ERIC VAN DEN STEEN
October 2011
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall 242
Boston, MA 02138

EMPLOYMENT

Associate Professor of Business Administration & Marvin Bower Fellow, Harvard Business School, 2011-current

Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, 2008-2011

Assistant Professor of Applied Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management, 2001-2008

Associate, McKinsey & Company, 1994-96

Research Assistant (Mobile Robotics), Royal Military Academy, 1993

Consultant, Arthur D. Little, 1992

President, VTK vzw, 1990

Co-Founder, Deltax cv, 1986-88

 

EDUCATION


Ph.D. Economic Analysis and Policy, Stanford Graduate School of Business, May 2001
Dissertation: Essays on the Managerial Implications of Differing Priors
Committee: D. John Roberts (chair), Edward P. Lazear, Garth Saloner

M.B.A., University of Chicago, March 1994, Honors

Special Program in Philosopy, KULeuven, Belgium, June 1993, Summa Cum Laude

Licenciate Business, KULeuven, Belgium, July 1991, Magna Cum Laude

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, KULeuven, Belgium, July 1990, Magna Cum Laude
 

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS


Economics of Organizations and Strategy
 

 

PUBLICATIONS

"Overconfidence by Bayesian Rational Agents." Management Science 57, no. 5 (2011): 884-896

“On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture).” Rand Journal of Economics 41, no. 4 (Winter 2010): 617-648

“Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity.” Management Science 56, no. 10 (2010): 1718-1738

“Disagreement and the Allocation of Control.” The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 26, no. 2 (2010): 385-426

“Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm.” American Economic Review 100, no. 1 (2010): 466–90.

Deishin, Lee, and Eric Van den Steen. “Managing Know-How.” Management Science 56, no. 2 (2010): 270 – 85.

“Authority versus Persuasion.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 99, no. 2 (2009): 448 – 53.

“Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision.” The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 21, no. 1 (2005): 256 – 83.

“Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases).” American Economic Review 94, no. 4 (2004): 1141 – 51.

Roberts, John and Eric Van den Steen, “Human Capital and Corporate Governance.” In Corporate Governance: Essays in Honor of Horst Albach, edited by Horst Albach and Joachim Schwalbach, 128 – 44. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2001.

 

WORKING PAPERS

"A Theory of Strategy and the Role of Leaders in it" October 2011, mimeo

"The Cost of Incentives under Disagreement: Too Motivated " March 2007, working paper

"The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination" June 2006, working paper

"Equity Participations and Hold-up," July 2000, working paper

"The Threat of Bankruptcy Can Solve the Hold-up Problem," July 2000, working paper

 

WORK IN PROGRESS

"Rules, Reputation, and Firm Performance"

"The Problem with Persuasion"

"Disagreement versus the Coase Theorem, with an Application to Firm Boundaries"

"An Economic Theory of the Firm as a Legal Entity"

"The Value of Being Vague"


 

HONORS


Marvin Bower Fellow, HBS, 2011-current

Excellence in Teaching Award, MIT-Sloan, 2004

Zenon Zannetos Career Development Chair 2004-2007

Jaedicke Scholar, 1997 and 1998

CIM/ICM Fellow, 1996-2000

Beta Gamma Sigma, 1994

Fulbright Scholar, 1992

Valedictorian at KULeuven engineering graduation ceremony, 1990