Publications

August 2023
Case

The Ethical Tightrope: When to Disclose the AI Shortcut

By: David G. Fubini, William Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

In this short vignette on ethics in consulting, John Child, a new Associate at a prestigious firm who is eager to impress, decides to use an AI tool to expedite his analysis and craft his presentation due to a short project timeframe. Feeling uneasy about his decision... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Development and Career; Decisions; Consulting Industry

Educators

April 1996 (Revised March 2008)
Exercise

Canonical Decision Problems

Involves seven canonical decision problems--basic problems in management that arise with surprising frequency. Although these exercises are simplified versions of these problems, they have been written to preserve the "essence" of the decision situations. The problems... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Skills; Negotiation; Problems and Challenges

2012
Article

Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End

By: L. Shu, N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely and M. Bazerman

Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of the document, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Morality; Honesty; Self-report; Policy-making; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Reports; Policy

01 Feb 2021
News

Confidence, uncertainty, and trust in AI affect how humans make decisions

January 28, 2016
Article

Making Sense of the Many Kinds of Impact Investing

By: Brian Trelstad

The article discusses the factors to consider when seeking to practice impact investing, which include the kind of impact preferred by the investor, the intensity and immediacy of impact, and the impact risk profile. View Details

Keywords: Ethical Investments; Investment Policy; Investment; Ethics

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2017
Article

Blunted Ambiguity Aversion During Cost-Benefit Decisions in Antisocial Individuals

By: Joshua W. Buckholtz, Uma R. Karmarkar, Shengxuan Ye, Grace M. Brennan and Arielle Baskin-Sommers

Antisocial behavior is often assumed to reflect aberrant risk processing. However, many of the most significant forms of antisocial behavior, including crime, reflect the outcomes of decisions made under conditions of ambiguity rather than risk. While risk and... View Details

Keywords: Ambiguity; Neuroscience; Neuroeconomics; Choice; Psychology; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Health Disorders

14 Apr 2015
News

Leaders as Decision Architects

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2020: Clinical Trials

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In March 2020, Dr. Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Inc. (Minerva), was reviewing the first results of human clinical trials for the company’s novel CAR-T drug therapeutic, one of the first ever to target solid cancer tumors. The results... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Strategic Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Decision Choices and Conditions; Strategy

Educators

February 1998
Teaching Note

Decision Making at the Top: The All-Star Sports Catalog Division TN

By: David A. Garvin and Michael Roberto

Teaching Note for (9-398-061). View Details

2009
Chapter

Altruistic Utility Functions for Joint Decisions

By: David E. Bell and Ralph L. Keeney

All of us make decisions that are not entirely self-centered; we voluntarily anticipate what we think to be the preferences of others and incorporate them into our decision making. We do this, not because of legal requirements or social norms, but because we are... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Characteristics; Welfare

18 Dec 2015
News

Sleeping on it actually won’t help you make better decisions in the morning

2007
Working Paper

The Ethical Mirage: A Temporal Explanation as to Why We Aren't as Ethical as We Think We Are

By: Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Kristina A. Diekmann, Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni and Max H. Bazerman

This paper explores the biased perceptions that people hold of their own ethicality. We argue that the temporal trichotomy of prediction, action and evaluation is central to these misperceptions: People predict that they will behave more ethically than they actually... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Ethics; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Perception; Prejudice and Bias

August 2021
Article

Hoping for the Worst? A Paradoxical Preference for Bad News

By: Kate Barasz and Serena Hagerty

Nine studies investigate when and why people may paradoxically prefer bad news—e.g., hoping for an objectively worse injury or a higher-risk diagnosis over explicitly better alternatives. Using a combination of field surveys and randomized experiments, the research... View Details

Keywords: Decision Avoidance; Difficult Decisions; Judgment And Decision Making; Medical Decision-making; Decision Making; Behavior

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Article

Ethical Blind Spots: Explaining Unintentional Unethical Behavior

By: Ovul Sezer, F. Gino and Max H. Bazerman

People view themselves as more ethical, fair, and objective than others, yet often act against their moral compass. This paper reviews recent research on unintentional unethical behavior and provides an overview of the conditions under which ethical blind spots lead... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions

April–June 2022
Other Article

Commentary on 'Causal Decision Making and Causal Eﬀect Estimation Are Not the Same... and Why It Matters'

By: Edward McFowland III

There has been a substantial discussion in various methodological and applied literatures around causal inference; especially in the use of machine learning and statistical models to understand heterogeneity in treatment effects and to make optimal decision... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Treatment Effect Estimation; Treatment Assignment Policy; Human-in-the-loop; Decision Making; Fairness

October 2002
Article

The Speed Trap: Exploring the Relationship between Decision Making and the Temporal Context

By: Leslie Perlow, Gerardo Okhuyson and Nelson Repenning

Keywords: Decision Making