Publications
- October 2014
- Management Science
Looking Across and Looking Beyond the Knowledge Frontier: Intellectual Distance and Resource Allocation in Science
Abstract—Selecting among alternative innovative projects is a core management task in all innovating organizations. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of frontier scientific research projects. We argue that the "intellectual distance" between the knowledge embodied in research proposals and an evaluator's own expertise systematically relates to the evaluations given (and consequent resource allocation). We empirically evaluate effects in data collected from a grant proposal process at a leading research university in which we randomized the assignment of evaluators and proposals to generate 2,130 evaluator-proposal pairs. We find evaluators systematically give lower scores to research proposals closer to their own areas of expertise and to highly novel research proposals. We interpret the empirical patterns in relation to a range of theoretical mechanisms and discuss implications for policy, managerial intervention, and allocation of resources in the ongoing accumulation of scientific knowledge.
Publisher's link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2478627
- October 2014
- Research Policy
'Open' Disclosure of Innovations, Incentives and Follow-on Reuse: Theory on Processes of Cumulative Innovation and a Field Experiment in Computational Biology
Abstract—Most of society's innovation systems―academic science, the patent system, open source, etc.―are "open" in the sense that they are designed to facilitate knowledge disclosure among innovators. An essential difference across innovation systems is whether disclosure is of intermediate progress and solutions or of completed innovations. We present experimental evidence that links intermediate versus final disclosure not just with quantitative tradeoffs that shape the rate of innovation, but also with transformation of the very nature of the innovation search process. We find intermediate disclosure has the advantage of efficiently steering development towards improving existing solution approaches, but also the effect of limiting experimentation and narrowing technological search. We discuss the comparative advantages of intermediate versus final disclosure policies in fostering innovation.
Publisher's link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2288746
- October 2014
- The Compass (Newsletter of the American Society of Safety Engineers)
Why Safety Managers Should Welcome OSHA Inspections: Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California
Abstract—For companies with strong internal occupational safety and health auditing programs, OSHA inspections might seem a formality that risk uncovering, at most, nitpicky deviations from the thousands of pages of safety regulations. For those with poor safety practices, OSHA inspections can result in penalties and bad press that risk impugning the company's reputation. Both of these accounts suggest that for managers, the fewer OSHA inspections the better. The results of our research call for a much more welcoming attitude, given we found that inspections by Cal/OSHA, California's health and safety regulator, led to substantial reductions in injuries and workers' compensation costs.
Publisher's link: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Levine-Toffel%20The%20Compass%202014-07-02a_151d5c1a-4fe0-4d2a-90f8-54a82b5bb4a6.pdf
- October 2014
- MIT Sloan Management Review
What It Takes to Reshore Manufacturing Successfully
Abstract—The data on comparative labor and energy costs may seem compelling, but the process of bringing assembly work back to domestic factories from abroad is substantially more challenging than the economics alone would predict. This paper looks at some of the issues firms moving large assembly operations back to the U.S. have faced, along with recommendations for more successful implementations.
Publisher's link: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/56113
Working Papers
The Federal Reserve's Abandonment of Its 1923 Principles
Abstract—This paper studies the persistence and some of the consequences of the eventual abandonment by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the principles embedded in the Federal Reserve's Tenth Annual Report of 1923. The three principles I focus on are 1) the discouraging of speculative lending by commercial banks, 2) the desire to meet the credit needs of business, and 3) the preference of a focus on credit over a focus on monetary aggregates. I show that the first two principles remained important in FOMC deliberations until the mid-1960s. After this, the FOMC also spent less time discussing the composition of bank loans.
Download working paper: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20507
Cases & Course Materials
- Harvard Business School Case 915-004
Google Inc. in 2014
Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to selected competitors. Asks what Google should do next.
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http://hbr.org/product/Google-Inc--in-2014/an/915004-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 714-520
Investing in Online Marketplaces
Simon Rothman had recently been promoted from executive-in-residence to partner at esteemed venture capital firm Greylock Partners and placed in charge of managing a $100 million early stage fund commitment dedicated to online marketplaces. In Greylock's view, 2014 was a special moment in time for online marketplaces, the beginning of a boom in the space that was being catalyzed by mobile technology and social identity. Rothman was the right man for the job. An early eBay employee, he had founded eBay Motors and turned it into a multi-billion dollar business and also advised several successful online marketplaces such as Lyft, Wanelo, and TaskRabbit. For his first investment as partner, Rothman was particularly interested in the food delivery space, which was ripe for disruption by online marketplaces. Rothman had five food delivery startup options to choose from, a philosophy on how to analyze marketplace businesses, and a few weeks to make his first ever investment as a Partner at Greylock.
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http://hbr.org/product/Investing-in-Online-Marke/an/714520-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 714-519
Bitcoin: The Future of Digital Payments?
No abstract available.
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http://hbr.org/product/Bitcoin--The-Future-of-Di/an/714519-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 914-052
The Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation
This case is about the response of the U.S. government to the excessive compensation of executives following the market collapse of 2008. In particular, the case focuses on the special committee that was formed to oversee and regulate any financial companies that had borrowed money from the U.S. government to stay afloat. The protaganist is Kenneth Feinberg, who is appointed as Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation and who has the challenging task of negotiating compensation amidst all of the many competing interests.
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http://hbr.org/product/The-Special-Master-for-TA/an/914052-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 914-049
YAAS's Service Center
This case is about a compensation change at an automotive service company in the Middle East. The case allows investigation and analysis of many issues related to compensation design and human resource management as well as change management. The focus of the case is all the ways in which bad incentive design leads to dysfunctional behavior. In particular, a crucial issue is whether individual incentives are best or whether team incentives are best and why. In the (B) and (C) cases, the case rolls out in sequence as more and more information is revealed to students so the unfolding of events keeps students interested and engaged in how to solve the various problems that arise, including a near mutiny.
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http://hbr.org/product/YAAS-s-Service-Center/an/914049-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 814-026
Kathy Giusti and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
What do you do when your rising professional career is cut short by an unexpected cancer diagnosis? Kathy Giusti shifted careers, built a new organization that transformed how cancer research is done, and now faces the challenge of sustaining the organization and its funding for its newest venture. Since she was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM) in 1996, Giusti had led an effort to better understand and treat the disease. She had co-founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), helped form the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), and brought together a diverse body of academics, researchers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, physicians, and patients to combine their efforts around the disease. The MMRF had helped facilitate clinical trials for promising drugs, sponsored research, and raised a substantial amount of money for these purposes. In 2014, the MMRF was in the midst of its CoMMpass program; a multi-year effort to collect tissue samples from 1,000 patients at key junctures in their disease, sequence these samples to better understand the genetic underpinnings of MM and its many sub-types, and thus enable researchers to study a comprehensive sampling of patients. CoMMpass also had a patient-facing element that allowed the patient community to communicate with one another and with professional moderators. By mid-2014, some 550 patients were enrolled and 85 hospitals were participating. As a non-profit, the MMRF had historically relied on donations to fund its research operations. Giusti wanted to find a way to ensure a reliable revenue stream for the organization and give it greater financial stability. The MMRF had historically given away its resources and knowledge for free in order to speed research; Giusti worried if charging for some of its functions would be at odds with its mission and historical practices. She worked with her executive team to examine potential sources of revenue and to decide if this was the right thing to do.
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http://hbr.org/product/Kathy-Giusti-and-the-Mult/an/814026-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 514-094
Yonghui Superstores
No abstract available.
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http://hbr.org/product/Yonghui-Superstores/an/514094-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 815-023
Husk Power
In late 2013, Husk Power Systems found itself falling further and further behind plan. The founding CEO had decided to resign. His co-founder is faced with the decision of quitting his corporate job in the U.S. to head to India and help form a new management team. Husk is an Indian startup founded in 2007 with the goal of global rural electrification. The company has decided to pivot from operating biomass gasification plants towards developing solar microgrids in India and East Africa.
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http://hbr.org/product/Husk-Power/an/815023-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 214-105
Via Verde
Developers Jonathan Rose and Adam Weinstein were trying to determine which of three proposals to submit to the city of New York in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) to create an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. The site, referred to as Via Verde, was a 1.5-acre triangular brownfield in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. It was 2006 and the housing market was peaking but had not yet crashed. Both Rose and Weinstein were experienced developers of low-income housing, the former as CEO of the Jonathan Rose Companies, a national developer, and the latter as CEO of Phipps Houses, the largest non-profit developer and manager of low-income housing in NYC. The three proposal options differed in their risk and return profiles for the developers and differed in how much they incorporated health-oriented, mixed-income living for the residents.
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http://hbr.org/product/Via-Verde/an/214105-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 714-517
Airgas, Inc.
In 2013, Airgas was the market leader in packaged industrial gas distribution. Recent acquisitions had made it into a larger player in upstream gas production as well, where it competed with Praxair and Air Products. Should Airgas continue building a position in gas production or divest these activities?
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http://hbr.org/product/Airgas--Inc-/an/714517-PDF-ENG
- Harvard Business School Case 114-096
Board of Directors: An Introductory Note
No abstract available.
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http://hbr.org/product/Board-of-Directors--An-In/an/114096-PDF-ENG