Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,524)
- Faculty Publications (311)
- March 2019
- Article
When Does Advice Impact Startup Performance?
By: Aaron Chatterji, Solène Delecourt, Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning
Why do some entrepreneurs thrive while others fail? We explore whether the advice entrepreneurs receive about managing their employees influences their startup's performance. We conducted a randomized field experiment in India with 100 high-growth technology firms... View Details
- Article
Assessing the Impact of CEO Activism
By: Aaron K Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
CEO activism refers to corporate leaders speaking out on social and environmental policy issues not directly related to their company’s core business. Distinct from nonmarket strategy and traditional corporate social responsibility, the recent wave of CEO activism... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira
Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details
- January 2019
- Article
Making Moves Matter: Experimental Evidence on Incentivizing Bureaucrats Through Performance-Based Postings
By: Adnan Q. Khan, Asim Ijaz Khwaja and Benjamin A. Olken
Bureaucracies often post staff to better or worse locations, ostensibly to provide incentives. Yet we know little about whether this works, with heterogeneity in preferences over postings impacting effectiveness. We propose a performance-ranked serial dictatorship... View Details
- January 2019
- Article
The ABCs of Financial Education: Experimental Evidence on Attitudes, Behavior, and Cognitive Biases
By: Fenella Carpena, Shawn A. Cole, Jeremy Shapiro and Bilal Zia
This paper uses a large-scale field experiment in India to study attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive constraints that can stymie the link between financial education and financial outcomes. The study complements financial education with (1) financial incentives on a... View Details
- Fall 2018
- Article
The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment
By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno
Online channels generate frictions when selling products with nondigital attributes, such as apparel. Customers may be reluctant to purchase products they have not been able to try on, and those customers who do purchase may return products when they do not fit as... View Details
- Article
The Impact of the 'Open' Workspace on Human Collaboration
By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban
Organizations’ pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into “open,” transparency-enhancing architectures with fewer walls, doors, and other spatial boundaries, yet there is scant direct empirical research on... View Details
Keywords: Open Office; Transparency; Collaboration; Collective Intelligence; Workspace; Workspace Design; Architecture; Cubicles; Boundaries; Spatial Boundaries; Human Behavior; Propinquity; Co-location; Interaction; Sociometers; People Analytics; Buildings and Facilities; Communication; Design; Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Networks; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology; United States
- August 2018
- Article
Deep Help in Complex Project Work: Guiding and Path-Clearing Across Difficult Terrain
By: Colin M. Fisher, Julianna Pillemer and Teresa M. Amabile
How do teams working on complex projects get the help they need? Our qualitative investigation of the help provided to project teams at a prominent design firm revealed two distinct helping processes, both characterized by deep, sustained engagement that far exceeds... View Details
- July 2018
- Article
Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Tina Xu
We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk... View Details
- Article
Enacting Rituals to Improve Self-control
By: D. A. Tian, J. Schroeder, G. Haubl, J. Risen, M. I. Norton and F. Gino
Rituals are predefined sequences of actions characterized by rigidity and repetition. We propose that enacting ritualized actions can enhance subjective feelings of self-discipline, such that rituals can be harnessed to improve behavioral self-control. We test this... View Details
- May 2018
- Article
Effects of an Information Sharing System on Employee Creativity, Engagement, and Performance
By: Shelley Xin Li and Tatiana Sandino
Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by Journal of Accounting Research, to test whether an... View Details
- Article
Performance Effects of Setting a High Reference Point for Peer‐Performance Comparison
By: Henry Eyring and V.G. Narayanan
We conduct a field experiment, based on a registered report accepted by the Journal of Accounting Research, to test performance effects of setting a high reference point for peer‐performance comparison. Relative to providing the median as a reference point for... View Details
- Article
The Asymmetric Experience of Positive and Negative Economic Growth: Global Evidence Using Subjective Well-being Data
By: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, George Ward, Femke De Keulenaer, Bert Van Landeghem, Georgios Kavetsos and Michael I. Norton
Are individuals more sensitive to losses than gains in terms of economic growth? We find that measures of subjective well-being are more than twice as sensitive to negative as compared to positive economic growth. We use Gallup World Poll data from over 150 countries,... View Details
- April 2018
- Article
Consumers Avoid Buying from Firms with Higher CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios
By: Bhavya Mohan, Tobias Schlager, Rohit Deshpandé and Michael I. Norton
We document a novel driver of consumer behavior: pay ratio disclosure. Swiss corporation performance data gathered during a legally mandated pay ratio referendum reveals that salient high pay ratios are associated with decreased firm sales (Pilot Study). An... View Details
Keywords: Pay Ratio; Wage Fairness; Purchase Intention; Customers; Wages; Fairness; Consumer Behavior
- 2018
- Article
Overcoming Barriers to Time-Saving: Reminders of Future Busyness Encourage Consumers to Buy Time
By: A. V. Whillans, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton
Spending money on time-saving purchases improves happiness. Yet, people often fail to spend their money in this way. Because most people believe that the future will be less busy than the present, they may underweight the value of these purchases. We examine the impact... View Details
- February 2018
- Article
Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective.
By: Eva Ascarza
Companies in a variety of sectors are increasingly managing customer churn proactively, generally by detecting customers at the highest risk of churning and targeting retention efforts towards them. While there is a vast literature on developing churn prediction models... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Are You a Guest Here? Field Experiments on Racial Discrimination in Customer Service
By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim
- 2017
- Article
Handgun Waiting Periods Reduce Gun Deaths
By: Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin
Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a delay between the initiation of a purchase and final acquisition of a firearm. We show that waiting periods, which create a “cooling off” period among buyers, significantly reduce the incidence of gun violence. We estimate... View Details
- November 7, 2017
- Article
Temporary Sharing Prompts Unrestrained Disclosures That Leave Lasting Negative Impressions
By: Reto Hofstetter, Roland Rüppell and Leslie John
With the advent of social media, the impressions people make on others are based increasingly on their digital disclosures. Yet digital disclosures can come back to haunt, making it challenging for people to manage the impressions they make. In field and online... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Deep Help in Complex Project Work: Guiding and Path-Clearing Across Difficult Terrain
By: Colin M. Fisher, Julianna Pillemer and Teresa M. Amabile
How do teams working on complex projects get the help they need? Our qualitative investigation of the help provided to project teams at a prominent design firm revealed two distinct helping processes, both characterized by deep, sustained engagement that far exceeds... View Details