Dispersal - Publications - Faculty & Research

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

this may save travel time and costs, it might be preventing inspectors from doing their jobs more effectively. One possible remedy: Managers could impose a cap on the maximum number of inspections per day, and rearrange schedules to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Service

20 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Misgovernance at the World Bank

problem at the World Bank? A: It is not a new idea that politics drive the allocation of aid decisions. But the view of politics that we normally have is that donors like the United States, Japan, or France may reward their friends rather than simply View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

11 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 11

structural characteristics (team geographic dispersion and task change) that intensify the challenge of knowledge integration. Drawing on information processing theory, we distinguish between a team's knowledge repository use and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 13, 2008

gain to the other and is equivalent to decreasing the dispersion of the latter's values for the items he does not receive without changing their total. One-agent monotonicity requires that such a change should not hurt the first agent,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Corporate Strategy

material on how a variety of organizations are cascading their enterprise strategy map and scorecard out to align dispersed business units, support groups, and individuals. Dave Norton and I already have the table of contents for this... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

are the first to learn of changing customer needs, first to see competitors' marketing strategies in action, and first to encounter new regulatory initiatives. Top management increasingly relies on the ability of its geographically and organizationally View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Jun 2025
News

Navigating Uncertainty: Dean Datar on HBS’s Path Forward

With Harvard navigating an array of pressures, Jana Kierstead, Executive Director of the MBA and Doctoral Programs and External Relations, spoke with Dean Srikant Datar about how HBS is responding to new challenges while maintaining its focus on strategic priorities.... View Details

01 Sep 2017
News

The Shape of Things to Come

debrief about what they learned during the day. We’ve learned that if they just go off and there’s no opportunity for them to reflect on what they’re learning on an ongoing basis, then the experience is not as useful. HBX Live creates an opportunity for us to have... View Details

Keywords: HBX; CORe; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 2020
News

Post-Office

gravity that exists in Silicon Valley is only going to disperse to other regions that also have some critical mass—like Austin, Texas, or other cities like Boston. So I believe there will be long-standing implications on the centers of... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Remote work; COVID-19; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Growth of the Social Enterprise

organization is in the early stages of growth and is interested in testing and refining its model in new locations, or a nonprofit has less ambitious, less geographically dispersed expansion plans. In fact, our survey data show that pure... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

30 May 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Entrepreneurship’s Wild Ride

important, improvements in logistics; cross-border flows of labor, capital, and ideas; weakened intellectual property protection; and improved global communication have helped people, money, products, and ideas to disperse throughout the... View Details

Keywords: by William Mahoney

01 Dec 2005
News

Baker’s back

perhaps taking what they find to a comfortable chair in the Stamps Reading Room. And Kennedy hopes to see people dispersed throughout the building, gathering to share information and ideas, a sign that the new library is fulfilling its... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

25 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 25, 2018

Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55022 Who Should Select New Employees in Geographically Dispersed Organizations: Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

28 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?

Source: Cecilie_Arcurs George Serafeim has a startling suggestion to fix the world’s biggest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) problems such as water pollution, deforestation, and wealth inequality: encourage companies within industries to do less competing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Manufacturing; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Mining

01 Dec 2011
News

Reimagining the MBA

specific new product- or service-development project that would be their focus for the next 12 weeks. As these students are experiencing firsthand, it’s one thing to hypothesize about product development in an emerging market. It’s quite another to actually do it.... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

03 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Facebook’s Future

people use various online social platforms, makes some predictions. In the first decade of its existence, Facebook, aided by the broad adoption of mobile devices and fast internet connections, emerged as a virtual Cheers bar where people share their lives with a legion... View Details

Keywords: by Mikolaj Piskorski

01 Aug 2012
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs Worry About ‘Too Big to Succeed?’

government intervention " Gerald Nanninga was less willing to accept the notion of "too big to succeed," setting forth several ways of scaling up a company to minimize the burden of size on management. As he put it, " if you keep teams small, View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Financial Services

22 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Advertising: It’s Not ‘Mad Men’ Anymore

favor a highly diverse and geographically dispersed industry, especially low-entry costs and limited economies of scale. The advertising business continues to attract creative talent who form and staff small, nimble firms, all the while... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

17 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 17, 2008

Publication:Harvard Business Review 86, no. 6 (June 2008) Abstract A multiunit enterprise is a geographically dispersed organization built from standard units (stores, restaurants, or branches) that are aggregated into larger geographic... View Details