Odds - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

We can’t know what will happen, but we have a good sense for what might or could happen. Don’t wait for the one moment of indisputable truth to emerge; act on the odds presented in the information available today in sea rise curves, flood... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

20 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

marketing chicanery almost by accident. He was working on a related project involving a major US-based clothing and accessories brand (he can’t say which), when he noticed something odd happening at their outlet stores. “They never even... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Retail

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

What It Takes: Minorities in the Executive Suite

Express; Solomon Trujillo, president and CEO of U S West Communications; and Ann Fudge, president of Maxwell House Coffee Company and Post Cereals? How did these people of color overcome the odds and break through the glass ceiling that... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

31 Oct 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: In Tackling #MeToo, Don’t Ignore Micro-Insults That Harm Women’s Careers

be done? It is also said that unconscious bias is rampant, as shown by immediate associations on word tests, say of men with work or women with children. But this is actually “statistical discrimination”–playing the odds about typical... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

Harm By: Minor, Dylan Abstract—We explore the relationship between managerial incentives and environmental harm. We find that high-powered executive compensation packages can increase the odds of environmental law breaking by 40%–60% and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

A Few Firms Have Outsized Influence in D.C.

issue, versus a new firm that is very interested in lobbying on that issue." While that might make sense, the implications of that fact don't paint the prettiest picture for democracy, since the companies lobbying on an issue may be at View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

28 Aug 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: History Matters

individuals who overcome significant odds to achieve success. Over the last seventy-five years, education has become more critical in creating a path to power; religion and family ties less so. Access to power appears to be widening. In... View Details

Keywords: Re: Geoffrey G. Jones & Anthony Mayo

20 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Airplane Design Brings Out the Class Warfare in Us All

different sections for the duration of a flight. The chances passengers will become unruly were 3.84 times higher when they experienced “physical inequality” by the mere presence of a first-class cabin compared with planes that didn’t have first class. Meanwhile, the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Air Transportation; Sports; Travel

25 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Incubators Take Notice: Your Entrepreneurs Are Networking with the Wrong People

high-performing neighbors generated better business ideas themselves, those interactions were more likely to happen among participants who knew few other attendees. The odds of such interactions were 25 percent for participants who didn’t... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

07 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

How to Help Small Businesses Survive COVID's Next Phase

the Census Bureau’s weekly Pulse Survey said they had received PPP assistance as of August 29. The program, which expired on August 8, increased a participating business's self-reported survival odds by 14 to 30 percentage points and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Food & Beverage; Service

02 Mar 2017
What Do You Think?

Is China About to Overtake the US for World Trade Leadership?

shrunk. Chinese consumers are being encouraged to spend more of it. And the leadership of the Chinese government appears to be adopting a new stance concerning free trade, one that appears to be at odds with core beliefs of China’s ruling... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

25 May 2016
Research & Ideas

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

age, there are more consumers than ever before suffering from chronic conditions. Most no longer see disease and the timing of their death as inevitable. Supported by the Internet, many actively seek out information to increase their odds... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Health

27 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

A Politician's Investment Portfolio Might Tip Off Corruption Potential

$60 and a 90 percent chance of $50; or a 10 percent chance of $120 and a 90 percent chance of $5. The odds shifted slowly in each subsequent row, allowing Minor to see how much assurance of a bigger payoff investors needed before making... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

22 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Silo Lives! Analyzing Coordination and Communication in Multiunit Companies

likely than men to play a key "boundary spanning" role in the company. One can think of it like this. If we were to randomly remove an employee from this company's communication network, the odds that this action would cause a... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Entrepreneurial Hospital Pioneers New Model

healthcare, to make it more feasible for other entrepreneurs to do similar work. "The odds against succeeding in a developing country are severe," he said. Robin Hood Via London Born and raised in India, Shetty went to medical... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

02 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Companies Choreograph Earnings Calls to Hide Bad News

executives a question. That's the procedure that HBS Associate Professor Lauren H. Cohen followed to find out more about the odd dealings he'd observed at a company that was the subject of one of his case studies. But he wasn't given the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

06 Dec 2004
What Do You Think?

Why Do Managers Fail to Act on Their Predictions?

Orleans. Although Southwest has never had a fatal accident in its history, the odds are that it will sometime in the future. And the organization is ready to respond to what Max Bazerman and Michael Watkins would term a "predictable... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 1

behavioral ethics as the study of systematic and predictable ways in which individuals make ethical decisions and judge the ethical decisions of others that are at odds with intuition and the benefits of the broader society. By focusing... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

wind power seemed of much more importance in some countries than in others, "a very odd pattern in the geographical locations of the firms," Jones says. "This sparks my imagination. In the early days of organic foods in the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

09 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

Who Sways the USDA on GMO Approvals?

Many corporations have gotten good at pulling the levers of government to tilt the odds in their favor, weakening regulations or securing perks, justified or not, to further their business interests. Economists use the term... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Biotechnology; Agriculture & Agribusiness

Publications