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Do Fire Sales Create Externalities?

by Sergey Chernenko and Adi Sunderam

This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of large institutional investors in securities markets, providing evidence that the structure of the mutual fund industry increases the risks of costly "fire sales."

New Research and Ideas, November 13, 2018

Dina Gerdeman

How team performance affects racial bias ... Why academics seek out top-ranked journals ... Protecting the ‘world’s most prestigious award.’

'Always On' Isn't Always Best for Team Decision-Making

by Roberta Holland

Is it possible for teams to communicate too frequently? Research by Ethan Bernstein and colleagues suggests that groups that meet less often may be better at problem-solving. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence

by Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

This study empirically explores Google’s decision to tie its new reviews product to the top of its search results, excluding competitors. Results suggest that such "tying" can facilitate dominant platforms’ entry into adjacent markets, even when the tied product is of worse quality compared to existing options.

Could Big Data Replace the Creative Director at the Gap?

Re: Ayelet Israeli

Is it time to throw out the creative director and rely on big data to predict what consumers want to wear next? Assistant Professor Ayelet Israeli discusses how Gap CEO Art Peck considers a bold idea to boost sales. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Arbitration with Uninformed Consumers

by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, and Amit Seru

Using data on securities disputes, this study of information advantages in consumer arbitration finds that industry-friendly arbitrators are 40 percent more likely than consumer-friendly arbitrators to be selected to take on arbitration cases. Limiting respondents’ and claimants’ inputs over the selection process could improve outcomes for consumers.

When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct

by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, and Amit Seru

Despite committing misconduct less often and less severely than men, female advisers in the financial adviser industry face more severe punishment in the labor market, a finding strongly correlated with the gender composition of the managerial team. A similar punishment gap and mitigating factors affect ethnic minority men.

8 Ways to Make Olympic Stadiums Useful After the Games End

by Julia Hanna

For many cities that host the Olympic Games, the central stadium is nothing more than a white elephant after the competition ends. Stephen A. Greyser and Isao Okada pinpoint actions cities can take to give them new life. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

New Research and Ideas, November 6, 2018

Dina Gerdeman

Startup creates beauty products just for black women ... How gender diversity affects a firm's performance ... Bank lending shifts to smaller firms.

Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets for Technology

by Moritz Fischer, Joachim Henkel, and Ariel Dora Stern

When and how to enter a new market is central to firms’ innovation strategies, including in the medical device industry. The authors show how to evaluate early-mover advantage vs. disadvantage when the primary option to monetize an innovation lies in selling it in an intermediate “market for technology” rather than in a final product market.

Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning

by Xiaojia Guo, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, and Bert De Reyck

Passengers arriving at international hubs often endure delays, especially at immigration and security. This study of London’s Heathrow Airport develops a system to provide real-time information about transfer passengers’ journeys through the airport to better serve passengers, airlines, and their employees. It shows how advanced machine learning could be accessible to managers.

What is the Function of Fear in Leadership?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP Is the use of fear by managers ever justified? For James Heskett's readers, the answer is not so simple. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

New Research and Ideas, October 30, 2018

Dina Gerdeman

Women get harsher punishment for misconduct than men ... Corporate sustainability: tough but necessary ... Booking.com revamps its customer experience.

The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 2: Technical and Strategic Bottlenecks as Guides for Action

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper presents analytic tools to formulate strategy in large, evolving technical systems. It explains how value-enhancing technical change comes from the effective management of technical and strategic bottlenecks in conjunction with module boundaries and property rights. The analytic tools are used to explain the evolution of three historic technologies: early aircraft, machine tools, and container shipping.

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 6 The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 1: Mapping Functional Relationships

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Technology shapes organizations by influencing the search for value—something that someone perceives as a good—in an economy made up of free agents. To understand the organizations that will develop and implement particular technologies we must first understand the technologies’ value structure, including three main issues that make it difficult to value technologies.

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 5 Complementarity

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Even as economics has theories about what assets and activities should be grouped together under common ownership and unified governance, in practice it sometimes makes sense to distribute complementary assets, skills, and activities across separate organizations. This paper investigates when and how this happens.

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Business Ecosystems

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Platform systems have existed in various forms for centuries. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, newly competitive technology of open platform systems based on digital technology and modular architectures changed the structure of entire industries. This paper lays the groundwork for a comprehensive theoretical investigation of open platform systems.

Hunting for a Hot Job in High Tech? Try 'Digitization Economist'

by Roberta Holland

Amazon has more economists on staff than any university economics department, and technology firms are snapping them up the minute they graduate, says Michael Luca. Why? Call it the economics of digitization. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Public Sentiment and the Price of Corporate Sustainability

by George Serafeim

Public opinions from industry experts are important in the economy but it has not been clear how they affect the valuation of and returns to corporate activities. Using big data and machine learning, this paper analyzes how public sentiment influences the market pricing of firms’ sustainability activities and thereby the future stock returns of portfolios that integrate environmental, social, and governance data.

Vodafone’s Innovative Approach to Advanced Technologies

William Kerr discusses how telecom giant Vodafone incorporated big data, automation, and artificial intelligence to improve productivity while ensuring new opportunities were created for the next generation of workers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.