Publications

SSRN

14 Oct 2015
HBS Seminar

Scott Stern, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

November 2009
Article

Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies

By: Erin Marie Reid and Michael W. Toffel

The challenges associated with climate change will require governments, citizens, and firms to work collaboratively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a task that requires information on companies' emissions levels, risks, and reduction opportunities. This paper... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Pollutants; Risk and Uncertainty; Business and Shareholder Relations; Management Practices and Processes; Social Issues; Corporate Disclosure; Values and Beliefs; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics

March 2017
Article

Artful Paltering: The Risks and Rewards of Using Truthful Statements to Mislead Others

By: Todd Rogers, Richard Zeckhauser, F. Gino, Michael I. Norton and Maurice E. Schweitzer

Paltering is the active use of truthful statements to convey a misleading impression. Across two pilot studies and six experiments, we identify paltering as a distinct form of deception. Paltering differs from lying by omission (the passive omission of relevant... View Details

Keywords: Deception; Lying; Paltering; Risk; Ethics; Negotiation Tactics

Article

Sizing Up Entrepreneurial Potential: Gender Differences in Communication and Investor Perceptions of Long-Term Growth and Scalability

By: Laura Huang, Priyanka D. Joshi, Cheryl J. Wakslak and Andy Wu

Female entrepreneurs have been found to face disadvantages as compared with male entrepreneurs, especially in acquiring the financial resources they need to sustain and grow their ventures. Across three studies, we examine how disparities in funding outcomes may be due... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Finance; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Communication; Perception

Purchase

13 Oct 2019
News

About the debate: We have some questions about the future of work we’d like to see asked

2012
Working Paper

The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures

By: Thomas F. Hellmann and Noam Wasserman

This paper examines the division of founder shares in entrepreneurial ventures, focusing on the decision of whether or not to divide the shares equally among all founders. To motivate the empirical analysis we develop a simple theory of costly bargaining, where... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Equity

September 2010
Article

Making Self-Regulation More Than Merely Symbolic: The Critical Role of the Legal Environment

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Using data from a sample of U.S. industrial facilities subject to the federal Clean Air Act from 1993 to 2003, this article theorizes and tests the conditions under which organizations' symbolic commitments to self-regulate are particularly likely to result in improved... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Code Law; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Organizations; Governance Compliance; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; United States

08 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Admitting Mistakes: Home Country Effect on the Reliability of Restatement Reporting

Keywords: by Suraj Srinivasan, Aida Sijamic Wahid & Gwen Yu

Winter 2022
Article

Determinants of Small Business Reopening Decisions After COVID Restrictions Were Lifted

By: Dylan Balla-Elliott, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton

The COVID-19 pandemic led to dramatic economic disruptions, including government-imposed restrictions that temporarily shuttered millions of American businesses. We use a nation-wide survey of thousands of small business owners to establish three main facts about... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Demand Forecasting; Reopening; Health Pandemics; Government Administration; Small Business

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

Quantifying performance and measuring results are no longer the sole domain of for-profit enterprises. Today, many nonprofit organizations also find themselves on the hot seat—not with stockholders but with donors who expect similar... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

02 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2011

restraints it will face. Better CSR performance is the result of improved stakeholder engagement, which in turn reduces the likelihood of opportunistic behavior and pushes... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Article

Consequences of Financial Reporting Failure for Outside Directors: Evidence from Accounting Restatements and Audit Committee Members

By: Suraj Srinivasan

I use a sample of 409 companies that restated their earnings from 1997 to 2001 to examine penalties for outside directors, particularly audit committee members, when their companies experience accounting restatements. Penalties from lawsuits and Securities and Exchange... View Details

Keywords: Outcome or Result; Business Earnings; Financial Statements; Lawsuits and Litigation; Labor; Markets; Financial Reporting; Accounting Audits; Cost; Reputation

SSRN

2013
Dissertation

Designing Freemium: A Model of Consumer Usage, Upgrade, and Referral Dynamics

By: Clarence Lee, Vineet Kumar and Sunil Gupta

Abstract. Over the past decade "freemium" (free + premium) has become the dominant business model among internet start-ups for its ability to acquire and monetize a large install-base with limited marketing resources. Freemium is a hybrid strategy where a firm offers... View Details

Keywords: Discrete-Continuous Choice Dynamic Structural Models; Bayesian Estimation; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Services; Freemium; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Business Startups

2021
Working Paper

An Empirical Study of Time Allotment and Delays in E-commerce Delivery

By: M. Balakrishnan, MoonSoo Choi and Natalie Epstein

Problem definition: We study how having more time allotted to deliver an order affects the speed of the delivery process. Furthermore, we seek to predict orders that are likely to be delayed early in the delivery process so that actions can be taken to avoid delays.... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; E-commerce; Mathematical Methods; AI and Machine Learning; Performance Productivity

SSRN

04 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Want to Make Diversity Stick? Break the Cycle of Sameness

Black judge,” Chang says. Corporate boards still prefer men and white people The researchers conducted a similar analysis with board seats from companies in the S&P 1500 between 2009 and 2014, looking at more than 5,000 selections of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

07 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Cry in Front of Your Boss

Historically, men’s emotions have been labeled passion or dedication, whereas women’s emotions have been labeled hysteria. Because of those past characterizations, Wolf initially thought that men by default... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

03 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

How the Zebra Got Its Stripes: Imprinting of Individuals and Hybrid Social Ventures

Keywords: by Matthew Lee & Julie Battilana

2022
Working Paper

The Need for Speed: The Impact of Capital Constraints on Strategic Misconduct

By: F. Christopher Eaglin

Under what conditions do firms engage in strategic misconduct? Why do they undertake actions that increase profitability yet break laws or violate strong norms often with costly consequences for public welfare? The strategic management literature offers two external... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Capital Constraints; Organizations; Crime and Corruption; Behavior; Situation or Environment; Capital