Publications

February 2024
Case

Does “Matter” Matter? Amazon and Open Standards in the Smart Home Industry

By: Frank Nagle

In early 2023, the smart home industry stood at a pivotal juncture. The recent launch of “Matter” version 1.0, an ambitious interoperability standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), promised to unify a fragmented market plagued by incompatible... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Resource Allocation; Standards; Business Strategy

April 2004
Article

Do CEOs in Mergers Trade Power for Premium? Evidence from 'Mergers of Equals'

By: Julie Wulf

I analyze chief executive officer (CEO) incentives to negotiate shared control in the postmerger governance of the surviving firm. In order to do this, I study abnormal returns in a sample of "mergers of equals" (MOEs) transactions in which the two firms are... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Negotiation; Governance Controls; Power and Influence; Value Creation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Motivation and Incentives; Market Transactions

November 2020
Article

Tackling Youth Unemployment: Evidence from a Labor Market Experiment in Uganda

By: Livia Alfonsi, Oriana Bandiera, Vittorio Bassi, Robin Burgess, Imran Rasul, Munshi Sulaiman and Anna Vitali

We design a labor market experiment to compare demand- and supply-side policies to tackle youth unemployment, a key issue in low-income countries. The experiment tracks 1700 workers and 1500 firms over four years to compare the effect of offering workers either... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Training; Competency and Skills; Developing Countries and Economies

October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

By: Leslie K. John, Mitchell Weiss and Julia Kelley

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

By the time Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, began hosting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in January 2018, he had only nine months remaining to convince the people... View Details

Fall 2013
Article

The Role of Performance Measures in the Intertemporal Decisions of Business Unit Managers

Accounting performance measures are often argued to lead to short-sighted behavior by managers facing intertemporal decisions. We assess the association between different types of performance measures and the time horizon of business unit managers who have profit... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation

30 Jun 2019
News

Alumni in France honor self-made entrepreneurs; Shih talks trade in Buffalo

selection ceremony held at the French National Assembly. Photos by Guillaume Esteve Mannai says the VDA has a simple goal: “To shed light on successful and impactful local business leaders in France, who embody, perfectly, the HBS value... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

July–August 2017
Article

Why Outlet Stores Exist: Averting Cannibalization in Product Line Extensions

By: Donald Ngwe

Outlet stores are a large and growing component of many firms' retailing strategies, particularly in the fashion industry. Outlet stores offer attractive prices in locations far from central shopping districts. The main perspectives on why outlet stores exist can be... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Industrial Organization; Outlet Stores; Price Discrimination; Retail; Channel Management; Luxury; Product Marketing; Price; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

June 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Focus Financial Partners and the U.S. RIA Industry in 2014

By: Luis Viceira and Emily A. Chien

In the Spring of 2014, Rudy Adolf, CEO and founder of Focus Financial, and the two other co-founders of the firm are considering alternative growth strategies to solidify Focus Financial's position as a leading aggregator of independent wealth management firms in the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

2018
Chapter

The United States in Contemporary Perspectives: Evolving Forms, Strategy, and Performance

By: David J. Collis, Bharat Anand and J. Yo-Jud Cheng

BOOK ABSTRACT: In spite of surging interest in the business group organization among business scholars, economists, and historians in recent years, academic research on business groups has, to date, remained within the boundary of emerging markets. The major aim of... View Details

25 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Being a Team Player: Why College Athletes Succeed in Business

to lead people from different backgrounds are skills that may be better honed on the field and court than in the classroom. “You're spending—and this is true of most varsity athletes—20-plus hours a week... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

2014
Working Paper

Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador

By: Nava Ashraf, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez A. and Dean Yang

While remittance flows to developing countries are very large, it is unknown whether migrants desire more control over how remittances are used. This research uses a randomized field experiment to investigate the importance of migrant control over the use of... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Remittances; Intrahousehold Allocation; Savings; Immigration; Diasporas; International Finance; El Salvador

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

15 Podcast Episodes That Grabbed Listeners in 2023

Happiness, artificial intelligence, and climate change were just some of the themes that caught the attention of Harvard Business School podcast listeners in 2023. Here are some of the most-downloaded episodes of the year: Deep Purpose... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

27 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Discretion Within the Constraints of Opportunity: Gender Homophily and Structure in a Formal Organization

Keywords: by Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart & Michael L. Tushman

30 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Professional Networks in China and America

and the United States differ is to examine how managers from these two countries trust members of their network, an endeavor that Chua has undertaken with Columbia Business School professors Michael W. Morris and Paul Ingram. "The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

12 Sep 2023
What Do You Think?

Who Gets the Loudest Voice in DEI Decisions?

(AdobeStock/ Katleho S/peopleimages.com) Business leaders today face decisions of increasing complexity. They have to take into account far more than economics, in particular the increasing influence of matters under debate View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

14 Nov 2023
What Do You Think?

Do We Underestimate the Importance of Generosity in Leadership?

probably only do something different if they see new opportunities or emerging threats if things aren’t going well, a competent leader should change something in hopes of turning things around.” View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2017
Article

The Impact of Training Informal Healthcare Providers in India: A Randomized Controlled Trial

By: Jishnu Das, Abhijit Chowdhury, Reshmaan Hussam and Abhijit Banerjee

Health care providers without formal medical qualifications provide more than 70% of all primary care in rural India. Training these informal providers may be one way to improve the quality of care where few alternatives exist. We report on a randomized controlled... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; India; Business Training; RCT; Health Care and Treatment; Training; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; India

January 2008 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Two Brattle Center: A Mental-Health Clinic in Search of a Viable Operating Model

By: Robert G. Eccles

Two Brattle Center (TBC) is a struggling for-profit private mental health clinic based in Harvard Square. Its founder, Dr. Joan Wheelis, is a nationally recognized practicing psychiatrist who has developed outpatient treatment programs based on Dialectical Behavior... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Nonprofit Organizations; Emotions; Health Industry; United States

May–June 2025
Article

Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

Most online sales worldwide take place in marketplaces that connect sellers and buyers. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of listings for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available options. Online... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; Marketplaces; Marketplace Matching; E-commerce; Demand and Consumers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Market Participation; Technology Adoption

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