Publications

2023
Working Paper

Design-Based Confidence Sequences: A General Approach to Risk Mitigation in Online Experimentation

By: Dae Woong Ham, Michael Lindon, Martin Tingley and Iavor Bojinov

Randomized experiments have become the standard method for companies to evaluate the performance of new products or services. In addition to augmenting managers’ decision-making, experimentation mitigates risk by limiting the proportion of customers exposed to... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

06 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Popular Stock Metric That Can Lead Investors Astray

from 75 percent to 45 percent. The metric is no longer accurately predicting future returns and growth while the other valuation metrics continue to do so. "Institutional investors still rely on an increasingly flawed measure for... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

August 2019
Case

Preserving Trust at Care.com (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Julia Kelley

Care.com was an online platform designed to match caregivers with individuals seeking care for themselves, others, and pets, through job postings, caregiver profiles, and directories of local day care centers. In March 2019, the Wall Street Journal had just published a... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Corporate Governance; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Emerging Markets; Trust; Technology Industry; United States

March 2021
Article

On the Direct and Indirect Real Effects of Credit Supply Shocks

By: Laura Alfaro, Manuel García-Santana and Enrique Moral-Benito

We explore the real effects of bank-lending shocks and how they permeate the economy through buyer-supplier linkages. We combine administrative data on all Spanish firms with a matched bank-firm-loan dataset of all corporate loans from 2003 to 2013 to estimate... View Details

Keywords: Credit Supply Shocks; Bank Lending Channel; Input-output Linkages; Output; Mechanisms; Trade Credits; Price Effects; Economics; Credit; System Shocks; Employment; Investment; Spain

Find at Harvard

December 2012
Article

The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line

By: Francesca Gino and Bradely R. Staats

What's the best way to lift people out of poverty? The social entrepreneurs in the new "impact sourcing" industry believe the answer is providing work, not aid. Their organizations hire people at the bottom of the pyramid to perform digital tasks such as transcribing... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Development Economics; Social Entrepreneurship; Welfare; Cooperation; San Francisco

Find at Harvard

Article

Inviting Consumers to Downsize Fast-Food Portions Significantly Reduces Calorie Consumption

By: Janet Schwartz, Jason Riis, Brian Elbel and Dan Ariely

Policies that mandate calorie labeling in fast-food and chain restaurants have had little or no observable impact on calorie consumption to date. In three field experiments, we tested an alternative approach: activating consumers' self-control by having servers ask... View Details

Keywords: Food; Labels; Consumer Behavior; Interpersonal Communication; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

leave vacant positions unfilled for immediate, measurable savings. That's the retail way. Moreover, the costs of understaffing aren't easily quantifiable; who can say how many customers are lost to long... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

20 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting the Marketing Mix Right

Businesses rely on solid marketing strategies to boost sales—yet the tools used to evaluate these strategies often provide misleading results, leaving managers with the inability to accurately measure how they can get the best bang for... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May–June 2023
Article

Which Firms Gain from Digital Advertising? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Weijia Dai, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Measuring the returns of advertising opportunities continues to be a challenge for many businesses. We design and run a field experiment in collaboration with Yelp across 18,294 firms in the restaurant industry to understand which types of businesses gain more from... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Digital Marketing; Outcome or Result

2025
Working Paper

Enhancing Treatment Effect Prediction on Privacy-Protected Data: An Honest Post-Processing Approach

By: Ta-Wei Huang and Eva Ascarza

As firms increasingly rely on customer data for personalization, concerns over privacy and regulatory compliance have grown. Local Differential Privacy (LDP) offers strong individual-level protection by injecting noise into data before collection. While... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Intervention; Conditional Average Treatment Effect Estimation; Differential Privacy; Honest Estimation; Post-processing; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Marketing

SSRN

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

Harvard Business Publishing has released new toolkits to help managers make key marketing decisions on market analysis, breakeven analysis, customer lifetime value, profit and pricing, and analyzing the competitive environment. The five... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

30 Nov 2019
News

CIOs concerned IT not providing enough of a competitive edge

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Rail Transportation; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Performance Effectiveness; Cost vs Benefits; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Customers; Quality; Rail Industry

January 2016
Teaching Note

Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

This case examines a start-up service provider that helps clients improve the energy efficiency of their factories, warehouses, and commercial and office spaces by integrating and installing lighting, heating, and cooling technologies. The company seeks to double... View Details

Keywords: Energy Efficiency; Energy Efficiency Paradox; Environment; Environmental Strategy; Growth; Energy; Energy Conservation; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry

2012
Working Paper

Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services

By: Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

The ongoing fragmentation of work has resulted in a narrowing of tasks into smaller pieces that can be sent outside the organization and, in many instances, around the world. This trend is shifting the boundaries of organizations and leading to increased outsourcing.... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Knowledge Acquisition; Volume; Performance Productivity; Health Industry

SSRN

September 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Lifefont: The Case for RetailDriver

Examines how Lifefont (pseudonym), a multidivisional consumer packages goods company, develops a system to manage and measure the impact of promotional events in retail outlets. View Details

Keywords: Framework; Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Cost vs Benefits; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Customer Relationship Management; Product Marketing; Salesforce Management; Advertising; Management Systems; Information Technology; Retail Industry

17 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Beyond Pajamas: Sizing Up the Pandemic Shopper

When working professionals were shifting to home offices a year ago as COVID-19 was spreading, comedians and pundits predicted that people would no longer need bras and pants that aren’t stretchy. Instead customers would make room for... View Details

Keywords: by Ayelet Israeli, Eva Ascarza, and Laura Castrillo; Retail

04 Dec 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr; Manufacturing

November 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Fair Value Accounting at Noble Group (A)

By: Siko Sikochi, Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

Noble Group was a large commodities trader based in Hong Kong and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. In 2012, Noble shifted its business strategy towards an asset-light model. Under this model, Noble did not own mines or farms to produce commodities but built... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Policy; Goods and Commodities; Contracts; Valuation