Publications

August 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

PayPal: The Next Chapter

By: Michael Porter, Mark Kramer and Annelena Lobb

Can a social purpose and stakeholder capitalism confer a powerful competitive advantage in the age of COVID-19? For PayPal, the answer is yes. After spinning off from eBay in a 2015 IPO, the company declared its purpose as "democratizing financial services" by ensuring... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Finance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Social Entrepreneurship; Competitive Advantage; Financial Services Industry

15 Mar 2024
HBS Case

Let's Talk: Why It's Time to Stop Avoiding Taboo Topics at Work

unease, but it’s still an important conversation to pursue, she says. In many cases, managers would prefer to hear why employees feel they deserve better compensation and attempt to respond, rather than lose... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

March 2003
Case

Insurer of Last Resort? The Federal Financial Response to September 11

By: David A. Moss and Sarah A. Brennan

Examines the federal financial response to September 11, 2001: the airline bailout, the victim compensation fund, emergency aid to New York and Washington, and terrorism reinsurance. Less than two weeks after the attacks, the government had committed almost $40 billion... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Insurance; Risk Management; United States

05 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

The Work-Around Culture: Unintended Consequences of Organizational Heroes

"Work-around cultures" are pervasive in health care. Employees tend to work around obstacles, often feeling like a hero in the process, without solving the underlying problems. The reasons for these cultures are manifold, but they are costly in financial... View Details

Keywords: by Anita Tucker; Health

2019
Chapter

Network Effects

By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

Network effects are a key economic and strategic phenomenon in 'new economy' industries. They can, but do not necessarily, lead to market tipping, unless they outweigh customers' benefits from differentiation and are accompanied by high switching and multi-homing... View Details

Keywords: Network Effects

February 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Microsoft in the People's Republic of China, 1993

By: Tarun Khanna

Explores some of the economic and political tradeoffs that need to be negotiated by a firm seeking to influence industry structure. The setting is the nascent personal computer software industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1993. Microsoft has to localize... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Product Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Market Transactions; Industry Structures; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Software; Information Technology Industry; China

February 2021
Background Note

Jobs to Be Done: A Toolbox

By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Bob Moesta, Iuliana Mogosanu, Shaye Roseman and Katie Zandbergen

The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Acquisition; Attitudes; Perception; Theory; Behavior; Customer Relationship Management

Web

Faculty & Research

HBS Book Negotiation: The Game Has Changed By: Max Bazerman The world has changed dramatically in just the past few years—and so has the game of negotiation. COVID-19, Zoom, political polarization, the online economy, increasing economic globalization, View Details

January 19, 2021
Article

How to Be a 'Glass-Shattering' Organization

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Advancing gender equality is certainly desirable, but may not seem vital during this turbulent time — yet that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, losing sight of gender equity right now is likely to put you at a real disadvantage when the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: Gender Equity; Gender Inclusivity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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20 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Risky Business with Structured Finance

In the wake of the financial crisis, many once-esoteric investment terms have become a familiar part of our vocabulary. The role of structured finance securities such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), for example, and the part... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

Article

Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The Effect of Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness

By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie K. John

Given the increasingly specific ways marketers can target ads, many consumers and regulators are demanding ad transparency: disclosure of how consumers’ personal information was used to generate ads. We investigate how and why ad transparency impacts ad effectiveness.... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Customization and Personalization; Information; Trust; Performance Effectiveness

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28 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better

even more intentional with how they use their time. It also requires teams and organizations to think collectively about how people are using their time. It matters where people are, vis-a-via others on their team; there are View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Peter Tufano

Peter Tufano is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the Peter Moores Dean at View Details

November 5, 2013
Article

How to Turn Around Nearly Anything

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

In turbulent times, turnarounds are increasingly a fact of life. Some companies need to be rescued from the brink of extinction, but that’s not the only kind of turnaround. Others need a course correction while still profitable, or a momentum shift because of... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Change; Purpose; Team Building; Voice; Positivity; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Value; Assets; Mission and Purpose

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Fall 2013
Article

Using Open Innovation to Identify the Best Ideas

By: Andrew King and Karim R. Lakhani

Which parts of your innovation processes should you open up to the wider world? To reap the benefits of open innovation, executives must understand what to open, how to open it, and how to manage the resulting problems. According to authors Andrew King of Dartmouth... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention

September 2015 (Revised July 2017)
Case

The TTIP: Bridging the Transatlantic Economy

By: Dante Roscini and Christina Marin

In 2016, the United States and the European Union struggled to reach an agreement over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Started in June 2013, TTIP negotiations had gone on much longer than anyone had expected. With elections coming on both... View Details

Keywords: International Trade; European Union; United States; Agreements and Arrangements; Trade; United States; European Union

Web

PhD Programs - Doctoral

both economics and business school students, receiving the benefits of a PhD from Harvard’s Economics Department along with specialized access to Harvard Business School faculty View Details

2008
Working Paper

The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality

By: Zeynep Ton

Determining staffing levels is an important decision in retail operations. While the costs of increasing labor are obvious and easy to measure, the benefits are often indirect and not immediately felt. One benefit of increased labor is improved quality. The objective... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Selection and Staffing; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Quality; Retail Industry

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Article

Your Job Doesn't Have to Be Your Passion

By: Lauren C. Howe, Jon M. Jachimowicz and Jochen I. Menges

The pandemic has been a wake-up call for a lot of people, causing us to reevaluate our lives and our careers. It’s natural to think: “If I’m going to spend so much time at work, I might as well do something I’m passionate about.” But there are also benefits to thinking... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Personal Development and Career