Publications

Sara McKinley Torti

Sara Torti is a senior product and operating executive who has focused extensively on creating and scaling technology-based businesses that require a combination of detailed execution, business insight and technical acumen. She has grown products... View Details

January 2016 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Saudi Aramco and Corporate Venture Capital

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Saudi Aramco launched an internal venture capital arm in 2011, which promptly became the world's largest investor in energy related startups. In choosing to proceed, the company's New Business Development unit (NPD) wrestled with a number of challenges. How should the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Energy Industry; Saudi Arabia

Research Summary

(formerly Leonard-Barton) Creating and Exploiting Knowledge-Based Assets

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

For the past decade, Dorothy Leonard's research has focused on how companies develop and exploit strategically advantageous knowledge assets. In her 1995 book Wellsprings of Knowledge (HBS Press), she identified and described in depth, activities that create and... View Details

Spring 2020
Article

Establishing High Performing Teams: Lessons from Health Care

By: Michael Anne Kyle, Emma-Louise Aveling and Sara J. Singer

Effective teams can be significant drivers of innovations that enable broader quality improvements and efficiency gains across organizations. But despite the wealth of research and managerial expertise describing characteristics of effective teams, people and... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness

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30 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Africa Rising: Understanding Business, Entrepreneurship, and the Complexities of a Continent with Professor Hakeem Belo-Osagie

a faculty member’s area of expertise or passion. We caught up with Professor Hakeem Belo-Osagie, who taught the Africa Rising: Understanding Business, Entrepreneurship, and the Complexities of a Continent. This course was designed to... View Details

23 Jun 2022
News

The C-Suite Skills That Matter Most

February 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

1436: The First Pure Chinese Luxury Fashion Brand?

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener and Hannah H. Chang

The case traces the birth of 1436, a new luxury brand specializing in cashmere garments. It describes how this venture emerged organically out of a combination of manufacturing and retail expertise with the ambition of creating the first pure Chinese luxury brand. The... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Luxury; Global Strategy; Fashion Industry; China

Video

A Conversation with HBS Online Professor Mihir Desai

27 Jan 2016
News

Kodak’s Old-School Response to Disruption

April 2021
Case

Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software

By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller

On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Managing Change; Turnaround; Smartphone; Change Management; Leading Change; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Change; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry; Canada

04 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

The Money Connection—Understanding VC Networks

can effectively rewire some of the links in the network. In the case of venture capital, spanning ties enable investors with fixed locations and industry expertise to learn of opportunities outside their geographic and industry domains.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

Program

General Management Program

Summary Taking your organization and your career to the next level requires going beyond your field of expertise to gain an end-to-end view of the enterprise, an in-depth understanding of business operations, and a multidisciplinary... View Details

October 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Mavens & Moguls: Creating a New Business Model

By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston and Kristin Lieb

Mavens & Moguls is a "virtual" marketing-consulting firm of approximately 40 professionals. Examines the processes by which its founder, Paige Arnof-Fenn, learns the business, builds a power network of industry experts and potential customers, and uses this expertise... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Operations; Networks; Business Model; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry

November 2014
Article

Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California

By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel

We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building... View Details

Keywords: Public Procurement; Green Building; Quality Certification; Environmental Policy; Buildings and Facilities; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Government and Politics; Green Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; California

2014
Working Paper

Learning from the Kursk Submarine Rescue Failure: the Case for Pluralistic Risk Management

By: Anette Mikes and Amram Migdal

The Kursk, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, sank in the relatively shallow waters of the Barents Sea in August 2000 during a naval exercise. Numerous survivors were reported to be awaiting rescue, and within a week, an international rescue party gathered at... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Groups and Teams; Crisis Management

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Article

Real Estate Opportunity Funds

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz, Thea C. Hahn and David Geltner

Real estate opportunity funds are one of the fastest-growing segments of the real estate investment industry, similar in some basic respects to other private equity and alternative investment asset classes that seek high returns by taking on more risk in highly... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Opportunity Funds; Investment Management; Property; Investment Funds; Management; Performance Consistency

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March–April 2021
Article

Network-biased Technical Change: How Information Management Tools Overcome Some Biases but Exacerbate Others.

By: Gerald C. Kane and Lynn Wu

Organizations have long sought to improve employee performance by managing knowledge more effectively. In this paper, we test whether the adoption of digital tools for expertise search and access within an organization, often referred to as a support to an... View Details

Keywords: Digital Tools; Social Media; Social Networks; Transactive Memory Systems; Augmented Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Technology Adoption; Knowledge Management; Performance Improvement; Power and Influence; Organizational Change and Adaptation