Publications

Educators

February 2006
Article

Wealth and Executive Compensation

Using new data on the wealth of Swedish CEOs, I show that higher wealth CEOs receive stronger incentives. Since high wealth (excluding own-firm holdings) implies low absolute risk aversion, this is consistent with a risk aversion explanation. To examine whether wealth... View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Risk Management; Competency and Skills; Wages; Sweden

2008
Chapter

Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model

By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis

Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Ethics; Managerial Roles; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Mathematical Methods; Behavior

01 Jun 1998
News

Diversity and Community

Not so long ago in the business realm, diversity and social justice issues were consigned to a dim, neglected area somewhere at the corporation's farthest perimeter, or locked outside the company gates altogether. Earlier this year,... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

March 2017
Article

Entrepreneurial Beacons: The Yale Endowment, Run-ups, and the Growth of Venture Capital

By: Y. Sekou Bermiss, Benjamin J. Hallen, Rory McDonald and Emily Cox Pahnke

This paper investigates the social context of entrepreneurship in organizational sectors. Prior research suggests that firm foundings are driven by collective patterns of activity—that is, by patterns of prior foundings—including support from related markets as well as... View Details

Keywords: Signals; Social Salience; Venture Capital; Higher Education; Organizations; Entrepreneurship; Investment

2024
Report

Overcoming Barriers to Resolving Gaza and Beyond

By: James K. Sebenius

As of early January 2024, discussion of the Gaza war heavily focuses on its humanitarian costs, cease fire possibilities, hostage prospects, and “day after” options. Yet what longer-term strategy guides actions on these vital issues while offering a more positive... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; War; International Relations; Israel; Middle East

March 2002 (Revised July 2004)
Case

RWE and the Proposal for a German Electricity Regulator

In April 2001, Dietmar Kuhnt, CEO of the German energy giant RWE, had to make a decision that would affect his company's future. Profits in the electricity sector depended heavily on regulatory rules that influenced industry structure and pricing. RWE had emerged... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Governance Compliance; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Germany

Educators

03 Mar 2015
News

How Winter Weather Can Both Save You Money And Stretch Your Pocketbook

spring 1994
Article

Unilateral Commitments and the Importance of Process in Alliances

By: Ranjay Gulati, Tarun Khanna and Nitin Nohria

How the partners in an alliance view their joint venture can have much to do with its success or failure. Each partner fears that the other will get the larger payoff by acting opportunistically while it cooperates in good faith. The result is that both partners choose... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Partners and Partnerships; Joint Ventures; Management Practices and Processes; Alliances; Trust; Game Theory

March 2021
Supplement

Artea (A), (B), (C), and (D): Designing Targeting Strategies

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Power Point Supplement to Teaching Note for HBS No. 521-021,521-022,521-037,521-043. This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Targeting; Algorithmic Data; Bias; A/B Testing; Experiment; Advertising; Gender; Race; Diversity; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

23 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 23, 2018

social issues unrelated to their core business, ranging from environmental issues to LGBT rights and race relations. In the first study of this phenomenon, we implement two field experiments to provide evidence on how CEO activism can... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2017 (Revised January 2020)
Background Note

Primer on Multiples Valuation and Its Use in the Private Equity Industry

By: Victoria Ivashina and Henrik Boe

This note explores the mechanics of multiples, different types of multiples, when and how to use them, and common pitfalls associated with multiples valuation. While a multiples approach is a very convenient valuation method, breaking down the underlying assumptions... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Methods; Multiples; Private Equity; Valuation; Measurement and Metrics

Educators

February 2013
Article

Commitment and Behavior Change: Evidence from the Field

By: Katie Baca-Motes, Amber Brown, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leif D. Nelson

Influencing behavior change is an ongoing challenge in psychology, economics, and consumer behavior research. Building on previous work on commitment, self-signaling, and the principle of consistency, a large, intensive field experiment (N = 2,416) examined the effect... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Marketing

22 Sep 2016
News

Words and Pictures

he says. So Deifell, a multimedia artist, decided to combine his skills as a photographer with a question from the last line of a Mary Oliver poem: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” He posed this... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

13 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Advancing Health Care Innovation and Impact with Anita Gupta (GMP 29, 2020)

at scale. Seeing those changes take effect reinforced the power of strategic leadership in moments of crisis. Since then, my work has expanded beyond the clinical setting. I’ve collaborated with organizations like the World Economic... View Details

28 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Billions of Entrepreneurs in China and India

often provided in a top-down manner. The second difference is the nature and extent of openness to outside influence and foreigners. Foreign direct investment pours into China.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Expectations, Network Effects and Platform Pricing

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Hanna Hałaburda; Entertainment & Recreation

05 Oct 2016
What Do You Think?

Can the US Economy Regain the Growth and Prosperity of the Past?

accomplished, including more freedom for business, more immigration, and big bets by the government and industry to meet imposing infrastructure needs. Ron Kurtz said, “I am concerned that we are facing a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2015
Article

Pricing and Efficiency in the Market for IP Addresses

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Schwarz

We consider market rules for transferring IP addresses, numeric identifiers required by all computers connected to the Internet. Transfers usefully move resources from lowest- to highest-valuation networks, but transfers tend to cause socially costly growth in the... View Details

Keywords: Externalities; Intermediaries; Market Design; Internet; Web Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry