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All HBS Web
(1,583)
- Faculty Publications (134)
- May 28, 2018
- Article
How Companies Can Identify Racial and Gender Bias in Their Customer Service
By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim
Research shows that minority customers — blacks and Asians — regularly receive worse customer service than whites in ways that are not immediately obvious to onlookers (or even managers). These results prompt a couple of questions for executives and managers. One, does...
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Keywords:
Internal Audit;
Customers;
Service Delivery;
Prejudice and Bias;
Race;
Gender;
Organizational Change and Adaptation
Feldberg, Alexandra C., and Tami Kim. "How Companies Can Identify Racial and Gender Bias in Their Customer Service." Harvard Business Review (website) (May 28, 2018).
- Article
Performance Effects of Setting a High Reference Point for Peer‐Performance Comparison
By: Henry Eyring and V.G. Narayanan
We conduct a field experiment, based on a registered report accepted by the Journal of Accounting Research, to test performance effects of setting a high reference point for peer‐performance comparison. Relative to providing the median as a reference point for...
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Keywords:
Relative Performance Evaluation;
Reference Points;
Social Comparison;
Field Experiment;
Performance;
Performance Evaluation;
Education
Eyring, Henry, and V.G. Narayanan. "Performance Effects of Setting a High Reference Point for Peer‐Performance Comparison." Journal of Accounting Research 56, no. 2 (May 2018): 581–615.
- February 2018
- Article
Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective.
By: Eva Ascarza
Companies in a variety of sectors are increasingly managing customer churn proactively, generally by detecting customers at the highest risk of churning and targeting retention efforts towards them. While there is a vast literature on developing churn prediction models...
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Keywords:
Retention/churn;
Proactive Churn Management;
Field Experiments;
Heterogeneous Treatment Effect;
Machine Learning;
Customer Relationship Management;
Risk Management
Ascarza, Eva. "Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might Be Ineffective." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 55, no. 1 (February 2018): 80–98.
- Article
TDABC Cost Analysis of Ocular Disorders in an Ophthalmology Emergency Department versus Urgent Care: Clinical Experience at Massachusetts Eye and Ear
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Jonathan Chou, Mahek Shah, Amy Watts, Matthew Gardiner, Joan Miller and John I. Lowenstein
Purpose
To perform a cost analysis comparison for managing common ocular disorders in an eye emergency department (ED) versus an urgent care setting using a time-driven activity-based cost model (TDABC) to assist physicians and staff in appropriate allocation of...
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Keywords:
Time-driven Activity-based Cost Model;
Emergency Room;
Urgent Care Clinic;
Cost;
Analysis;
Activity Based Costing and Management;
Health Care and Treatment
Kaplan, Robert S., Jonathan Chou, Mahek Shah, Amy Watts, Matthew Gardiner, Joan Miller, and John I. Lowenstein. "TDABC Cost Analysis of Ocular Disorders in an Ophthalmology Emergency Department versus Urgent Care: Clinical Experience at Massachusetts Eye and Ear." Journal of Academic Ophthalmology 10 (2018).
- 2020
- Working Paper
Sex Selection and the Indian Marriage Market
I consider the widespread phenomenon of sex ratios skewed by parental preference. Edlund (1999) proposes that if parents prefer sons and permit only women to marry up in social class, sexes will segregate by wealth in equilibrium. Using data on 30,000 Indian children,...
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Keywords:
Sex Selection;
Marriage Market;
Bargaining Power;
Gender;
Information Technology;
Household;
Outcome or Result;
India
Hussam, Reshmaan N. "Sex Selection and the Indian Marriage Market." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-029, September 2017. (Revised October 2020.)
- Article
Your Sales Training Is Probably Lackluster. Here's How to Fix It
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Yuchun Lee
U.S. companies spend over $70 billion annually on training and an average of $1,459 per salesperson—almost 20% more than they spend on workers in all other functions. Yet, when it comes to equipping sales teams with relevant knowledge and skills, the ROI of sales...
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Cespedes, Frank V., and Yuchun Lee. "Your Sales Training Is Probably Lackluster. Here's How to Fix It." Harvard Business Review (website) (June 12, 2017).
- May 2017
- Teaching Note
Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number...
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- 2017
- Working Paper
Lessons Unlearned? Corporate Debt in Emerging Markets
By: Laura Alfaro, Gonzalo Asis, Anusha Chari and Ugo Panizza
This paper documents a set of new stylized facts about leverage and financial fragility for emerging market firms following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Corporate debt vulnerability indicators during the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) attributed to corporate...
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Keywords:
Corporate Debt;
Financial Fragility;
Firm-level Data;
Large Firms;
Emerging Markets;
Borrowing and Debt;
Corporate Finance;
Financial Condition
Alfaro, Laura, Gonzalo Asis, Anusha Chari, and Ugo Panizza. "Lessons Unlearned? Corporate Debt in Emerging Markets." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-097, May 2017. (Revised October 2017. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 23407, May 2017)
- 2018
- Working Paper
How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections
By: Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel
Many production processes are subject to inspection to ensure they meet quality, safety, and environmental standards imposed by companies and regulators. Inspection accuracy is critical to inspections being a useful input to assessing risks, allocating quality...
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Keywords:
Assessment;
Bias;
Inspection;
Scheduling;
Econometric Analysis;
Empirical Research;
Regulation;
Health;
Food;
Safety;
Quality;
Performance Consistency;
Performance Evaluation;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Service Industry
Ibanez, Maria, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-090, April 2017. (Revised October 2018. Formerly titled "Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling". Featured in Forbes, Food Safety Magazine, and Food Safety News.)
- 2017
- Chapter
Empirical Evidence on the Behavior and Impact of Patent Trolls: A Survey
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers
We survey the empirical literature on non-practicing entity (NPE) litigation behavior and its consequences. We document both aggregate trends and cross-sectional differences amongst various types of NPEs. Survey evidence illustrates a number of ways in which NPEs can...
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Keywords:
Patent Trolls;
NPEs;
PAEs;
Innovation;
Patents;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Innovation and Invention
Cohen, Lauren, Umit Gurun, and Scott Duke Kominers. "Empirical Evidence on the Behavior and Impact of Patent Trolls: A Survey." In Patent Assertion Entities and Competition Policy, edited by D. Daniel Sokol. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- November, 2016
- Article
Fixing Discrimination in Online Marketplaces
By: Ray Fisman and Michael Luca
Online marketplaces such as eBay, Uber, and Airbnb have the potential to reduce racial, gender, and other forms of bias that affect the off-line world. And in the early days of Internet commerce, the relative anonymity of transactions did make it harder for...
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Fisman, Ray, and Michael Luca. "Fixing Discrimination in Online Marketplaces." Harvard Business Review 94, no. 12 (November, 2016): 88–95.
- September 2016
- Case
Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade
Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number...
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Lietz, Nori Gerardo, and Ricardo Andrade. "Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Harvard Business School Case 217-035, September 2016.
- September 2016
- Case
Hewlett Packard Enterprise: The Dandelion Program
By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin
This case describes Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s “Dandelion Program," which has developed a new service offering for the company’s clients by drawing on the special talents of people with autism. The company has deployed “pods” organized around 8 or 9 employees with...
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Keywords:
Organizational Behavior;
Information Technology;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Leadership;
Talent and Talent Management;
Service Operations;
Training;
Diversity;
Innovation and Invention;
Technology Industry
Pisano, Gary P., and Robert D. Austin. "Hewlett Packard Enterprise: The Dandelion Program." Harvard Business School Case 617-016, September 2016.
- 2017
- Working Paper
Management as a Technology?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
Are some management practices akin to a technology that can explain firm and national productivity, or do they simply reflect contingent management styles? We collect data on core management practices from over 11,000 firms in 34 countries. We find large cross-country...
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Keywords:
Management Practices;
Productivity;
Competition;
Management Practices and Processes;
Performance Productivity
Bloom, Nicholas, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen. "Management as a Technology?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-133, June 2016. (Revised October 2017.)
- June 2016
- Article
Vaccination Rates Are Associated with Functional Proximity but Not Base Proximity of Vaccination Clinics
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Gwendolyn I. Reynolds
Background: Routine annual influenza vaccinations are recommended for persons 6 months of age and older, but less than half of U.S. adults get vaccinated. Many employers offer employees free influenza vaccinations at workplace clinics, but even then take-up is...
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Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Gwendolyn I. Reynolds. "Vaccination Rates Are Associated with Functional Proximity but Not Base Proximity of Vaccination Clinics." Medical Care 54, no. 6 (June 2016): 578–583.
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance
This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the...
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Keywords:
Customer Compatibility;
Satisfaction;
Profitability;
Customer Relationship Management;
Service Operations;
Customer Satisfaction;
Banking Industry;
Retail Industry
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-091, February 2016. (Revised December 2019.)
- November 2, 2015
- Article
The Best Ways to Hire Salespeople
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Daniel Weinfurter
Companies typically spend more on hiring in sales than they do anywhere else in the firm. Average annual turnover in sales is 25% to 30%, while direct replacement costs for a telesales employee ranges from $75,000 to $90,000 and other sales positions cost as much as...
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Cespedes, Frank V., and Daniel Weinfurter. "The Best Ways to Hire Salespeople." Harvard Business Review (website) (November 2, 2015).
- October 2015
- Article
The Value of Bosses
By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton
How and by how much do supervisors enhance worker productivity? Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality...
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Lazear, Edward P., Kathryn L. Shaw, and Christopher Stanton. "The Value of Bosses." Journal of Labor Economics 33, no. 4 (October 2015): 823–861.
- 2015
- Report
The Challenge of Shared Prosperity: Findings of Harvard Business School's 2015 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness
In the 2015 survey on U.S. competitiveness, HBS alumni weigh in on the current state and future trajectory of U.S. competitiveness as well as the structural strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. business environment. In addition, alumni delve deeper into two aspects of...
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Keywords:
Competitiveness;
U.S. Competitiveness;
Shared Prosperity;
Wealth;
Competition;
United States
Rivkin, Jan, Karen G. Mills, and Michael E. Porter. "The Challenge of Shared Prosperity: Findings of Harvard Business School's 2015 Survey on U.S. Competitiveness." Report, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, September 2015 (With contributions from Michael I. Norton and Mitchell B. Weiss.)
- 2014
- Article
Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity
By: Jooa Julia Lee, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats
People believe that weather conditions influence their everyday work life, but to date, little is known about how weather affects individual productivity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we predict and find that bad weather increases individual productivity and that...
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Keywords:
Productivity;
Opportunity Cost;
Distractions;
Weather;
Performance Productivity;
Cognition and Thinking
Lee, Jooa Julia, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats. "Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity." Journal of Applied Psychology 99, no. 3 (May 2014): 504–513.