Publications

08 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

How to Demotivate Your Best Employees

paper shouldn't be taken as a blanket criticism of awards. You can't say awards are good or bad. It depends on how they're implemented." This particular attendance award may have been especially flawed because rather than rewarding workers for exceptional performance,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Service

10 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

How to Live Happier in 2023: Diversify Your Social Circle

relationships. The study offers new ideas for quiet quitters who are contemplating the meaning of happiness and fulfillment amid pandemic burnout. In addition to Norton, the authors include HBS doctoral student Hanne Collins, HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2022

certain firearms from stores and restrict gun sales. 8. You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job to Find More Meaning in Life Before you give notice and go on a vision quest, consider this: Fulfillment doesn't require big change, says research by... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

September 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Kaspi.kz: Building Trust through Innovation

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Fares Khrais and Marilyn Morgan Westner

This case is written to help students explore how companies can maintain and develop trust while innovating, how to identify and respond effectively to warning signs that they may not be as trusted as they believe, and how being trusted can aid in expanding and growing... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Trust; Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry

2013
Book

What You're Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential

By: Robert Steven Kaplan

How do you create your own definition of success—and reach your unique potential? Building a fulfilling life and career can be a daunting challenge. It takes courage and hard work. Too often, we charge down a path leading to "success" as defined by those around us—and... View Details

Keywords: Career Planning; Vocational Guidance; Job Satisfaction; Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Customization and Personalization

Find at Harvard

Read Now

Forthcoming
Book

How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage

By: Ranjay Gulati

What leads people to speak truth to power, share bold new ideas, or put their lives on the line? Most of us chalk it up to personality, presuming that our heroes are naturally fearless. But what if courage isn’t simply a matter of personality? What if it’s something... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Personal Development and Career

2008
Working Paper

Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis

By: Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak and Carliss Y. Baldwin

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Information Technology Industry

Read Now

August 2019
Article

When and How to Diversify—A Multicategory Utility Model for Personalized Content Recommendation

By: Yicheng Song, Nachiketa Sahoo and Elie Ofek

Sometimes we desire change, a break from the same or an opportunity to fulfill different aspects of our needs. Noting that consumers seek variety, several approaches have been developed to diversify items recommended by personalized recommender systems. However,... View Details

Keywords: Recommender Systems; Personalization; Recommendation Diversity; Variety Seeking; Collaborative Filtering; Consumer Utility Models; Digital Media; Clickstream Analysis; Learning-to-rank; Consumer Behavior; Media; Customization and Personalization; Strategy; Mathematical Methods

Find at Harvard

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

this planet.” For a district manager, it is “helping employees and customers fulfill their hopes and dreams.” For a senior HR manager: “teaching, developing, growing and inspiring [people] to do more than they ever thought possible.”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

for years, many of whom had been working two jobs to sustain their families,” she says. “They took OneTen’s model and adapted it to address the challenges and opportunities that Delta faced.” What can other business leaders learn? To View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

four drives accounts for a large portion of how much an individual is motivated in their work. While improving the fulfillment of any one drive enhances employee motivation somewhat, the key to a major employee-motivation advantage... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

02 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

Blissful Thinking: When It Comes to Finding Happiness, 'Your Dreams Are Liars'

first have to chase that success to understand its limits? Or are they ready at an earlier age to define their lives in real and fulfilling ways? Brooks: Different people have different orientations and different timelines. HBS students... View Details

Keywords: by Dan Morrell

31 Mar 2008
HBS Case

JetBlue’s Valentine’s Day Crisis

approach to reservations staffing while imposing contract terms that would call for all hands in the event of demand. "You can't be an organization that simultaneously and completely fulfills the wishes of employees, customers, and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Air Transportation

05 Jul 2012
What Do You Think?

Why Is Trust So Hard to Achieve in Management?

fulfilled (Kamal Hossain); (6) behaviors of managers who "compete with each other to climb to the next higher level" and make unfulfilled promises to do so (Subrata Chakraborty); (7) a "modern fashion of us all being... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Jun 2022
Book

Four Elements for Finding the Right Career Path

indeed important to understand our passions and find work that fulfills them, but we all live our lives within the gravitational field of necessity. The root question for the Necessity element is: “What are the nonnegotiable obligations... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Technical Note

Rechargeable Batteries, 2017: Gigafactory Wars in the Offing?

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by... View Details

20 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Historical Origins of Environmental Sustainability in the German Chemical Industry, 1950s-1980s

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Christina Lubinski; Chemical

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details

Keywords: Best Buy; Hubert Joly; Renew Blue; Showrooming; Webrooming; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Marketplaces; Turnaround; Consumer Electronics; Consumer Electronics Accessories; Appliances; Stores-within-stores; Store Experience; Store Size; Store Pickup; Store Management; Delivery; Delivery Models; Amazon; Amazon.com; Pricing Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Cost; Selection and Staffing; Reports; Technological Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Human Capital; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Media; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Channels; Infrastructure; Product; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Programs; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Resource Allocation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; Minnesota; Minneapolis; Saint Paul; St. Paul