Publications

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It)

product planning strategy? No matter how radical a new product is, it will always be perceived initially in terms of some frame of reference.— Gerald Zaltman A: The insights offered by methods that probe the unconscious mind are relevant... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Mahoney

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

organizations are already organized around product categories or customer categories," Christensen says, "and therefore people only see opportunities within this little frame that they've stuck you in. So you have to think inside of a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

Research Summary

Mutiny in the Workplace: When Leaders Are Challenged From Within

My dissertation focuses on the rarely studied phenomenon of mutiny in organizations. Based on three recent cases of mutiny in professional organizations, I examine the process by which employee dissatisfaction transforms into collective mobilization... View Details

2014
Chapter

Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporations

By: Nien-he Hsieh and Florian Wettstein

A central question that arises from the perspective of global ethics is what standards ought to apply to the activities of multinational corporations (MNCs). This chapter surveys the contemporary theoretical literature on this question. The first section provides... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporation; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards

Research Summary

Current Research

Professor Chung models the effect of incentive compensation to study its impact on the sales force. Using data from a Fortune 500 company, he has developed a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus-based compensation plan and examined how various... 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

January 2024
Technical Note

The ICARUS Principles: What It Takes to Tackle the World

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Over the course of the 20th century, most of the world’s major multinational corporations framed their mission around Milton Friedman’s famous mantra: that the sole purpose of the firm is to maximize its shareholders’ profits. Recently, however, growing numbers of... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Mission; Social Business; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms

Educators

June 2020 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Vanguard Retail Operations (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Antonio Moreno

The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or... View Details

Keywords: Pooling; Generalist Model; Specialist Model; Operations; Service Operations; Management; Job Design and Levels; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Strategic responses to collective activism in the U.S. biomass sector

By: Shon R. Hiatt

Almost all companies face constraints and pressure from collective activists. Using tactics such as protests, boycotts, and lobbying, social movement organizations and collective actors can draw significant media attention to issues facing industries and organizations,... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business and Community Relations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Identity; Forest Products Industry; United States

2015
Chapter

"Level II" Negotiation Strategies: Advance Your Interests by Helping to Solve Their Internal Problems

By: James K. Sebenius

Many negotiators have constituencies that must formally or informally approve an agreement. Traditionally, it is the responsibility of each negotiator to manage the internal conflicts and constituencies on his or her own side. Far less familiar are the many valuable... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal

2012
Chapter

Schumpeterian Competition and Diseconomies of Scope: Illustrations from the Histories of Microsoft and IBM

By: Timothy F. Bresnahan, Shane Greenstein and Rebecca M. Henderson

We address a longstanding question about the causes of creative destruction. Dominant incumbent firms, long successful in an existing technology, are often much less successful in new technological eras. This is puzzling, since a cursory analysis would suggest that... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Opportunities; Competition; Information Technology; Innovation and Management; Organizations; Relationships; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

Summer 2013
Article

A Tale of Two Stories: Sustainability and the Quarterly Earnings Call

By: Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim

One of the challenges companies claim to face in making sustainability a core part of their strategy and operations is that the market does not care about sustainability, either in general or because the time frames in which it matters are too long. The response of... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Communication; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Investment; Environmental Sustainability

Find at Harvard

Spring 2016
Article

Net Neutrality: A Fast Lane to Understanding the Tradeoffs

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Peitz and Tommaso Valletti

The last decade has seen a strident public debate about the principle of "net neutrality." The economic literature has focused on two definitions of net neutrality. The most basic definition of net neutrality is to prohibit payments from content providers to internet... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Policy

Article

A Persuasive Peace: Syrian Refugees' Attitudes Towards Compromise and Civil War Termination

By: Kristin Fabbe, Chad Hazlett and Tolga Sınmazdemir

Civilians who have fled violent conflict and settled in neighboring countries are integral to processes of civil war termination. Contingent on their attitudes, they can either back peaceful settlements or support warring groups and continued fighting. Attitudes toward... View Details

Keywords: Refugees; War; Conflict and Resolution; Attitudes; Perspective; Syria

25 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Does ‘Could’ Lead to Good? Toward a Theory of Moral Insight

Keywords: by Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino & Joshua D. Margolis

January 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery, Anat Keinan and Liz Kind

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

Educators

11 Jun 2024
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2024

As the vacation season looms, Harvard Business School faculty members share recommendations for a little light reading. Spoiler alert: Lessons in Chemistry tops two of their beach-read lists. For those whose brains can’t—or won’t—turn off, HBS faculty also suggest some... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

24 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Accelerating Innovation In Energy: Insights from Multiple Sectors

Keywords: by Rebecca M. Henderson & Richard G. Newell; Energy; Utilities; Technology

May 8, 2020
Article

Lead Your Team Into a Post-Pandemic World

By: Hubert Joly

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has tested leaders, especially as it relates to how they lead their workers. As the crisis goes on, many that the author has spoken with have begun to frame it around three distinct phases: The Shelter-in-Place Phase, the Re-opening... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Re-opening; Health Pandemics; Leadership; Employees; Communication; Human Needs