Publications

2014
Working Paper

Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' & the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Nelson P. Repenning and Rebecca Henderson

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"―delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer term investments―makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Competitive Advantage

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2012
White Paper

Robust Enforcement Should Complement Voluntary Regulation

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Spurred by the anti-regulation movement that started in the 1970s, voluntary self-regulation programs have emerged in many regulatory agencies, seeking to increase cooperation between government and industry to achieve greater and more cost-effective compliance.... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Business and Government Relations

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2014
Chapter

Building an Infrastructure for Empirical Research on Social Enterprise: Challenges and Opportunities

By: Matthew Lee, Julie Battilana and Ting Wang

Purpose: Despite the increase in empirical studies of social enterprise in management and organization research, the lack of a cohesive knowledge base in this area is concerning. In this chapter, we propose that the underdevelopment of the attendant research... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship

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March 2014 (Revised February 2015)
Case

Loki Capital Management

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Shikhar Ghosh and Matthew Preble

In December 2013, Michael Kane was preparing to launch his start-up's first hedge fund. While pleased with the development of the business, he wanted to address a few lingering issues before going any further. He debated whether or not to fire the company's chief... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Hedge Funds; Equity Split; Fundraising; Investor Clientele; Team Building; Human Resource Management; Human Capital; Human Resources; Equity; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

From humble beginnings as a Levi jeans store, by 2000 Gap, Inc. had grown to become the world's leading specialist clothing retailer. Its CEO, Millard S. Drexler, the "merchant prince," was credited with transforming Gap into a global empire, leading the company... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Risk and Uncertainty; Competition; Performance Consistency; Problems and Challenges; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

2013
Book

Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education

By: Michel Anteby

Corporate accountability is never far from the front page and Harvard Business School trains many future business leaders. But how does HBS formally and informally ensure its members embrace proper business standards? Relying on his faculty experience, Michel Anteby... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Business Education; Higher Education; Education; Education Industry; United States

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October 2011 (Revised May 2015)
Case

The American Repertory Theater

By: Rohit Deshpande, Allen S. Grossman and Ryan Johnson

When Diane Paulus, artistic director and CEO of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) first started in 2008, she attracted media coverage around an aesthetic that aimed to give the audience more ownership over the theater experience, excited theatergoers by... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Arts; Business Model; Leading Change; Media; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America

May 2011
Article

Extreme Productivity

By: Robert C. Pozen

A veteran top executive at two giant mutual fund companies, the author has also been an attorney, a government official, a law school professor, and a business school professor-sometimes simultaneously. Over the years, he has devised a number of principles and... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Time Management; Performance Capacity; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity; Personal Development and Career

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2010
Working Paper

Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

By: Nelson P. Repenning and Rebecca Henderson

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Performance Improvement; Competitive Advantage; Earnings Management; Management Practices and Processes; Revenue; Quality; Competency and Skills; Motivation and Incentives; Auto Industry; United States

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23 Apr 2018
News

Governor Baker Swears In New Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning

Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education (book)

Corporate accountability is never far from the front page and Harvard Business School trains many future business leaders. But how does HBS formally and informally ensure its members embrace proper business standards? Relying on his first-hand faculty... View Details

Web

Doing Business in a Divided World - Alumni

9:00 a.m. Welcome Srikant Datar, George F. Baker Professor of Administration, Dean of the Faculty 9:15 a.m. Roles, Responsibility, and Expectations: What Is Business Meant to Do? Two trends are increasingly converging across the United States, and shifting the... View Details

09 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Where to Find Remote Work Now: 250 Million Job Postings Paint a Complex Picture

compete for talent based on whether you offer remote work, which clearly is appealing for certain types of talent and certain types of demographics,” she says. But, the ability to include remote employees in a firm’s day-to-day operations... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Blog

Leading Successful Digital Transformation

efficiency of supply chains, and chat bots are used to cut the cost of call centers. While it is always good to reduce costs and improve efficiency, focusing solely on efficiency implicitly assumes that the current operations and business... View Details

August 2019
Case

Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes Walmart's omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. The case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as its 2018 strategy, which aimed to integrate Walmart's enormous brick and mortar... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competition; Retail Industry; Bentonville; Arkansas; New Jersey; Seattle; United States

01 Jan 2005
News

Joseph J. O'Donnell, MBA 1971

throughout the past three decades, as I've grown the company a little bit each year. In time, you end up with something a lot bigger and more diverse than you ever imagined." Today, Boston Culinary Group (as it is now known) manages and owns 150 food-service View Details

June 2000
Case

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons has a love/hate relationship with technology, including the best Web site in the industry. This case examines how a leading service delivers high-tech/high-touch, and looks at its progressive human resource strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry

11 May 2016
Research & Ideas

Fix This! Why is it so Painful to Buy a New Car?

half its value the moment it is driven off the lot? In a recent roundtable interview at HBS, Avery and Schlesinger joined Ryan Buell, an assistant professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit, to discuss what’s wrong with... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Auto

March 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Wilkerson Company

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Competition; Profit; Product; Consumer Products Industry