individuals: An Umbrella Review Protocol

By: Alex Thabane, Tyler McKechnie, Phillip Staibano, Goran Calic, Colin Kruse, Jason W. Busse, Samee Parpia and Mohit Bhandari

The properties of creative products–novelty and usefulness–are generally agreed upon by researchers. Yet, consensus is lacking on which personal and environmental factors contribute to an individual’s creative potential, or to what extent. substantial research work has... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Medical Specialties; Personal Characteristics; Health Industry; Canada

March 2021 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Helen Keller: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Helen Keller who at 19 months became deaf and blind. Refusing to be sidelined from life, Keller showed great determination in learning how to communicate with others, employing tutors and travelling to Boston to enroll in the Perkins... View Details

Keywords: Mission And Purpose; Values And Beliefs; Success; Diversity; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

August 2008 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Polanco: A Fashionable Opportunity

By: Arthur I Segel and Ben Creo

Roberto Charvel is a young MBA graduate making his first personal real estate investment in his native Mexico City. Charvel is planning to purchase and renovate a nine-unit apartment building. Is the market good? Should he sell or lease the units? How should he handle... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Housing; Leasing; Property; Real Estate Industry; Mexico City