Imagination - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

First, HBS alumnae Kim Scott's book Just Work offers practical ways to serve as an upstander and deal with injustice at work. Second, my dear friend Laurie David and her co-author Heather Reisman's book Imagine It! not only unpacks how... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

people when a part or system is about to fail. Often, only the senior management team's imagination limits new IT-based opportunities. Our research suggests the following: New technologies will continue to give companies the chance to... View Details

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

06 Aug 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

what you're actually trying to accomplish. Kenny: What do you think about the strategy of leaking them out? I could imagine that you want to build up suspense, you want to have that “a-ha” moment when the ad comes on [for the first time].... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Sports; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

further and highlighting their products’ shortcomings, companies might save consumers that step and help them buy with confidence. And, with time, hiding a product’s downsides might eventually become its own operating risk. “If transparency becomes more of a norm in... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

24 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

say, 'This is who I am, and this is the identity that I'm going to be bringing to the workplace.'" In a third study, 1,500 adults were asked to imagine being a computer science instructor tasked with choosing one out of four former... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

26 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

How Cellophane Changed the Way We Shop for Food

senses deprived by cellophane—i.e., while a store’s customers could no longer touch, smell, or taste a product before buying it, cellophane let you imagine how a product smelled, felt, or tasted. One ad in 1930 made the claim that “your... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Retail; Advertising

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

potential investors. To the extent that founders tend to be very confident in their startup's prospects, they may even be more inclined to take money from friends and family, happily imagining those close to them sharing in the startup's... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

for the course,” she says. Edelman provides straightforward summaries of his research on his personal website. “I can’t imagine being excited about writing articles read only by other academics,” he says. “I think I could do it. But it... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

Research Summary

Research Thrust

By: Rakesh Khurana

I am trained in organizational sociology and my main areas of interest lie in macro-organizational theory and the dynamics of executive labor markets. To date, my research has focused on two themes. The first revolves around understanding the forces that govern the... View Details

20 Dec 2006
Op-Ed

Investors Hurt by Dual-Track Tax Reporting

developments. Imagine if you were allowed to represent your income on your tax forms and on your mortgage application differently. In a moment of weakness, you might portray your economic situation in two distinct ways. Unlike... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

02 Dec 2019
What Do You Think?

How Does a Company like Boeing Respond to Intense Competitive Pressure?

billion for SpaceX) from NASA. One can only imagine the pressure under which developers were working at Boeing. The result? A failure to reach its destination, the International Space Station. While the cause is under investigation, early... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

knowledge of consumer behavior to create killer applications in the m-commerce arena. Imagine a brand well positioned to satisfy the life intentions of the youth market: Let's call it "Soda X." What if Soda X built a... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

14 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

Rather, it is about incremental changes that promise to improve your work-life and your work in ways that make them notably better. Creating Change Where No One Could Even Imagine It I chose to conduct the original experiment at The... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

04 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

'I Know Why You Voted for Trump' and Other Motivation Misperceptions

She hopes the results make business leaders think twice about how they size up their customers and rely on previous purchases to predict the products they want. “For instance, imagine you see a person buy a plain black backpack,” she... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Can Brand Trump Win a Presidency?

imagine it. On Election Day, Brand Trump will mean different things to different people but that doesn't matter if he gets their votes. Imagine you are looking at a box of Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes.... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Advertising; Media & Broadcasting

12 May 2015
Research & Ideas

How Crowds and Experts Kickstart the Arts

Business School. "That could be both potentially positive and negative. There is a lot of critically acclaimed artwork that could be systematically overlooked by crowds. On the other hand, you could imagine that experts aren't always good... View Details

Keywords: Re: Ramana Nanda; Entertainment & Recreation

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

The Creativity Maze

To understand the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, imagine a business problem as a maze. One person might be motivated to make it through the maze as quickly and safely as possible in order to get a tangible reward,... View Details

Keywords: by Teresa Amabile

07 Mar 2005
What Do You Think?

Should Business Management Be Regarded as a Profession?

this way: "It is hard for me to imagine that certification by itself would have a significant impact on a CEO's ethics...The real problem is the ability of CEOs to be CEOs." John Anderson commented that "Let's not assume... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Choose the Best Deal

deal with Jim, they may incur holding costs for a painfully long time. If Jim is lucky, he might persuade one seller to underbid the other. The test of success shouldn't be the best imaginable deal, but one that's good enough. Yet Jim... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

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