Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,516)
- Faculty Publications (662)
purpose
→
- August 2019
- Case
Bark Gift Shop Ltd.
By: Susanna Gallani, Jan Bouwens and Peter Kroos
This case describes a setting in which the CFO of Bark Gift Shop Ltd., a gift items retailer, discovers an undesired pattern in the performance data suggesting that her shop managers that perform well during the first part of the year, purposely reduce their effort in... View Details
- July 2019 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Backstage at Boston Ballet
By: David G. Fubini, Ryan Raffaelli, Begum Agca Okutgen and Julia Kelley
This case asks students to consider how to prioritize goals when placed in a new leadership role. In August 2014, Meredith “Max” Hodges became the youngest Executive Director (ED) in the Boston Ballet’s 51-year history. In her first year, she was able to claim several... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Managing Change; Strategy Execution; Priorities; Arts; Buildings and Facilities; Decision Making; Theater Entertainment; Leadership; Business or Company Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategy; Marketing; Price; Fine Arts Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Education Industry; United States; North America; Massachusetts; Boston; New England; Northeastern United States
- July 24, 2019
- Editorial
How to Make Even the Most Mundane Tasks More Motivating
By: Jaewon Yoon, A.V. Whillans and Ed O'Brien
People want purposeful work, and managers know it. That’s why companies try to inspire employees with mission statements about the impact their work can have. Ikea tells employees they’re “creating a better everyday life”; Microsoft says they’re “empowering every... View Details
- July–August 2019
- Article
The Soul of a Startup
By: Ranjay Gulati
There’s an essential, intangible something in start-ups—an energy, a soul. It inspires enthusiasm and fosters a sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. While this spirit persists, engagement is high and businesses keep their edge.
But all too often,... View Details
But all too often,... View Details
- June 2019 (Revised November 2019)
- Technical Note
Sustaining Corporate Culture in a Growing Organization
By: Dennis Campbell and Tatiana Sandino
An organization’s culture can be a significant source of sustainable competitive advantage. For the organization, it can attract job candidates who fit and align employees working in different teams around common goals. For employees, a strong culture can generate... View Details
- June 2019
- Supplement
Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk; Risk Tolerance Exercise
By: Shikhar Ghosh
- May 2019
- Teaching Note
Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-040. View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Rehabilitating Corporate Purpose
In this paper, I address how the ascendance of the theory of shareholder value maximization into the central consciousness of public corporations and its canonization as the only legitimate expression of corporate purpose has contributed to both a widening breach... View Details
- March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli
When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details
Keywords: Female; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Health ＆ Wellness; Healthcare; Price Policies; Minimum Advertised Price; Differentiation; Positioning; Growth; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Disruption; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competitive Strategy; Competition; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Product Development; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Advertising; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Social Enterprise; Retail Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Health Industry; Green Technology Industry; Education Industry; Distribution Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Canada; United States; United Kingdom
- February 2019 (Revised May 2019)
- Case
Hot Chicken Takeover
By: William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Olivia Hull
By December 2018, entrepreneur Joe DeLoss’s fried chicken company, Hot Chicken Takeover, has opened three restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, using an unconventional employment model that helps people with criminal records get back on their feet. DeLoss is proud of the... View Details
Keywords: Fair Chance Employment; Fair Chance Hiring; Open Hiring; Inclusive Hiring; Criminal Record; Homelessness; Therapeutic Employment; Corporate Culture; Managing The Future Of Work; Food; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Employees; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation Strategy; Job Offer; Job Interviews; Human Capital; Leadership; Growth Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Poverty; Welfare; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio; United States
- January 2019
- Case
AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot
Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 13 Platform Systems vs. Step Processes—The Value of Options and the Power of Modularity
This is the first chapter in Part 3. Its purpose is to contrast the value structure of platform systems with step processes from a technological perspective. I first review the basic technical architecture of computers and argue that every computer is inherently a... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 15 The IBM PC
The IBM PC was the first digital computer platform that was open by as a matter of strategy, not necessity. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the IBM PC as a technical system and set of organization choices in light of the theory of how technology shapes... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised July 2022)
- Case
Jain Irrigation Systems Limited: Continuing a Legacy
By: Forest Reinhardt, Gunnar Trumbull and Mahima Rao-Kachroo
Founded in 1963 by Bhavarlal Jain (Bhau), who believed in “providing solutions for every problem,” Jain Irrigation in 2018 had a global footprint and $1.1 billion in revenue. Bhau had insisted that his business add value to farmers' lives and promote sustainable... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised January 2021)
- Case
The Louvre
By: Rohit Deshpandé, Francois-Lucien Vulliermet and Daniela Beyersdorfer
Once a royal residence and today one of the most photographed Parisian landmarks, the Louvre, home of iconic masterpieces, was the world’s largest and most visited museum in 2017. Its President Director Jean-Luc Martinez had since 2013 spearheaded its development and... View Details
- January 4, 2019
- Article
How Companies Can Balance Social Impact and Financial Goals
By: Marya L. Besharov, Wendy K. Smith and Michael Tushman
It’s notoriously difficult for a business to manage two separate-but-equal goals—making money and creating social value at the same time, for example, or managing an existing business at the same time that you invent a new one. Most attempts at managing these... View Details
- January–February 2019
- Article
Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance
By: Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim
We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high... View Details
- Article
Seeker Beware: The Interpersonal Costs of Ignoring Advice
By: Hayley Blunden, Jennifer M. Logg, Alison Wood Brooks, Leslie John and Francesca Gino
Prior advice research has focused on why people rely on (or ignore) advice and its impact on judgment accuracy. We expand the consideration of advice-seeking outcomes by investigating the interpersonal consequences of advice seekers’ decisions. Across nine studies, we... View Details
- Article
The Social Purpose of Corporations
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Marco Meyer, David Rodin and Jens van ‘t Klooster
To think about the purpose of corporations is to think about what corporations are for. In this article, we argue that the concept of a purpose has an important role in thinking about the moral evaluation of corporations. We make three contributions. First, we... View Details
- November 2018
- Case
Komatsu Komtrax: Asset Tracking Meets Demand Forecasting
By: Willy Shih, Paul Hong and YoungWon Park
Komatsu's Komtrax system started as a way of remotely monitoring and tracking equipment for the purpose of improving operational efficiency. This case follows its evolution towards other uses including demand forecasting for its sales, marketing, and production... View Details