Publications

05 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing

Two days ago, the first buyers of Apple's iPad began putting it through its paces, playing games, navigating the Internet, and downloading electronic books. That groan you heard was from dozens of book publishers across the United States, reeling from yet another... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Information; Publishing; Entertainment & Recreation

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

2022
Working Paper

Credit and the Family: The Economic Consequences of Closing the Credit Gap of U.S. Couples

By: Olivia S. Kim

Marital property rights strengthen secondary earners’ economic power by giving them access to credit markets. I study how this crucial yet understudied feature of property laws influences household decision-making. The 2013 reversal of the Truth-in-Lending Act... View Details

Keywords: Household; Credit; Equality and Inequality; Income; Policy; Family and Family Relationships

SSRN

February 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Signature Security: Providing Alarm Systems for the Countries Down Under

Signature Security, an entrepreneurial company, was created to roll up the electronic security industry in Australia and New Zealand. Signature was created by a team of experienced U.S. managers. Original financing was provided by Clairvest, a Canadian merchant bank.... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Australia; New Zealand

Other Article

Introduction

By: Stefano Brusoni, Joachim Henkel, Michael G Jacobides, Samina Karim, Alan MacCormack, Phanish Puranam and Melissa Schilling

In 2000, Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark published Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, a book that introduced new ways of understanding and explaining the architecture of complex systems. This Special Issue of Industrial and Corporate Change celebrates... View Details

Keywords: Complex Systems; Industry Structure; Systems Design; Complexity; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management

Read Now

30 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System

Keywords: by Stephen Haber & Aldo Musacchio; Banking

June 1998
Article

The Politics of Monetary Leadership and Followership: Stability in the European Monetary System Since the Currency Crisis of 1992

By: Rawi Abdelal

Despite widespread scepticism, there is a fundamental continuity in the stability of the European Monetary System (EMS) before and after the 1992 crisis. Although speculative pressures provoked European leaders to widen the fluctuation bands of the Exchange Rate... View Details

Keywords: Money; Leadership; System; Balance and Stability; Europe

Web

The Canton Trade and The Hong Merchants System - A Chronicle of the China Trade

Alumni Recruiting MBA Recruiting Recruiting Resources Alumni Bulletin Baker Library | Bloomberg Center Business History Review Harvard Business Publishing Harvard Business Review HBS Working Knowledge Close Harvard Business School About... View Details

December 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

In the Eye of a Geopolitical Storm: South Korea's Lotte Group, China and the U.S. THAAD Missile Defense System (A)

By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley

By late 2016 and early 2017, Lotte Group, a South Korean chaebol (large family-controlled business group) had become embroiled not only in the domestic political turmoil surrounding President Park Geun-hye, but also—uncomfortably—in a four-country geopolitical storm. ... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Politics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; National Security; International Relations; Decision Making; Government and Politics; Leadership; South Korea; China; Japan

March 2018
Article

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

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

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: Capability; Short-termism; System Dynamics; Tipping Point; Business or Company Management; Earnings Management; Resource Allocation

August 2019
Article

When and How to Diversify—A Multicategory Utility Model for Personalized Content Recommendation

By: Yicheng Song, Nachiketa Sahoo and Elie Ofek

Sometimes we desire change, a break from the same or an opportunity to fulfill different aspects of our needs. Noting that consumers seek variety, several approaches have been developed to diversify items recommended by personalized recommender systems. However,... View Details

Keywords: Recommender Systems; Personalization; Recommendation Diversity; Variety Seeking; Collaborative Filtering; Consumer Utility Models; Digital Media; Clickstream Analysis; Learning-to-rank; Consumer Behavior; Media; Customization and Personalization; Strategy; Mathematical Methods

November 2024
Article

A National Analysis of General Pediatric Inpatient Unit Closures and Openings, 2011–2018

By: Carolyn San Soucie, Nancy D. Beaulieu, Jason D. Buxbaum, David Cutler, JoAnna K. Leyenaar, Sarah C. McBride, Olivia Zhao and Alyna T. Chien

OBJECTIVES: This paper provides an examination of: (1) the frequency and net rates of change for general pediatric inpatient (GPI) unit closures and openings nationally and by state; (2) how often closures or openings are caused by GPI unit changes only or caused by... View Details

Keywords: Health Industry

07 Oct 2021
News

How to Resolve America's Hidden-Worker Problem

02 May 2005
What Do You Think?

Where is Consumer Generated Marketing Taking Us?

engineering. The result is a fuzzing of the boundaries between a company and some of the users of its products and services. There is a kind of "always on" communication system shaping up between the most outspoken and committed... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 7, 2021
Article

How to Resolve America's Hidden-Worker Problem

By: Joseph B. Fuller

Most companies rely on recruiting systems that are superficially efficient but consistently ineffective at closing their chronic skills gaps. Is there a dearth of workers or are employers looking for talent in a self-limiting way? View Details

Keywords: Talent Acquisition; HR; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Leadership; Human Resources

Read Now

September 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Merck & Co., Inc. (B)

In late 1986, Merck revised its performance review and pay practices. The most important change was a shift from an absolute rating system to a forced-distribution system in which managers are forced to adhere to a given distribution of performance ratings. Other major... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Pharmaceutical Industry

03 Apr 2011
News

The Matchmaker

November 2012
Case

Occupy Wall Street

By: Rakesh Khurana and Eric Baldwin

This case examines the Occupy Wall Street movement, which emerged in late 2011 in response to the fallout from the global financial crisis of 2008 and the economic downturn that followed. Occupy Wall Street was born out of a sense of frustration with both a global... View Details

Keywords: Occupy Wall Street; Organizational Behavior; Income Inequality; Democracy; Financial Crisis; Campaign Finance; Globalization; Globalized Economies and Regions; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture

January 1995 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A)

By: Herminia M. Ibarra and Nicole Sackley

Examines Beer's actions on assuming leadership of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the world's sixth largest advertising agency, during a period of rapid industry change and organizational crisis. Focuses on how Beers, the first outsider CEO, engages and leads a senior team... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Advertising; Organizational Structure; Advertising Industry