Publications

July–August 2025
Article

Don’t Let an AI Failure Harm Your Brand

By: Julian De Freitas

How companies market their AI systems affects the repercussions they face when their products fail. Marketers must promote their AI products with potential failure in mind. To do that, they must first understand consumers’ unique attitudes toward AI. Marketers who... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Attitudes

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30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

Many products in those sectors are sold in a bundled form, so bundling strategies have always been a key topic for media and entertainment firms. But I learned that the rise of digital channels is introducing new questions. Executives are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

08 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The Civic Benefits of Google Street View and Yelp

Naik’s images with household income levels for some 2,400 blocks, provided by the city online. “The incomes act as labels for the images, and then the machine learns the association between how the features... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

24 Nov 2008
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Discusses Future of the MBA

disciplines, explains Joel Podolny, dean of the Yale School of Management and a participant in the March colloquium. (He previously was a professor at HBS.) "The strict disciplinary model of management education arose at a time of... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson & HBS Bulletin; Education

05 Mar 2025
News

Uncertain Terms

After Amar Bhidé (MBA 1979/DBA 1988) became an HBS assistant professor in 1988, then-dean John H. McArthur (MBA 1959/DBA 1963) gave him a copy of economist Frank Knight’s 1921 book Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Knight’s idea that “uncertainty” must be distinguished... View Details

09 Dec 2015
Research Event

How Do You Predict Demand and Set Prices For Products Never Sold Before?

predict demand and set prices to maximize revenue of products that have no historical sales data? To that end, they set out to develop a pricing decision support tool that would use existing data to maximize revenue on new products. The researchers used View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Apparel & Accessories

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

Methods By: Choudhury, Prithwiraj, Ryan Allen, and Michael G. Endres Abstract—We describe how to employ machine learning (ML) methods in theory development. Compared to traditional causal inference methods,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

25 Aug 2022
News

Labs Enable Large-scale Research

and Marco Iansiti (both HBS) will focus on the theory and practice of responsible AI for facilitating data-driven decision-making in organizations. They will explore how people use AI tools and machine View Details

March 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Xfund and Sam Altman: Finding Harvard's Best Generative AI Founders

By: Suraj Srinivasan

On May 1, 2024, Xfund Managing Partners Patrick Chung and Brandon Farwell, hosted a high-stakes venture pitch session designed to select one startup for a minimum $100,000 investment. This “Xperiment Stake” competition, dedicated to startups in the Generative AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Venture Capital; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Competition; Technology Industry; United States

January 2025
Article

Reducing Prejudice with Counter-stereotypical AI

By: Erik Hermann, Julian De Freitas and Stefano Puntoni

Based on a review of relevant literature, we propose that the proliferation of AI with human-like and social features presents an unprecedented opportunity to address the underlying cognitive and affective drivers of prejudice. An approach informed by the psychology of... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; AI and Machine Learning; Interpersonal Communication; Social and Collaborative Networks

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Web

The Strategic Case for Diversity in Digital Transformation - Blog: RGE Report

of job displacement and the fairness of the systems themselves. As IBM’s work shows, machine learning models can inherit and amplify human bias if the training data lacks... View Details

Working Paper

AI in Disguise—How AI-generated Ads' Visual Cues Shape Consumer Perception and Performance

By: Yannick Exner, Jochen Hartmann, Oded Netzer and Shunyuan Zhang

Generative AI’s recent advancements in creating content have offered vast potential to transform the advertising industry. This research investigates the impact of generative AI-enabled visual ad creation on real-world advertising effectiveness. For this purpose, we... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Advertising Industry

SSRN

September–October 2024
Article

How AI Can Power Brand Management

By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek

Marketers have begun experimenting with AI to improve their brand-management efforts. But unlike other marketing tasks, brand management involves more than just repeatedly executing one specialized function. Long considered the exclusive domain of creative talent, it... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Customer Focus and Relationships

March 2024 (Revised April 2025)
Case

TELEXISTENCE Inc.

By: Paul A. Gompers and Akiko Saito

A case about a Japanese robotics startup aiming to enter the U.S. market with its robots that combine AI and human intervention to complete restocking tasks in retail stores. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Adoption; Decisions; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Japan; United States

February 2024
Case

SundaySky: Changing Customer Experiences through Personalized Video

By: David C. Edelman and James Barnett

In June 2023, SundaySky CEO Jim Dicso considers growth strategies. The software-as-a-service company provided software to create advertising videos, customer service videos, and other videos, like employee training modules, and had begun to pilot a new generative... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Strategy; Technology Adoption; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry; United States