Publications

October 23, 2013
Article

Banyan Family Business Advisors On The Keys to Long-Term Resilience

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Family businesses have been found to excel in resilience during economic downturns compared to publicly-traded ones. This is attributed to their focus on resilience over performance. Key qualities of resilient family firms include managing low debt, practicing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Consistency; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Family Ownership; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy

07 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Video: Harvard Business School at the Kumbh Mela

Kumbh in January to discover what such an undertaking can teach us about real estate, urbanization, sustainability, and infrastructure. In addition to the video and Q&A below, Macomber has written a... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Construction; Real Estate

Article

Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century

By: Tom Nicholas

This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Personal Finance; Property; Biography; History; Acquisition; Wealth; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Integration; Transformation; Market Transactions

05 Nov 2024
Book

Building the Road to 'Small Business Utopia' with AI and Fintech

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from chapter one of Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, written by Karen G. Mills, senior fellow at Harvard Business School. The second edition was... View Details

Keywords: by Karen G. Mills; Financial Services

January–March 2020
Article

Inaction and Decision Making in Moral Conflicts

By: Netta Barak-Corren and Max Bazerman

People regularly face conflicts in which obeying one moral requirement means transgressing another. Moral conflicts require difficult decisions: a person believes she should take both actions, but doing both is impossible. In this paper, we examine a common form of... View Details

Keywords: Moral Conflicts; Moral Sensibility; Decision Making; Behavior

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

17 Jan 2023
In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

As 2023 begins, businesses and employees face an uncertain economy and labor market, as the twin dilemmas of inflation and interest rates weigh on forecasts. Harvard Business School faculty share the top trends that they believe will shape the workplace and markets... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

02 Sep 2002
What Do You Think?

What Can Business Schools Do to Avoid Bad Apples?

might be taken in admissions to sort out the "bad apples," the primary responsibility of business schools is to provide a place where ethics and values can be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

June 2016
Article

When Doctors Go to Business School: Career Choices of Physician-MBAs

By: Damir Ljuboja, Brian W. Powers, Benjamin Robbins, Robert S. Huckman, Krishna Yeshwant and Sachin Jain

There has been substantial growth in the number of physicians pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees over the past decade, but there is continuing debate over the utility of these programs and the career outcomes of their graduates. The authors... View Details

Keywords: Medical Education; MD; MBA; Physicians; Executive Education; Training; Personal Development and Career; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

January 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods: Getting Out Of The Gun Business (A)

By: George A. Riedel

Dick's Sporting Goods was one of the top five retailers of a range of firearms in the US. Over the last several years and specifically following the Parkland shooting of 2018, Ed Stack, the CEO and chairman, had wrestled with the question of their role as a leading... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Sporting Goods; Sport; Human Behavior; Violence; Ethics; Decision Making; Social Issues; Corporate Accountability; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; United States

October 15, 2021
Article

Virtuous Victims

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Maryam Kouchaki

How do people perceive the moral character of victims? We find, across a range of transgressions, that people frequently see victims of wrongdoing as more moral than non-victims who have behaved identically. Across 15 experiments (total n = 9,355), we document this... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Restorative Justice; Punishment; Compensation; Person Perception; Moral Sensibility; Judgments; Perception

February 1999 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu

Working with Shell's country manager for Nigeria, the company's Committee of Managing Directors must decide how to respond to the Nigerian government's decision to impose the death sentence on Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of a movement for the rights of the... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Multinational Firms and Management; Courts and Trials; Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Nigeria

22 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

New Challenges in Leading Professional Services

New Model for High Performance But lately the challenges for professional service firms (PSFs) have been growing in size and complexity, and the excitement is more the type you need a stomach antacid to control. The dilemma, says HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Consulting; Accounting; Legal Services

April 2008
Case

A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

By: Larry E. Greiner and Elizabeth Collins

Alex Sander is a new product manager whose drive and talents are attractive to management, but whose intolerant style has alienated employees. This tension is presented against the backdrop of a 360° performance review process. Sander works in the Toiletries Division... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Conflict Management; Behavior; Management Practices and Processes; Talent and Talent Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Problems and Challenges; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Europe

2021
White Paper

Report on Racial Inclusion in the Boardroom: A Workshop Convened by Harvard Business School's Leadership Initiative and Board Leadership Project

By: James I. Cash, Linda A. Hill, Hubert Joly, Lynn S. Paine and Suraj Srinivasan

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Inclusion; Organization Culture; Corporate Governance; Diversity; Equity; Governing and Advisory Boards; Race; Fairness; Organizational Culture

July 2010
Case

Fidelity Retires in Canada

By: Robert C. Pozen and Edward Warren Scott

The head of Fidelity Canada was faced with a decision about what to do with its retirement business there. Although Fidelity as a fund manager has made some headway in Canada, the competition has been very tough for the administration of retirement plans—a separate... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment Funds; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Retirement; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Canada; United States

01 Nov 2022
What Do You Think?

Why Aren’t Business Leaders More Vocal About Immigration Policy?

reasoned, rational approach to this opportunity that its business community is best equipped to provide. Why aren’t business leaders more vocal about immigration policy? What do you think? Share your... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 2011
Case

Kay Sunderland: Making the Grade at Attain Learning

By: Linda A. Hill and Heather Beckham

Kay Sunderland is an account director at Attain Learning Inc., a business training solutions company. In January 2011, one of Attain's most important clients, Juan Nunez of Gramen Equipment Company, contacts Sunderland with a request: Nunez would like Attain content... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Interpersonal Relations; Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Creativity; Conflict; Interdepartmental Relations; Talent Management; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Communication Strategy; Power and Influence; Service Industry