Publications

April–May 2021
Article

Labor Mobility and Antitakeover Provisions

By: Aiyesha Dey and Joshua White

How do firms protect their human capital? We test whether firms facing an increased threat of being acquired strengthen their antitakeover provisions (ATPs) in order to bond with their employees. We use the adoption of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Labor Mobility; Antitakeover Provisions; Trade Secrets; Implicit Contracting; Employee Bonding; Corporate Governance; Acquisition; Human Capital; Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Safety

Find at Harvard

May–June 2013
Article

Can Global Brands Create Just Supply Chains? Response: Promoting Political Mobilization

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Codes of conduct indicate that working conditions are improving overall at the factories being monitored by multinational corporations, and that these codes of conduct also create possibilities for political mobilization that can improve labor conditions more broadly. View Details

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

first survey, the data showed that the closer the situation got to causing patient harm, the more important psychological safety became in determining whether the employees would report the near-miss event.... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

March 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Deepa Bachu (A): Design Thinking at Pensaar Design

By: Thomas Graeber, Joshua Schwartzstein and Amram Migdal

In this case, set in June 2019 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Deepa Bachu of Pensaar Design and her team work with client ITC Ltd. to use design thinking and behavioral experiments to improve workplace safety and strive toward the company’s zero-accident goal. The... View Details

March 2023
Supplement

Deepa Bachu (B): Insights and Experiments at Pensaar Design

By: Thomas Graeber, Joshua Schwartzstein and Amram Migdal

In this case, set in June 2019 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Deepa Bachu of Pensaar Design and her team work with client ITC Ltd. to use design thinking and behavioral experiments to improve workplace safety and strive toward the company’s zero-accident goal. The... View Details

December 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

KKR at CHI Overhead Doors (A)

By: Dennis Campbell and Ethan Rouen

This case examines the decision by private equity firm KKR to grant equity to every employee at portfolio company CHI Overhead Doors upon purchasing the company in 2015. The case explores whether this initiative will create shared value, growing profits through better... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Profit Sharing; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture

July 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Building a Mishap-Free U.S. Navy

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Herman B. Leonard, Michael W. Toffel and Michael Norris

In 2021, Kevin “Bud” Couch, a retired Navy captain who was now working as a civilian employee of the Navy Safety Center, was trying to determine how best to reduce the risk of Navy mishaps. The Navy had experienced a series of major mishaps in 2017 that had led to a... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Safety; War; Ship Transportation; Risk Management; Operations; Singapore; Tokyo; San Diego

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

learning among lower-level employees. We exploit a field-research setting in which business units vary in the "tightness" with which they monitor employee decisions. We find that tighter monitoring gives rise to implicit... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jun 2020
Book

It’s Not About You: Why Leaders Need to Look Outward

to Empowering Everyone Around You, Frei and Morriss argue that a true leader is focused on empowering others, not on their own power or prowess. Through helping to unleash the full potential of those they lead, a brave leader increases View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

2013
Working Paper

The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry

By: Albert W. Sheen and Shai Bernstein

What, if anything, do private equity firms do with businesses they acquire? We find evidence of significant operational changes in 101 restaurant chain buyouts between 2002 and 2012. Analysis of health inspections conducted for over 50,000 stores in Florida shows that... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Quality; Private Equity; Food; Management Practices and Processes; Leveraged Buyouts; Performance Efficiency; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Florida

24 Jan 2011
HBS Case

Terror at the Taj

recover after the attacks. Underlying this framework is a central conundrum: Why did the Taj employees stay at their posts, jeopardizing their safety in order to save hotel guests? And is this level of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Accommodations

November 2017
Case

Loss Prevention at Mac's Convenience Stores (A)

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine DeCelles and Olivia Hull

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac’s of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with... View Details

Keywords: Public Relations; Community Relations; Change Management; Working Conditions; Leading Change; Training; Knowledge Dissemination; Crime and Corruption; Law Enforcement; Legal Liability; Business and Community Relations; Retail Industry; Canada

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

School Professor Julie Battilana. The crux of the problem is that CEOs and other leaders often get such a power trip that they lack empathy and humility, which inhibits their ability to understand and respect what their employees value.... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID

By: Elie Ofek

In mid 2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry