Publications

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21 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Collaborating Across Cultures: Cultural Metacognition and Affect-Based Trust in Creative Collaboration

Keywords: by Roy Y.J. Chua, Michael W. Morris & Shira Mor

October 2021
Article

Changing Gambling Behavior through Experiential Learning

By: Shawn A. Cole, Martin Abel and Bilal Zia

This paper tests experiential learning as a debiasing tool to reduce gambling in South Africa, through a randomized field experiment. The study implements a simple, interactive game that simulates the odds of winning the national lottery through dice rolling.... View Details

Keywords: Debiasing; Experiential Learning; Behavioral Economics; Financial Education; Learning; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Behavior; Decision Making

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April 2020 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Medellín Reborn (A)

By: Jorge Tamayo, Ashish Nanda and Margaret Cross

In 2003, mathematics professor Sergio Fajardo was elected mayor of Medellín, Colombia—one of the most violent cities in the world at that time. As mayor, Fajardo faced a host of daunting challenges. Rampant gang violence had raised Medellín’s homicide rate... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Leadership; Peace; Government; Politics; Priorities; Leadership; City; Strategy; Government and Politics; Problems and Challenges; Transformation; Government Administration; Crime and Corruption; Colombia; Medellín

June 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Zoots - Financing Growth (A)

By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Todd Krasnow

Traces the genesis and founding of Zoots, the largest chain of dry cleaning establishments in the U.S. Founded by some of the founders of the very successful Staples chain, the company raises a very large amount of capital without fully proving its business model, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Valuation; United States

Program

Making Corporate Boards More Effective

operate—rather, each board must develop practices that suit the unique needs of its company and management. As you examine the latest thinking on the internal function of corporate boards, interaction with management, and overall board... View Details

Article

Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do about It

By: Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström and Derek Schrader

U.S. corporations spend enormous amounts of money—some $456 billion globally in 2015 alone—on employee training and education, but they aren't getting a good return on their investment. People soon revert to old ways of doing things, and company performance doesn't... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Organizational Design; Employees; Business Processes; United States

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Program

Agribusiness Seminar

and manage risks arising from climate change and environmental pressures Assess strategies for entering and competing international markets Identify ways to build the resilience and flexibility needed to thrive in an evolving industry... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany

May 1997 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Riverbend Telephone Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

An independent telephone company needs to acquire a new truck for use in telephone line installation and maintenance and must decide whether to buy or lease the truck. The company must address the rate of return in a regulated industry and the best accounting treatment... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Analysis; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Ownership

Article

How Local Context Shapes Digital Business Abroad

By: William R. Kerr

This article identifies how digital businesses need to be adapted to the local environment in which they are being applied. Core ideas include the development of strong barriers to entry, the types of network effects encountered, and the localization of business... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Technology; Geographic Location; Market Entry and Exit; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Network Effects

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27 Apr 2020
News

Managing Through Crisis: How MBAs Are Bring PPE to Boston Hospitals

12 Feb 2015
Video

Connecting Communities to Improve Post-Disaster Recovery

2006
Working Paper

The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper studies the effects of open disagreement on motivation and coordination. It shows how, in the presence of differing priors, motivation and coordination impose conflicting demands on the allocation of authority, leading to a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Governance Controls; Organizational Culture; Agency Theory; Conflict and Resolution; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

March 2008
Article

Radically Simple IT

Many managers think that developing and rolling out a major IT system is like putting up a warehouse: You build it and you're done. But that does not work for IT anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are... View Details

Keywords: Design; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry