Publications

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02 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

Are Employees Becoming Job 'Renters' Instead of 'Owners'?

attitude, even if they’re tenured.” Bill Fotsch disagreed with the assumption underlying that observation, when he said, “My sense is most employees don’t come to a job as renters or owners. The management... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

01 Feb 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Noncompetes and Inventor Mobility: Specialists, Stars, and the Michigan Experiment

Keywords: by Matt Marx, Deborah Strumsky & Lee Fleming

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

In recent years, I have been inside nearly two dozen turnaround situations, in various stages of progress, in which new leaders were bringing distressed organizations back from the brink View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Jorge Tamayo

Jorge Tamayo is an assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy Unit. He teaches the Strategy course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Tamayo is an applied microeconomist primarily interested in industrial organization and... View Details

01 Jun 2009
News

Can’t Forget the Motor City

In a flurry of activity in Detroit in March, the acronym “HBS” was almost as much in evidence as “GM.” It wasn’t just the departure of GM chief... View Details

Keywords: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers; Retail Trade; Transportation

22 Feb 2022
News

Q&A: The Post-Pandemic Path

Yes, overall, the US business sector has been remarkably strong in this crisis, but there has been a lot of reallocation between sectors. Roughly 400,000 firms in View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Apr 1998
News

Plunging Into the Net

Technology has a way of seeping into our lives. On our first encounter with a microwave, an answering machine, an ATM, a cellular phone, or a video camera, each of these innovations probably seemed foreign,... View Details

16 Apr 2013
News

A Walkabout to the Ocean

Merkl: Managing water resources for a sustainable future. Photo Courtesy of Andreas Merkl They say all rivers lead to the sea. If that is true, then it's only fitting that Andreas Merkl (MBA 1989) should... View Details

Keywords: Ocean; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Administration of Environmental Quality Programs

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

and successful systems will make sure that customers benefit from marketing relationships as much as firms do. Competition and brand reputations have traditionally been the market's way View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry

By: Malcolm Baker

I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Valuation; Venture Capital; Investment; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality

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August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging

By: Willy Shih

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details

May 2012 (Revised November 2015)
Case

The National Geographic Society (A) (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin and Annelena Lobb

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.–based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Change Management; Media And Publishing; Digital Convergence; Strategy Development; Business Models; Information Publishing; Online Technology; Business Model; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

The Organizational Model for Open Source

mailing address, their capital needs are minimal. People are intimately aware of the fact that too much structure will disenfranchise the very... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

November 1993
Supplement

Sierra On-Line (C): The Insiders' Perspective, An Interview with Ken and Roberta Williams

Presents the insiders' perspective using an interview format. Ken and Roberta Williams, Sierra's founders, discuss issues raised in the (A) and (B) cases and present their vision to become the world leader in educational software. Teaching Purpose: Analysts typically... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Management Teams; Education Industry

September 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

J.P. Morgan Private Bank: Risk Management during the Financial Crisis 2008-2009

By: Anette Mikes, Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

Mary Erdoes, the CEO of JP Morgan's asset management business, and three colleagues provide insights into risk management issues faced by the firm's private bank during the financial crisis in 2008–2009. The case provides perspective on the philosophy with which they... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods; Banking Industry; United States

2010
Book

The Big Ditch: How America Took, Built, Ran, and Ultimately Gave Away the Panama Canal

By: Noel Maurer and Carlos Yu

On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal was officially opened for business, thus changing the face of both world trade and military power and playing a pivotal role in the rise of the United States on the world stage. Today we view the creation of the Panama Canal as a... View Details

Keywords: Political History; For-Profit Firms; Development Economics; Infrastructure; State Ownership; Ship Transportation; Panama; United States

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October 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Supplement

PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fabrizio Fantini

PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details

2019
Article

Creativity from Paradoxical Experience: A Theory of How Individuals Achieve Creativity while Adopting Paradoxical Frames

By: Goran Calic, Sébastien Hélie, Nick Bontis and Elaine Mosakowski

Purpose: Extant paradox theory suggests that adopting paradoxical frames, which are mental templates adopted by individuals in order to embrace contradictions, will result in superior firm performance. Superior performance is achieved through learning and creativity,... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Learning