Boundaries - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Nov 2009
What Do You Think?

What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?

doing so, they left us with interesting questions. Fidel Arcenas described one such challenge: "A bureaucratic apparatus that's way off the pace of the market forces is useless." Do you agree? Jacoline Loewen commented, "Government is about setting the... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

provided political and religious groups with a way to compete against their rivals for followers. Moreover, with more fluid class boundaries than in European countries, the skills of salesmanship, especially beginning in the late... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

11 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your Employees Are Not OK

crucial, especially for managers trying to lead widely dispersed teams during difficult times, says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian Zlatev. Many managers believe in maintaining emotional boundaries with employees, but... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

competitors in geographically fragmented industries; to extend into new products or markets; as a substitute for R&D; and to exploit eroding industry boundaries by inventing an industry. Despite the massive number of books and... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

June 2012
Article

The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent organizational design on workers' productivity and organizational... View Details

01 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How Systemic Racism Can Threaten National Security

the single most important public good: defense of national boundaries from external attacks.” Quantifying racism’s toll Economists have looked more frequently at racism’s destructive influence on the US economy in recent years, yet few... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

19 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Helping You Help Me: The Role of Diagnostic (In)Congruence in the Helping Process within Organizations

Keywords: by Colin M. Fisher, Julianna Pillemer & Teresa M. Amabile

Research Summary

Competing on a Common Platform

Why have over 100 firms joined the Eclipse Foundation to collectively produce an open source platform and tools for software application development? What are they trying to accomplish? This research analyzes IBMs divestment of the Eclipse Java Integrated Development... View Details

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

networks of companies and organizations are emerging, new ways of competing and collaborating are becoming more important. Old boundaries are withering. The traditional widget-making company maximizing its own profit in a nationally... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

strategies, leading them to overinvest in the near term," says Baxter. Senior management can provide valuable top-down guidance here by using three- to five-year strategic plans to define the boundaries of these discussions and then... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

15 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat

their counterparts at International. Wal-Mart also tries to aggregate across national boundaries with its IT platform and regional management teams that were created in 2004 to manage global brand development and oversee government and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Hybrid organizing

By: Julie Battilana

While historically the commercial and social sectors have evolved on fairly separate tracks, over the last 30 years we have witnessed a blurring of the boundaries between these two sectors. In an effort to account for this transition, Professor Battilana’s second... View Details

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

and ethical? What are the responsibilities that an organization has to its consumers?” The discussion drifted beyond the boundaries of India, touching on different views about skin color around the world. In Vietnam, some women wear long... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

17 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers

company to evaluate new benefits or expand existing ones. Companies must not only ensure that employees know about such resources, they must also eliminate the stigma of using them. Fuller says that it’s important for managers to model positive behavior and healthy... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

12 May 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

requests, and collaborating in each respective platform. When working from home, we often find ourselves trying to manage family responsibilities and work tasks at the same time, and the boundaries between work and home can get blurry.... View Details

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley

05 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Benefit of Giving Back to Open Source Software

workforce training initiatives might also be viewed as public goods. “What this study and others that are at the cutting edge now are starting to show is that, as a result of technology, the boundaries of the firm are weakening,” says... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Computer

09 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Entrepreneurs Should Go Work for Government

drivers and alleged evasion of local taxes. The Uber case brings up thorny questions around when pushing legal or policy boundaries becomes a public hazard rather than public benefit. Permission Or Forgiveness "We address this in the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

the past. The economics of financial transactions have continually dropped from dollars to cents. New entrants have joined many industries and have focused on taking strategic advantage of IT's associated economics. Company boundaries... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

27 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Build 'Scaffolds' to Improve Performance of Temporary Teams

southeastern United States, was an early adopter of a team-focused structure that many emergency departments are now implementing. The research showed that temporary teams mimic the behaviors of more permanent teams, which have definitive View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

Research Summary

Managing the Advantages and Tradeoffs of Collaborative Structures