Contests - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

colleagues studied how experts judged contest entries and found that the greater an evaluator’s expertise, the more likely they were to nix less feasible proposals in favor of safer bets. “Who we select to do our evaluations and to pick... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

21 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Free Isn’t Always Better: How Slack Holds Its Own Against Microsoft Teams

we do work?" Even with Salesforce’s extra muscle, Slack’s executives have puzzled over how to compete with a free rival, a new Harvard Business School case study illustrates. Now, a David-and-Goliath contest is underway, and the outcome... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Information Technology; Technology

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

infrastructure for transactional activity, new scholarship asks what forces shape modern patterns of economic activity and how those patterns sort people and resources. Instead of reproducing conventional dichotomies, current historians of American capitalism View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

11 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Branding Sells Cereal, Handbags, and Vacations. Can It Sell a Country?

complicated history still dominate public consciousness. Memories of failed peace talks tend to loom larger than Israel’s image as a startup nation. Thousands of Instagram posts from Tel Aviv’s gay pride festivities or the buzz from winning the recent Eurovision song... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Tourism

Research Summary

Overview

By: Boris Vallee

Professor Vallée focuses on financial innovation, investigating it from different angles. This research thread has led him to relate the methods and insights of corporate finance and banking with those of other subfields, including household finance, public finance,... View Details

19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

world, brands are playthings for consumers. Humor is a big part of social media culture. And brands are often used as vehicles to carry that humor." Results can be calamitous for companies that don't anticipate mockery. Fournier and Avery write of a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

24 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?

restaurants of gaming the system by stacking reviews by friends and family, or simply falling prey to a popularity contest by uninformed palates. "Given the evidence, I don't think many people would dispute Yelp's influence,"... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

own case and determine where to draw the line." That raises the question: How should the line be drawn on pay transparency? What do you think? Original Column Organizational transparency is a much contested topic in boardrooms and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

04 Nov 2009
What Do You Think?

What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?

the classic "invisible hand" that Scott claims leads at times to a "free-for all," like an athletic contest without rules. What's to be done about it? That's where a political authority comes in, one similar to FIFA in... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

example, offering large financial incentives to the winners of intergroup contests would predictably pull these relationships into cutthroat competition. In addition, in an effort to keep the competition from becoming cutthroat or the... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

29 Oct 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Robots in the Boardroom

effective targets. Open Innovation Contestants Build AI-Based Cancer ToolRadiation oncologists are few in number, especially if you are nowhere near a cancer facility. Could artificial intelligence be used to deliver an oncologist's... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

04 Feb 2022
Book

Beyond the Cold War: Reinventing Socialism in 5 Countries

imperialism, so did the collapse of that imperial system create new demands and sites of contestation for systems of sovereignty and property. Adom Getachew has written about “anticolonial worldmaking,” attempts to reshape international... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

near as I can tell, wife carrying is not repugnant anywhere. The Estonian position in a wife-carrying contest Q: How do markets that were once legal become outlawed, and vice versa? A: A market that is now illegal and that might strike... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

27 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Can Being the ‘Token’ Give Women and Minorities a Competitive Edge?

found that 37 percent of Black respondents picked an all-white group if they had to compete for a job, compared to 20 percent if they didn’t. The team confirmed its initial findings through a laboratory experiment that applied a similar approach—a View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

15 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

What You Don’t Know About Making Decisions

attributed his success to "diversity in counsel, unity in command." Two Approaches to Decision Making Advocacy Inquiry Concept of decision making a contest collaborative problem solving Purpose of discussion persuasion and... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin & Michael A. Roberto

16 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Crowdsourcing Is Helping Hollywood Reduce the Risk of Movie-Making

writer based in the Boston area. [Image: CasarsaGuru] Related Reading: Related Reading Black Business Leaders Series: Franklin Leonard, 'Black List' Mastermind Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products? Open Innovation View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Motion Pictures & Video

18 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

How Economic Clusters Drive Globalization

two locations shared knowledge of palm oil production even as they competed for market share—a contest that Malaysia eventually won thanks to its more stable political climate and higher quality of institutions. “Because the Malaysian... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness

05 May 2011
What Do You Think?

How Ethical Can We Be?

Sports Are Played and Games Are Won. It was biased judgment on the part of supposedly unbiased referees and umpires. They hypothesize that the cause is a natural tendency to avoid excessive booing by the home team crowd, particularly in the later stages of a View Details