Publications

March 1982 (Revised September 1985)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation

By: Robert J. Dolan

Market leadership and technological innovation have marked Sealed Air's participation in the U.S. protective packaging market. Several small regional producers have introduced products which are less effective than Sealed Air's but similar in appearance and cheaper.... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product; Technological Innovation; Supply and Industry; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; United States

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Virtual Tours Still Worth It in Real Estate? Evidence from 75,000 Home Sales

data from the real estate platform Redfin for 75,178 houses sold in the greater Los Angeles area from March 2019 to March 2021. The time period gives a snapshot of how the effect might linger beyond lockdowns. They combed listings for... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Real Estate

Blog

Inside the Learning: Program Formats Unpacked

materials before the program begins. To maximize the value of your learning experience, be sure you understand the time commitment required for your program. Here are some terms you will encounter regarding the learning format: Blended... View Details

23 Nov 2021
Book

What It Takes to Build an Organizational Culture That Wins

forthcoming book, Win from Within: Build Organizational Culture For Competitive Advantage, which is a how-to roadmap for improving an organization’s culture. Heskett, the UPS Foundation Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, argues that an View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

22 Mar 2011
News

Patience in Japan

13 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The ‘IKEA Effect’: When Labor Leads to Love

Keywords: by Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon & Dan Ariely; Consumer Products

Article

Nudging: Progress to Date and Future Directions

By: John Beshears and Harry Kosowsky

Nudges influence behavior by changing the environment in which decisions are made, without restricting the menu of options and without altering financial incentives. This paper assesses past empirical research on nudging and provides recommendations for future work in... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Situation or Environment; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decision Making

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November 2012
Teaching Note

Brink's Company: Activists Push for a Spin-off (TN)

By: Suraj Srinivasan

The case this Teaching Note addresses studies the decision of the security services company Brink's Corporation to spin off its home security division from the rest of the company. The decision followed intense pressure on the company by three activist hedge funds that... View Details

Keywords: Activist Investors; Spin-off; Leveraged Recapitalization; Debt; Hedge Funds; Conglomerates; Valuation; Restructuring; Accounting; Business Strategy; Investment Activism; Service Industry

November 2, 2021
Article

The Cultural Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the Enterprise

By: Sam Ransbotham, François Candelon, David Kiron, Burt LaFountain and Shervin Khodabandeh

The 2021 MIT SMR-BCG report identifies a wide range of AI-related cultural benefits at both the team and organizational levels. Whether it’s reconsidering business assumptions or empowering teams, managing the dynamics across culture, AI use, and organizational... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Organizational Culture; Performance Effectiveness

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September 2000
Background Note

Professional Services Module Six: Succeeding in PSFs

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

Emphasizes the skills and values that we believe successful professionals possess: change management and leadership skills, a proactive career management approach, effective processes of giving and receiving feedback, a clear ethical perspective, balance between... View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Service Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2002 (Revised June 2005)
Case

AOL Time Warner, Inc.

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Erin Sullivan

AOL Time Warner, which has been billed as the "first fully integrated media and communications company of the Internet Century," raises the fundamental question of how value will be created and captured by the merger of AOL and Time Warner. This case describes just how... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Internet and the Web; Value Creation; Organizational Culture; Consolidation; Change Management; Telecommunications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

April 2022
Supplement

Mastercard Labs (B)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, digital technologies were on the rise, and innovation needed to become a strategic imperative at the company. Banga tasked Garry Lyons, who had joined Mastercard through the 2009 acquisition of Orbiscom,... View Details

Research Summary

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

By: Laura Alfaro

We develop an incomplete-contracts model to jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them. Integration has an option value: it gives firm owners authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve... View Details

February 2024
Article

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

By: Laura Alfaro, Nick Bloom, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros, Andrew F. Newman, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We develop an incomplete-contracts model to jointly study firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within them. Integration has an option value: it gives firm owners authority to delegate or centralize decision rights, depending on who can best solve... View Details

Keywords: Boundaries; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty

03 Feb 2015
News

Jury out on how win might affect Patriots brand

April 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When digital distribution becomes an option for an analog industry, the effects on incumbents can be devastating. Is podcasting the beginning of the end of radio? Can it do what streaming video did to television and websites did to print? Two former public radio... View Details

Keywords: Podcasting; Business Ecosystem; Business Startups; Media; Disruption; Strategy