India
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- 18 Jul 2018
- Research & Ideas
No More General Tso's? A Threat to 'Knowledge Recombination'
Immigrants bring with them innovations from their homelands, knowledge that local inventors often build upon, says Prithwiraj Choudhury. Examples: turmeric medicine, double-entry bookkeeping, and American Chinese food. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 16 May 2018
- Research & Ideas
How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps
Foreign businesses located in at-war countries are often victims of expropriation. Historian Valeria Giacomin explores how German businesses in the United Kingdom and India mitigated risk and even benefitted when their employees were placed in internment camps during the World Wars. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 24 Jan 2018
- Research & Ideas
How to Get People Addicted to a Good Habit
Reshmaan Hussam and colleagues used experimental interventions to determine if people could be persuaded to develop a healthy habit. Potentially at stake: the lives of more than a million children. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 09 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Habit Formation and Rational Addiction: A Field Experiment in Handwashing
This study in rural West Bengal considers the role of habituation in an essential but unpopular preventive health behavior: handwashing with soap. The study finds that frontloading both financial and social incentives facilitates habituation, and agents internalize this habitual nature. Findings help guide the design of optimal incentives to increase the adoption of positive habits.
- 09 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Marry Rich, Poor Girl: Investigating the Effects of Sex Selection on Intrahousehold Outcomes in India
This study examines the unintended consequences in India of sex selection technology on the marriage market and the bargaining power of surviving women. It finds women in regions exposed to ultrasound face poorer matches and outcomes in marriage.
- 20 Jun 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Conversational Peers and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment
To develop a theory of innovator capability, this study extends existing research linking personality and creativity to take into account the social nature of idea generation. Using data from an experiment embedded in a bootcamp for aspiring entrepreneurs, results show that better ideas are generated by “open” innovators exposed to extroverted peers. Extroverts provide more raw information that innovators high in openness are best able to recombine into novel ideas.
- 19 Jun 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning to Manage: A Field Experiment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem
This study of 100 high-growth startups in India finds that founder-executives can learn how to improve their management style from their peers at other firms. These interfirm network connections between founders may help explain why some companies are well managed and others less so. Despite the apparent value of this peer learning, founders don’t appear to naturally connect with peers who could help them improve their management style.
- 01 Jun 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
Building India’s First $100 Billion Company
Startups welcome growth but are often strangled by it. In this podcast, Sunil Gupta discusses how entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma is meeting this challenge with his mobile payments company Paytm. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Feb 2017
- Research & Ideas
Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets
Reputation and resilience are key ingredients that determine whether companies will survive tumultuous markets, according to a new paper by Geoffrey Jones, Tarun Khanna, Cheng Gao, and Tiona Zuzul. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 14 Feb 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Capturing Value from IP in a Global Environment
Challenges to capturing value from know-how and reputation through the use of different IP tools is an increasingly important matter of strategy for global enterprises. They will need to combine different institutional, market, and non-market mechanisms, but the precise combination of tools will depend on local and regional institutional and market conditions.
- 25 Jan 2017
- HBS Case
How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?
Skin-lightening creams are a fast-growing market in India. Rohit Deshpandé explores what firms should do when a product is decidedly popular—but may be promoting discrimination. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 17 Nov 2016
- Cold Call Podcast
Building Affordable Health Care in Paradise
By some accounts, only about 5 percent of people worldwide receive cardiac treatment they need to survive. Professor Tarun Khanna highlights the need for affordable health care at scale, and a possible model based on factory-like repetition and learning in the Cayman Islands. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 21 Sep 2016
- Research & Ideas
Shabana Azmi: Leveraging Bollywood Fame into Social Good
Indian screen star Shabana Azmi talks to Rohit Deshpandé about how she leverages movie fame into social activism. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 08 Dec 2015
- Research Event
Research Trends Discussed at India and South Asia Conference
Harvard Business School recently brought together scholars to discuss the business history and current research trends in India and South Asia. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 28 Oct 2015
- Research & Ideas
A Dedication to Creation: India's Ad Man Ranjan Kapur
How do you build a brand amid the uncertainties and opportunities of a developing market? Harvard Business School Professor Sunil Gupta shares lessons learned from Ranjan Kapur, an iconic figure in the Indian advertising industry. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 28 Sep 2015
- Research & Ideas
Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries
Improving access to financial services for the poor in developing countries seems an unmet market need. So why are so many mobile money efforts failing? Rajiv Lal says the problem begins with Marketing 101. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 07 Aug 2015
- Research & Ideas
Obama’s Clean Power Plan: Can Nuclear Power Beat the Global Threat of Coal?
Joe Lassiter believes the smart use of nuclear power is an essential ingredient in fighting the worldwide threat of coal-fired power plant emissions. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.
- 06 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best
Bonus programs are effective for motivating sales people, but also costly for companies to maintain. Doug Chung and Das Narayandas study several compensation schemes to see which work best. Open for comment; 11 Comment(s) posted.
- 21 May 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
Incentives versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment
Sales force compensation is a key instrument available to firms for motivating and enhancing sales performance. What are the most effective forms of compensation? In a field experiment involving four regional sales forces of a prominent firm in India, the authors examined the impact of conditional and unconditional bonus schemes. Findings from this study provide guidance to firms on how to use conditional and unconditional compensation to enhance sales rep productivity and better manage the achievement of sales forecasts. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
Homesick or Home Run? Distance from Hometown and Employee Performance: A Natural Experiment from India
In the short and long term, distance from one’s hometown has a different effect on individual work performance. First-year performance ratings tend to be high the farther employees work from their hometown. Three years later, however, longer travel times are associated with lower ratings, with implications for managers.