Publications

May 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Symyx Technologies, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Courtney Purrington and Thomas D. Perry

Symyx is a science-based company spun out of Berkeley. Its unique materials technology has been exploited for 10 years, but the company needs a new business model. The company concept required the invention of hardware and software to do high throughput materials... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Transition; Engineering; Technological Innovation; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Science-Based Business; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software

Article

Don't Stop Believing: Rituals Improve Performance by Decreasing Anxiety

By: Alison Wood Brooks, Julianna Schroeder, Jane Risen, Francesca Gino, Adam D. Galinsky, Michael I. Norton and Maurice Schweitzer

From public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Performance; Emotions

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14 Aug 2023
Blog Post

Crossing the Bridge: A Reflection on the HKS/HBS Joint Degree Program

has allowed me unbridled access to world-renowned faculty whose experiences span the public and private sectors. One-off conversations with professors have literally led to entire career shifts for me. I was... View Details

July 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Digitas (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley Robertson

Raises issues about how the nature and function of a board changes as its company moves from ownership by its employees (including the founder) to ownership by a private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman, to public ownership. Teaching Purpose: To consider changes in... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Behavior; Organizations; Employee Ownership; Public Ownership

16 Feb 2017
News

Growth uncertainty grips corporate boards: Survey

January 16, 2020
Article

How Global Leaders Should Think About Solving Our Biggest Problems

By: Mark R. Kramer, Marc W. Pfitzer and Helge Mahne

The corporate social conscience will soon be on full display in Davos, Switzerland, where global leaders from business, government, and civil society will assemble on January 21 for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Global Range; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy

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March 2020
Article

Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments

By: Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim

Concerns about high rates of government corruption in resource-rich countries have led transparency advocates to urge oil and gas firms to disclose payments to host governments for natural resources. Transparency, they argue, can increase government accountability and... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Corruption; Transparency; Self-regulation; Industry Self-regulation; Regulation; Disclosure; Disclosure Regulation; Energy Sources; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Energy Industry

SSRN

21 Nov 2013
News

Building a culture of entrepreneurs

March 2022
Teaching Note

Sawiris Foundation: Elevating Education in Egypt

By: Brian Trelstad and Alpana Thapar

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 322-023. Founded in 2001 by the Sawiris family, one of the wealthiest families in Egypt, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) invested in human capital and provision of basic social services for the most marginalized... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Human Capital; Equality and Inequality; Education; Business Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; Egypt

April 2021
Case

Glass-Shattering Leaders: Barbara Hackman Franklin

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

Barbara Hackman Franklin was one of the first women to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. She went on to break barriers in the private and public sectors, rising to leadership positions in business and government. In the 1970s, she led a successful White House... View Details

Keywords: Glass Ceiling; Leadership; Gender; Power and Influence

Innovation, in cities and other contexts, often involves adaptation and repurposing, a program scaled to another place or a private sector tool tweaked for public use. But starting from scratch and doing something truly new can sometimes be the key to solving... View Details

October 1998
Case

CRA Managed Care, Inc. (C)

By: Myra M. Hart and Susan Harmeling

Chronicles an entrepreneur's transition from chairman/CEO of a large privately held company, to chairman of a public company, to board member, to president of several major nonprofit boards, to founder of a new nonprofit for women business owners and founder of a new... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Management Skills; United States

May 2011
Article

Institutional Stock Trading on Loan Market Information

By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun

Over the past decade, one of the most important developments in the corporate loan market has been the increasing participation of institutional investors in lending syndicates. As lenders, institutional investors routinely receive private information about borrowers.... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Financing and Loans; Negotiation; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

29 Jan 2018
News

Restoring Trust in Leadership

December 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

U.S. Digital Service

By: Mitchell Weiss, Nick Sinai and Michael Norris

Mikey Dickerson and Haley Van Dyck found themselves far from home and far from certain about where to take the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) next. In the summer of 2015, they had landed in London to meet with Mike Bracken, director of the United Kingdom’s Government... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Haley Van Dyck; Mikey Dickerson; United States Digital Service; Digital Services; Innovation Teams; Scaling Innovation; 18F; Presidential Innovation Fellows; Government Digital Service; Mike Bracken; Innovation Fellowships; Entrepreneurship; Government Administration; Innovation and Management; United States; United Kingdom

19 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Connecting School Ties and Stock Recommendations

social networks in the form of school ties—bonds formed based on attendance at a common educational institution—helped equity analysts outperform on stock recommendations when the analysts enjoyed an educational link with a company's View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

Research Summary

Long-Run Performance Following Equity Issue

By: Paul A. Gompers

In an effort to establish how the transition from private to public firm affects performance, Paul A. Gompers is examining the long-run performance of companies that issue equity in an initial public or seasoned offering. He is also attempting to determine whether... View Details

2021
Working Paper

The Business of K-12 Education in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper examines the evolution of K-12 education in China, especially between 1985 and the present day, drawing extensive interviews with participants in the educational sector. China has been hugely successful in reaching almost 100 percent literacy,... View Details

Keywords: K-12 Education; China; Real Estate; Early Childhood Education; Performance Evaluation; Teaching; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; Nonprofit Organizations; Private Sector; Education Industry; Real Estate Industry; China