Publications

January 2001 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Range, The (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Tracy Thompson and Michael Smith

Reveals the potential benefits and pitfalls of reorganization into teams in order to respond to environmental change. Takes place in the newsroom of a metropolitan daily newspaper. Both management and employees struggle to find new balance after a major restructuring... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Groups and Teams; Restructuring; Balance and Stability; Organizational Structure; Business Processes; Journalism and News Industry

Find at Harvard

27 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Manly Men, Oil Platforms, and Breaking Stereotypes

Harvard Business School professors often travel into the field to conduct business research, but it's a safe bet none have had the experience of Professor Robin Ely. She and coauthor Debra Meyerson of Stanford University took helicopter trips to deep-water oil... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

04 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Unravelling in Two-Sided Matching Markets and Similarity of Preferences

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda

July 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (A)

Introduces a "new-economy" company, Madison Avenue, facing challenges of mega-success. In the two years since its founding, the company's revenues have grown from zero to nearly $30 million, head count has swollen from the start-up handful to more than 200, and the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

2007
Working Paper

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give a manager 'interpersonal authority' over employees (in a world with differing priors). The paper derives such interpersonal authority as... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Boundaries; Theory

SSRN

February 2016 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (B)

By: John Beshears, Patrick Rooney and Jenny Sanford

The pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) sector processes prescription drug claims on behalf of companies that offer a prescription drug benefit to their employees. This case follows Bob Nease, Chief Scientist at Express Scripts, as he considers methods to promote home... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Prescription Drugs; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; PBM; Healthcare; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Active Choice; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Decision Choices and Conditions; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Compensation and Benefits

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2004: Discovery

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

After nearly five years in operation, Doctor Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), was reflecting on the company’s next steps. In a few short years, she and her small team had managed to develop a nanoparticle process for... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Biotechnology Industry

April 2012
Article

The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose

By: Alessandro Acquisti, Leslie John and George Loewenstein

Two sets of studies illustrate the comparative nature of disclosure behavior. The first set investigates how divulgence is affected by signals about others' readiness to divulge. Study 1A shows a "herding" effect, such that survey respondents are more willing to... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Surveys; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Judgments; Consumer Behavior; Standards

02 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 2, 2018

innovation processes could be a major blind spot and a potential liability. Fewer than one-third (30%) of respondents see innovation as one of the top three challenges their company faces in achieving its strategic objectives, and just... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Selling your Heritage: The Challenge of Legacy Divestitures

This paper studies companies that diversify away from and later divest their historical cores, or "legacy" businesses. There are many reasons a firm might undertake this strategy, including a concentration of the legacy business in a declining... View Details

15 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

A Better Business Model for Fighting Cancer

need for genetic testing. Business techniques employed include developing an emotive brand to draw people in; using more social media; employing jargon-free language; and “making everything simple and straightforward, from our registration View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health; Pharmaceutical

October 2007
Background Note

Price Formation

By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford

Investigates how prices are formed in competitive capital markets. Focuses on a single security called AOE. Students compete with computer traders and each other for market making and informed trading profits. Participants receive a variety of public news in the form... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Price; Profit; Corporate Disclosure; Newsletters; Industry Structures; Business Processes; Competitive Strategy

15 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 15, 2007

Working PapersI'll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders Authors:Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract How do decisions for the near future... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate and Integrated Reporting: A Functional Perspective

Keywords: by Robert Eccles & George Serafeim

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

mainstream press, led to the 2011 book The Progress Principle—a guide for managers who want to provide catalysts for progress among their employees. But the research also revealed a more meta result: Amabile realized the extent to which people volunteer their inner... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

Find at Harvard

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

Rapidly Developed Patient-Centered Outcome Measures By: Shah, Kevin P., Tracy E. Spinks, and Thomas W. Feeley Abstract—In 2014, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center created a streamlined process for developing measure sets... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2009
Supplement

KPMG (B): Risk and Reform

By: Robert G. Eccles and Eliot Sherman

Under the leadership of Tim Flynn, Chairman and CEO of KPMG, the firm made a number of changes in compensation, governance, and culture in order to address the underlying reasons for actions that occurred prior to him becoming CEO that led to the accounting giant... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

August 2023
Case

Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Fares Khrais and Namrata Arora

In 2017, Fatih Uysal (AMP 2021) became CEO of Kariyer.net. By then, the business was already the industry leading online job board in Turkey. However, faced with stalling growth, a turbulent macroenvironment, and growing competition from international players, Uysal... View Details