Publications

September 2024
Case

Barbie: Reviving a Cultural Icon at Mattel (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek, Ryann Noe and Sarah Mehta

The 2023 release of live-action film Barbie, and its accompanying marketing blitz, incited a worldwide Barbie craze. Suddenly Barbie was everywhere, a celebrated icon reinstated at the forefront of cultural conversation. This goodwill stood in contrast to decades of... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Intellectual Property; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Public Opinion; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

21 Dec 2018
News

How To Build Work Cultures Of Psychological Safety Rather Than Fear

2023
Working Paper

Culture as a Signal: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

By: Wei Cai, Dennis Campbell and Jiehang Yu

The importance of culture as an informal management control system is increasingly acknowledged in academia. While prior research mainly focuses on the value of culture on internal stakeholders (e.g., employees), we examine whether culture serves as a credible signal... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Customer Focus and Relationships

SSRN

Research Summary

When Cultural Worlds Collide: Investigating the Cross-Cultural Multiple Audience Problem

Today, many individuals have social networks that span cultural boundaries. For example, you may have a network of colleagues in China, friends and family in the U.S., and a group of childhood friends in Greece. Chances are, you are probably comfortable interacting... View Details

Keywords: Cross-cultural Networks; Multiple Audience Problem; Managing Multiple Identities

June 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Suzhou Good-Ark Electronics: Creating and Implementing a Sage Culture

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Nien-he Hsieh, Susan J. Winterberg, Nancy Hua Dai and Shalene Gupta

Suzhou Good-Ark, a Chinese semiconductor implemented "Sage Culture" management based on traditional Chinese philosophy. Productivity doubled, turnover decreased, and employee satisfaction shot up. By 2015, more than 2,000 companies had toured Wu’s factories, and Wu had... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Philosophy; Leadership; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Performance; Semiconductor Industry; China; Singapore

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

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2004
Chapter

A Culture of Confidence: Leading a Nation from Despair to Hope

By: Euvin Naidoo

15 Jun 2021
Cold Call Podcast

IKEA Navigates the Future While Staying True to its Culture

Keywords: Re: Juan Alcacer & Cynthia A. Montgomery; Retail

29 Mar 2012
News

Culture at 30,000 Feet Above Ground

18 May 2017
News

How Laws and Culture Hold Back Socially Minded Companies

August 2006 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Duane Morris: Balancing Growth and Culture at a Law Firm

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

After nearly 100 years as a mid-size regional law firm, Duane Morris entered a period of spectacular growth led by CEO Sheldon Bonovitz. Originally founded by Quakers, the firm had a distinct organizational culture featuring a number of unique or unusual business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; San Francisco

Web

Building a Culture of Awareness and Accountability in your Organization - Recruiting

Insights & Advice 14 Jul 2023 Building a Culture of Awareness and Accountability in your Organization Becca Carnahan Author HBS Team tag All Industries All Locations Alumni Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging... View Details

Article

Birds of a Feather...Enforce Social Norms? Interactions Among Culture, Norms, and Strategy

By: Hongyi Li and Eric J. Van den Steen

Does culture eat strategy for breakfast? This paper investigates the interactions among corporate culture, norms, and strategy, in order to better understand this issue and related questions. It first shows, through microfoundations, how the forces that drive toward... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Norms; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Values and Beliefs

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Leslie talks about the pervasive responsiveness trap in the workforce.

“The problem is that now everyone's on all the time and we come to expect that of each other. And then, we email each other late at night and we actually may or may not expect a... View Details

September 2013
Article

Cultures as Learning Laboratories: What Makes Some More Effective than Others?

By: Elaine Mosakowski, Goran Calic and P C Early

With a mandate to globalize, business school educators have increasingly embraced global service learning as an important technique for creating global mind-sets and enhancing cultural understanding in students. While we applaud this movement from the domestic to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Learning; Cognition and Thinking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

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23 Sep 2015
News

Carly Fiorina is corporate culture incarnate

August 2021
Supplement

Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund (B): Kevin Hart and Clubhouse

By: Anita Elberse, Briana Richardson and Cydni Williams

In May 2020, Andreessen Horowitz secures an agreement with Clubhouse, one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, to lead its ‘Series A’ funding round. One of the factors that insiders saw as pivotal in the race to be Clubhouse’s VC firm of choice was Andreessen... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Talent Management; General Management; Inclusion; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Networks; Nonprofit Organizations