Publications

February 2012
Article

Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

US productivity growth accelerated after 1995 (unlike Europe's), particularly in sectors that intensively use information technologies (IT). Using two new micro panel datasets we show that US multinationals operating in Europe also experienced a "productivity miracle."... View Details

Keywords: IT Productivity; American IT Productivity; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; United States; Europe

September 2013 (Revised October 2016)
Background Note

A Note on Healthcare IT and Applications to the Healthcare Industry

By: Robert F. Higgins and Diana Maichin

This note provides an overview of three key healthcare IT areas: electronic medical records and electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and telemedicine. This note also contains a glossary of key terms and acronyms in this space as well as exhibits... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Industry; Healthcare IT; Healthcare; Healthcare Technology; Healthcare Ventures; Electronic Medical Records; Electronic Health Records; Revenue Cycle Management; Telemedicine; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Information Management; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; United States

June 2013
Background Note

Venture Philanthropy: Its Evolution and Its Future

By: Allen Grossman, Sarah Appleby and Caitlin Reimers

This note explores the current state of venture philanthropy in the U.S. and its future. Based on interviews with 28 practitioners in the field of philanthropy and a review of the literature since the publication of the article introducing the concept of venture... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Nonprofit; Social Institutions; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Civil Society or Community; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States

20 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Power Posing: Fake It Until You Make It

there is established research showing that while it's true that facial expressions reflect how you feel, you can also 'fake it until you make it.' In other words, you can smile long enough that it makes you... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

08 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

You Won't Make It If You Fake It

The cover of last January's Harvard Business Review featured the subhead, "When it's OK to fake it till you make it." “Faking it” is the antithesis of authentic leadership. Following this advice is the most likely path to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

12 Dec 2015
News

You Won't Make It If You Fake It

01 Jun 2018
News

Floor It

research ecosystem have delayed the delivery of lifesaving advances. Think of it as a plumbing problem: The third-floor shower in an old house doesn’t have enough water pressure. The problem may be with the third-floor pipe, but it’s far... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustration by Mengxin Li

March 2008
Article

Radically Simple IT

Many managers think that developing and rolling out a major IT system is like putting up a warehouse: You build it and you're done. But that does not work for IT anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are... View Details

Keywords: Design; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

21 Nov 2023
News

Employee Negativity Is Like Wildfire. Manage It Before It Spreads.

June 2012
Case

Microsoft IT India

By: Willy C. Shih, Margaret Pierson, Alexander Down, William Gustave Jair-Shemuel Jurist, Diego Medicina and Helen Wang

Raj Biyani faced tough challenges managing Microsoft IT India: leading a remote development organization in which key decisions were made in Redmond, and managing an organization that was perceived as less strategic than its sister Microsoft India Development Center... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Development; Cross-functional Management; Foreign Subsidiaries; Strategy Alignment; Organizational Behavior; Indian Software Development; Global Distributed R＆D; Software Industry; Organizational Structure; Research and Development; Operations; Leadership; Globalized Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; India

16 Feb 2010
News

Winging It

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

Harvard Business Review editor-at-large, Nicholas G. Carr, ignited a firestorm in the opinion piece "Why IT Doesn't Matter" published in the May 2003 issue of HBR. Carr's argument wasn't exactly that View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

29 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Whence IT Value?

During the past few years inventory turns among U.S. manufacturers have climbed steadily, and it appears as if productivity has improved nicely. One explanation for these happy trends is that the massive investments we've been making in... View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

18 Apr 2022
HBS Case

Dick’s Sporting Goods Followed Its Conscience on Guns—and It Paid Off

Days after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, a shaken Ed Stack, then the CEO and largest shareholder of Dick’s Sporting Goods, decided it was time for his 850-store chain to pull certain guns off View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

31 Oct 2019
News

Boeing’s CEO Says Its Culture Will Fix Its Problems. Experts Say It May Be to Blame

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 18 Jan 2018
Webinars: Trending@HBS

ESG Investing: What It Is and How to Use It

Integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues in investment decisions has been adopted by an increasing number of investors. However, there is still substantial confusion about how ESG investing can be used, when it can deliver better risk-adjusted... View Details

20 Sep 2010
News

Power Posing: Fake It Until You Make It

Research Summary

When Does IT Foster Markets, When Does it Foster Hierarchies?

The 'Electronic Markets Hypothesis' is, at present, essentially taken for granted. It holds that greater use of IT leads to greater use of market mechanisms for coordinating activity, basically because of IT's ability to reduce the costs of coordination.

The... View Details

June 2004 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Zara: IT for Fast Fashion

In 2003, Zara's CIO must decide whether to upgrade the retailer's IT infrastructure and capabilities. At the time of the case, the company relies on an out-of-date operating system for its store terminals and has no full-time network in place across stores. Despite... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Management; Infrastructure; Supply Chain Management; Information Technology; Retail Industry