Publications

Forthcoming
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

03 Jun 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Risk Anomaly Tradeoff of Leverage

Keywords: by Malcolm Baker, Mathias F. Hoeyer, and Jeffrey Wurgler

February 2003 (Revised August 2004)
Background Note

Note on Valuation-Compensation Tradeoff in Professional Service Firm Acquisitions

By: Ashish Nanda

This case highlights the tradeoff between valuation ascribed to professionals at the time of a professional services firm (PSF) acquisition and the postacquisition compensation of these professionals. It emphasizes how a high valuation at acquisition carries with it... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Employees; Acquisition; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

Educators

Research Summary

Managing the Advantages and Tradeoffs of Collaborative Structures

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

To solve complex problems, organizations must both collect facts and use them to solve problems. In one study, my coauthors and I show that increased connectivity—measured as network... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Human Behavior; Performance; Virtual Work; Hybrid Work; Office Space; Workplace Design; Communication; Social and Collaborative Networks; Behavior; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Leadership; Management

April 1996 (Revised March 2008)
Exercise

Exercises on Tradeoffs and Conflicting Objectives

Presents two methodologies for making decisions in the face of conflicting objectives, pricing out, and additive scoring systems. This material is followed by four exercises designed to develop and test understanding of the basic methodology. The exercises include an... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions

16 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity

When private equity (PE) firms buy a company, they typically follow a standard playbook to create value—streamlining operations, restructuring debt, changing management, and cutting costs. However, as digital technologies and artificial intelligence allow companies to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

September 2024
Case

Board Director Dilemmas: The Tradeoffs of Board Selection

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Patrick Sanguineti

After retiring from a long and successful career in financial auditing, Linda McGill looked forward to the prospect of joining a board. She felt the time was right to leverage the breadth of her experience while fulfilling one of her long-term goals. Though somewhat of... View Details

Keywords: Board Decisions; Corporate Boards; Boards; Board Networks; Cost vs Benefits; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retirement

Educators

May 2017
Article

Sacred versus Pseudo-sacred Values: How People Cope with Taboo Trade-Offs

By: Philip E. Tetlock, Barbara A. Mellers and J. Peter Scoblic

Psychologists have documented widespread public deference to "sacred values" that communities, formally or informally, exempt from tradeoffs with secular limits, like money. This work has, however, been largely confined to low-stakes settings. As the stakes rise,... View Details

Keywords: Tradeoffs; Values and Beliefs; Civil Society or Community

Article

The Term Structure of the Risk-Return Tradeoff

By: John Y. Campbell and Luis M. Viceira

Sep 15 2023
Testimonial

Exploring the Tradeoff Between Risk and Return

June 2002
Article

R&D Accounting and the Tradeoff between Relevance and Objectivity

By: P. M. Healy

Keywords: Research and Development; Accounting

January 11, 2024
Article

Understanding the Tradeoffs of the Amazon Antitrust Case

By: Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Andrei Hagiu and Dionne Lomax

Regulators in the United States and Europe have been taking on Big Tech, challenging what they say are the companies’ anti-competitive and predatory strategies that harm consumers and third-party users of their platforms. This article examines the FTC’s case against... View Details

Keywords: Monopoly; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Market Design; Lawsuits and Litigation

24 Apr 2014
News

Teaching kids lessons in making choices and tradeoffs

Nan Morrison (MBA 1987) is CEO of the Council for Economic Education, based in New York City. In this video, conducted prior to the W50 celebration of women in the full-time MBA Program at HBS in 2013, she explains how her organization teaches school children lessons... View Details

May 2015
Conference Presentation

Coming Up to Speed: Tradeoffs between Contextual Specialization and Non-Specialization

By: Hise O. Gibson, Ryan W. Buell and Prithwiraj Choudhury

January 1998
Article

Tradeoffs within Costing Systems between Incentives and Measurement Objectives

By: M. Alles, S. Datar and M. Gupta

Keywords: System; Motivation and Incentives; Measurement and Metrics; Goals and Objectives

Spring 2016
Article

Net Neutrality: A Fast Lane to Understanding the Tradeoffs

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Peitz and Tommaso Valletti

The last decade has seen a strident public debate about the principle of "net neutrality." The economic literature has focused on two definitions of net neutrality. The most basic definition of net neutrality is to prohibit payments from content providers to internet... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Policy