Publications

April 2015
Article

Self-serving Justifications: Doing Wrong and Feeling Moral

By: Shaul Shalvi, F. Gino, Rachel Barkan and Shahar Ayal

Unethical behavior by "ordinary" people poses significant societal and personal challenges. We present a novel framework centered on the role of self-serving justification to build upon and advance the rapidly expanding research on intentional unethical behavior of... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Moral Sensibility

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August 2010 (Revised March 2012)
Case

The UCLA Medical Center: Kidney Transplantation

By: Michael E. Porter, Jennifer F Baron, Jacob Mathew Chacko and Robin Jian Tang

In 2010, organ transplantation remained among the few sets of medical conditions in the U.S. for which bundled payments were a dominant reimbursement model, and for which patient health outcomes were universally measured and reported. In 1986, UCLA Medical Center was... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Competitive Strategy; Integration; Health Industry; California

Research Summary

Overview

By: Jill J. Avery

I love brands and have been managing them and studying them for 25 years, as a brand manager and as an academic researcher and teacher. My research program focuses on brand management and customer relationship management and centers on themes relating to the meaning of... View Details

July 2022 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Soul and a Service: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (the Mutual) was founded in 1898 as a for-profit entity selling life insurance catering to the Black community. The Mutual was entering a field crowded with established White-owned competitors that largely refused to... View Details

Keywords: Black Entrepreneurs; Insurance; History; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Insurance Industry; United States

October 2019
Case

How to Encourage Others to Give and When to Pass the Torch? Insights from The Philanthropy Connection

By: Christine Exley and Kathleen McGinn

This case follows the co-founder and president, Marla Felcher, of The Philanthropy Connection (TPC). TPC is a nonprofit organization that centers around collective giving: members of TPC make an annual contribution that is then distributed to select nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: Giving And Philanthropy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations

Program

Behavioral Economics—Virtual

world that is now centered around virtual connection, our programs reflect the input and experience of tens of thousands of participants. When... View Details

October 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Siemens AG: Global Development Strategy (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how Siemens, the German electrical engineering giant, has developed and manages global R&D in its large Information and Communications Networks (ICN) division. In 1994, Siemens opened its Bangalore (India) center, which has now grown into one of its largest... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Research and Development; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Germany; Bangalore

January 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Wikis at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein: (A)

In October 2005, Myrto Lazopoulou, head of user centered design at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), contemplates how to spread the usage of wikis inside the company. As a "social software" like chats and blogs (both already in use at DrKW),... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Investment Banking; Applications and Software; Social and Collaborative Networks; Cooperation; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

Web

Entrepreneurship

The Rock Center The Rock Center is the hub for entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (HBS). It’s where HBS students who are founders, joiners or investors activate their ideas and build their ventures... View Details

November 1991 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Micom Caribe (A)

By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis

Describes the Puerto Rican manufacturing plant of a transnational company. The award-winning plant has dramatically improved the quality of flexibility of its operations, by taking a radical approach to manufacturing. The methods center on the use of specific... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product Launch; Production; Performance Improvement; Quality; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

Web

Employment | Harvard Business School

Employment Join our diverse team of inspiring professionals whose work is centered around our commitment to educate future leaders. View Jobs 1,761 Staff Positions 233 Faculty Positions (Full-Time... View Details

2013
White Paper

Building and Governing a Democratic Federation: The ActionAid International Story

By: Sherine Jayawickrama and Alnoor Ebrahim

This report examines the governance model and reform process of an international nongovernmental organization (INGO), ActionAid International (AAI). It describes the evolution of AAI's governance model and draws key lessons for peer INGOs. The paper is based on a... View Details

Keywords: Governance; NGO; Accountability; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Non-Governmental Organizations

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2020
Working Paper

Prioritarianism and Optimal Taxation

By: Matti Tuomala and Matthew C. Weinzierl

Prioritarianism has been at the center of the formal approach to optimal tax theory since its modern starting point in Mirrlees (1971), but most theorists’ use of it is motivated by tractability rather than explicit normative reasoning. We characterize analytically and... View Details

Keywords: Prioritarianism; Optimal Taxation; Utilitarianism; Redistribution; Inverse-optimum; Taxation; Theory

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24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

the formation and rapid growth of a drug-testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug treatment center business. Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 16, 2014
Article

Working With Your In-Laws Isn't Always a Terrible Idea

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

This article delves into the complex dynamics involving in-laws within family-owned enterprises. In-laws often face a challenging dual role as they must conform to the same professional standards as non-family employees while concurrently grappling with perceptions of... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Ownership; Employees

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04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

Commission, and her colleagues in the Ministry of Health are contemplating how the program could be improved and whether it should be expanded nationally. Purchase this case: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/709474-PDF-ENG ... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 29, 2020
Article

The Case for AI Insurance

By: Ram Shankar Siva Kumar and Frank Nagle

When organizations place machine learning systems at the center of their businesses, they introduce the risk of failures that could lead to a data breach, brand damage, property damage, business interruption, and in some cases, bodily harm. Even when companies are... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Internet and the Web; Safety; Insurance; AI and Machine Learning; Cybersecurity