Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Science Business: What Happened to Biotech?

lessons in your book for managers in industries outside biotech? A: While there is no one right answer for all companies, a few basic things might be helpful. One is rethinking alliances and the strategic purpose. As I argue in the book, too many organizations (both... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology

12 Apr 2022
Book

Racism, Colonialism, and Britain's Legacy of Violence

sought to colonize—into a widespread system of subjugation. The book implicates the island nation for exporting and institutionalizing racially motivated violence, and covering it up as Britain lost its grip on imperial rule. Elkins, the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

demonstrates a more holistic approach to learning from large-scale organizational failures. It suggests that we cannot think about individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis in isolation. Instead, we need to examine how... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

14 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Feeling Stressed? Try Sniffing Your Romantic Partner's Shirt

suggests that cortisol reactions may represent energy mobilization within the metabolic system in preparation for a potential threat (the ‘fight or flight’ response), and that this cortisol reaction may not be accessible to the subjective... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

in the credit market that have deep roots in the system's structure, conduct, and regulation. The time has come for a clear-eyed assessment of what happened and how the system should be strengthened and restructured. Such reform will have... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing

media products, there's the perception that all things digital should be less expensive, or free. So I think this most recent skirmish has resulted in a truce at most." "The odd thing is that no one is really focusing on the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Information; Publishing; Entertainment & Recreation

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

of services. "Some of these are point-of-sale situations where we didn’t traditionally think about tipping 15 percent." “In many establishments, we’re now moving to digital payment systems such as Toast that... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
Case

KangaTech

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

On a warm January afternoon in 2019, Steve Saunders, Dave Scerri, Carl Dilena, and Nick Haslam (see Exhibit 1 for biographies), co-founders of KangaTech, wrapped up the latest round of discussions about the future direction of their sports-technology start-up. Focused... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Technology Commercialization; Prototype; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Sports; Health; Commercialization; Research and Development; Decision Making; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Sports Industry; Health Industry; Australia

Citation

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06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

enable them to think clearly about work and personal issues. A System To Support Values-centered Leadership The reality is that people cannot stay grounded by themselves. Leaders depend on people closest to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

from that.” The new inventory system was actually something Whole Foods had started to implement before the Amazon deal, pressured by activist shareholders who had seen the grocer’s stock and sales margins slipping for two years. “This is... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

18 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

What Is an "Essential" Purchase for a Low-Income Family?

Do lower-income families need and deserve access to fewer things than everyone else? As a society, we seem to think so, revealing a "grim double standard," finds a study published this month, Inequality in Socially Permissible... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

09 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 9, 2008

markets, highlighting concerns as China strives to modernize its financial system to meet global competition and support its fast growing economy. Purchase the note: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

anticipated what Steve Jobs accomplished at Apple. Silverthorne: As an author, it’s often more challenging to write less about a subject than more. How did you go about organizing your task of covering four centuries of capitalist dynamism into just 150 pages?... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

2023
Working Paper

The Complexity of Economic Decisions

By: Xavier Gabaix and Thomas Graeber

We propose a theory of the complexity of economic decisions. Leveraging a macroeconomic framework of production functions, we conceptualize the mind as a cognitive economy, where a task’s complexity is determined by its composition of cognitive operations. Complexity... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Complexity; Perception; Consumer Behavior; Production

Citation

Read Now

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory

is a sure way to destroy value. This is where enlightened stakeholder theory can play an important role. We can learn from the stakeholder theorists how to lead managers and participants in an organization to think more generally and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

28 Nov 2023
Book

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

Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present. We asked Rithmire, the F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, to provide insights on how business leaders might think about doing business in these... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

year detailing Gebru’s efforts within Google to urge caution with AI, saying tech companies shouldn’t race to launch systems without considering the potential risks and harms they could cause. She warned that unchecked AI databases could... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

15 Nov 2022
Book

Stop Ignoring Bad Behavior: 6 Tips for Better Ethics at Work

opioid crisis?” asks Bazerman. “We think the Sackler family. What caused the number of sexual assaults at Miramax? Harvey Weinstein. And it's not that these answers are wrong. It's just that it's taking other people off the hook who could... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

01 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 1, 2008

balancing profit, growth and control. Difficulties encountered in the business are due to management's attempts to design and use formal control systems to achieve profit and performance goals. Purchase this case:... View Details