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- Faculty Publications (45)
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- July 2022
- Article
When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals
By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
From Catholics performing the sign of the cross since the 4th century to Americans reciting the Pledge of Allegiance since the 1890s, group rituals (i.e., predefined sequences of symbolic actions) have strikingly consistent features over time. Seven studies (N = 4,213)...
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Keywords:
Ritual;
Morality;
Groups;
Norms;
Commitment;
Groups and Teams;
Values and Beliefs;
Change;
Moral Sensibility;
Behavior
- April 2022
- Article
Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others
By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton
Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort....
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- 2021
- Working Paper
The Business of K-12 Education in China
By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu
This working paper examines the evolution of K-12 education in China, especially between 1985 and the present day, drawing extensive interviews with participants in the educational sector. China has been hugely successful in reaching almost 100 percent literacy,...
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- October 2021
- Article
Board Design and Governance Failures at Peer Firms
By: Shelby Gai, J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Andy Wu
Our study introduces board committees as a crucial determinant of board actions. We examine how directors who structurally link different board committees—referred to as multi-committee directors (MCDs)—explain why some board actions are merely symbolic while others...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Expanding the Entrepreneurial Cultural Toolkit: The Temporal Interplay of the Substantive and the Symbolic
By: Rebecca Karp and Siobhan O'Mahony
Much research shows how entrepreneurs leverage symbolic toolkits via storytelling and narratives to convince resource providers of their venture’s legitimacy. Although investors’ legitimacy concerns may be initially met with symbolic actions, it is unclear whether...
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- 2021
- Book
The Four Elements: Finding Right Livelihood in the 21st Century
By: Timothy Butler
This is a book for all who are facing career and life transitions. At such junctures, our decisions require the full self, and astute thinking alone will not carry us into the new place that our lives demand. The Four Elements shares the recent research of Dr....
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- March 29, 2021
- Editorial
Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost
By: Shibeal O'Flaherty, Michael Sanders and Ashley V. Whillans
As organizations large and small face the twin challenges of increasingly strained budgets and burned out workforces, what can managers do to keep employees engaged—without breaking the bank? In this piece, the authors share new research on the power of symbolic awards...
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- February 2021
- Case
The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations
By: Mihir Desai, Ruth Page, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan
How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government...
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Keywords:
Costs And Consequences;
Decisions;
Judgment And Decision-making;
Lawsuit;
Leading Change;
Conflict Resolution;
Perspective Taking;
Prejudice;
Bias;
Reparations;
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Cost vs Benefits;
Judgments;
Race;
Ethics;
Fairness;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Conflict Management;
Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Policy;
Government and Politics;
Government Legislation;
History;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Legal Liability;
Mission and Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Motivation and Incentives;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Oklahoma;
Tulsa;
United States
- December 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Supplement
The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations
By: Mihir A. Desai and Suzanne Antoniou
How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government...
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Keywords:
Cost vs Benefits;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Judgments;
Race;
Fairness;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Policy;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Government Legislation;
Government and Politics;
Government Administration;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Legal Liability;
Leading Change;
Mission and Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Conflict and Resolution;
Conflict Management;
Loss;
Motivation and Incentives;
Perspective;
Prejudice and Bias;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Welfare;
Tulsa;
Oklahoma;
United States
- December 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Teaching Note
The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations
By: Mihir A. Desai and Suzanne Antoniou
How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government...
View Details
Keywords:
Cost vs Benefits;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Judgments;
Race;
Fairness;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Policy;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Government Legislation;
Government and Politics;
Government Administration;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Legal Liability;
Leading Change;
Mission and Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Conflict and Resolution;
Conflict Management;
Loss;
Motivation and Incentives;
Perspective;
Prejudice and Bias;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Welfare;
Tulsa;
Oklahoma;
United States
- October 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations
By: Mihir A. Desai, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan
How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government...
View Details
Keywords:
Cost vs Benefits;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Judgments;
Race;
Fairness;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Policy;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Government Legislation;
Government and Politics;
Government Administration;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Legal Liability;
Leading Change;
Mission and Purpose;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Conflict and Resolution;
Conflict Management;
Loss;
Motivation and Incentives;
Perspective;
Prejudice and Bias;
Civil Society or Community;
Social Issues;
Tulsa;
Oklahoma;
United States
- 2020
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 6 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 1: Mapping Functional Relationships
Organizations are formed in a free economy because an individual or group perceives value in carrying out a technical recipe that is beyond the capacity of a single person. Technology specifies what must be done, what resources must be assembled, what actions taken in...
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- August 22, 2019
- Article
CEOs Say Their Aim Is Inclusive Prosperity. Do They Mean It?
By: Lynn S. Paine
Earlier this week, the Business Roundtable issued a statement on corporate purpose. It is noteworthy both for its endorsement of inclusive prosperity as an ideal and for its rejection of maximizing shareholder returns as the sole corporate objective. However, the real...
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- Article
People Make It So Hard to Ditch Plastic Straws
Rarely has a minor consumer product received more vilification than the plastic straw. As a symbol of human wastefulness and our careless disregard for the environment, straws are the near-perfect villain. You use a plastic straw once and toss it, but it stays with us...
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- April 2019
- Article
Rituals and Nuptials: The Emotional and Relational Consequences of Relationship Rituals
By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Ovul Sezer and Michael I. Norton
Four studies reveal the benefits of relationship rituals: couples with relationship rituals report more positive emotions and greater relationship satisfaction and commitment than those without them. We show that rituals are crucial for understanding consumption...
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Keywords:
Rituals;
Relationship Satisfaction;
Relationships;
Satisfaction;
Spending;
Behavior;
Perception;
Emotions
- December 2018
- Case
Corporate Transformation at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Tonia Labruyere
When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and chairman of the executive board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The...
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- July–August 2018
- Article
How CEOs Manage Time
By: Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria
In 2006 Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking how large companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13 weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusing on. To date, Porter and Nohria have...
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- June 2017
- Case
Magellan Boatworks
By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley
Magellan Boatworks is a midsize manufacturer of customized, power "cruising yachts." In the face of economic and political uncertainty in late 2016, Magellan's VP of sales and marketing, Walt Robinson, wonders whether he should request a budget increase for 2017....
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- December 2016
- Article
Selective Regulator Decoupling and Organizations' Strategic Responses
By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers
Organizations often respond to institutional pressures by symbolically adopting policies and procedures but decoupling them from actual practice. Literature has examined why organizations decouple from regulatory pressures. In this study, we argue that decoupling...
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- Article
Don't Stop Believing: Rituals Improve Performance by Decreasing Anxiety
By: Alison Wood Brooks, Julianna Schroeder, Jane Risen, Francesca Gino, Adam D. Galinsky, Michael I. Norton and Maurice Schweitzer
From public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people...
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