Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,039)
- Faculty Publications (1,201)
- January 2020
- Case
The Origins of Bell Labs
By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier that would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous... View Details
- 2020
- Book
Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World
By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani
In industry after industry, data, analytics, and AI-driven processes are transforming the nature of work. While we often still treat AI as the domain of a specific skill, business function, or sector, we have entered a new era in which AI is challenging the very... View Details
- 2020
- Book
Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy
By: Michael Beer
Is Silence Killing Your Strategy?
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details
Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust; Strategy; Performance Effectiveness
- December 2019 (Revised June 2024)
- Case
The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
The Dutch East India Company’s board of directors must decide what to do about an impending legal requirement to liquidate the company’s assets and return to shareholders their capital and any profits earned during a ten-year lock-up period. The charter granted to the... View Details
- December 16, 2019
- Article
Why Your Startup Won't Last
By: Ranjay Gulati and Vasundhara Sawhney
Why do some startups that have crossed the threshold of “product-market fit” and have a viable business model still fail? This article begins by exploring the argument that most startups need more professionalization to thrive. Founders resist putting in place... View Details
- November 2019
- Supplement
United Technologies Corp.: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune Magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Valuation; Investment Activism; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States
- November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
The Boss Has the Wrong Idea: Confidential Role Material for Julia Smith
By: Katherine Coffman, Kathleen McGinn, Judith A. Clair and Katherine Chen
“The Boss Has the Wrong Idea” is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
The Boss Has the Wrong Idea: Confidential Role Material for Lee Clancy
By: Katherine Coffman, Kathleen McGinn, Judith A. Clair and Katherine Chen
“The Boss Has the Wrong Idea” is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Brightview Senior Living
By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber
Marilynn Duker, CEO, was exploring how to grow the company while maintaining the culture that made it a leader in the field of senior housing. Brightview constructed and operated senior living apartment communities that offered independent living, assisted living, and... View Details
- October 2019
- Case
GRIT Fitness
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Olivia Hull
In December 2018, GRIT Fitness was a growing chain of boutique fitness studios offering a variety of workout classes, including weightlifting, high intensity interval training, and cardio dance. With 400 members and three Dallas studios, CEO Brittani Rettig believed... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Plan; Trends; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Health; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Style; Leadership Development; Management Style; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Motivation and Incentives; Sports; Competition; Diversification; Expansion; Value Creation; Health Industry; Sports Industry; Texas
- October 2019
- Case
China Merchants Bank: Ushering in the Era of Family Office in China
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Billy Chan and Dawn H. Lau
China Merchants Bank, the sixth-largest lender in China, intends to boost its family office business as a result of an increase in the population of ultra-high net worth individuals. Already ranked China’s number-one private bank with AUM exceeding US$300 billion, the... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Thermax—Changing of the Guard
By: Christina R. Wing and Inakshi Sobti
Thermax is an engineering company in India that provides integrated solutions in energy, environment, and chemicals. The Aga family along with family trusts owns 62% of the company. Post a restructuring exercise in 2000, Thermax transforms itself from a small family... View Details
- October 2019
- Case
Engaging the Nationwide Workforce
By: Ethan S. Bernstein, Jessica Gover and Sarah Mehta
Nationwide is “on your side,” but did employees feel that way? CAO Gale King and CEO Steve Rasmussen, starting in 2008, invested heavily in a human capital strategy centered around “engagement” at the Ohio-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Set in 2014, this... View Details
Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Insurance; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Human Capital; Leadership; Leadership Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Social Psychology; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States; Ohio
- 2019
- Working Paper
Birds of a Feather ... Enforce Social Norms? Interactions Among Culture, Norms, and Strategy
By: Hongyi Li and Eric J. Van den Steen
This paper analyzes how shared beliefs and preferences (or values) cause the emergence of social norms; why people may enforce norms that go against their own beliefs and preferences/values; and how this may cause a disconnect to develop between the... View Details
- Article
Organizational Innovation in the Multinational Enterprise: Internalization Theory and Business History
By: Teresa da Silva Lopes, Mark Casson and Geoffrey Jones
This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge... View Details
- September 2019
- Case
Netflix: A Creative Approach to Culture and Agility
By: Ranjay Gulati, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
By 2018, Netflix had been credited for revolutionizing how viewers consumed entertainment—shifting from ad-fueled linear network programming to a highly personalized, on-demand, all-you-can-consume, ad-free model. The company was riding a long wave of revenue and... View Details
Keywords: Digital Technologies; Streaming; Video On Demand; International Expansion; Leadership; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Entertainment; Media; Change Management; Expansion; Technology Industry; United States
- September 2019
- Case
Nimbus Therapeutics
By: Peter Barrett, Karim Lakhani and Julia Kelley
This case focuses on Nimbus Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as its leadership team tries to determine the company’s long-term strategy. The startup’s founders structured Nimbus as a limited liability company, which has given it... View Details
- September 2019
- Case
Shell: A Company of Opportunity?
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney
The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details
Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands
- 2018
- Working Paper
The Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities
By: David J. Collis and Bharat Anand
The concept of dynamic capabilities draws its theoretical basis from two classic traditions within the strategy field—the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984) and market positioning (Porter, 1996). A dynamic capability qualifies as a source of... View Details