Browsing HBS Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 54
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Competing Globally: Institutional Voids in Emerging Markets
(2016-05-13)This dissertation addresses institutional development in emerging economies, as well as its implications on firm strategy. Specifically, as emerging markets are characterized by “institutional voids”, that is, the absence ... -
Complexity, Contract Design and Incentive Design in the Construction Management Industry
(2015-05-26)In this paper I examine how one construction management company uses contract design and incentive design to respond to aspects of task complexity and relationship complexity present in its construction projects. In terms ... -
Consumer Behavior in Close Relationships
(2021-05-18)My dissertation is composed of three papers examining consumer decision-making in the context of close, personal relationships. Countless consumer decisions, from small (e.g., bringing soup to a sick friend) to large (e.g., ... -
The Continuum of Choice: Essays on How Consumer Decisions Are Made, Changed, and Perceived
(2016-05-13)This research investigates the continuum of choice—unseen, unanticipated causes and consequences of consumer decisions. Three essays investigate hidden factors that influence the choices we make, subtle ways to affect ... -
The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? The Effect of Crowdsourced Digital Goods on Innovation and Economic Growth
(2015-05-26)The classic economic concept of the tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals overuse a public good, resulting in the complete depletion of the good. Comparatively, in the digital world public goods are non-rival and ... -
Director Heterogeneity and its Impact on Board Effectiveness
In the first section of the dissertation, I examine whether boards that are heterogeneous along six dimensions--age, gender, race, tenure, rank, and function--perform their most critical tasks better than boards that are ... -
Does Privacy Make Groups Productive?
Transparency is one of the great cross-disciplinary themes of management and organizations today. Increases in transparency, or accurate observability, of activities, routines, behaviors, strategies, output, and performance ... -
Donations and Differentiation: Three Essays on Non-Profit Strategy
(2016-05-13)Given increased competition with for-profit firms, the issue of the comparative advantage of non-profit organizations is renewed. While non-profits may want to differentiate themselves when faced with additional non-profit ... -
Engaging Supply Chains in Environmental Initiatives: Adoption and Information Sharing
This dissertation consists of three papers that analytically and empirically explore how to better engage firms and supply chains in environmental sustainability initiatives. Together, these papers contribute to the ... -
Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Nascent Industries
This dissertation explores the activities entrepreneurs undertake when launching ventures and innovating in new or nascent industries. Actors in nascent industries can play a vital role in shaping the future. Yet the ... -
Essays in Financial Accounting Standard Setting
This dissertation consists of three essays that explore the financial accounting standard setting process. In the first, I examine the extent to which the FASB's agenda determination is a function of the contemporaneous ... -
Essays in Intellectual Property Bargaining and Trade
(2015-09-16)In this dissertation, I present three essays on the dynamics of intellectual property bargaining and trade, particularly of patents. The first essay presents a game theoretic model examining the sale of intellectual ... -
Essays on Cognition in Strategy
This dissertation explores some of the implications of a richer conceptualization of human cognitive processes on three strategically important phenomena. Each essay explores its phenomenon of interest using findings on ... -
Essays on competitive strategy in regulated industries: Evidence from commercial banking
This dissertation studies heterogeneity in firm performance that arises from market failures and the regulation of market failures in the commercial banking industry. The first essay explores the heterogeneity in firm ... -
Essays on Corporate Governance and Shareholder Activism
(2016-05-13)In these essays, I explore the relation between shareholder activism and corporate governance, mainly the board of directors and takeover defense measures. In the first essay, “Takeover defenses in the era of shareholder ... -
Essays on Emergency Department Physician Performance
(2020-10-28)In this dissertation, I examine the problem of physician performance evaluation and investigate ways to improve the performance of physicians in the context of an Emergency Department (ED) setting. In the first chapter — ... -
Essays on External Context and Operating Models
(2016-04-27)Effective operating models based on carefully selected resources, processes and logic allow organizations to develop the right products and services and deliver them to customers. However, there has been little investigation ... -
Essays on Human Capital and Executive Compensation
(2015-05-26)The contemporary executive career looks different from the “company man” era of post World War II. At that time, executives rose almost exclusively within a single firm, learning the business over many loyal years of ... -
Essays on Innovation, Strategy and Competition
(2015-09-16)This dissertation is composed of three essays on innovation, strategy and competition. The first essay studies how entry of patent intermediaries known as "patent assertion entities" (PAEs) impacts behavior of other firms ... -
Essays on International Non-market Strategy and the Political Economy of Environmental Regulation
This dissertation examines the interaction of companies with their non-market environment in an international context. It specifically focuses on the political economy of newly introduced climate change regulations and how ...