Complicity - Publications - Faculty & Research

Teaching Interest

Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Many of the decisions we face are made complicated by having uncertain consequences: how should I set my inventory when I don’t know what demand will be, should I refinance my mortgage when rates might go lower, how big a bet shall I make in a new business, and so... View Details

09 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

War in Ukraine: Soaring Gas Prices and the Return of Stagflation?

expect much larger price increases experienced by American consumers." The conflict in Ukraine is obviously partly about Ukraine, but it’s also part of a much messier, more complicated geopolitical conflict between Russia and the West... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Energy

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The Power of Personal Connections: How Shared Experiences Boost Performance

your workforce to tap into their intrinsic motivation rather than coming up with complicated schemes for paying them based on certain performance measures,” Pany says. “People are social creatures. Support them so that people can be who... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

12 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

In a Landscape of 'Me Too' Drug Development, What Spurs Radical Innovation?

portfolios. They examined all companies that held at least one drug patent on the market as of 2003. The researchers focused mainly on small-molecule drugs, not biologics. That’s because of how the compounds are structured chemically. The View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health; Pharmaceutical

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

through. As companies and work groups become more diverse, these differences will appear more often. Finally, people may not comply because they're confused. The growing complexity of the workplace and more fluid organizational structures with multiple bosses and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

know that anyone can access these ideas.” Dina Gerdeman: Finance intimidates people largely because the system is so complex, but you say there’s an easier way to understand it. Can you explain how? Mihir Desai: Finance is often talked about in an overly View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

people and groups that complicate the process of sustaining healthy working relationships. Any organization has design issues posed by the innate nature of its employees and also by the same innate nature of its customers, suppliers,... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

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

increasingly important. In some ways it seems obvious, but verification requirements can be enormously complicated to implement and it can dramatically increase the cost of adoption. Q: How do self-regulation programs affect managers as... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

complicated by feelings on the death penalty in general. Partly like ideas around involuntary servitude, we think that prisoners volunteering for anything has to be scrutinized very carefully. Q: Why do economists see markets so... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2015
Case

BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm

By: William A. Sahlman and Robert F. White

BOLT is a different kind of seed venture capital firm built to serve the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.

In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Accelerator; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Venture Capital; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Strategy

Citation

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30 Apr 2020
Book

Fighting Climate Change Requires a New Capitalism

Rebecca Henderson spent her young adult years living two lives. At work, she preached the risks of resisting change to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing on lessons she learned while watching factories close as a management consultant.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Energy

28 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic'

companies’ individual circumstances. Companies that have more complicated capital structures with a larger number of, and more heterogeneous, creditors, might be better served by restructuring in Chapter 11, despite the higher costs.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

06 Oct 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

productivity in your sales team after the crisis. To learn more, read Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business Frank V. Cespedes, MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. Tip: Determine if COVID View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation Changes Education

our schools." The ability of these lenses to shed new light on complicated problems has been proven in contexts ranging from national defense to semiconductors; from health care to retailing; and from automobiles to financial... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

09 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Five Steps to Better Family Negotiations

complicated and difficult than those between non-related individuals in non-family business systems. Because family relationships have existed for many years, they have deeply ingrained tendencies, some of which can facilitate a... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis and Deepak Malhotra

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

decent wages. Even strictly humanitarian organizations are now calling for changes in the underlying structures of the societies in which they operate. This complicates things somewhat for nonprofit organizations since being an effective... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

to have them acknowledge the connection. HAF cofounder and board member Aseem Shukla wrote a 2010 piece for the Washington Post's On Faith column called "The Theft of Yoga." In it, Shukla blasted the "facile complicity of... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

15 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: It Takes a Village

leader does matter.) Because there is not only a business, but also an ownership group and a family that need capable leadership, a family business system is much more complicated than other kinds of business organizations. Leading these... View Details

27 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding

Author's note: Over the past few weeks, I have been asking CEOs attending programs I teach at Harvard Business School a simple question: What is keeping you awake at night during this global pandemic? They've mentioned numerous View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg

Publications