Publications

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10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

they operate. Political science, government, and history paid attention; and even the economist Joseph Schumpeter, with his notion of individuals who operate outside the social structure and who can then... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

24 Feb 2021
Lessons from the Classroom

What History's Biggest Wars Teach Us About Leading in Peace

“to help them find a way forward,” he says. Last spring, he took those lessons into the classroom with a new course, “War & Peace: The Lessons of History for Leadership, Strategy, Negotiation, Policy, and Humanity.” The course... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

April 2022
Case

The First Opium War and Global Free Trade

By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus

The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be... View Details

Keywords: Imperialism; Narcotics; Importing; History; Globalized Markets and Industries; Trade; Social Issues

October 2018 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephanie Marton

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.1-on-the-Richter-scale, six-minute long earthquake unleashed a tsunami that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power facility and releasing sufficient radioactive material into the air and ocean... View Details

09 Feb 2016
First Look

February 9, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50562 forthcoming Strategic Management Journal Entrepreneurial Beacons: The Yale Endowment, Run-ups, and the Growth of Venture Capital By: Bermiss, Y. Sekou, Benjamin J. Hallen, Rory McDonald, and Emily Cox Pahnke... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2020
Case

Bill Riddick and the Durham S.O.S. Charrette

By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga

Bill Riddick employs the charrette process to help black and white community leaders overcome differences and desegregate local schools in Durham, North Carolina. View Details

Keywords: Charrette; Schools; Desegregation; Education; Social Issues; Race; Leading Change; History; Durham; North Carolina

2022
Article

Before Plagiarism: Lawyers and Copynorms in Europe, 1300–1600

By: Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert

This essay uses the concept of 'copynorms', social norms about copying expressive works that can be distinct from legal norms about the same, in order to understand the meaning of intellectual property among Roman law and canon law jurists from the fourteenth through... View Details

Keywords: Copyright; History; Europe

March 2001 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Walt Disney Company, The: The Entertainment King

By: Michael G. Rukstad, David J. Collis and Tyrell Levine

The first ten pages of this case are comprised of the company's history, from 1923 to 2001. The Walt years are described, as is the company's decline after his death and its resurgence under Eisner. The last five pages are devoted to Eisner's strategic challenges in... View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Managerial Roles; Creativity; Corporate Strategy; Boundaries; Brands and Branding; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

University, where senior and retired executives learn to develop leadership skills in the service of solving large social problems. Many of the examples in the book come from her experience leading that program. Sean Silverthorne: We’re... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

09 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 9, 2007

Brazil and Mexico relied on very different institutional structures, both countries grew at similar rates of growth between 1890 and 1913. However, the dense and exclusive Mexican network might have ended up increasing the social and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2019 (Revised December 2022)
Background Note

African American Inequality in the United States

By: Janice H. Hammond, A. Kamau Massey and Mayra G. Garza

This note describes how historical and on-going policies and practices that discriminate against African Americans led to present-day inequality. Topics include slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, “black codes,” and policies and practices relating to criminal justice,... View Details

Keywords: African Americans; Justice; Slavery; Discrimination; Race; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Policy; History; United States

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

below, Frazier provides insights into this turbulent period of American history with Tsedal Neeley (@tsedal), the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Topics ranged from corporate America’s role... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

superior to those with darker skin colors, are marketers crossing a line? Cream makers say they are merely meeting a market need, but social activists argue that these companies have an ethical responsibility to avoid marketing products... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

02 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 2

average patient of medium severity in this ED. We propose that the improved performance comes from a reduction in social loafing and a more distributed utilization of shared resources. These benefits outweigh the expected efficiency gains... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2012
Article

Fixing What's Wrong with U. S. Politics

By: David A. Moss

In America today there's a growing sense that the political system is broken and that its ineffectiveness is a major threat to U.S. competitiveness. Why do so many think the political system is not working? Research shows that in Congress, Republicans and Democrats are... View Details

Keywords: Government and Politics; System; Conflict Management; Performance Productivity; Policy; Public Administration Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

2021
Working Paper

Capitalism, Slavery, and the Legacy of Cesare Beccaria

By: Sophus A. Reinert

The Milanese Marquis Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) dedicated his life first to theorizing a more just and equal society grounded in individual rights, anchored in secular political economy rather than in religious dogma, then to realizing this bold vision... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Racism; Capitalism; History; Society

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December 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola and Nigeria's Manufacturing Sector

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo, Foluke Otudeko and Mark Benson

Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola was an important contributor to Nigeria's manufacturing sector, creating a multimillion-dollar conglomerate including three factories, a retail franchise, a cattle ranch, a 5,000-acre plantation, a sawmill, and an exporting business before... View Details

Keywords: History; Business Conglomerates; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Success; Leadership Style; Business History; Market Entry and Exit; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Manufacturing Industry; Nigeria