Firm News - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

address: that salespeople promoted innovations; that they acted as brokers of information; and that their activities "embodied the spirit of capitalism in popular culture." Could you elaborate on the importance of these themes? A: In the early 20th century, a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

17 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

What Hospitals Must Learn to Compete

more uniform than they are. With “one best price,” only firms with excellent management practices would thrive. But if hospital prices have a wide range—even for the same service—then managerial quality can be very uneven. Sadun: Of... View Details

Keywords: by Alumni Bulletin Staff; Health

11 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

Fixing Price Tag Confusion

can firms do to prevent it? A: When you go buy a toy at the store, the only cost that stands out is the price you pay for the toy, not the coins you put in the parking meter near the store's window. If you buy toys online, you might wind... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

28 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Football Stars Debate ‘The Social Capital of the Savvy Athlete’

"a sorry receiver," followed by a message for Crabtree: "Don't you ever talk about me!" Twitter members reacted forcefully and en masse, to the point that major news networks published stories with headlines like... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

energy to priority areas for innovation." Amy Sauers added findings that suggest that large firms succeed that "attempted to 'get small' (through the vehicle of) 'lean, mean, heavyweight teams.'" Another ingredient... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

28 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Harness Auction Fever

Internet Auctions" currently in press in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Malhotra says the research carries lessons for business people who bid on everything from services to new employees.... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Web Services; Technology

20 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How CEOs Sustain Higher-Ambition Goals

MBA '83), vice chairman of advertising firm Arnold Worldwide. "It takes longer than you think to get everybody on the bus. And even then, is your vision clear? Does everyone know where they're going? Sometimes you think everybody is on... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

What the World Could Learn from America's Immigration Backlash—100 Years Ago

shares several similarities with the US labor market of the early 20th century. For example: Labor was scarce then, as it is today. Firms operating in the most dynamic sectors, such as tech and semiconductors, which, incidentally, are... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Tabellini

20 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

US Competitiveness at Risk

job machine started sputtering around 2000. There's something structural here, because it started before the recent downturn. Moreover, we and others discovered that virtually all the net new jobs created over the last decade were in... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter & Jan W. Rivkin

12 Jan 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Leadership Lessons from a Young Martin Luther King, Jr.

Well, at the time, I was introducing my new course Authentic Leadership Development, and one of the things we talk a lot about are crucibles that people face. Dr. King at this time was facing perhaps the greatest crucible of his life that... View Details

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

How to Put Meaning Back into Leading

The bottom line is, after all, the bottom line when it comes to business success. No profit, no business. But should money be the sole measure for evaluating and rewarding the effectiveness of a leader? In a new Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Do I Dare Say Something?

defensiveness, and also personal concerns about job security and/or mobility. These factors tend to be seen as applying across situations. For example, a person with greater communication skill might be more likely to speak up despite an unfavorable context. No View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

27 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Leaders Build Winning Streaks

turnaround of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the 2002-2003 season? Was it Paul Pressler as head of Disney Sports, because he got investment funds from Disney CEO Michael Eisner and then hired Bryan Murray? Was it Bryan Murray as the general manager, who spent the money on... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Time that Government Reopens for Business

start tapering, it may get out of the quantitative easing business—give new life to the observation that if the Fed catches a cold, the world gets pneumonia. The formal announcement of Janet Yellen's appointment as the Fed's next chair... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

private plans need to increase the value they provide to patients and the system as a whole. To read more: Robert Huckman and Gary Pisano, "The Firm Specificity of Individual Performance: Evidence from Cardiac Surgery," [PDF] Management... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Pride Goeth Before a Profit

the New York City-based consulting firm Katzenbach Partners and author of Why Pride Matters More Than Money (Crown, 2003), likes the story of the Wilmington plant because it communicates what he calls... View Details

Keywords: by Theodore Kinni

21 Sep 2009
Research & Ideas

Excessive Executive Pay: What’s the Solution?

their areas of expertise, have attempted to influence the debate through opinion pieces in major newspapers. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, HBS professor Jay Lorsch and coauthors Martin Lipton and Theodore Mirvis—partners of the New... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Gulf: It’s a Family Affair

struggled to get twenty-five people to the conference. At that conference the academics and consultants came together and created a professional society called the Family Firm Institute (FFI) to develop professionals in the field. Now,... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Andrea Schulman

10 Nov 2014
HBS Case

How Restaurants in Lima and Copenhagen Became Best in the World

such as ground grasshopper miso and live shrimp dipped in brown butter. In doing so, he has resuscitated Nordic cuisine, spawning new restaurants all over the world and expanded his own repertoire of super-local cuisine with a pop-up... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

behemoth’s corporate culture as it collided with the #MeToo movement’s spotlight on sexual relationships and power in the workplace. And as new information about Easterbrook’s romantic relationship with other employees emerged, it became... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

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