Publications

05 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

for many types of products,” MacKay says. “It might be really important for more complicated products, or products that you purchase less frequently.” Through its ability to affect purchasing decisions, consumer inertia can alter the... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

January 1996
Background Note

Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Creativity, the production of new and useful ideas by individuals or teams, can appear in many forms and many functions within firms of all kinds--from entrepreneurial start-ups to well-established enterprises. This note describes the varieties of creativity in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Design; Situation or Environment; Creativity

March 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Matching Markets for Googlers

By: Bo Cowgill and Rembrand Koning

This case describes how Google designed and launched an internal matching market to assign individual workers with projects and managers. The case evaluates how marketplace design considerations—and several alternative staffing models—could affect the company’s goals... View Details

Keywords: People Analytics; Google; Labor Market; Staffing; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Selection and Staffing; Goals and Objectives; Technology Industry; United States

August 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Background Note

The Whys and Hows of Feedback

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Performance feedback is crucial to a career in the information-rich global economy. However, feedback is psychologically stressful to both give, and hear. This teaching note explains why feedback is both valuable and difficult, and goes on to summarize research on... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Performance Evaluation; Organizational Culture

20 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

When former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced earlier this year he was thinking about running for president of the United States, it wasn’t a new idea. Past CEOs seeking the White House have included Carly Fiorina, Ross Perot, Herman Cain, Steve Forbes, Mitt... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2022
Article

Find and Replace: R&D Investment Following the Erosion of Existing Products

By: Joshua L. Krieger, Xuelin Li and Richard T. Thakor

How do innovative firms react when existing products experience negative shocks? We explore this question with detailed project-level data from drug development firms. Using FDA Public Health Advisories as idiosyncratic negative shocks to approved drugs, we first... View Details

Keywords: R＆D Investments; Drug Development; Product Shocks; M＆A; Biopharmaceutical Industry; FDA; System Shocks; Research and Development; Investment; Decision Making; Pharmaceutical Industry

December 2014
Background Note

Note on Agriculture in Argentina

By: David E. Bell and Mary Shelman

This note describes the history of Argentinian agriculture and how it has been affected by government policies and new technologies. View Details

Keywords: Argentina; Farming; Agriculture; Business And Government; Government Agricultural Policy; Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Argentina

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Background Note

How Government Shaped the American Diet

By: David E. Bell, Stacey J. Bell and George L. Blackburn

American eating habits have changed over time. Reviews those changes, the role of government policy in affecting those changes, and the health consequences of obesity. View Details

Keywords: Nutrition; Business and Government Relations; United States

Find at Harvard

January 1997 (Revised March 1997)
Background Note

Note on Money and Monetary Policy

By: David A. Moss and Wyatt C. Wells

Offers a brief overview of economic thinking about the nature of money and about how the central bank can affect the economy through monetary policy. View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Government Administration; Policy; Central Banking; Money; Inflation and Deflation; Financial Crisis

12 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Solving COVID'S Mental Health Crisis

safety measures at its facilities, launched online resource centers for different populations affected by COVID-19 such as frontline workers, ramped up telemental health care, and created training programs to help hospitals and... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Health

24 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

Is Your iPhone Turning You Into a Wimp?

monitor? The answer may determine whether you'll play the wimp or the hero in your next office meeting. The body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your back, but your demeanor, reports a new experimental... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Consumer Products

April 1984 (Revised May 1984)
Background Note

The Psychology of Waiting Lines

Discusses the experience of waiting and the factors that affect customers' tolerance for waits. Eight (testable) propositions concerning the psychology of queues are presented, together with specific managerial advice. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Behavior

January 1978 (Revised March 1988)
Background Note

Quality of Earnings

By: David F. Hawkins

Presents a discussion of earnings quality --characteristics, relationship to earnings multiple, application and measurement, volatility and risk, as they affect earnings quality. View Details

Keywords: Quality; Business Earnings

March 2004
Background Note

An Introduction to Work-Life Balance

An overview of issues relating to and factors affecting the concept of balance between work and personal life including the history of work-life balance and employer/employee perspectives. View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance

April 2012
Article

The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose

By: Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie John and George Loewenstein

Two sets of studies illustrate the comparative nature of disclosure behavior. The first set investigates how divulgence is affected by signals about others' readiness to divulge. Study 1A shows a "herding" effect, such that survey respondents are more willing to... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Surveys; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Judgments; Consumer Behavior; Standards

October 1987 (Revised January 2013)
Background Note

Note on Free Cash Flow Valuation Models

By: William A. Sahlman

Explores some of the issues involved in valuing cash flow streams. A simple model is presented that reveals the effect on value of changing assumptions about the appropriate discount rate, the level of profitability, the growth rate of sales, the asset intensity ratio,... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Valuation

20 Dec 2016
First Look

December 20, 2016

affects innovation incentives in medical technologies. Prior studies have found early mover regulatory advantages for drugs. I find the opposite for medical devices, where pioneer entrants spend 34% (7.2 months) longer than follow-on... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 2018
Teaching Note

The Reputation of the 'World's Most Prestigious Award': The Nobel Prize

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Mats Urde

A comprehensive treatment of classroom use of the case on issues affecting the reputation of the Nobel Prize (9-919-401). These encompass a global outreach initiative, the variety of entities that speak for the Prizes, the impact of new high-value awards, and a... View Details

Keywords: Nobel Prize; Reputation; Brands and Branding