Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • 2022
    • Working Paper

    Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb

    By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi

    We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian names experienced a 12 percent decline in guests relative to hosts with distinctively White names. In contrast, we do not see spikes in discrimination against Black or Hispanic hosts. Our results suggest that the rise in anti-Asian sentiment in 2020 translated to discrimination in economic activity, highlighting the ways in which scapegoating minority groups can shape markets. Our results also point to the role of platform design choices in enabling discrimination.

    • 2022
    • Working Paper

    Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb

    By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi

    We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian names experienced a 12 percent decline in guests relative to hosts with distinctively White names. In contrast, we do not see spikes in discrimination...

    • August 2022
    • Case

    Negotiating Peace in Colombia

    By: Deepak Malhotra and Cody Smith

    This case follows the protracted armed conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), tracing it from its origins over 50 years ago, through the private and public negotiations that ultimately resulted in the 2016 comprehensive peace agreement. The case takes the perspective of Colombia’s President (2010-2018), Juan Manuel Santos, who must craft a strategy for ending the armed conflict, and then decide what to do after his signature achievement, a peace agreement painstakingly negotiated to end the 52-year civil war, is narrowly defeated in a national referendum. The case allows for the discussion of the barriers to deal-making in difficult, high-stakes, and complex disputes, as well as the keys to overcoming these barriers when numerous previous attempts to negotiate an agreement have failed. The case also sheds light on the leadership and strategic challenges that surface when you have to manage a diverse group of powerful stakeholders, all with a different view on what constitutes a just peace.

    • August 2022
    • Case

    Negotiating Peace in Colombia

    By: Deepak Malhotra and Cody Smith

    This case follows the protracted armed conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), tracing it from its origins over 50 years ago, through the private and public negotiations that ultimately resulted in the 2016 comprehensive peace agreement. The case takes the perspective of Colombia’s President...

    • 2022
    • Working Paper

    Speedy Activists: Firm Reaction Time to Sociopolitical Events Influences Consumer Behavior

    By: Jimin Nam, M. Balakrishnan, Julian De Freitas and Alison Wood Brooks

About the Unit

The NOM Unit seeks to understand and improve the design and management of systems in which people make decisions: that is, design and management of negotiations, organizations, and markets. In addition, members of the group share an abiding interest in the micro foundations of these phenomena.

Our work is grounded in the power of strategic interaction to encourage individuals and organizations to create and sustain value (in negotiations, in organizations, and in markets). We explore these interactions through diverse approaches: Although many of us have training in economics, we also have members with backgrounds in social psychology, sociology, and law.

NOM seeks to apply rigorous scientific methods to real-world problems -- producing research and pedagogy that is compelling to both the academy and practitioners.

Recent Publications

Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering

By: Gary Pisano and Francesca Gino
  • August 2022 |
  • Teaching Plan |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb

By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi
  • 2022 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian names experienced a 12 percent decline in guests relative to hosts with distinctively White names. In contrast, we do not see spikes in discrimination against Black or Hispanic hosts. Our results suggest that the rise in anti-Asian sentiment in 2020 translated to discrimination in economic activity, highlighting the ways in which scapegoating minority groups can shape markets. Our results also point to the role of platform design choices in enabling discrimination.
Keywords: Discrimination; Behavioral Economics; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Prejudice and Bias; Digital Platforms; Design
Related

Negotiating Peace in Colombia

By: Deepak Malhotra and Cody Smith
  • August 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This case follows the protracted armed conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), tracing it from its origins over 50 years ago, through the private and public negotiations that ultimately resulted in the 2016 comprehensive peace agreement. The case takes the perspective of Colombia’s President (2010-2018), Juan Manuel Santos, who must craft a strategy for ending the armed conflict, and then decide what to do after his signature achievement, a peace agreement painstakingly negotiated to end the 52-year civil war, is narrowly defeated in a national referendum. The case allows for the discussion of the barriers to deal-making in difficult, high-stakes, and complex disputes, as well as the keys to overcoming these barriers when numerous previous attempts to negotiate an agreement have failed. The case also sheds light on the leadership and strategic challenges that surface when you have to manage a diverse group of powerful stakeholders, all with a different view on what constitutes a just peace.
Keywords: Conflict; Peace Process; Dispute Resolution; Protracted Conflicts; Peacemaking; Civil War; Negotiation; Leadership; Conflict and Resolution; Government Administration; Colombia
Related

Timely Statements: Swift Brand Activism Is the Most Effective and Memorable

By: Julian De Freitas, Jimin Nam, M. Balakrishnan and Alison Wood Brooks
  • 10 Nov 2022 - 13 Nov 2022 |
  • Conference Presentation |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Speedy Activists: Firm Reaction Time to Sociopolitical Events Influences Consumer Behavior

By: Jimin Nam, M. Balakrishnan, Julian De Freitas and Alison Wood Brooks
  • 2022 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Related

To Drive Efforts...Don't Tiptoe Around Your Legal Risk

By: Edward Chang and Bonnie Levine
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
Many Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are scuttled because DEI leaders and legal teams feel themselves to be at odds over questions of acceptable risk. DEI leaders see lawyers as guardians of the status quo, whereas legal experts, trained to anticipate the worst, believe they are protecting the company from legal risk. However, as the authors point out, businesses routinely choose to accept significant legal risk. In most situations they’re confronted with a risk-reward calculus that’s easy to quantify. But with DEI that’s harder, because the only thing on the balance sheet is the cost. Absent a foundation of trust and support, lawyers are skittish about signing off on initiatives, and the business is more likely to waste resources on performative exercises. And bad DEI poses a greater risk than does good DEI. When it comes to establishing a productive partnership between DEI leaders and legal counsel, the key is to collaborate early and often. In this article, the authors provide a framework to help you balance the nuances of legal risk with the need to implement effective initiatives.
Keywords: Diversity; Risk Management; Legal Liability
Related

Automating Short-Term Payroll Savings: Initial Evidence from a Large U.K. Experiment

By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, James J. Choi and David Laibson
  • 2022 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Automatic enrollment is often used to increase retirement plan participation. Can it be used to increase short-term savings as well? We evaluate preliminary data from an experiment at a large U.K. employer. After years of offering opt-in short-term payroll savings via a credit union, the employer introduced opt-out savings for new hires beginning in November 2021. We review initial data from the experiment. In tenure month 4, we find that scheme participation was roughly 50 percentage points higher when new hires were automatically enrolled, and balances were £68 higher.
Keywords: Retirement Savings; Participation; Automatic Enrollment; Retirement; Human Resources
Related

Strategic Complexity? Using Experiments to Understand and Overcome Obfuscation

By: Michael Luca, Ginger Zhe Jin and Daniel Martin
  • July 29, 2022 |
  • Other Article |
  • INFORMS Journal on Data Science
Credit card companies must decide what product features to disclose to consumers, such as payment schedules, penalties, and fees--and also whether to present them clearly or bury them in the fine print. Firms face similar choices in settings ranging from privacy policies to quarterly financial disclosures. This exposes a challenge at the heart of disclosure design: Companies have discretion about not only what information to disclose to customers but also how to disclose it. Increasingly, and across a wide variety of industries, consumers are bombarded with complex information from companies, which has the potential to undermine the value of disclosure. New research by Jin, Luca, and Martin, published in Management Science, suggests that complexity might arise from the strategic incentives that companies face and that complexity might lead consumers to make systematic mistakes that are not in their own interest.
Related
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Contact Information

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit
Harvard Business School
Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
NOM@hbs.edu