Publications

February 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Moving Science: The Rowland Institute at Harvard

By: Maria P. Roche

Set in 2022, this case describes the considerations involved in organizing the physical relocation of the Rowland Institute at Harvard (RIH), a research institute established in 1980 by Edwin H. Land, the founder of the Polaroid Corporation, for the advancement of... View Details

Keywords: Optics; Engineering; Higher Education; Strategy; Science; Buildings and Facilities; Research and Development; Real Estate Industry; Biotechnology Industry

2016
Working Paper

Innovating in Science and Engineering or 'Cashing In' on Wall Street? Evidence on Elite STEM Talent

By: Pian Shu

Using data on MIT bachelor's graduates from 1994 to 2012, this paper empirically examines the extent to which the inflow of elite talent into the financial industry affects the supply of innovators in science and engineering (S&E). I first show that finance does not... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Engineering; Personal Development and Career; Science; Finance

SSRN

2015
Chapter

The Fourth Wave: Business Management and Business Education in the Age of the Anthropocene

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and John Ehrenfeld

Sustainability has become mainstream in both management practice and management research. Firms incorporate sustainability strategies into their core mission. University administrators promote sustainability as central to their curricula. Scholars pursue sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Natural Environment; Leading Change; Management Systems

2018
Article

Insight into Gender Differences in STEM: Evidence from Peer Reviews in an Engineering Class

By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Bruce Ankenman and Seyed Iravani

As the service industry moves toward self-service, peer feedback serves a critical role in this shift for educational services. Peer feedback is a process by which students provide feedback to each other. One of its major benefits is that it enables students to become... View Details

Keywords: Peer Review; Peer Feedback; STEM Education; Anonymity; Education; Gender; Education Industry

August 2017
Article

Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?

By: Shlomo Benartzi, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler, Maya Shankar, Will Tucker-Ray, William J. Congdon and Steven Galing

Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of “nudge” interventions that governments are now adopting alter people’s decisions without coercion or significant changes... View Details

March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Teaching Note

Moving Science: The Rowland Institute at Harvard

By: Maria Roche

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-441. View Details

Keywords: Optics; Engineering; Higher Education; Strategy; Science; Buildings and Facilities; Research and Development; Real Estate Industry; Biotechnology Industry

1 Apr 1995
Conference Presentation

Problem Solving Among Computer Science Students: : The Effects of Skill, Evaluation Expectation, and Personality on Solution Quality

By: R. Conti and Teresa M. Amabile

Keywords: Education; Problems and Challenges; Outcome or Result; Social Psychology; Quality

15 Aug 2022
Book

University of the Future: Finding the Next World Leaders in Higher Ed

Today the United States is considered the world leader in higher education. Yet the country could risk losing that top spot, particularly with China opening some of the most innovative educational centers across the globe in recent years,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education

09 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

How Business Leaders Can Strengthen American Schools

sponsor of the National Math and Science Initiative, helped to scale two projects: one focusing on improved training for science, technology, and math teachers, the other on improving advanced placement test results in the same areas.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

20 Jun 2012
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching Leadership: What We Know

Leadership: Advancing the Field By Scott A. Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana It has been more than twenty-five years since a handful of intrepid associates in West Point's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership published... View Details

Keywords: by Scott A. Snook, Rakesh Khurana & Nitin Nohria; Education

08 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Management Education’s Unanswered Questions

be strongly immersed in quantitative training and have a disciplinary orientation. The social science disciplines in particular were economics, sociology, and psychology. Quantitative reasoning eventually took precedence. Q: What choices... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

June 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Dana Hall: Funding a Mission (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Herman B. Leonard and Melissa Tritter

Dana Hall is a private all-girls school in New England facing a crisis in its mission. As social norms shift away from single-sex education, the school's enrollment is falling and deficits are becoming the norm. At the same time, the modern vision for girls' education... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Financing and Loans; Nonprofit Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Strategic Planning; Education Industry; England

2022
Chapter

The Merits and Limits of China's Modern Universities

By: William C. Kirby

China has a long history of advanced learning, but its modern universities are quite young. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the establishment of Chinese universities based on international models signaled the end of a millennium of promoting talent through... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Education Industry; China

17 Dec 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Are the 'Best and Brightest' Going into Finance? Skill Development and Career Choice of MIT Graduates

Keywords: by Pian Shu; Education; Education

March 2013
Article

From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

This article draws on historical material to examine the co-evolution of economic science and business education over the course of the twentieth century, showing that fields evolve not only through internal struggles but also through struggles taking place in adjacent... View Details

Keywords: Professions; Disciplines; Neo-Liberalism; Education; Economics; Finance; Society; United States

2011
Working Paper

From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

As the main producers of managerial elites, business schools represent strategic research sites for understanding the formation of economic practices and representations. This article draws on historical material to analyze the changing place of economics in American... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Practice; Business Education; Labor and Management Relations; Decision Making; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Change; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Finance; Knowledge; Production; Business Conglomerates; Education Industry; United States

2018
Book

High-Skilled Migration to the United States and Its Economic Consequences

By: Gordon H. Hanson, William R. Kerr and Sarah Turner

Immigration policy is one of the most contentious public policy issues in the United States today. High-skilled immigrants represent an increasing share of the U.S. workforce, particularly in science and engineering fields. These immigrants affect economic growth,... View Details

Keywords: Immigration; Policy; Economics; Outcome or Result; United States

April 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Middlebury College: Energy2028

By: Brian Trelstad, Michael Norris and John McKinley

In 2018, Middlebury College’s board of trustees is considering a proposal called Energy2028 that would push the small, liberal arts and sciences college in Vermont to become a net zero carbon emitter, decrease energy usage by 25%, divest fossil fuels from its... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Energy; Higher Education; Energy Conservation; Climate Change