Publications

September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

ZenRecruit: Sales Coaching and Performance Reviews

By: Mark Roberge

Amara Kaggwa leads the small but rapidly expanding sales team at ZenRecruit, a recruiting software application used by small businesses. Armed with six months of sales performance metrics, Kaggwa is preparing for her monthly performance conversations with two... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Sales; Entrepreneurial Sales And Marketing; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Sales

June 1990 (Revised October 1991)
Case

Lake Pleasant Bodies Case (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Presents a classic dilemma in legal ethics--the conflict between an attorney's obligations as an attorney, in this case to protect a client's confidentiality, and his or her own moral obligations as a person. An attorney must decide how to respond to the father of a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Questionnaires; Attorney and Client Relationships; Social Psychology; Conflict Management; Legal Services Industry

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Governing the Family-Run Business

right people in a timely way to discuss and decide the big issues facing your organization—then your governance system is flawed, should be improved, and probably needs to be made more formal. Given how difficult it is for most people to... View Details

07 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 7, 2008

future do not show this want/should pattern, and we discuss a potential explanation. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-078.pdf Conversational Blindness: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way Authors:Todd Rogers... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Mar 2021
HBS Case

The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

through legislation and lawsuits. In impassioned video interviews, she details the cruelty of the attack—in which innocent victims were forced to choose between burning alive inside their homes or being shot in the street—as well as the ongoing fight for reparations. A... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

Thanks to technology and instant global communication, it has never been easier for companies to seek solutions to problems or find new ideas from sources outside their own corporate walls. But the art of managing these external innovation models is far from... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

Research Summary

Developing Organizational Capabilities to Compete

By: Michael Beer

Michael Beer’s current research focuses on the question of what makes an Effective Organization. Based on his extensive research and practice about this question Beer has identified six highly interrelated core capabilities:

Capacity of the... View Details

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

Europe and Africa because property rights are more difficult to enforce there. —Walter Kuemmerle The first difference is the development of capital markets and the transparency of these markets. In countries where family-owned... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

September 7, 2020
Article

Remote Networking as a Person of Color

By: Laura Morgan Roberts and Anthony J. Mayo

In remote work situations, where people cannot rely on impromptu elevator conversations or water cooler chats with coworkers, the answer isn’t to turn inward. In fact, the need for networking is even more important. In particular, our interactions with people whose... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Networking; Networks; Interpersonal Communication; Race

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13 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

capable of and what I expect from them,” he said. Flick sought many confidential conversations to restore self-confidence and harmony in the team. Especially in a diverse team of competing players, it was important to him to discuss each... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, and Sebastian Flegr; Sports

24 May 2010
Research & Ideas

Stimulus Surprise: Companies Retrench When Government Spends

response, it seems even more difficult to justify federal spending than otherwise. Q: What do you think your research has brought to the literature? A: The literature has had difficulty empirically identifying the effect of government... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Nov 2008
Research & Ideas

Decoding the Artful Sidestep

We heard question-dodging in the U.S. presidential debates not long ago. And everyone hears it in normal political discourse, in business meetings, and in typical daily life—but are people really listening? Sometimes, it seems, individuals who are asked a View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging

By: Willy Shih

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

products, software, education, and media in North America and Europe, I've found the same pattern. Organizational pathologies—secrecy, blame, isolation, avoidance, passivity, and feelings of helplessness—arise during a difficult time for... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

January 2021
Case

Saham Group: It's In the Genes

By: Christina R. Wing and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in August 2020 as Moulay Mhamed Elalamy (Mhamed), CEO of the Saham Group (the Group), a pan-African investment company that operates a variety of businesses out of Morocco, contemplates the Group’s identity, its investment strategy, and how to navigate... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Business; For-Profit Firms; Transformation; Transition; Emerging Markets; Change Management; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Morocco; Africa

06 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

John Kotter: Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea

from Buy-IN: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down By John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead Fear Mongering This kind of attack strategy is aimed at raising anxieties so that a thoughtful examination of a proposal is very difficult... View Details

Keywords: by John Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

30 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way

But when I first started talking to doctors about a kidney exchange program, I would very quickly at the beginning of the conversation mention that I wasn't going to propose that we buy and sell kidneys—that I knew it was a felony.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Adjusting the Fit for Government

society," Wagle added. "There are some very difficult places in Africa where the private sector is just not possible." Health, education and infrastructure should be under the wing of government, he said, with rules of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2025
Working Paper

Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

Most online sales worldwide take place in marketplaces that connect sellers and buyers. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of listings for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available options. Online... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; E-commerce; Sales; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Customer Satisfaction