Publications

We hypothesize that sharing a birthday is sufficient to create a unit relationship. Two studies demonstrated that individuals cooperated more in a prisoners dilemma game when their (fictitious) opponent shared their birthday. They also reacted…

This research examines the persuasive effect of emotional appeals on members of collectivist versus individualist cultures. The results of two experiments demonstrate that ego-focused (e.g., pride, happiness) versus other-focused (e.g., empathy,…

This article reflects upon and updates our prize-winning paper, ‘First-mover advantages,’ which was published in SMJ 10 years ago. We discuss the evolution of the literature over the past decade and suggest opportunities for continuing research.…

Distrust and suspicion are common and recurring problems at all levels of social organization, ranging from the interpersonal to the collective. Unfortunately, our understanding of the origins and dynamics of such distrust and suspicion…

We review studies of organizational demography that show empirical relationships between the length of service (tenure) distribution and organizational outcomes. Our theoretical reformulation of the typical explanation offered for these…

We review recent literature on competitive reactions and strategic thinking and offer several observations. Evidence is mounting that strategic thinking is an unnatural act, made difficult by natural individual biases and organizational…

The characteristics of the “risk-adjusted rating” (RAR) on which Morningstar bases its “star ratings” and “category ratings” are analyzed, and the RAR is compared with more traditional mean–variance measures. The RAR measure has…

This article explores the use of logical formalization to clarify an area of research characterized by conflicting claims and divergent empirical findings. The substantive focus concerns the relation between organization age and the hazard of…

This study examines characteristics and valuation of claim loss reserves of property casualty insurers. Using SEC disclosures of revisions (development) in loss reserve estimates, we document substantial serial correlation in loss reserve…

We examine the effect of underwriting relationships on analysts’ earnings forecasts and recommendations. Lead and co-underwriter analysts’ growth forecasts and recommendations are significantly more favorable than those made by unaffiliated…

Salesperson and executive compensation contracts typically specify a nonlinear relationship between firm revenues and pay. These agents therefore have incentive to manipulate prices, influence the timing of customer purchases, and vary effort…

The authors derive a theoretical relationship between the aggregate market share elasticity matrix and the aggregate brand switching matrix on the basis of a logit model of heterogeneous consumers choosing among competing brands in a product…

This study tests predictions that pricing multiples on and incremental explanatory power of equity book value (net income) increase (decrease) as financial health decreases. Tests using a sample of 396 bankrupt firms and tests using a larger,…

Even after a quarter of a century, the groupthink hypothesis remains an influential framework for understanding the origins of group decision making fiascoes. Much of the original empirical evidence for this hypothesis was derived from a…

This study provides evidence on the relevance and reliability of option pricing-based value estimates for bonds and their components, i.e., conversion, call, put and sinking fund features. Findings reveal component value estimates represent large…

We identify and analyze a class of economies with asymmetric information that we call quasi-complete. For quasi-complete economies we determine equilibrium trades, show that the set of fully informative equilibria is a singleton, and give…

We propose an approach to the predictive validation of conjoint models that overcomes several limitations of current approaches. There are situations in which a company, after completing a conjoint study, can compare the actual sales of two (or…