Knowledge Hub
Emotional Manipulation By AI Companions
Julian De Freitas, Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp, Ahmet Kaan-Uğuralp
HBS Working Paper, 2025
AI-companion apps such as Replika, Chai, and Character.ai promise relational benefits—yet many boast session lengths that rival gaming platforms while suffering high long-run churn.
A New Framework For Reducing Healthcare Disparities
Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski, Lidia Moura, Katie Sonnefeldt
Article, 2025
Despite decades of initiatives to address healthcare inequities in the U.S., disparities across race, gender, geography, and income remain stubbornly persistent.
Gender Disparities In Compensation Of Practicing Cardiothoracic Surgeons: Analyzing The Society Of Thoracic Surgeons Compensation Survey
Cherie Erkmen, Anastasiia Tompkins, Shanda Blackmon, Larry Kaiser, Susanna Gallani, Jennifer Romano, Thomas MacGillivray, Michael Mack
Article, 2025
BACKGROUND: Gender-based pay disparity in compensation is widespread.
Employee Stress Is A Business Risk—Not An HR Problem
Marion Chomse, Lydia Roos, Reeva Misra, Ashley Whillans
Editorial, 2025
Workplace stress, on the rise for decades, has been treated by many organizations as a personal issue instead of a business-critical risk that merits executive oversight.
Eliciting Advice Instead Of Feedback Improves Developmental Input
Hayley Blunden, Ariella Kristal, Ashley Whillans, Jaewon Yoon, Hannah Burd, Georgina Bremner, Michael Yeomans
Article, 2025
Most organizations encourage employees to provide feedback to one another to support learning, personal growth, and career advancement.
Unregulated Emotional Risks Of AI Wellness Apps
Julian De Freitas, Glenn Cohen
Article, 2025
We propose that AI-driven wellness apps powered by large language models can foster extreme emotional attachments and dependencies akin to human relationships—posing risks like ambiguous loss and dysfunctional dependence—that challenge current regulatory frameworks and necessitate safeguards and informed interventions within these platforms.
Don’t Let An AI Failure Harm Your Brand
Julian De Freitas
Article, 2025
How companies market their AI systems affects the repercussions they face when their products fail. Marketers must promote their AI products with potential failure in mind.
Balancing Engagement And Polarization: Multi-Objective Alignment Of News Content Using LLMs
Mengjie Cheng, Elie Ofek, Hema Yoganarasimhan
HBS Working Paper, 2025
We study how media firms can use LLMs to generate news content that aligns with multiple objectives—making content more engaging while maintaining a preferred level of polarization/slant consistent with the firm’s editorial policy.
Ideation With Generative AI—In Consumer Research And Beyond
Julian De Freitas, Gideon Nave, Stefano Puntoni
Article, 2025
The use of large language models (LLMs) in consumer research is rapidly evolving, with applications including synthetic data generation, data analysis, and more.
Why People Resist Embracing AI
Julian De Freitas
Article, 2025
The success of AI depends not only on its capabilities, which are becoming more advanced each day, but on people’s willingness to harness them.
Disclosure, Humanizing, And Contextual Vulnerability Of Generative AI Chatbots
Julian De Freitas, I. Glenn Cohen
Article, 2025
In the wake of recent advancements in generative AI, regulatory bodies are trying to keep pace.
Overcoming Barriers To Employee Ownership: Insights From Small And Medium-Sized Businesses
John Guzek, Ashley Whillans
Article, 2025
This research investigates the limited adoption of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) among small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S.
Reducing Prejudice With Counter-Stereotypical AI
Erik Hermann, Julian De Freitas, Stefano Puntoni
Article, 2025
Based on a review of relevant literature, we propose that the proliferation of AI with human-like and social features presents an unprecedented opportunity to address the underlying cognitive and affective drivers of prejudice.
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness
Julian De Freitas, Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp, Ahmet Uğuralp, Stefano Puntoni
Article, 2025
Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping solution to widescale societal loneliness.
How Firms Respond To Worker Activism: Evidence From Global Supply Chains
Yanhua Bird, Jodi Short, Michael Toffel
HBS Working Paper, 2025
Social movement pressures can lead organizations to concede and improve social performance to avoid disruption costs, but we theorize that such responses evoke concession costs that prompt organizations to shift resources and attention from other social domains whose performance suffers.
An Empirical Examination Of Business Climate Alliances: Effective And/Or Harmful?
Matteo Gasparini, Peter Tufano
HBS Working Paper, 2025
This research studies business alliances that seek to address climate change, offering empirical evidence to address claims advanced by alliance supporters and critics.
Data-Driven Technologies And Local Information Advantages In Small Business Lending
Wilbur Chen, Jung Koo Kang, Aditya Mohan
HBS Working Paper, 2025
We investigate whether banks' adoption of data-driven technologies influences competitive dynamics in local small business lending by diminishing the information advantages traditionally held by local banks.
What Board-Level Control Mechanisms Changed In Banks Following The 2008 Financial Crisis? A Descriptive Study
Shelly Li, Shivram Rajgopal, Suraj Srinivasan, Yu Ting Wong
Article, 2025
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) identified major shortcomings in bank board governance, contributing to systemic risk management failures.