Publications

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

We all know people who seem able to perform at a higher level than those around them; and we've all had moments ourselves where we are firing on all cylinders and everything just seems to work. But how do you achieve that kind of excellence on a consistent basis, day... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Adobe: GenAI Opportunity or Threat?

By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Allison Ciechanover

In December 2022, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen faced a pivotal strategic decision due to the rapid rise of generative AI image models from OpenAI, Midjourney, and StabilityAI. Adobe, a leader in digital media and marketing software with a 40-year legacy of innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Ethics; AI and Machine Learning; Trust; Business Strategy; Technology Industry; San Jose

October 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Building Brand Infosys

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Vidhya Muthuram

Infosys Limited was India's second largest exporter of IT services with annual revenues of $7 billion and a market capitalization of nearly $26 billion in 2012. The company, headquartered in Bangalore, India, had built its reputation as the Indian IT bellwether whose... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; India

September 2004
Article

Trust in Agency

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

Existing models of the principal-agent relationship assume the agent works only under extrinsic incentives. However, many observed agency contracts take the form of a fixed payment. For such contracts to succeed, the principal must trust the agent to work in the... View Details

Keywords: Trust; Agency Theory; Relationships; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Contracts; Business Model; Emotions; Forecasting and Prediction; Ethics; Standards; Risk and Uncertainty

Find at Harvard

April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
Supplement

TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increase ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

November 1990 (Revised June 1991)
Case

Final Voyage of the Challenger

Provides a summary of technical and organizational details that led to the decision to launch the Challenger Space Shuttle, and to the ensuing accident. Details of design and testing milestones of the Space Shuttle, with a focus on the Solid Rocket Booster, offer... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Risk Management; Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Processes; Aerospace Industry; United States

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

older airplane models at the expense of all-new aircraft. Secondly, in 2001 Condit moved Boeing’s headquarters from its original home in Seattle to Chicago—all to gain $60 million in state and local tax credits over 20 years. With none of its View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

in press Academy of Management Journal Compromised Ethics in Hiring Processes? How Referrers’ Power Affects Employees’ Reactions to Referral Practices By: Delfer-Rozin, R., B. Baker, and F. Gino Abstract—In this paper, we explore... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2009
Chapter

Evaluating the Impact of SA8000 Certification

By: Michael J. Hiscox, Claire Schwartz and Michael W. Toffel

SA 8000, along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of private governance of working conditions, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups. Whether these codes... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Working Conditions; Standards; Performance Evaluation

Read Now

05 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2007

Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-006.pdf Why We Aren't as Ethical as We Think We Are: A Temporal Explanation Authors:Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Kristina A. Diekmann, Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2019
Working Paper

Intelligent Design of Inclusive Growth Strategies

By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat

Improving corporate engagement with society, as advocated in the Business Roundtable’s 2019 statement, should not be viewed as a zero-sum proposition where attention to new stakeholders detracts from delivering shareholder value. Corporate programs for sustainable and... View Details

Keywords: Inclusion; Sustainability; Performance Measures; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Strategy; Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations

SSRN

Read Now

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Does Spirituality Drive Success?

Executives from a wide range of industries trooped to Harvard Business School to discuss how their spirituality helps them be powerful leaders. The stories emerged from three panel sessions at the Möbius Leadership Forum, held April... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace, Sean Silverthorne & Wendy Guild

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

Publications The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations Author: Josh Lerner Publication: Harvard Business Press Books, 2012 Abstract Innovation is a much-used buzzword these days, but when it comes to creating... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2010
Case

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Esquel Group, leading manufacturer of quality shirts, sought to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. Seeking to secure a large supply of specialty cotton in an ethical and... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

February 2022
Case

NFX Capital and Moov Technologies

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Nicole Tempest Keller

In July 2019, James Currier, a general partner at San Francisco-based NFX Ventures, was considering a seed stage investment of $1.5 million in Moov Technologies, a B2B marketplace for used industrial equipment. NFX was a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Network Effects; Marketplace Matching; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Applications and Software; Semiconductor Industry; Financial Services Industry; San Francisco