Disciplines - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

co-written with James Barnett and Christine Snively. A tale of two cultures From the very start, Amazon made its name on being fast, cheap, and efficient—using data to drive its product mix and enforcing strict employee discipline to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

elites and the regime’s ability to discipline the financial system. The ultimate insights from the book include the idea that business elites can hold a “disruptive” power over political elites, forcing them to change policies and address... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

conversations are decidedly not the norm. Nor do those who follow and practice strategic management theory recognize that organizations must be disciplined enough to carry out such conversations to avoid the typical gyrations in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

23 Apr 2024
In Practice

Getting to Net Zero: The Climate Standards and Ecosystem the World Needs Now

With each month clocking record-breaking temperatures across the planet, this Earth Day reflected the renewed urgency of regulators and businesses to find climate-change solutions. The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently adopted new rules that will mandate... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

Selling China: Foreign Direct Investment During the Reform Era

The aim of the book is to illustrate the dynamics of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China in the 1990s. The topic is important both because China is the world's second largest recipient of FDI and because there are substantial misconceptions about the drivers of... View Details

24 May 2021
Op-Ed

Can Fabric Waste Become Fashion’s Resource?

COVID-19 has broken fashion’s supply chain. As a result, an already wasteful industry has become more wasteful. Even before the pandemic, the global apparel industry was producing about 92 million tons of textile waste a year. That’s about one garbage truck’s worth of... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Shelly Xu; Fashion

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

The Three Components of Family Governance

otherwise encourage the education of family members about the business. Plan family social gatherings and rituals and help to create healthy, harmonious family relationships. Any family council that accomplishes these tasks strengthens a family's relationship with its... View Details

13 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Leadership Roles

governed well, for success. Good governance for any group assures us that plans can be made, problems solved, leaders developed and chosen, and disputes settled in a way that preserves the purpose and unity of the group. Discipline and... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis

14 Aug 2006
HBS Case

On Managing with Bobby Knight and “Coach K”

discipline and intimidation, which some critics say goes too far. Knight was fired from a long career at Indiana University for grabbing a student, and prior to that he was filmed clutching one of his own players by the neck. And then... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports

18 Jul 2023
Interview

Jeffrey Rayport on Product Market Fit, Profit Market Fit and Whiplash, and More

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Doug Levin

This episode of "Lessons from Startup Life" podcast features Jeffrey Rayport, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Jeffrey specializes in teaching and researching growth-stage technology ventures and their scalability. Prior to... View Details

Keywords: Scaling And Growth; Start-up; Diversity; Equity; Inclusion; Technology; Business Startups; Product Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation

Citation

20 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Five Discovery Skills that Distinguish Great Innovators

innovators discover new directions by making connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas. Innovative breakthroughs often happen at the intersection of diverse disciplines and fields. Author Frans Johanssen... View Details

Keywords: by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gergersen & Clayton M. Christensen

16 Jun 2021
HBS Case

Cruising in Crisis: How Carnival Is Riding Out the COVID-19 Storm

based on the financial discipline that management exhibited in responding to the pandemic. And, unlike the uncertain prognosis following the 2008 global financial crisis, the pandemic-related economic collapse appears to have an endgame,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Travel

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

disciplined and structured to prevent missteps and outbursts that will shut down the conversation. 4. Make a plan. Having heard the truth, diagnose root causes of problems and develop a systemic action plan to realign the organization. 5.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

pioneering works, scholars now problematize in particular the isolation of the economy as a subject matter and economics as a discipline. They have interrogated the relationship of the discipline of economics with the subject it studies... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

pragmatic technocrat; Grove the disciplined engineer; and Jobs the visionary perfectionist—their companies had unique business models and filled very different niches in the technology value chain. 5 Key Strategies As they examined what... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

Research Summary

Current Research

Ian studies extrinsic rewards -- monetary incentives from formal compensation systems, as well as other formal and informal external rewards-- in order to help businesses understand the tensions and tradeoffs inherent in motivating employees. His research takes a... View Details

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Is Performance-Based Pricing the Right Price for You?

problem-solving process. When the two parties involved are buying and selling committees representing different organizational jurisdictions within their organizations, and perhaps different levels of management, the necessity for precision and View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro; Manufacturing

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

disciplines as well as what we know with respect to field work. Q: What aspects of leadership were you most keen to explore during these discussions? What was the range of viewpoints? A: We were clear that we wanted to have, first of all,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

04 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life

My point here is not to disparage discipline or, indeed, the marketing professionals of Quaker Oats. Their failure with Snapple wasn't a matter of ineptitude or a bureaucratic tin ear. Nor do I think it was a case of a nimble upstart... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Food & Beverage

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

the way, these skills, and the common mistakes, are just as useful when trying to work across departments and disciplines inside an established organization too. Silverthorne: Tell us about Kanter’s Law regarding the “miserable middles.”... View Details