- 12 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets
Between 2008 and 2014, the Top 4 banks sharply decreased their lending to small business. This paper examines the lasting economic consequences of this contraction, finding that a credit supply shock from a subset of lenders can have surprisingly long-lived effects on real activity.
- 12 Oct 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
Telemundo: The Fastest Growing TV Network in the United States
Telemundo is the fastest-growing television network in the United States, but Chairman Cesar Conde must attract millennials to the fold. In this podcast, Henry McGee discusses Telemundo's David and Goliath rise. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Crime and Violence: Desensitization in Victims to Watching Criminal Events
Findings from an experiment show that victims of crimes become desensitized to violence in biological and cognitive ways. These results may help explain a troubling contradiction in Latin America: rising crime along with decreasing public concern about it. As the rate of crime victimization increases, a larger group of the population shares this increased desensitization.
- 11 Oct 2017
- Research & Ideas
The House Wants to Squelch Voices of ‘Small’ Shareholders. Research Shows Those Voices Matter.
Company management frequently seeks to exclude investor proposals even though some ultimately win shareholder support, according to new research by Eugene F. Soltes, Suraj Srinivasan, and Rajesh Vijayaraghavan. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Oct 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 10, 2017
Measuring sales the right way ... Does crime desensitize victims? ... Innovation in a 100-year-old medical devices giant .
- 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.
- 09 Oct 2017
- Research & Ideas
Fearing Fox News, Democratic-leaning Companies Delayed Negative Announcements
Jonas Heese and Vishal P. Baloria explore strategies used by companies to reduce the risk of potentially negative press, focusing on Fox News and the 2000 presidential election. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Oct 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
How to Promote Home Delivery of Prescription Drugs? Give Employees a 'Nudge'
When Express Scripts wanted to convince corporate clients to switch to home delivery of prescription drugs, they knew logic wouldn't prevail. What then? John Beshears explains the answer, psychological nudges, in this podcast. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Oct 2017
- Book
Five Leaders Forged in Crisis, and What We Can Learn From Them
Business historian Nancy Koehn details the leadership skills of five people forged in crisis: Abraham Lincoln, Ernest Shackleton, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rachel Carson. Includes book excerpt. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Oct 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
When Exit is an Option: Effects of Indiscriminate Violence on Attitudes Among Syrian Refugees in Turkey
This study examines the attitudes of civilians displaced by violence in a conflict where the strategic logic was not to control people but to remove them. Results show that civilians who can leave the conflict zone do not necessarily politically align with one or another armed group. Rather, they engage in civic activities that benefit the civilian refugee community itself.
- 03 Oct 2017
- First Look
First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017
How management feedback can backfire ... Hospitals that overbill as a financial strategy ... Using artificial intelligence to gauge human intelligence.
- 03 Oct 2017
- Sharpening Your Skills
7 Effective Ways to Lead Teams
Managers of teams require communications skills, organizational capabilities, and a knack for judging how people might work together. Research from Harvard Business School investigates the challenges of team leadership. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Oct 2017
- What Do You Think?
Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?
SUMMING UP Bitcoin has shown to be a powerful digital currency, but the real story of the future is Blockchain, say James Heskett's readers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Sep 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective
This paper examines how strategies by Western multinational enterprises in emerging markets over the last century have been shaped by context. These strategies evolved from resolving logistical challenges to managing assertive governments. More recently the focus has been to locate activities in the lower end of global value chains, whilst responding to local competitors.
- 27 Sep 2017
- Research & Ideas
What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?
Move over, creative geniuses. Teresa Amabile says the world needs to pay more attention to the creative processes of everyday people, especially in an age when big ideas often come from the crowdsourced masses. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Sep 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Merchants and the Origins of Capitalism
This chapter shows how a new kind of predominantly Italian merchants emerged as global figures during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Then as now, they pooled capital and shared risk to enrich themselves and their polities, utilized the infrastructure and markets that they helped make, and created new legal and financial instruments to facilitate their ventures.
- 26 Sep 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017
Uber’s bumpy ride ... Is Taylor Swift an economic indicator? ... Using Yelp to study local economies in real time.
- 25 Sep 2017
- Research & Ideas
Why Politics is Failing America, and What Business Can Do To Help
How could a country that epitomized the success of modern democracy have fallen into such a state of failure? Michael Porter and Katherine Gehl find a rigged American political system that limits competition and works against the public interest. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks
Managers who use feedback processes often assume that employees will respond to them with dutiful efforts to improve. This study finds that negative feedback instead causes employees to reshape their networks in order to shore up their professional and personal identity. This reshaping lowers performance—a result at odds with the goal of performance feedback.