Publications

March 2018
Article

Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Rebecca Henderson and Nelson P. Repenning

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details

Keywords: Capability; Short-termism; System Dynamics; Tipping Point; Business or Company Management; Earnings Management; Resource Allocation

Find at Harvard

01 Dec 2022
News

My First Job

furniture business when a fire started in the factory’s ventilation system. The fire alarms were loud, and every instinct I had learned in school told me to leave the building, but the president of the company grabbed my arm and told me... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

2010
Working Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger and Andrew F. Newman

We study how trade policy affects firms' ownership structures. We embed an incomplete contracts model of vertical integration choices into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. Integration decisions are driven by a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Vertical Integration; Business and Government Relations; Boundaries; Ownership; Mathematical Methods

Web

Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (John Wiley & Sons, 2018) was listed as #14 on the Porchlight Business Best Seller list in 2019. Amy C. Edmondson : Named the Most Influential International... View Details

Web

Matthew C. Weinzierl | About

Matthew C. Weinzierl Senior Associate Dean, Chair, MBA Program Unit Business, Government and the International Economy Contact Phone Bio Matt Weinzierl is Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA Program at Harvard View Details

16 May 2024
News

On the Job

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. We all have early memories of on-the-job learnings—those moments that had a lasting impact on how we see the world of work and our place in it. This... View Details

Keywords: first job; leadership; life experience; career lessons; Finance; Oil and Gas Extraction; Mining; Retail Trade

2018
Working Paper

UK Competitiveness after Brexit

By: Michael E. Porter

On June 23rd, 2016 52% of UK voters opted to put their country on the path to leave the European Union by March 29, 2019. This result was a surprise to many, and went against the advice of the vast majority of economic experts and business leaders. Two years later, and... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; International Relations; Trade; Economy; Strategy; United Kingdom

Read Now

November 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Gerry Pasciucco at AIG Financial Products

By: Gautam Mukunda and Thomas J. DeLong

Gerry Pasciucco was appointed to lead American International Group's Financial Products (AIGFP) group after the government bailout of AIG in 2008 and charged with the task of shutting down the division while minimizing the government's losses. AIGFP's failed trades had... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Crisis Management; Financial Crisis; Management Teams; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

Web

Marketing Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Contributions to Harvard Business School, 2017–2018. Julian De Freitas : Received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Bok Center at Harvard University in fall of 2018. Julian De Freitas : Recipient of a Derek C. Bok Award... View Details

26 Aug 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Built for Global Competition from the Start

students just those skills. When Kerr started drafting a syllabus for the course, he knew fresh business cases were needed—much of the academic research and course materials on global entrepreneurship he reviewed were dated. For example,... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Education

Forthcoming
Article

Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Engagement with Open Source Communities, Innovation, and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub

By: Annamaria Conti, Christian Peukert and Maria P. Roche

We study the engagement of nascent firms with open source communities and its implications for innovation and attracting funding. To do so, we link data on 160,065 U.S. startups from Crunchbase to their activities on the open source software development platform... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Knowledge; Open Source Communities; GitHub; Machine Learning; Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Information Technology; Strategy

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

21 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Free Isn’t Always Better: How Slack Holds Its Own Against Microsoft Teams

work becomes a fixture in business. The winner is anyone’s guess, says HBS Professor David Yoffie, who co-wrote the case. “It is a dramatic story,” says Yoffie, the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Information Technology; Technology

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, professor Robert Simons wrote about how organizations can design jobs for maximum performance. In this excerpt, Simons discusses what he terms the four basic "spans" of a job—control,... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

December 2023
Case

TikTok: The Algorithm Will See You Now

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In a world where attention is a scarce commodity, this case explores the meteoric rise of TikTok—an app that transformed from a niche platform for teens into the most visited domain by 2021—surpassing even Google. Its algorithm was a sophisticated mechanism for... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Business and Government Relations; International Relations; Cybersecurity; Culture; Technology Industry; China; United States; India

November 2003 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Creating Global Oil, 1900-1935

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Daniel Wadhwani

Taught in the elective MBA course entitled The Evolution of Global Business. Examines the development of an international cartel in the oil industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Focuses on the decisions and actions of the leading multinational oil companies—particularly... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Alliances; Cooperation; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry

March 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Newell Rubbermaid: Strategy in Transition

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Rhonda Kaufman and Carole Winkler

Describes the transformation of a company's corporate-level strategy. Begins by laying out the strategy that brought the Newell Co. stunning success for nearly three decades. The highly integrated, internally consistent strategy was tailored for manufacturing and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

2012
Chapter

Social Entrepreneurs, Socialization Processes, and Social Change: The Case of Sekem

By: Tomislav Rimac, Johanna Mair and Julie Battilana

How can application of a positive lens to understanding social change and organizations enrich and elaborate theory and practice? This is the core question that inspired this book. It is a question that brought together a diverse and talented group of researchers... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Social Psychology; Social Issues; Organizations; Business and Community Relations