Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

done a good job on diversity at the top, but we haven't had the pull through at the levels below that I think we need to have. And I take responsibility for that. Neeley: You do? Frazier: I do. Neeley: And will you act to change it?... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

25 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

In America, Immigrants Really Do Get the Job Done

says. Kerr notes that certain aspects of the US immigration system have been influential for these tight connections of skilled immigrants to STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) work. In contrast to a points-based... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Technology; Service

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

"The development of modern sales management is an uniquely American story." Why do you think this is? Walter Friedman: In the early nineteenth century, many nations, certainly all the European ones, had traveling peddlers and... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

of history, there are five powerful forces working on the system of global capitalism in this moment, propelling it along the broad path that Gates sketched out at Davos. The first is the issue of resources. Who has what to deal with the... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

28 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Discrimination

profound impact on the inclusivity of the systems you are creating," says Luca, who has also coauthored a new case study, Racial Discrimination on Airbnb: The Role of Platform Design. "Platform companies should View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Travel; Entertainment & Recreation; Service

29 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Do Disasters Rally Support for Climate Action? It's Complicated.

Environmental disasters like wildfires can ignite awareness of climate change and boost eco-friendly politicians’ careers. But do voters perceive a tradeoff between environmental policies and local economic growth? In Brazil, home to a majority of the Amazon tropical... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

"Self-regulation" increasingly rings like a mantra in business. Just think of topics in the news over the past couple of months, such as the Italian fashion industry's move toward self-regulation to discourage the hiring of dangerously... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

27 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 27

hamper the growth of the Android platform may have merely shifted the sales to weak IP countries. This study sheds light on the emerging patent enforcement strategy literature by highlighting the heterogeneity in the efficacy of national patent View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

John Kotter’s Plan to Accelerate Your Business

structure driven by the accelerators." Two Is Better A dual operating system is a nod to what Kotter believes is some of the most interesting management thinking of the past few decades, from Michael... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

24 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Why It's Best to Take Tests Early in the Day

should consider whether the structure of the school day is ideal. Should we have more breaks to ensure that low-performing children can recover, for instance? Two, in accountability systems we often compare and evaluate based on test... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

09 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Five Steps to Better Family Negotiations

dispute-resolution cases can help family negotiations to be productive while protecting family relationships. Some of the 5 principles of effective negotiation are easier for family members in family business systems to apply, and others... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis and Deepak Malhotra

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

would not have risen to what is now, a $2.5-billion-a-year industry, without a revolutionary shift to outside-in thinking that allowed companies such as Fresh Express to realize that busy consumers wanted companies to make the whole salad... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

29 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 29

mitigate this exposure? How can they extend this thinking to other cities and countries? Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210085-PDF-ENG A Note on Real Estate Research Arthur I Segel, Griffin H. James, and Ann... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 23

knowledge of a technical system to gain strategic advantage. The strategy involves, first, identifying "bottlenecks" in the existing system, and then creating a new architecture that isolates the bottlenecks in modules. An... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Organizing the Family-Run Business

As described in the first article in this series, the "Three-circle" family business system is composed of three overlapping subsystems: those employed in the business, the shareholders, and members of the family that has a... View Details

22 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Use Artificial Intelligence to Set Sales Targets That Motivate

consistent rate, related to the firm’s growth objectives, only works in a stable market, in a stable industry, in a stable region. “That’s a lot of ‘ifs,’” Chung says. Putting artificial intelligence to work Artificial intelligence—an array of approaches that rely on... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

social comparison, overconfidence, and loss aversion reduce the viability of individual performance-based compensation systems and provides a framework that integrates insights from psychology and decision research into the traditional... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

A Penny for Your Thoughts? For Big-Picture Ideas, the Right Pay Structure Matters

Want employees to think outside the box? Start by taking a good, hard look at how you’re paying them. That’s the implication of new research examining the impact of different compensation structures on employee innovation. While there is... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

05 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Six Ways to Build Trust in Negotiations

described the limitations of their current system and gave an overview of their needs and expectations. After the presentation, a dialogue opened up between the executives and the prospective bidders. Representatives from consulting firm... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

on how the economic system works and what history teaches us, business readers might turn to A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know, by Harvard Business School professor David A. Moss, who... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Publications