A Market for Human Cadavers in All but Name?
| Published: | November 5, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
A shortage of cadavers has hampered medical education and training, a market that entrepreneurs are stepping forward to address. HBS professor Michel Anteby argues that scholars must learn more about the market dynamics of this uncomfortable subject in order to inform political debate.
Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior
| Authors: | Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 10, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | August 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Helping others takes countless forms and springs from countless motivations, from deep-rooted empathy to a more calculated desire for public recognition. Social scientists have identified a host of ways in which charitable behavior can lead to benefits for the giver, whether economically via tax breaks, socially via signaling one's wealth or status, or psychologically via experiencing well-being from helping. Charitable organizations have traditionally capitalized on all of these motivations for giving, with a recently emerging focus on highlighting the mood benefits of giving—the feelings of empowerment, joy, and inspiration that giving engenders. Indeed, if giving feels good, why not advertise the benefits of "self-interested giving," allowing people to experience that good feeling while increasing contributions to charity at the same time? HBS doctoral candidate Lalin Anik, Professor Michael I. Norton, and coauthors explore whether organizations that seek to increase charitable giving by advertising the benefits of giving are making claims supported by empirical research and, most importantly, whether such claims actually increase donations.
Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment?
| Published: | September 3, 2009 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 42 Comments posted |
There is a time and place for retention bonuses but they should be used sparingly, wrote many respondents to this month's column, says Professor Jim Heskett. Others challenged the value of bonuses, and suggested compelling alternatives. (Online forum now closed; next forum begins October 2.)
Informed and Interconnected: A Manifesto for Smarter Cities
| Authors: | Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Stanley S. Litow |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 23, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | June 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
To make our cities and communities smarter, we must become a little smarter ourselves, seeking information and an agenda to forge connections enabling collaboration, according to HBS professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter and IBM's Stanley S. Litow. Their vision is that someday soon, leaders will combine technological capabilities and social innovation to help produce a smarter world. That world will be seen on the ground in smarter cities composed of smarter communities that support the well-being of all citizens. This paper outlines eight challenges facing cities and the communities they encompass, based on experience in the United States. Kanter and Litow provide examples of practices and programs led by both government and nonprofit organizations, many technology-enabled, that point the way to solutions, and they conclude with a call for leaders to embrace an agenda for change.
Business Summit: Ethics in Globalization
| Published: | July 17, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | HBS Business Summit |
It is impossible to regulate against greed and ethical shortcomings. What can be done is to force greater transparency and accountability.
Business Summit: Lawrence Summers on Market Capitalism's Historic Opportunity
| Published: | June 12, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | HBS Business Summit |
Confronting today's economic challenges represents an historic opportunity to save capitalism from itself, and in doing so, to create more prosperity and improve the lives of more people, says Lawrence Summers.
It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money…No, Really, It's Okay
| Authors: | Robert D. Austin and Lee Devin |
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| Published: | June 3, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | May 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
When art and commerce are mentioned in the same sentence, many people become bad tempered or think something needs fixing. This paper argues that more artists ought to make more money more often. HBS professor Robert Austin and theater dramaturg Lee Devin identify and undermine three fallacies about art and commerce, and suggest that it is necessary to carry on a more careful and less emotional conversation about the tensions between art and business and to overcome a general aversion to business common among artists and their patrons. They also stress the need to develop better theories about how art and commerce can achieve integration helpful to both.
Why Sweatshops Flourish
| Published: | March 23, 2009 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Everyone agrees it is wrong to buy things made with sweatshop labor. Yet many of us are willing to justify our decision when a product—a pair of jeans, for example—is something we really want. HBS doctoral student Neeru Paharia and Professor Rohit Deshpandé study the dark side of buying behavior. Their good news: We can influence change for the better.
Credit is Not the Bogey
| Published: | March 4, 2009 |
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| Feature: | Op-Ed |
"As we attempt to jump-start the economy of 2009, we should recognize both the risks and the advantages inherent in a robust credit industry," write HBS lecturer Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric S. Belsky. The director and executive director, respectively, of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, they offer a prescription for making credit neither too easy nor too hard to get.
Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting
| Authors: | Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino, and Max H. Bazerman |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 19, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | January 2009, revised April 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Why do people engage in unethical behavior repeatedly over time? In Everybody Does It! (1994), Thomas Gabor documents the pervasive immorality of ordinary people. Challenging the stereotype that only criminals violate the law, Gabor describes the numerous transgressions of everyday life and suggests that the excuses people make for their dishonest behavior parallel the justifications criminals make for their crimes. This common tendency of people to justify and distance themselves from their unethical behavior has captured the attention of several psychologists, and a long stream of research has documented differences in the way people think about their own ethical behavior and that of others. Harvard Business School's Lisa Shu and Max Bazerman, with colleague Francesca Gino, show that seemingly innocuous aspects of the environment can promote the decision to act ethically or unethically.
Published in 2008
Can Housing and Credit be "Nudged" Back to Health?
| Published: | December 3, 2008 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 38 Comments posted |
Did human frailty cause this crisis? Several thinkers have come forward with a suggestion for improvements to fiscal policy that are based on fostering better decisions while preserving consumer choice, says HBS professor Jim Heskett. What should be done? What do you think? (Online forum now closed. Next forum begins January 7.)
HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina
| Q&A with: | Stacey M. Childress |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 14, 2008 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The New Orleans public school system, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is now getting a boost from charter schools—today about half of the city's 80 schools are charter schools, says HBS lecturer and senior researcher Stacey M. Childress. She explains what New Orleans represents for entrepreneurial opportunities in U.S. public education.
Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron
| Q&A with: | Malcolm S. Salter |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 7, 2008 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The train wreck that was Enron provides key insights for improving corporate governance and financial incentives as well as organizational processes that strengthen ethical discipline, says HBS professor emeritus Malcolm S. Salter. His new book, Innovation Corrupted: The Origins and Legacy of Enron's Collapse, is a deep reflection on the present and future of business.
Using Financial Innovation to Support Savers: From Coercion to Excitement
| Authors: | Peter Tufano and Daniel Schneider |
|---|---|
| Published: | June 23, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | April 2008 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
This paper acknowledges the wide range of solutions to the problem of low family savings. Families, and of particular interest to the authors, low-income families, save for a wide variety of purposes, including identifiable reasons such as education and retirement and others that are more broad, like rainy days or emergencies. Given societal pressures to consume, and given the diversity among people, it is unlikely that there is a single solution to the savings problem. Yet a number of programs described by Tufano and Schneider have great promise in supporting household savings. Tufano and Schneider discuss each program from the perspectives of would-be savers as well as from that of other key stakeholders.
Innovative Ways to Encourage Personal Savings
| Q&A with: | Peter Tufano |
|---|---|
| Published: | June 23, 2008 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Saving money doesn't need to be so difficult. According to HBS professor Peter Tufano, "The most interesting ideas—indeed the oldest—try to make savings a fun or satisfying experience." As Tufano describes in this Q&A, different solutions appeal to different people. Here's what government policy, the private sector, and nonprofits can do.
No Harm, No Foul: The Outcome Bias in Ethical Judgments
| Authors: | Francesca Gino, Don A. Moore, and Max H. Bazerman |
|---|---|
| Published: | April 1, 2008 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2008 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Too often, workers are evaluated based on results rather than on the quality of the decision. Given that most consequential business decisions involve some uncertainty, the upshot is that organizations wind up rewarding luck rather than wisdom. From a rational decision-making perspective, people's decisions should be evaluated based on the information the decision maker had available to him or her at the time, and not based on the ultimate results. This paper tests predictions about this effect, known as the outcome bias, in two studies in which participants were asked to consider various ethically questionable behaviors. Participants were also given information about the outcome of such behaviors and were asked to rate the ethicality of the described actions with or without the outcome information. The findings extend prior research in psychology and ethics.
A House Divided: Investment or Shelter?
| Published: | January 23, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Op-Ed |
For decades Americans viewed their homes as a safe harbor, a place to put down roots. But the last decade saw the rise of housing as an investment opportunity. What comes next? asks Harvard Business School professor Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Published in 2007
HBS Cases: One Laptop per Child
| Q&A with: | John A. Quelch |
|---|---|
| Published: | December 10, 2007 |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
The One Laptop per Child initiative wants to develop and distribute $100 laptops to poor children around the world. Despite eager observers and exciting breakthroughs technologically, it has found the path to customers more rocky than anticipated. Marketing has some answers, as a new case study details. Q&A with HBS professor John Quelch.
Teaching The Moral Leader
| Q&A with: | Sandra J. Sucher |
|---|---|
| Published: | November 19, 2007 |
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
In The Moral Leader course at Harvard Business School, students exchange their business management case studies to discuss some of the great protagonists in literature. Professor Sandra Sucher discusses how we all can find our own definition of moral leadership.
HBS Cases: Climate Change Puts Heat on GMs
| Published: | October 31, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Lessons from the Classroom |
Ready or not, companies are being swept up in the increasing public debate over global climate change. How should firms respond? A case study exploring how financial service giant UBS thinks through the issues has students coming down on different sides.
