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Decision MakingRemove Decision Making →

New research on decision making from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including policymaking, approaches to common work problems, and predicting behavior.
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Face Value: Do Certain Physical Features Help People Get Ahead?

by Kara Baskin

Society seems to reward people with particular facial features. Research by Shunyuan Zhang and colleagues uses machine learning to analyze traits that people associate with charisma. The findings highlight opportunities to enhance one's image—and challenge bias.

Can Apprenticeships Work in the US? Employers Seeking New Talent Pipelines Take Note

by Michael Blanding

What if the conventional college-and-internship route doesn't give future employees the skills they need to build tomorrow's companies? Research by Joseph Fuller and colleagues illustrates the advantages that apprenticeships can provide to employees and young talent.

What Makes Employees Trust (vs. Second-Guess) AI?

by Rachel Layne

While executives are quick to adopt artificial intelligence, front-line employees might be less willing to take orders from an algorithm. Research by the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard sheds light on what it takes for people to get comfortable with machine learning.

Inclusive Leadership Advice: Get Comfortable With the Uncomfortable

by Francesca Gino

People tend to seek sameness, but they can teach themselves to relish in the differences of the human experience. Francesca Gino offers these three principles from improv to anyone who's trying to lead more inclusively.

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

by Lane Lambert

It's a harsh reality: The majority of new business ventures fail. In the book Productive Tensions, Rory McDonald and his coauthor say the key to survival is figuring out how to pivot during the innovation process.

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

by Rachel Layne

A study of an international robotics competition reveals how experts prioritize easy-to-execute inventions over moonshot ideas. Are companies missing out on potential breakthroughs? Research by Jacqueline Lane and Karim Lakhani.

Four Elements for Finding the Right Career Path

by Dina Gerdeman

Facing a major decision? Before you start ruminating about facts and figures, consider tapping into your "full self." In his book The Four Elements: Finding Right Livelihood in the 21st Century, Timothy Butler offers a framework for navigating life transitions.

Empower Your Employees to Make Better Decisions

by Pamela Reynolds

The impact of wise decisions can ripple out in an organization. In the book Decision Leadership, Max Bazerman and Don Moore explore how the choices of influential leaders, such as athlete Colin Kaepernick and Humu's Jessica Wisdom, motivate others to do better.

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

by Ranjay Gulati

Trust is fragile and must be nurtured. By tapping into their purpose, leaders can help their organizations embody the values and principles they espouse, says Ranjay Gulati in his book Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Swiping Right: How Data Helped This Online Dating Site Make More Matches

by Kara Baskin

Machine learning might have the answer to an age-old dating conundrum: Who makes the first move? Research by Edward McFowland probes how data can spur more digital interactions, with potentially wide-reaching implications. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

by Ashish Nanda

Not all companies need to scale. Ashish Nanda explores a crucial choice that leaders of professional services firms face as their organizations grow. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

7 Trends to Watch in 2022

by HBS News

Surging COVID-19 cases may have dampened optimism at the start of 2022, but change could be on the horizon. Harvard Business School faculty members share the trends they're watching this year. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Don't Bring Me Down: Probing Why People Tune Out Bad News

by Kristen Senz

People often go out of their way to avoid unpleasant information, but not always for the reasons you might expect. Research by Christine Exley and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Tell Me What to Do: When Bad News Is a Big Relief

by Michael Blanding

Why would anyone hope for the worst? Research by Serena Hagerty and colleague sheds light on just how far people will go to dodge a tough decision. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Why Anger Makes a Wrongly Accused Person Look Guilty

by Michael Blanding

Too often, people rely on biases and hunches to judge complex situations. Research by Leslie John shows how easy it is to make the wrong call. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?

by Benjamin Enke, Uri Gneezy, Brian Hall, David Martin, Vadim Nelidov, Theo Offerman, and Jeroen van de Ven

This study of field and lab data strongly suggests that people do not necessarily make better decisions when the stakes are very high. Results highlight the potential economic consequences of cognitive biases.

How Do CEOs Make Strategy?

by Mu-Jeung Yang, Michael Christensen, Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and Jan Rivkin

A study of 262 Harvard Business School-educated CEOs traces differences in strategic decision-making across managers. CEOs leading larger, faster-growing firms tend to make highly structured strategic decisions and use more analytical deliberation. Management education has long-lasting effects on decision-making.

'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt

by Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance, and Michael I. Norton

Many consumers fail to pay off credit card debt each month and suffer financial consequences. Repayment-by-purchase, allocating payment toward specific purchases on a credit card bill, helps consumers gain a sense of progress and control over credit card debt.

Can Entrepreneurs Make Mobile Voting Easy and Secure?

Re: Mitchell B. Weiss

Making voting more accessible through technology could have tremendous payoffs for democracy—but also pose critical downsides if the product fails. Mitch Weiss, who teaches a course on public entrepreneurship, discusses his case study on Voatz and their plan to turn mobile phones into voting booths. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Financial Meltdowns Are More Predictable Than We Thought

by Danielle Kost

Robin Greenwood and Samuel G. Hanson discuss new research that shows economic crises follow predictable patterns. Open for comment; 0 Comments.