Publications

March 2022
Article

Estimating the Effectiveness of Permanent Price Reductions for Competing Products Using Multivariate Bayesian Structural Time Series Models

By: Fiammetta Menchetti and Iavor Bojinov

Researchers regularly use synthetic control methods for estimating causal effects when a sub-set of units receive a single persistent treatment, and the rest are unaffected by the change. In many applications, however, units not assigned to treatment are nevertheless... View Details

Keywords: Causal Inference; Partial Interference; Synthetic Controls; Bayesian Structural Time Series; Mathematical Methods

April 2024
Article

An Integrative Model of Hybrid Governance: The Role of Boards in Helping Sustain Organizational Hybridity

By: Anne-Claire Pache, Julie Battilana and Channing Spencer

Hybrid organizations must sustainably attend to multiple goals embedded in different institutional spheres. Past research has highlighted the value for hybrids in recruiting board members representing different logics to avoid attentional drifts; yet, diverse boards... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business or Company Management; Organizational Structure

Article

Forgoing Earned Incentives to Signal Pure Motives

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Edward H. Chang, Emma E. Levine, Katherine L. Milkman and Judd B. Kessler

Policy makers, employers, and insurers often provide financial incentives to encourage citizens, employees, and customers to take actions that are good for them or for society (e.g., energy conservation, healthy living, safe driving). Although financial incentives are... View Details

Keywords: Incentives; Motivation Laundering; Self-signaling; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Perception

09 Nov 2021
HBS Seminar

Susan Murphy, Harvard-SEAS

December 24, 2019
Article

Why It's So Hard to Change People's Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella S. Kristal and A. V. Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Motivating People; Time And Wellbeing; Time Stress; Commuting; Behavior; Change; Motivation and Incentives

Keywords: by Raj Chande, Michael Luca, Michael Sanders, Xian-Zhi Soon, Oana Borcan, Netta Barak-Corren, Elizabeth Linos, Elspeth Kirkman & Sean Robinson; Education

Register to Read

11 Mar 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Curbing Adult Student Attrition: Evidence from a Field Experiment

02 Apr 2013
News

Losing Weight to Earn Cash: Groups of Dieters Lose More than Individuals

Managing the Liquidity Crisis

Companies are scrambling for cash in the wake of the pandemic. Unfortunately, for structural reasons they are unlikely to get the cash they need from their traditional lenders, even though the financial system is in relatively good shape and there are reserves of... View Details

Research Summary

Energy Strategy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Forest L. Reinhardt is writing cases and other materials on the strategic problems and opportunitites faced by firms in the energy industry. Significant economies of scale and scope, combined with rapid technological change, present firms in the industry with a... View Details

September 1993 (Revised July 1995)
Background Note

Public Policy and the Manager: Conceptual Framework

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Government intervention in markets may have significant effects--both positive and negative--on a firm's strategic options and its performance outcomes. Thus the ability to analyze the origins, implications, and dynamics of public policy is a critical managerial skill... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Management Skills; Government and Politics; Adoption; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Economic Systems

Educators

May 2020
Article

Digitizing Disclosure: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores

By: Weijia (Daisy) Dai and Michael Luca

Collaborating with Yelp and the city of San Francisco, we revisit a canonical example of quality disclosure by evaluating and helping to redesign the posting of restaurant hygiene scores on Yelp.com. We implement a two-stage intervention that separately identifies... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Consumer Behavior; Knowledge Dissemination; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2022
Article

Loneliness Versus Distress: A Comparison of Emotion Regulation Profiles

By: Alyssa J. Tan, Vincent Mancini, James J. Gross, Amit Goldenberg, Johanna C. Badcock, Michelle H. Lim, Rodrigo Becerra, Ben Jackson and David A. Preece

Loneliness, a negative emotion stemming from the perception of unmet social needs, is a major public health concern. Current interventions often target social domains but produce small effects and are not as effective as established emotion regulation (ER)-based... View Details

Keywords: Emotions

December 2018
Article

Improving Resilience Among Employees High in Depression, Anxiety, and Workplace Distress

By: Allison L. Williams, Acacia C. Parks, Grace Cormier, Julia Stafford and A.V. Whillans

Depression and anxiety are costly for both employees and employers, in terms of direct medical costs as well as costs stemming from lost productive time and missed days at work. Resilience training has been shown to improve workplace functioning for employees, which... View Details

Keywords: Depression; Anxiety; Engagement; Resilience; Presenteeism; Employee Engagement; Mental Health; Employees; Emotions; Health; Internet and the Web; Performance Productivity

2019
Book

Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience

By: Laura Morgan Roberts, Anthony J. Mayo and David A. Thomas

Race, Work, and Leadership is a rare and important compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people’s experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing?... View Details

Keywords: Race And Ethnicity; Diversity Management; Inclusion; Leader Selection; Race; Ethnicity; Diversity; Leadership; Leadership Development; Employment

2009
Working Paper

Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910

By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes

This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber but... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Taxation; Business and Government Relations; Welfare or Wellbeing; Rubber Industry; Brazil

August 2022
Case

Rocket Learning: Evidence in Action

By: Brian Trelstad, Tomas Rosales and Malini Sen

Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Early Childhood Education; Nonprofit Organizations; Literacy; Values and Beliefs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Education Industry; India; Asia

Educators