Publications

2011
Working Paper

When Smaller Menus Are Better: Variability in Menu-Setting Ability

Are large menus better than small menus? Recent literature argues that individuals' apparent preference for smaller menus can be explained by choosers' behavioral biases or informational limitations. These explanations imply that absent behavioral or informational... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Size; Quality

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12 Jan 2023
News

Managers, Stop Distracting Your Employees

01 Mar 2009
News

Faculty Research Online

HBS Working Knowledge is an online forum for innovation in business practice, offering a first look at new thinking from HBS faculty. Read the complete articles summarized below by visiting their Web links. The Value of a ‘Portable’ Career Can you predict whether star... View Details

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

September 8, 2015
Article

Making Better Decisions in Your Family Business

By: Josh Baron, Rob Lachenauer and Sebastian Ehrensberger

Family businesses face complex decisions, from CEO succession to business strategies. A "four-room" model helps structure decision-making in these businesses: Owner Room (ownership goals and board election), Board Room (performance monitoring and CEO appointment),... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Decisions; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Management Succession; Talent and Talent Management

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February 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Stanford Graduate School of Business

By: Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In fall 2007, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) adopted a new curriculum that it heralded as a "revolutionary change in management education." The new approach aimed at increasing the level and quality of student academic engagement. This case describes the... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Higher Education; Curriculum and Courses; Globalization; Leadership Development; Cognition and Thinking; Adaptation; Education Industry; California

2008
Working Paper

Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of 'Independent' Directors

By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy

We test the hypothesis that firms appoint independent directors who are overly sympathetic to management, while still technically independent according to regulatory definitions. We explore a subset of independent directors for whom we have detailed, micro-level data... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Prejudice and Bias

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December 1981 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Mike Miller (A)

Mike Miller, Harvard MBA '78, resigned his first job out of HBS within six months because he believed his personal values and learning objectives could not be accommodated. Students may discuss the problems of anticipating corporate culture, learning the ropes,... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Jobs and Positions; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics

01 Sep 2011
News

Coming Full Circle

Image by John Weber Related Links Featured research: "Think Customers Hate Waiting? Not so Fast..." Read Director John Korn's blog Did you know? HBS alumni include... As an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, Modupe Akinola (MBA 2001, PhD 2009) sees her... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Dec 2009
News

Losing Our Competitive Edge

"We design them here, but the labor is cheaper in Hell." © Drew Dernavich/Condé Nast Publications/Cartoonbank.com Today, many people are looking to high-technology sectors — like alternative energy — to be the growth engine that revives the U.S. economy and gets it... View Details

Keywords: Gary P. Pisano; Manufacturing

01 Sep 2009
News

Building Your Own Dream Team

This era of social networking would surely have been invented by Keith Ferrazzi (MBA ’92) had it not sprouted on its own. Ferrazzi is well known as a professional networker in the best (or worst, depending on whom you’re talking to) HBS tradition — his Rolodex is as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

January 15, 2015
Article

Surviving in a Family Business When You're Not Part of the Family

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Navigating office politics in a family-owned business can be challenging for non-family executives. Based on experience with various business families worldwide, this article offers strategies for success:

Play in your room: Non-family executives should... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Employees; Problems and Challenges; Talent and Talent Management

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March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Supplement

OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (C)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In February 2023, Delta Air Lines (Delta) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ed Bastian, celebrated the airline’s OneTen partnership in a room full of Atlanta’s prominent business leaders, educators, and public servants in Atlanta, at a OneTen/Delta Launch Event. To support... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Community Relations; Race; Leading Change; Air Transportation Industry; United States; Atlanta

27 Aug 2021
News

How Data Literate Is Your Company?

01 Jun 2010
News

Just Extraordinary

TURNER: A World Cup goal. Matt Mendelsohn The world’s most popular sporting event — and the reason global productivity declines for several weeks every four years — soccer’s World Cup kicks off this month in South Africa. Stacie Scott Turner (MBA ’96) and her... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

November 1998 (Revised November 2001)
Case

BMW AG: The Digital Car Project (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its... View Details

Keywords: Change; Competency and Skills; Management; Time Management; Product Positioning; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Technology; Auto Industry