Is A/B Testing Effective? Evidence from 35,000 Startups
A/B tests help startup founders capitalize on good ideas—and move on from duds—faster, says research from Rembrand Koning. How can established companies benefit?
View ArticleHow 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding
Many business leaders are convinced that large-scale change is necessary to bounce back from difficult times. But a professional soccer team's surprise success shows that smaller measures can work...
View ArticleDog Eat Dog: Measuring Network Effects Using a Digital Platform Merger
With heated debate over antitrust regulation of online platforms, this study finds that when a larger platform acquired its greatest competitor, users were not better off with a single platform...
View ArticleHow Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems
Public entrepreneurship can bring agile thinking and new ideas to governments. Mitchell Weiss explains in his new book, We the Possibility.
View ArticleLeadership Advice for Biden: Restore a Sense of Calm
Harvard Business School faculty members share their expectations for a Biden presidency and offer advice to the commander in chief as he takes on the raging COVID-19 pandemic and a divided nation.
View ArticleThe Role of Constraints in Creative Problem-Solving
This study shows that constraints can support creative problem solving in a consumer electronics setting. Adding (some) constraints increased the quantity and quality of strong ideas generated and...
View ArticleThe Value of Descriptive Analytics: Evidence from Online Retailers
Analytics are descriptive when they describe what happened. Descriptive-analytics solutions are popular among marketers and retailers. This paper provides a benchmark for the benefits of using a...
View ArticleIn a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded
Walter Friedman encapsulates four centuries of economic progress—from European merchants to Steve Jobs—in his efficient book, American Business History: A Very Short Introduction.
View ArticleIndia’s Food Supply Chain During the Pandemic
Policy makers in the developing world face important tradeoffs in reacting to a pandemic. The quick and complete recovery of India’s food supply chain suggests that strict lockdown measures at the...
View ArticleThe Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: Re-Evaluating the...
Analyzing more than 2,500 firm-level innovation histories spanning 30 years, this study shows that breakthrough innovation requires organizational capabilities for both exploration and exploitation....
View ArticleA New Way to Cut Credit Card Debt: Pay Off One Purchase at a Time
Letting credit card customers pay back specific purchases encourages borrowers to go beyond the minimum, says research by Michael Norton and colleagues.
View ArticleHow Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics
Drawing from product innovation theory, Rohit Deshpandé and colleagues offer three recommendations to speed adoption of COVID-19 vaccines.
View ArticleHas the New Economy Finally Arrived?
Economists have long tied low unemployment to inflation. James Heskett considers whether the US economic policy of the past four years has shaken those assumptions.
View ArticleHate Crime Increases with Minoritized Group Rank
Attitudes and behaviors toward social categories are not fixed but vary depending on perceived group size and rank. In the United States, an increase in a group’s size-based rank relative to those of...
View ArticleLearning with People Like Me: The Role of Age-Similar Peers on Online...
Online learning usually has lower course engagement and higher dropout rates than in-person instruction. However, when classmates are of similar ages it helps boost retention and engagement....
View ArticleNonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times
Tax returns from millions of US nonprofits reveal that charities do not expand during bad times, when need is the greatest. Although they are able to smooth the swings of their activities more than...
View ArticleInside CEOs' Pandemic Worries: Uncertainty, Employees, and Kids
Boris Groysberg and colleagues peer into the minds of 10 global CEOs trying to steer their businesses through the upheaval of COVID-19.
View ArticleHow to Make the World Better, Not Perfect
If we want to do more good for the world, we must first change how we think about our behavior, says Max Bazerman in his book Better, Not Perfect.
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