Publications

September 2007
Supplement

Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India

By: Tarun Khanna and Krishna G. Palepu

Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, discusses market entry, localization, and intellectual property rights in emerging markets. View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Intellectual Property; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry; India

31 Mar 2008
HBS Case

JetBlue’s Valentine’s Day Crisis

You don't need to be a frequent flier to know that the friendly skies aren't so friendly anymore. Cramped, overloaded planes, flight delays, and bare-bones amenities are the norm on most of the legacy carriers. But low-cost airlines like Southwest and JetBlue have... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Air Transportation

July 2007 (Revised September 2009)
Case

CEMEX (A): Building the Global Framework (1985-2004)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Pamela Yatsko and Ryan Raffaelli

CEMEX grew through acquisitions from a Latin American to a global company under the leadership of a CEO who believed in the importance of a "one enterprise" culture and benchmarking against world standards. As the CEO ponders an acquisition that would double the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Competency and Skills; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Latin America

06 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?

or quarterly, but if the chemistry is strong, it can be a powerful partnership that’s well worth the money and time. My dear friend Steve Schlafman has great advice here on how to find the right fit with a potential coach. “The best... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

October 2014
Article

The Transparency Trap

By: Ethan Bernstein

To get people to be more creative and productive, managers increase transparency with open workspaces and access to real-time data. But less transparent work environments can yield more-transparent employees. Employees perform better when they can try out new ideas and... View Details

May 2009
Article

Authority versus Persuasion

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper studies a manager's trade-off between using persuasion and using interpersonal authority to get an employee to 'do the right thing' from the manager's perspective (when the manager and employee disagree on the right course of action). It... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

2009
Working Paper

Authority versus Persuasion

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper studies a principal's trade-off between using persuasion versus using interpersonal authority to get the agent to "do the right thing"; from the principal's perspective (when the principal and agent openly disagree on the right course of action). It shows... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Managerial Roles; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

2023
Book

Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

By: Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action,... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Personal Development and Career; Emotions

Article

Disagreement and the Allocation of Control

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This article studies the allocation of control when there is disagreement—in the sense of differing priors—about the right course of action. People then value control rights since they believe that their decisions are better than those of others. More disagreement (due... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Projects; Decisions; Value; Agreements and Arrangements

November 2022 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Hugging Face (A): Serving AI on a Platform

By: Shane Greenstein, Daniel Yue, Sarah Gulick and Kerry Herman

It is fall 2022, and open-source AI model company Hugging Face is considering its three areas of priorities: platform development, supporting the open-source community, and pursuing cutting-edge scientific research. As it expands services for enterprise clients, which... View Details

Keywords: Community; Open-source; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development; Networks; Service Delivery; Research; Governance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Information Industry; Technology Industry; United States

28 Apr 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Sweden’s Northvolt Electric Battery Maker: A Startup with a Mission

Keywords: Re: George Serafeim; Battery; Auto; Electronics; Energy

Article

Little Patents and Big Secrets: Managing Intellectual Property

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Exploitation of an innovation commonly requires some disclosure of enabling knowledge (e.g., to obtain a patent or induce complementary investment). When property rights offer only limited protection, the value of the disclosure is offset by the increased threat of... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Management; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge; Rights; Value; Information; Corporate Disclosure

May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Canadian Pacific's Bid for Norfolk Southern

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC’s CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Financial Strategy; Investment Activism; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Offer; Corporate Strategy; Rail Transportation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; United States; Canada

17 Nov 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Organizational Design

Questions To Be Answered: What are the best techniques for fostering innovation in multicultural teams? I want my functional experts to influence high-level strategy. How can managers get the best thinking out of support staff? What role does information technology... View Details

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati & Raffaella Sadun

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

report to you. But unless you manage the context in which your team resides, there's no way that your team can be successful. So you have to understand the political dynamics, you have to understand how to build a network with peers and bosses, and you have to set the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

New Research: Surviving Bankruptcy, Useful Economics, and Retirement

Published Papers Do the Right Firms Survive Bankruptcy? Journal of Financial Economics Samuel Antill “In United States, Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, firms are either reorganized, acquired, or liquidated. I show that decisions to liquidate... View Details

August 2022
Case

In-Q-Tel: Innovation On A Mission

By: Joshua Lev Krieger and Josh Lerner

In 2022, the leaders of In-Q-Tel (IQT) considered what was next for the unique mission-driven organization. Since 1999, IQT had one mission: to be the most sophisticated source of strategic technical knowledge and capabilities to the U.S. government and its allies. IQT... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; National Security; Technological Innovation; Research; Geopolitical Units; Risk Management; Recruitment; Growth and Development Strategy; Venture Capital; Knowledge Management; Information Industry; Banking Industry

April 2011
Article

Ownership Structure and the Cost of Corporate Borrowing

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

This article identifies an important channel through which excess control rights affect firm value. Using a new, hand-collected data set on corporate ownership and control of 3,468 firms in 22 countries during the 1996-2008 period, we find that the cost of debt... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Cash Flow; Cost; Financing and Loans; Governance Controls; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations