Publications

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January 2022 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Steem Versus Hive: Testing Blockchain Governance

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This case examines a pivotal governance conflict that occurred in 2020 when Justin Sun, founder of the TRON blockchain, acquired Steemit Inc., the company behind a popular social media platform operating on the Steem blockchain. Steem, launched in 2016 by Daniel... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Mergers and Acquisitions; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Industry

27 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

reduce the elements of surprise and give employees certainty about expectations, the authors suggest. Managers should understand, "If they call people on Monday and say, 'hey,... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Retail

2019
Working Paper

Thinking Outside the Box (12): The Benefits of Increased Transparency in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for the 180 Million Insured

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

Economists have long noted that the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) caused workers to purchase health plans that differ in price and other characteristics from those they would otherwise choose for themselves. We explore the short-term and long-term... View Details

Keywords: After-tax Income; Consumer-driven Health Care; Health Care Costs; Health Insurance; Income Inequality; Tax Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Income; Equality and Inequality; Taxation; Policy; United States

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Web

Insights & Advice Blog

Business School, giving students direct access to the heart of the tech industry. The February 2025 trek came at an especially exciting time, with breakthroughs in generative AI, quantum computing, cloud computing, View Details

April 2012
Article

Coming Through When It Matters Most

By: Heidi K. Gardner

All teams would like to think they do their best work when the stakes are highest-when the company's future or their own rests on the outcome of their projects. But too often something else happens. In extensive studies of teams at professional service firms, I have... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Projects; Performance Expectations; Failure; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Experience and Expertise; Knowledge Sharing

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24 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 24

Working PapersWalking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation Authors:Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine L. Milkman, and Markus Nöth Abstract We study the framing effects of communication in multiparty bargaining.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2018
Case

Happy UAE

By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Brian J. Hall, Tiffany Y. Chang, Karim Sameh and Alpana Thapar

This case centers on the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national goal of raising the happiness of its residents and visitors through ambitious government initiatives. They combined this bold national goal with an accountability structure (incentive plan) built on Key... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Welfare; Governance; Motivation and Incentives; United Arab Emirates

2012
Book

Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Being a great leader today is much harder than you think—meet Jim Barton. He's a newly minted CEO, rising leader of a firm in transition, and manager of massive complexity—thanks to our incredibly networked and increasingly unpredictable world of business. What if you... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Complexity; Crisis Management; Problems and Challenges; Volatility

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

ecommerce packages—so building on that, rather than trying to become Amazon.” Analysts generally give Walmart strong marks for how its investments in technology and training have set it up to compete. “The... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

September 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

2U: Higher Education Rewired

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Karim R. Lakhani

In its 2019 Partner Symposium, 2U, an online program management provider (OPM), showcased its new vision: “Career. Curriculum. Continuum. A construct for lifelong learning in the 21st century.” 2U, founded in 2008 and went public in 2014, was looking to expand beyond... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Architectural Innovation; Make V. Buy; Learning; Higher Education; Internet and the Web; Innovation Strategy; Transformation; Digital Transformation

07 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

early iterations. Like with bounce time interactions, these “content interactions” were usually spontaneous, so the shift to remote work made it difficult to give and receive early input. In response to... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

25 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

When Negotiating a Price, Never Bid with a Round Number

recent study of mergers and acquisitions, investors who offer “precise” bids for company shares yield better market outcomes than those who offer round-numbered bids. “If one party gives a round number, it... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2013
Case

Omidyar Network: Pioneering Impact Investment

By: Michael Chu and Lauren Barley

Omidyar Network, having deployed to date over $500 million in ways ranging from donations to commercial equity capital, must decide whether to back Anudip, an Indian organization dedicated to providing the rural unemployed and marginalized with livelihoods linked to... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; India