Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
  • Academic Units
    • Academic Units
    • Accounting & Management
    • Business, Government & the International Economy
    • Entrepreneurial Management
    • Finance
    • General Management
    • Marketing
    • Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    • Organizational Behavior
    • Strategy
    • Technology & Operations Management
    →
  • Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    • Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    • Faculty
    • Curriculum
    • Seminars & Conferences
    • Awards & Honors
    • Doctoral Students
    →

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

  • Faculty
  • Curriculum
  • Seminars & Conferences
  • Awards & Honors
  • Doctoral Students
Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • 2025
    • Chapter

    Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

    By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson

    We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a short-term savings account from which withdrawals are possible at any time. We find that employees who opted into the program kept using it. Among employees whose accounts were created early enough to be observed over the first 12 months after their account activation and who did not separate from employment during this period, 96% still had a balance greater than £1 and 87% received an automatic payroll contribution in month 12. However, product take-up was very low: no more than 0.7% of eligible employees ever activated an account. Opt-in access to short-term savings programs does not elicit widespread participation.

    • 2025
    • Chapter

    Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

    By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson

    We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a short-term savings account from which withdrawals are possible at any time. We find...

    • May 2025
    • Article

    Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs

    By: Pedro Bordalo, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer

    How do people form beliefs about novel risks, with which they have little or no experience? Motivated by survey data on beliefs about Covid we collected in 2020, we build a model based on the psychology of selective memory. When a person thinks about an event, different experiences compete for retrieval, and retrieved experiences are used to simulate the event based on how similar they are to it. The model predicts that different experiences interfere with each other in recall and that non domain-specific experiences can bias beliefs based on their similarity to the assessed event. We test these predictions using data from our Covid survey and from a primed-recall experiment about cyberattack risk. In line with our theory of similarity-based retrieval and simulation, experiences and their measured similarity to the cued event help account for experience effects, priming effects, and the interaction of the two in shaping beliefs.

    • May 2025
    • Article

    Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs

    By: Pedro Bordalo, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer

    How do people form beliefs about novel risks, with which they have little or no experience? Motivated by survey data on beliefs about Covid we collected in 2020, we build a model based on the psychology of selective memory. When a person thinks about an event, different experiences compete for retrieval, and retrieved experiences are used to...

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    The Invention of Corporate Governance

    By: Yueran Ma and Andrei Shleifer

    The analysis of corporate governance begins with a central feature of modern capitalism—the separation of ownership and control in large corporations—first empirically documented by Berle and Means (1932). Such separation entails several agency problems reflecting conflicts between managers and shareholders, such as self-dealing by managers, low effort, consumption of perquisites, and excessive growth and diversification. Berle and Means saw self-dealing as the central agency problem and stressed the law as the fundamental mechanism of addressing it. Jensen and Meckling (1976) considered the consumption of perquisites and emphasized private mechanisms, such as financial incentives for managers, to counter wasteful perks. Jensen (1986) instead focused on excessive growth and diversification, which led him to count on leverage and takeovers. The combination of public corporate governance mechanisms, mostly the law, and market governance shaped both theory and practice.

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    The Invention of Corporate Governance

    By: Yueran Ma and Andrei Shleifer

    The analysis of corporate governance begins with a central feature of modern capitalism—the separation of ownership and control in large corporations—first empirically documented by Berle and Means (1932). Such separation entails several agency problems reflecting conflicts between managers and shareholders, such as self-dealing by managers, low...

About the Unit

The NOM Unit seeks to understand and improve the design and management of systems in which people make decisions: that is, design and management of negotiations, organizations, and markets. In addition, members of the group share an abiding interest in the micro foundations of these phenomena.

Our work is grounded in the power of strategic interaction to encourage individuals and organizations to create and sustain value (in negotiations, in organizations, and in markets). We explore these interactions through diverse approaches: Although many of us have training in economics, we also have members with backgrounds in social psychology, sociology, and law.

NOM seeks to apply rigorous scientific methods to real-world problems -- producing research and pedagogy that is compelling to both the academy and practitioners.

Recent Publications

Dungeons & Dragons: Repairing Ecosystem Trust (B)

By: Gabriel Rossman, Oliver Schilke and Julian Zlatev
  • May 2025 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Rossman, Gabriel, Oliver Schilke, and Julian Zlatev. "Dungeons & Dragons: Repairing Ecosystem Trust (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 925-034, May 2025.

Dungeons & Dragons: Repairing Ecosystem Trust (A) and (B)

By: Gabriel Rossman, Oliver Schilke and Julian Zlatev
  • May 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Related
Rossman, Gabriel, Oliver Schilke, and Julian Zlatev. "Dungeons & Dragons: Repairing Ecosystem Trust (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 925-035, May 2025.

Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson
  • 2025 |
  • Chapter |
  • Faculty Research
We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a short-term savings account from which withdrawals are possible at any time. We find that employees who opted into the program kept using it. Among employees whose accounts were created early enough to be observed over the first 12 months after their account activation and who did not separate from employment during this period, 96% still had a balance greater than £1 and 87% received an automatic payroll contribution in month 12. However, product take-up was very low: no more than 0.7% of eligible employees ever activated an account. Opt-in access to short-term savings programs does not elicit widespread participation.
Keywords: Personal Finance; Compensation and Benefits; Well-being; Behavior; Investment Funds; Employees; United Kingdom
Citation
Read Now
Related
Berk, Sarah Holmes, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi, and David Laibson. "Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts." Chap. 21 in The Elgar Companion to Consumer Behaviour and the Sustainable Development Goals, edited by Lucia A. Reisch and Cass R. Sunstein, 359–386. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.

Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs

By: Pedro Bordalo, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
  • May 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Review of Economic Studies
How do people form beliefs about novel risks, with which they have little or no experience? Motivated by survey data on beliefs about Covid we collected in 2020, we build a model based on the psychology of selective memory. When a person thinks about an event, different experiences compete for retrieval, and retrieved experiences are used to simulate the event based on how similar they are to it. The model predicts that different experiences interfere with each other in recall and that non domain-specific experiences can bias beliefs based on their similarity to the assessed event. We test these predictions using data from our Covid survey and from a primed-recall experiment about cyberattack risk. In line with our theory of similarity-based retrieval and simulation, experiences and their measured similarity to the cued event help account for experience effects, priming effects, and the interaction of the two in shaping beliefs.
Keywords: Expectations; Memory; COVID-19 Pandemic; Risk and Uncertainty; Cognition and Thinking
Citation
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Bordalo, Pedro, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. "Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs." Review of Economic Studies 92, no. 3 (May 2025): 1532–1563.

The Invention of Corporate Governance

By: Yueran Ma and Andrei Shleifer
  • 2025 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
The analysis of corporate governance begins with a central feature of modern capitalism—the separation of ownership and control in large corporations—first empirically documented by Berle and Means (1932). Such separation entails several agency problems reflecting conflicts between managers and shareholders, such as self-dealing by managers, low effort, consumption of perquisites, and excessive growth and diversification. Berle and Means saw self-dealing as the central agency problem and stressed the law as the fundamental mechanism of addressing it. Jensen and Meckling (1976) considered the consumption of perquisites and emphasized private mechanisms, such as financial incentives for managers, to counter wasteful perks. Jensen (1986) instead focused on excessive growth and diversification, which led him to count on leverage and takeovers. The combination of public corporate governance mechanisms, mostly the law, and market governance shaped both theory and practice.
Keywords: Corporate Governance; Law; Business and Shareholder Relations
Citation
Find at Harvard
Register to Read
Related
Ma, Yueran, and Andrei Shleifer. "The Invention of Corporate Governance." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 33710, April 2025.

Gender and Preferences for Performance Feedback

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and David Klinowski
  • April 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Management Science
Across multiple studies, we investigate whether there are gender differences in preferences for receiving performance feedback. We vary many features of the feedback context: whether the performance task is a cognitive test or a mock interview, whether the feedback is objective or subjective, and whether it is possible for the provider of the feedback to discriminate on the basis of gender. Consistent with past work, we find that women are less optimistic about their performance than men, and that, on average, more optimistic individuals have greater demand for feedback. Results like these have been hypothesized in the literature to imply that women will shy away from performance feedback more so than men. And, when we survey participants from a similar population, they also anticipate that women will demand feedback at lower rates than men. Yet, across our two incentivized studies, we find that women are no less eager to receive performance feedback than men. Understanding whether and how these results might generalize to broader contexts, particularly those with more social factors, is an important question for future work.
Keywords: Feedback; Gender; Cognition and Thinking; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior
Citation
Find at Harvard
Purchase
Related
Coffman, Katherine Baldiga, and David Klinowski. "Gender and Preferences for Performance Feedback." Management Science 71, no. 4 (April 2025): 3497–3516.

Buying (Quality) Time Predicts Relationship Satisfaction

By: A.V. Whillans, Jessie Pow and Joe J. Gladstone
  • April 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Seven studies examine the association between time-saving purchases (e.g., housecleaning and meal delivery services) and relationship satisfaction. Study 1 uses an eleven-year longitudinal panel survey to show that increases in time-saving purchases predict long-term increases in relationship satisfaction. Study 2 replicates these findings with a six-week daily diary study, demonstrating that time-saving purchases predict daily increases in relationship satisfaction particularly for members of dual-income couples who are experiencing higher levels of stress. Studies 3 through 4b reveal that time-saving purchases are most beneficial when couples translate this influx of temporal resources into quality time spent together. Study 5 identifies two key aspects of quality time—positive mood when together and perceived support—that uniquely predict relationship satisfaction. Study 6, a pre-registered study, provides comprehensive evidence for our conceptual model: Members of committed relationships who make time-saving purchases more effectively manage daily stressors (i.e. household chores) and spend more quality time together which predicts increased relationship satisfaction. Once again, these benefits are strongest for individuals experiencing higher levels of stress. These findings develop a nuanced framework connecting time-saving purchases to relationship satisfaction.
Keywords: Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Satisfaction; Well-being
Citation
Find at Harvard
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Whillans, A.V., Jessie Pow, and Joe J. Gladstone. "Buying (Quality) Time Predicts Relationship Satisfaction." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 128, no. 4 (April 2025): 821–863.

Bidding for the Bunker: Crown Wine Cellars’ Complex Negotiations

By: Alex Chan and Rachel Lau
  • March 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Educators
Related
Chan, Alex, and Rachel Lau. "Bidding for the Bunker: Crown Wine Cellars’ Complex Negotiations." Harvard Business School Case 925-030, March 2025.
More Publications

In the News

    • 19 May 2025
    • KMOV

    Is Talking Too Much a Thing?

    Re: Alison Wood Brooks
    • 09 May 2025
    • New York Times

    25 Questions to Bring You Closer to Your Mom

    Re: Alison Wood Brooks
    • 07 May 2025
    • Harvard Gazette

    Pompeo Warns Against u.s. Pulling Back from Global Leadership Role

    Re: jsebenius@phdbe1980.hbs.edu
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 17 Oct 2024

    The Reputation Risks of Sharing Fake News

    Re: Jillian J. Jordan
    • 15 Oct 2024

    We Have Better Ways to Break Habits Than Willpower. Why Don't We Use Them?

    Re: Julian J. Zlatev
    • 04 Oct 2024

    Research-Based Advice for the Seasonally Overwhelmed and Schedule Challenged

    by Rachel Layne
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • December 10, 2021
    • Article

    Go Ahead and Ask for More Time on That Deadline

    By: A.V. Whillans and A.V. Whillans
    • January 2025
    • Case

    Negotiating with Data: Analytics FC (A)

    By: Jillian Jordan and Livia Alfonsi
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

There are no upcoming events.

→More Seminars & Conferences

Faculty Positions

Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
→Learn More

Contact Information

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit
Harvard Business School
Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
NOM@hbs.edu

ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.