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Publications

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  • All HBS Web  (66)
    • News  (4)
    • Research  (52)
    • Events  (7)
  • Faculty Publications  (35)

Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (66)
    • News  (4)
    • Research  (52)
    • Events  (7)
  • Faculty Publications  (35)
Page 1 of 66 Results →
  • Article

The Similarity Heuristic

By: Daniel Read and Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Decision makers often make snap judgments using fast‐and‐frugal decision rules called cognitive heuristics. Research into cognitive heuristics has been divided into two camps. One camp has emphasized the limitations and biases produced by the heuristics; another has... View Details
Keywords: Heuristics And Biases; Fast-and-frugal Heuristics; Similarity; Representative Design
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Read, Daniel, and Yael Grushka-Cockayne. "The Similarity Heuristic." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 24, no. 1 (January 2011): 23–46.
  • Article

How to Use Heuristics for Differential Privacy

By: Seth Neel, Aaron Leon Roth and Zhiwei Steven Wu
We develop theory for using heuristics to solve computationally hard problems in differential privacy. Heuristic approaches have enjoyed tremendous success in machine learning, for which performance can be empirically evaluated. However, privacy guarantees cannot be... View Details
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Neel, Seth, Aaron Leon Roth, and Zhiwei Steven Wu. "How to Use Heuristics for Differential Privacy." Proceedings of the IEEE Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) 60th (2019).
  • August 2024
  • Article

Heuristics on Call: The Impact of Mobile-Phone-Based Business-Management Advice

By: Shawn Cole, Mukta Joshi and Antoinette Schoar
There is growing evidence that business training for micro-entrepreneurs can be effective. However, in-person training can be expensive and imposes costs on the target beneficiaries. This paper presents the results of a two-site randomized evaluation of a light-touch,... View Details
Keywords: Training; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; India; Philippines
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Cole, Shawn, Mukta Joshi, and Antoinette Schoar. "Heuristics on Call: The Impact of Mobile-Phone-Based Business-Management Advice." World Bank Economic Review 38, no. 3 (August 2024): 580–597.
  • 1999
  • Working Paper

A Heuristic Method for Extracting Smooth Trends from Economic Time Series

By: Julio J. Rotemberg
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Rotemberg, Julio J. "A Heuristic Method for Extracting Smooth Trends from Economic Time Series." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 7439, December 1999.
  • 05 Jul 2006
  • Working Paper Summaries

Do Managers’ Heuristics Affect R&D Performance Volatility? A Simulation Informed by the Pharmaceutical Industry

Keywords: by Francesca Gino & Gary P. Pisano; Pharmaceutical
  • Article

Heuristics Guide the Implementation of Social Preferences in One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma Experiments

By: Jillian J. Jordan, Valerio Capraro and David G. Rand
Cooperation in one-shot anonymous interactions is a widely documented aspect of human behavior. Here we shed light on the motivations behind this behavior by experimentally exploring cooperation in a one-shot continuous-strategy Prisoner’s Dilemma (i.e. one-shot... View Details
Keywords: Human Behavior; Social Evolution; Behavior; Cooperation; Decision Making; Game Theory
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Jordan, Jillian J., Valerio Capraro, and David G. Rand. "Heuristics Guide the Implementation of Social Preferences in One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma Experiments." Art. 6790. Scientific Reports 4 (2014).
  • 2003
  • Working Paper

Model Structure Analysis Through Graph Theory: Partition Heuristics and Feedback Structure Decomposition

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Oliva, Rogelio. "Model Structure Analysis Through Graph Theory: Partition Heuristics and Feedback Structure Decomposition." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 04-016, October 2003.
  • Article

Signaling When Nobody Is Watching: A Reputation Heuristics Account of Outrage and Punishment in One-shot Anonymous Interactions

By: Jillian J. Jordan and David G. Rand
Moralistic punishment can confer reputation benefits by signaling trustworthiness to observers. However, why do people punish even when nobody is watching? We argue that people often rely on the heuristic that reputation is typically at stake, such that reputation... View Details
Keywords: Signaling; Morality; Trustworthiness; Anger; Third-party Punishment; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Trust; Reputation
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Jordan, Jillian J., and David G. Rand. "Signaling When Nobody Is Watching: A Reputation Heuristics Account of Outrage and Punishment in One-shot Anonymous Interactions." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 118, no. 1 (January 2020).
  • 2025
  • Working Paper

A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien and Michael I. Norton
People regularly encounter revised stimuli (e.g., revised versions of products, new editions of books, tweaked recipes, and technological updates). In principle, a world of constant revision should benefit people by affording them the most up-to-date offerings. In... View Details
Keywords: Product Change; Versioning; Expectancy Effects; Heuristics; Intuitive Processing; Product Marketing; Change; Perception; Consumer Behavior
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Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Leslie K. John, Ed O’Brien, and Michael I. Norton. "A Preference for Revision Absent Improvement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-087, February 2019. (Revised April 2025.)
  • March 2020
  • Article

The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey

By: Shelle Santana, Manoj Thomas and Vicki Morwitz
At each stage in customers’ journeys, they encounter different types of numeric information that they process using different judgment strategies. Relevant numbers might include budgets, price, product attributes, product counts, product ratings, numbers in brand... View Details
Keywords: Numbers; Heuristics; Numerical Cognition; Pricing; Customer Journey; Information; Consumer Behavior
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Santana, Shelle, Manoj Thomas, and Vicki Morwitz. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey." Journal of Retailing 96, no. 1 (March 2020): 138–154.
  • Article

Memory and Representativeness

By: Pedro Bordalo, Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, Frederik Schwerter and Andrei Shleifer
We explore the idea that judgment by representativeness reflects the workings of episodic memory, especially interference. In a new laboratory experiment on cued recall, participants are shown two groups of images with different distributions of colors. We find that i)... View Details
Keywords: Cued Recall; Interference; Similarity; Probabilistic Judgments; Heuristics And Biases
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Bordalo, Pedro, Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, Frederik Schwerter, and Andrei Shleifer. "Memory and Representativeness." Psychological Review 128, no. 1 (January 2021): 71–85.
  • November 2018
  • Case

frog design

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler
The case follows the genesis and development of Palo, a radical urban communications hub designed to replace payphone booths on Manhattan’s city streets, through a joint venture between frog design and a venture-backed firm LQD WiFi. The case explores the complexity of... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Prototyping; User Experience Design; Design Heuristics; Telecommunications; Urban Systems; Communication Technology; Urban Scope; Innovation and Invention; Design; Product Development
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Datar, Srikant M., and Caitlin N. Bowler. "frog design." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 118-707, November 2018.
  • July 2017
  • Article

The Impact of 'Display-Set' Options on Decision-Making

By: Uma R. Karmarkar
The way a choice set is constructed can have a significant influence on how individuals perceive and evaluate their options and make decisions between them. Here, I examine whether a “display set” of visible but unavailable options can exert these same types of... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making Process; Heuristics; Similarity; Categorization; Marketing Insight; Marketing; Choice; Choice Architecture; Choice Sets; Display; Retail; Consumer Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Decision Making; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry
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Karmarkar, Uma R. "The Impact of 'Display-Set' Options on Decision-Making." Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 30, no. 3 (July 2017): 744–753.
  • 1999
  • Article

Effects of Instructional Style on Problem-Solving Creativity

By: A. M. Ruscio and T. M. Amabile
This study sought to determine the impact of 2 differing instructional approaches on creative problem-solving performance. Eighty-two college students completed a novel structure-building task after receiving algorithmic instruction (providing a rote, step-by-step... View Details
Keywords: Training; Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Performance; Learning
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Ruscio, A. M., and T. M. Amabile. "Effects of Instructional Style on Problem-Solving Creativity." Creativity Research Journal 12, no. 4 (1999): 251–266.
  • 2017
  • Working Paper

Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World

By: Karthik Balasubramanian, David F. Drake and Douglas Fearing
Mobile money systems, platforms built and managed by mobile network operators to allow money to be stored as digital currency, have burgeoned in the developing world as a mechanism to transfer money electronically. Mobile money agents exchange cash for electronic value... View Details
Keywords: Currency; Mobile Technology; Market Platforms; Developing Countries and Economies
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Balasubramanian, Karthik, David F. Drake, and Douglas Fearing. "Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-109, June 2017. (Presented at INFORMS 2015 and POMS 2016. Finalist and first runner up, Production and Operations Management College of Sustainable Operations Best Student Paper Award.)
  • March 1991 (Revised January 1993)
  • Background Note

Why Do Good Managers Choose Poor Strategies?

The uncertainty and complexity of most business environments make successful management a difficult art. Frequently, bright, experienced, well-educated people manage their companies into strategic distress. Many of these bad results are not simply a matter of bad luck.... View Details
Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Prejudice and Bias; Business Strategy; Cognition and Thinking
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Teisberg, Elizabeth O. "Why Do Good Managers Choose Poor Strategies?" Harvard Business School Background Note 391-172, March 1991. (Revised January 1993.)
  • Research Summary

Consumer Response to Online Ratings and Recommendations

Jolie is currently conducting several laboratory and field experiments to assess the tendency of individuals to employ predictable heuristics in complex information aggregation tasks, thus leading to search and choice behavior that is suboptimal relative to the fully... View Details
  • 2016
  • Other Teaching and Training Material

Organizational Behavior Reading: Decision Making

By: Francesca Gino, Max Bazerman and Katherine Shonk
This Reading argues that decision making is systematically flawed and introduces methods to improve decision-making effectiveness. The Essential Reading section covers the rational decision-making model and three important ideas that challenge it: Herbert Simon's... View Details
Keywords: Game Theory; Decision Making
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Gino, Francesca, Max Bazerman, and Katherine Shonk. "Organizational Behavior Reading: Decision Making." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing 8383, 2016. Electronic.
  • 2024
  • Working Paper

Charting (and Updating) the Path: A Bayesian Perspective on Entrepreneurial Learning

By: Joshua L. Krieger
This chapter explores two distinct modes of entrepreneurial learning: assessing venture viability and choosing between alternative development paths. It introduces a framework for decomposing venture viability into technological feasibility, commercial potential and... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Learning
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Krieger, Joshua L. "Charting (and Updating) the Path: A Bayesian Perspective on Entrepreneurial Learning." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-031, December 2024.
  • May 2013
  • Article

From Russia with Love: The Impact of Relocated Firms on Incumbent Survival

By: Oliver Falck, Christina Guenther, Stephan Heblich and William R. Kerr
We identify the impact of local firm concentration on incumbent performance with a quasi-natural experiment. When Germany was divided after World War II, many firms in the machine tool industry fled the Soviet occupied zone to prevent expropriation. We show that the... View Details
Keywords: Geographic Location; Competition; Supply and Industry; Labor; West Germany; Soviet Union
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Falck, Oliver, Christina Guenther, Stephan Heblich, and William R. Kerr. "From Russia with Love: The Impact of Relocated Firms on Incumbent Survival." Journal of Economic Geography 13, no. 3 (May 2013): 419–449.
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