Publications

Research Summary

Interpersonal Communication & Human-Computer Interaction

This stream of research, combining methods from experimental psychology and natural language processing, investigates behaviors that improve interpersonal communication. In our paper on question-asking published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Responsiveness; Negotiation; Gender Stereotypes

19 Nov 2015
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: Education Pioneers

successful in engaging with students and/or alumni at HBS? We’ve prioritized building personal, face-to-face relationships with HBS students through on-campus recruitment presentations and interview sessions. We also identify students who... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

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

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September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change

By: Michael I. Norton and Jill Avery

In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Advertising Campaigns; Investment Return; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Cost vs Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

and cross-boundary work. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53289 forthcoming Organization Science Blurring the Boundaries: The Interplay of Gender and Local Communities in the Commercialization of Social... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

20 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It

Keywords: by Kash Rangan, Lisa A. Chase & Sohel Karim

15 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 15

Publisher's link: http://www.people.hbs.edu/jlerner/private-equity-jobs-and-productivity-8-march-2014-with-ables-and-figures-clean.pdf August 2013 Strategic Management Journal The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Investment... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Past, Present and Future Research on Multiple Identities: Toward an Intrapersonal Network Approach

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

Psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers have long recognized that people have multiple identities—based on attributes such as organizational membership, profession, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and family role(s) and that these multiple identities... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Research; Organizations; Identity

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Herman B. ("Dutch") Leonard is Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In... View Details

Keywords: education industry; federal government; health care; nonprofit industry; state government

11 Mar 2024
Blog Post

A Day in the Life: Ben Hsieh

“social impact nerds” and went on a weekend retreat in August. This group, alongside the Rising Leaders in Social Impact, has been really grounding. It has been so fruitful to build relationships outside my... View Details

January 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

iBasis, Inc.

By: Andrew Wasynczuk, Katherine Dowd and Nicole Kravec

iBasis examines the development of a long-term relationship between equipment manufacturer Cisco and start-up iBasis, a voice-over-internet wholesaler. Questions arise for iBasis founders as to how best to build a beneficial relationship with the much larger partner.... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Intellectual Property; Value Creation; Equality and Inequality; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Price Bubble; Trust; Business Startups; Manufacturing Industry; Communications Industry; Web Services Industry

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

economy. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54694 in press Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Valuing Time Over Money Is Associated with Greater View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Simultaneous Distinction, Democratization and Omnivorism Effects: A Longitudinal Analysis of Dynamic Symbolic Boundaries in Counterfeit Consumption Networks

Sociologists have long examined the interactive relationship between social structure, taste and power. This literature has overwhelmingly fallen into three, ostensibly competing, theoretical “camps”: Distinction, where high-status consumers use... View Details

Article

Real Effects of Relational Contracts

By: Steven Blader, Claudine Gartenberg, Rebecca Henderson and Andrea Pratt

How important are factors such as "firm culture" and "employee engagement" in driving firm performance? Increasing evidence from a wide range of fields suggests that productivity differs widely across firms, even after the inclusion of careful controls for factors such... View Details

December 2023
Case

TikTok: The Algorithm Will See You Now

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In a world where attention is a scarce commodity, this case explores the meteoric rise of TikTok—an app that transformed from a niche platform for teens into the most visited domain by 2021—surpassing even Google. Its algorithm was a sophisticated mechanism for... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Business and Government Relations; International Relations; Cybersecurity; Culture; Technology Industry; China; United States; India

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow

different: Her research suggests that a more powerful lever to increase a nonprofit's social impact might be to focus on building network relationships like-minded groups—even competitors. Organizations as... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2013
Article

Shattering the Myth of Separate Worlds: Negotiating Non-Work Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

How much of our self is defined by our work? Fundamental changes in the social organization of work are destabilizing the relationship between work and the self. As a result, parts of the self traditionally considered outside the domain of work, i.e., "non-work"... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Diversity; Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Work-Life Balance

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May 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

IKEA's Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

Traces the history of IKEA's response to a TV report that its Indian carpet suppliers were using child labor. Describes IKEA's growth, including the importance of a sourcing strategy based on its close relationships with suppliers in developing countries. Details the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Moral Sensibility; Policy; Employment; Contracts; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Natural Environment; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues