Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Feb 2023
HBS Case

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

Even Sweden isn’t quite the Sweden that many picture. “Americans, myself included, don’t have a fully fleshed-out understanding of what Swedish capitalism is like,” Spar says. “We think it’s more like socialism, and it’s not. It’s deeply... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present. We asked Rithmire, the F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, to provide insights on how business leaders might think about doing business in these... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 19

and operators with other clients. However, Emergia also needs to think about how Fonaveu will react and whether these tactics will endanger the collaborative relationship the couples have been working toward. Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory

is a sure way to destroy value. This is where enlightened stakeholder theory can play an important role. We can learn from the stakeholder theorists how to lead managers and participants in an organization to think more generally and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

said, the fallen advertising revenue has probably been more dramatic than anyone expected. The advertisers are right to at least take a pause here and think about whether they want to remain involved with Twitter. In the longer term, Musk... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

01 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 1, 2008

balancing profit, growth and control. Difficulties encountered in the business are due to management's attempts to design and use formal control systems to achieve profit and performance goals. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

20 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

French youth services organization Unis-Cité, which was modeled after the American nonprofit City Year. Credit: Unis-Cité “If you do not innovate and have a solution to the problem you’ve identified, the movement will die,” she says. “I View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

21 Mar 2019
HBS Case

The Ferrari Way

Ferrari N.V. is one of the rare brands that unequivocally achieves it—making its iconic horse logo synonymous with luxury and excitement. Thomke, the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration, thinks of a student he... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership The COVID Two-Step for... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

15 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 15, 2009

organized systems for improvement. Traditional structures and cultures within AHCs, although well suited to the tripartite missions of teaching, research, and clinical care, are not easily adaptable to the tasks of measuring, reporting,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

27 Jul 2020
Book

Reflection: The Pause That Brings Peace and Productivity

one manager said. “I hate the feeling of not doing anything that I don’t think is productive.” And some resisted reflecting, saying it was easier to focus on the here-and-now, rather than look down the road where they might be forced to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

15 Nov 2022
Book

Stop Ignoring Bad Behavior: 6 Tips for Better Ethics at Work

opioid crisis?” asks Bazerman. “We think the Sackler family. What caused the number of sexual assaults at Miramax? Harvey Weinstein. And it's not that these answers are wrong. It's just that it's taking other people off the hook who could... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

value proposition and create a competitive advantage. Managers don’t often take this diagnostic step to understand the systemic issues, in many cases because they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable. “Leaders often feel like they need... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

boundaries of businesses have become much more diffuse because of digital technology driven business models. Now, if you think about Walmart and Amazon, both their business models have changed over time. Many companies are becoming tech... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

Article

Scandal, Social Movement, and Change: Evidence from #MeToo in Hollywood

By: Hong Luo and Laurina Zhang

Social movements have the potential to effect change in firm decision-making. In this paper, we examine whether the #MeToo movement, spurred by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, led to changes in the likelihood of Hollywood producers working with female writers on new... View Details

Keywords: Gender Inequality; Social Movement; Scandal; Creative Industries; Project Selection; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Film Entertainment; Projects; Change

Citation

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16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Are You a Strategist?

academic research that started to take hold in the 1980s and '90s. The work brought much-needed economic thinking to strategy's underpinnings. It armed legions of MBAs and strategy consultants with frameworks and techniques to help... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

Professor Srikant M. Datar in a recent case study, Data Science at Target, co-written with research associate Caitlin N. Bowler. “Target had to make this big shift from thinking only about retailing to also View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

21 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

What Does an ESG Score Really Say About a Company?

Receiving more information can clarify the complex, but not when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. A recent study shows that the more information a company discloses about its ESG practices, the more rating agencies disagree on how well... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

08 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

1979). Counter to this notion, results from six experiments show that lay people adhere more to advice when they think it comes from an algorithm than from a person. People showed this sort of algorithm appreciation when making numeric... View Details