Professor Keenan studies barriers to and motivators of prosocial behavior, using a combination of field, laboratory, and online experimental methods. Her recent work investigates donors’ aversion to overhead spending by nonprofits, including its negative effects on the choice to give. In a large-scale field experiment, she and her colleagues found that offering potential donors an overhead-free solution, made possible by funds from a major philanthropist, increases both the donation rate and total dollars raised substantially more than other approaches, such as matching gifts.
A subset of Professor Keenan’s research focuses on topics related to environmental sustainability, including drivers of green product choice, hotel towel reuse, and the underlying psychological processes involved in climate-change-related judgments.
Elizabeth A. Keenan
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Elizabeth Keenan is an assistant professor of business administration in the Marketing Unit. She teaches the Purpose-Driven Marketing course in the MBA elective curriculum (EC) and previously taught the Marketing course in the MBA required curriculum (RC). She is affiliated with the Behavioral Insights Group at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership as well as with the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
Professor Keenan’s research explores individuals’ prosocial choices and behaviors within the domains of charitable giving and environmental sustainability. Her research has been published in Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, and Nature Climate Change, and it has been cited by media outlets including NPR, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News & World Report.
Professor Keenan earned her PhD in marketing at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego; an MAS in marine biodiversity and conservation, also at UC San Diego; and a BS in biology at Loyola Marymount University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Professor Keenan spent ten years in nonprofit management and education at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
Elizabeth Keenan is an assistant professor of business administration in the Marketing Unit. She teaches the Purpose-Driven Marketing course in the MBA elective curriculum (EC) and previously taught the Marketing course in the MBA required curriculum (RC). She is affiliated with the Behavioral Insights Group at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership as well as with the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
Professor Keenan’s research explores individuals’ prosocial choices and behaviors within the domains of charitable giving and environmental sustainability. Her research has been published in Science, the Journal of Consumer Research, and Nature Climate Change, and it has been cited by media outlets including NPR, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and U.S. News & World Report.
Professor Keenan earned her PhD in marketing at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego; an MAS in marine biodiversity and conservation, also at UC San Diego; and a BS in biology at Loyola Marymount University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Professor Keenan spent ten years in nonprofit management and education at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
- Featured Work
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HBS Working Knowledge
HBS Working KnowledgeExperimental research reveals the influential power of music to determine how people feel about the most vilified predator in the ocean. Elizabeth Keenan and Andrew P. Nosal discuss the study “The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers’ Perceptions of Sharks.”
HBS Working KnowledgeElizabeth A. Keenan and colleagues find that charitable donors are willing to stomach the idea of overhead costs—as long as they know someone else’s donation is covering them. A field study helped one organization nearly triple its solicited donations. - Journal Articles
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- Keenan, Elizabeth A., Anne V. Wilson, and Leslie K. John. "When Less Is More: Consumers Prefer Brands that Donate More in Relative versus Absolute Terms." Marketing Letters 33, no. 1 (March 2022): 31–43. View Details
- Dunn, Caroline G., Mark J. Soto, Sophia V. Hua, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Lindsay M. Jaacks, Julia A. Wolfson, and Sara N. Bleich. "Availability and Nutrient Composition of Vegetarian Items at U.S. Fast-Food Restaurants." Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 121, no. 7 (July 2021): 1306–1311. View Details
- Schwartz, Daniel, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Alex Imas, and Ayelet Gneezy. "Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 163 (March 2021): 132–141. View Details
- Barasz, Kate, Leslie John, Elizabeth A. Keenan, and Michael I. Norton. "Pseudo-Set Framing." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 146, no. 10 (October 2017): 1460–1477. View Details
- Nosal, Andy, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Philip A. Hastings, and Ayelet Gneezy. "The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers' Perceptions of Sharks." PLoS ONE 11, no. 8 (August 2016). View Details
- Reddy, Sheila M., Jensen Montambault, Yuta J. Masuda, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth Keenan, William Butler, Jonathan R. Fisher, and Stanley T. Asah. "Advancing Conservation by Understanding and Influencing Human Behavior." Conservation Letters 10, no. 2 (March–April 2017): 248–256. (doi:10.1111/conl.12252.) View Details
- Gneezy, Uri, Elizabeth A. Keenan, and Ayelet Gneezy. "Avoiding Overhead Aversion in Charity." Science 346, no. 6209 (October 31, 2014): 632–635. View Details
- Zaval, Lisa, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Eric J. Johnson, and Elke U. Weber. "How Warm Days Increase Belief in Global Warming." Nature Climate Change 4, no. 2 (February 2014): 143–147. View Details
- Baca-Motes, Katie, Amber Brown, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth A. Keenan, and Leif D. Nelson. "Commitment and Behavior Change: Evidence from the Field." Journal of Consumer Research 39, no. 5 (February 2013): 1070–1084. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Keenan, Elizabeth A., Youngme Moon, and Susie Ma. "Paul Polman." Harvard Business School Case 322-098, February 2022. View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth A., Youngme Moon, and John Masko. "Bee-ing Better at Bombas." Harvard Business School Case 522-038, January 2022. View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth A., Sandra J. Sucher, and Shalene Gupta. "Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion for All." Harvard Business School Case 522-053, November 2021. View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth A., and Leslie K. John. "Back to the Roots." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-028, August 2019. (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth A., and Leslie K. John. "Back to the Roots." Harvard Business School Case 518-073, June 2018. (Revised October 2019.) (Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.) View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth A., and Jill Avery. "Adeo Health Science: Turning a Product into a Brand." Harvard Business School Case 518-065, January 2018. (Revised May 2019.) View Details
- Keenan, Elizabeth, and John Gourville. "But, It's For a Good Cause." Harvard Business School Case 517-062, November 2016. View Details
- Research Summary
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Professor Keenan studies barriers to and motivators of prosocial behavior, using a combination of field, laboratory, and online experimental methods. Her recent work investigates donors’ aversion to overhead spending by nonprofits, including its negative effects on the choice to give. In a large-scale field experiment, she and her colleagues found that offering potential donors an overhead-free solution, made possible by funds from a major philanthropist, increases both the donation rate and total dollars raised substantially more than other approaches, such as matching gifts. A subset of Professor Keenan’s research focuses on topics related to environmental sustainability, including drivers of green product choice, hotel towel reuse, and the underlying psychological processes involved in climate-change-related judgments.
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