Publications

2019
Article

Industrie-Holding: Creating a Community of Interest among Swiss 'Multinationals'

By: Sabine Pitteloud

This article focuses on the genesis and evolution of Industrie-Holding, a federation of Swiss multinationals, from 1942 onwards. Thanks to recent donations from the Alusuisse and Hero archives, historians now have access to the minutes of the Industrie-Holding... View Details

Keywords: Business ＆ Government Relations; Multinationals; Lobbying; Business and Government Relations; Multinational Firms and Management; Switzerland

September 1997 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Adelphia Communications Corporation

By: Paul M. Healy

A bank officer must make a loan application decision for a large but financially troubled cable broadcaster. View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; Decision Choices and Conditions; Contracts; Telecommunications Industry

Educators

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

June 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Background Note

Visualizing Data & Effective Communication

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

This note explores three specific ways an analyst can use visualization. Section 1 considers visualization to explore data. Section 2 discusses visualization as a tool for developing a deeper understanding of trends and phenomena encoded in the data. Section 3... View Details

Keywords: Data Visualization; Graphical Guidelines; Charts; Analytics and Data Science; Communication

Educators

27 May 2015
News

Hannah Merves (MBA 2015) Wins Dean’s Award for Service to Harvard Business School Community and Beyond

2022
Case

Marathon Petroleum and Southwest Detroit: The Intersection of Community and Environment

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Environmental racism describes the unequal burden of environmental hazards placed on disadvantaged communities through systems, policies, and practices. In such a situation, these people disproportionately live close to sources of toxic waste-what are referred to as... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Regulation; Pollutants; Pollution; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Poverty; Race; Health Disorders; Ethics

March 2025
Supplement

Fostering Community at Airbnb (B)

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Heather Whiteman and Sarah Mehta

This case provides updates to “Fostering Community at Airbnb (A),” case no. 425-045. View Details

Keywords: Change; Communication; Competency and Skills; Human Resources; Information; Information Technology; Accommodations Industry; Technology Industry; Travel Industry; United States; California

2007
Working Paper

Ethnic Scientific Communities and International Technology Diffusion

By: William R. Kerr

11 Nov 2019
Blog Post

The Military Community at HBS

In this Facebook Live session, HBS Professor George Riedel chats with current students about their path to HBS, tips during the application process, the military community, and resources available to students (and their families) at HBS... View Details

03 Apr 2024
Video

All In, Everybody In: Community at HBS

Research Summary

Performance Pricing and Business Strategy

This research focuses on companies that have sustained high willingness-to-pay over diverse market conditions, including economic slumps. It examines how firms identify, articulate, and communicate value to selected customer groups and the organizational implications,... View Details

March 2023
Module Note

Communication as a Trusted Advisor

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "Communication as a Trusted Advisor" provides best practices for communicating as an advisor across multiple contexts. View Details

Keywords: Communication

February 1986 (Revised March 1986)
Case

American Communications (A)

By: D. Quinn Mills and G. Bruce Friesen

28 Mar 2017
Video

Joining the LGBT Community at HBS

06 Feb 2025
News

When Migrants and Locals Innovate Together, Communities Gain

2011
Working Paper

Organizations in the Shadow of Communities

By: Siobhan O'Mahony and Karim R. Lakhani

The concept of a community form is drawn upon in many subfields of organizational theory. Although there is not much convergence on a level of analysis, there is convergence on a mode of action that is increasingly relevant to a knowledge-based economy marked by porous... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Organizational Culture; Civil Society or Community; Boundaries; Information Technology; Theory; Value Creation

January 2025
Article

Communication Within Firms: Evidence from CEO Turnovers

By: Stephen Michael Impink, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

This paper uses novel, firm-level communication measures derived from communications metadata several months before and after a CEO transition for 102 firms to study whether and how this organizational event is reflected in employees’ communication flows. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Information; Communication; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Alignment

Register to Read

December 2014
Article

The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization

By: Nicholas Bloom, Luis Garicano, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

Empirical studies on information communication technologies (ICT) typically aggregate the "information" and "communication" components together. We show theoretically and empirically that this is problematic. Information and communication technologies have very... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Information Technology; Organizational Structure