Publications

June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

How Serial Entrepreneurs Build and Manage a Board of Directors in a Venture-Backed Start Up

By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Sasha Novakovich

This case includes structured interviews with four serial entrepreneurs about the way in which they built and used their boards in each of their companies and what they have learned through that process. These entrepreneurs were asked similar questions, such as "How do... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards

Article

Doing Business with Strangers: Reputation in Online Service Marketplaces

By: Antonio Moreno and Christian Terwiesch

Online service marketplaces allow service buyers to post their project requests and service providers to bid for them. To reduce the transactional risks, marketplaces typically track and publish previous seller performance. By analyzing a detailed transactional data... View Details

Keywords: Online Service Marketplace; Procurement; Auctions; Reputation; Bids and Bidding

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April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Levels: The Remote, Asynchronous, Deep Work Management System

By: Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

Levels is a highly innovative startup in the health care space. They intend to revolutionize health by linking behavior—eating, exercise, sleeping, etc.—to changes in metabolism. They believe metabolic health can be managed through careful monitoring of changes in... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Technology Industry; United States

July 2020
Case

Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

The case opens with Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, anticipating on the Group’s next phase in the multi-year transformation journey and reflecting on the initiatives he implemented to create the Group’s growth-oriented culture. Founded in 1995,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai

Research Summary

Professor Gilbert's research focuses on the areas of corporate entrepreneurship, discontinuous change, cognitive framing, and strategic resource allocation. Below is an description of his most recent research paper: 'Unbundling the Structure of Interia: Resource vs.... View Details

12 Apr 2007
Working Paper Summaries

From Manufacturing to Design: An Essay on the Work of Kim B. Clark

Keywords: by Sylvain Lenfle & Carliss Y. Baldwin; Manufacturing

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Rules-Timeless-Lessons-Gates/dp/0062373951/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1427236936&sr=8-1 April 2015 Harvard Business Review Leaders as Decision Architects: Structure Your Organization's Work to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is Management’s Role in Innovation?

practitioners, is their remarkable consistency. All ask whether management, as it is currently practiced, has much to contribute to innovation and creativity. If the answer is little, one might ask what kinds of changes will be necessary... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

16 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Visualizing and Measuring Enterprise Architecture: An Exploratory BioPharma Case

Keywords: by Robert Lagerstrom, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack & David Dreyfus

2018
Working Paper

OTC Intermediaries

By: Andrea L. Eisfeldt, Bernard Herskovic, Sriram Rajan and Emil Siriwardane

Over-the-counter (OTC) markets for financial assets are dominated by a relatively small number of core intermediaries and a large number of peripheral customers. In this paper, we develop a model of trade in a core-periphery network and estimate its key structural... View Details

Keywords: OTC Markets; Intermediaries; Dealers; Credit Default Swaps; Risk Sharing; Networks; Price; Risk and Uncertainty

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April 2025
Case

#FutureFresenius: Implementing a New Strategy to Transform the Company and Advance Patient Care

By: David J. Collis, Benjamin C. Esty and Haisley Wert

In February 2024, Fresenius CEO Michael Sen reflected on the company’s transformation journey from his office in Bad Homburg, Germany. With revenues of €22 billion and a mission to advance patient care, Fresenius had built a strong reputation through decades of... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Finance; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Alignment; Health Industry; Germany; United States

April 2000 (Revised November 2003)
Case

H. E. Butt Grocery Company: The New Digital Strategy (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Shows how the company's IT priorities have moved from primary supply chain restructuring to e-commerce. Shows the new organization structure created by the company. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Supply Chain; Technology Adoption; Information Technology; Retail Industry

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27 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 27, 2007

with Abernathy, Rebecca Henderson and Carliss Baldwin, Clark placed product and process designs at the center of his explanation of how innovation determines the structure and evolution of industries. Download the paper:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2007 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Cherrypicks

By: William R. Kerr

Cherrypicks is a Hong Kong communications start-up approaching a large Korean mobile operator for a partnership to take the operator's products to markets outside of Korea. SK Telecom's (SKT) Ring Back Tones (RBT) product is a spectacular success in South Korea, but... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Communication Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Communications Industry; China; Hong Kong; South Korea

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Ecosystems

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive theoretical investigation of open platform systems. To do this, we must first recognize that, although there is a strong family resemblance among all platform systems, there are different types of... View Details

Keywords: Open Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Industry Structures; Digital Platforms

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16 Apr 2018
News

Tax Reform, Round One

January 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Cisco Systems (2001): Building and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture

By: Ranjay Gulati

Customer centricity has been an important part of the culture at Cisco Systems since its inception. While part of this is attributable to values put in place by the founders and retained by subsequent management, it is also closely interwoven with its organizational... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employees; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Business Units

28 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Alignment in Cross-Functional and Cross-Firm Supply Chain Planning

Keywords: by Santiago Kraiselburd & Noel Watson

June 2010
Article

A Gap-Filling Theory of Corporate Debt Maturity Choice

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

We argue that time-series variation in the maturity of aggregate corporate debt issues arises because firms behave as macro liquidity providers, absorbing the large supply shocks associated with changes in the maturity structure of government debt. We document that... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Liquidity; Investment Return; Government and Politics