Publications

22 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

Manager Visibility No Guarantee of Fixing Problems

Observing and understanding the tasks and challenges that workers face every day is important. But managers who merely put in time "walking the floor" are not doing enough; in fact, it can make employees feel worse about their... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details

July 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Airbnb Emerges from the Pandemic: Lessons for Stakeholder Governance (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison M. Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Two-Sided Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

November 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Ava Labs: Navigating the Next Blockchain

By: Marco Di Maggio and Wenyao Sha

John Wu, President of Ava Labs, the primary developer of the Avalanche blockchain, and Emin Gün Sirer, the software company’s Founder and CEO, team up to develop a lending and borrowing protocol that would jumpstart the Decentralized finance (DeFi) economy on... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Decentralized Finance; Alternative Assets; Financial Instruments; Assets; Decisions; Financing and Loans; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry

June 23, 2020
Article

Inequality in Socially Permissible Consumption

By: Serena Hagerty and Kate Barasz

Lower-income individuals are frequently criticized for their consumption decisions; this research examines why. Eleven preregistered studies document systematic differences in permissible consumption—interpersonal judgments about what is acceptable (or not) for others... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Judgments; Consumption; Economic Inequalty; Income; Equality and Inequality; Spending; Judgments

Find at Harvard

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October 1997 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Cultivating Capabilities to Innovate: Booz.Allen & Hamilton

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Bret J. Baird

Describes the efforts of the president of Booz.Allen, a major consulting firm, to understand and improve the way that products, services, and processes are developed and deployed throughout the firm. Proactive management of these processes proves very difficult because... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation and Management; Management Teams; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Consulting Industry

July 2003 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Branding Citigroup's Consumer Business

By: Rohit Deshpande and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In Spring 1998, Citicorp and Travelers merged to create a financial powerhouse that united the bank with Travelers' consumer finance and brokerage businesses, including Salomon Smith Barney and Primerica. It was the first U.S. financial services company to combine... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Decisions; Asset Management; Investment Banking; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Relationships; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; United States

Program

Leadership for Senior Executives

Summary Uncertainty and change are relentless challenges for today's leaders. Between expanding globalization, rapid technological shifts, and evolving social norms, how can leaders make the right strategic View Details

18 May 2013
News

Money might buy you happiness, if you spend it right

22 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Carbon Tariffs: Impacts on Technology Choice, Regional Competitiveness, and Global Emissions

Keywords: by David F. Drake; Manufacturing

05 Sep 2023
News

Thriving After Failing: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Triumphs

January 2021
Article

Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Mitigates Self-Serving Bias in Resource Allocation During the COVID-19 Crisis

By: Karen Huang, Regan Bernhard, Netta Barak-Corren, Max Bazerman and Joshua D. Greene

The COVID-19 crisis has forced healthcare professionals to make tragic decisions concerning which patients to save. Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis has foregrounded the influence of self-serving bias in debates on how to allocate scarce resources. A utilitarian... View Details

Keywords: Self-serving Bias; Procedural Justice; Bioethics; COVID-19; Fairness; Health Pandemics; Resource Allocation; Decision Making

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01 Feb 2008
What Do You Think?

How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?

future. Gerald Nanninga, for example, commented that "If we deplete resources too quickly, the shortage of supply ... will make conservation issues more financially viable." Some felt that the free market might need some help.... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Program

Finance for Senior Executives

compensation incentives, and play a bigger role in helping your company optimize its financial resources and strengthen its bottom line. Details Apply strategic financial insight Make informed strategic View Details

January 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Joe Gifford in Tal Afar, Iraq (A)

By: Joseph Badaracco, Richard Burgess Jr., Robert Carpio III and William Wheeler

A Lieutenant leading a platoon in Iraq must make a complex ethical, military, and leadership decision: whether to risk his life and that of other soldiers to reenter a home rigged with an explosive and save three Iraqis. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Management; Problems and Challenges; Iraq

April 2013
Article

Setting Health Priorities: Strategy versus Tactics

By: Michael Chu, David E. Bloom and Elizabeth Cafiero

Health decision makers throughout the world are faced with a multiplicity of challenges. As resource limitations are a fundamental fact of life, choices necessarily have to be made about which challenges to address, and the best way to tackle them. In this piece, we... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Decision Making; Health Care and Treatment; Problems and Challenges; Health Industry

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May 2020
Case

Schlumberger's WesternGeco Division

By: John R. Wells, Sneha Biswas and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2017, Maurice Nessim, President of WesternGeco, a business unit of Schlumberger, faced a difficult decision. In the face of falling oil prices and increasing pressure on costs, did it make sense to sell off the company’s specialized fleet of seismic survey... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

today most often is associated with good management practice. It is thought by some to generate the trust that fosters everything from cooperation to speed in decision making and execution. It forces... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

The Critical Role of Second-order Normative Beliefs in Predicting Energy Conservation

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Oliver P. Hauser, Julia D. O'Brien, Erin Sherman and Adam D. Galinsky

Sustaining large-scale public goods requires individuals to make environmentally friendly decisions today to benefit future generations. Recent research suggests that second-order normative beliefs are more powerful predictors of behaviour than first-order personal... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Household; Behavior; Values and Beliefs; Forecasting and Prediction