Publications

01 Jun 2010
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Social Reporting

accountability demands. HBS professor Alnoor Ebrahim examines the tradeoffs inherent in a range of accountability mechanisms. Key concepts include: Accountability is not simply about compliance with laws or industry standards, but is more... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Omron: Sensing Society

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ethan S Bernstein

"Leading profitable growth is only part of the goal. We cannot live without breathing, but we do not live in order to take a breath,” said Omron's President and CEO, Hisao Sakuta, in 2008. Omron, a $7B global supplier of sensors, control system components, advanced... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Competitive Advantage; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Invention; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Electronics Industry

10 Jul 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: The Coming World Oil Crisis

Editor's Note: This is a summary of an HBS Business Summit presentation. View a full summary and video of the event on the HBS Centennial Web site linked below. Date of Event:... View Details

Keywords: Re: Richard H.K. Vietor; Energy; Utilities

March 2011
Case

Insight Communications

By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

After undertaking a multi-year, metrics-driven operational and cultural overhaul, in April 2010 Insight Communications was planning the next phase of its development. Insight was a New York-based provider of cable, landline phone, and high-speed Internet service to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Improvement; Growth Management; Management Systems; Business Processes; Measurement and Metrics; Employees; Telecommunications Industry; New York (state, US)

November 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

EbonyLife Media (A)

By: Andy Wu, Feng Zhu, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

Founded by Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu in 2012 with a mission to bring high-quality African stories to the world, EbonyLife was the company behind many of Nigeria’s biggest films and TV shows. The company began as a television channel on the Africa-wide direct broadcast... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Nigeria; Africa

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

Hildebrandt, calling pay for performance "a huge waste of time," said "I think a different logic applies if it (is) used to emphasize team spirit." Others were supportive of the concept... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

allocation within an economy. The theory predicts that GAAP's principal focus, as shaped by the demand for and supply of financial information, is on the use of the income statement and balance sheet for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2015
Chapter

How Leaders Use Values-based Guidance Systems to Create Dynamic Capabilities

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Matthew Bird, Ethan Bernstein and Ryan Raffaelli

How do strategic leaders create change-adept organizations? Based on qualitative field research, this chapter argues that well-defined institutionalized purpose, values, and principles act as an organizational guidance system that integrates and strengthens the... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Capabilities; Field Research; Intrinsic Motivation; Organizational Identity; Ecosystem; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Research; Management Systems; Change

Find at Harvard

26 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Consumer Desire

will be a hit or a flop.) Tricks of the Trade When tracking brain functions, neuroscientists generally use either electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. EEG View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products

20 Oct 2020
Blog Post

Exploring Technology and Public Impact Through the HBS/HKS Joint Degree Program

formative, and I had a supportive community of mentors at the company. However, at Harvard, I’ve found a number of groups focused on exploring questions of technology and... View Details

January 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Background Note

Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings: Scales and Process

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Christopher Bruner

Describes Standard & Poor's sovereign credit ratings scales and the credit rating process. In particular, describes the role and function of the rating committee and the analytical categories considered in arriving at a final sovereign credit rating. View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Credit; Bonds; Policy; Risk and Uncertainty; Measurement and Metrics; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Services Industry

01 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 1

http://www.people.hbs.edu/liyer/BCCI_JEBO_Final_Sept2013.pdf August 2013 Contemporary Accounting Research The Role of Performance Measures in the Intertemporal Decisions of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

becomes confused about its purpose and whom it is designed to serve. In popular marketing textbooks, students are taught that a customer is any person or organizational unit that plays a role in the consummation View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

2013
Working Paper

The Auditing Oligopoly and Lobbying on Accounting Standards

By: Abigail M. Allen, Karthik Ramanna and Sugata Roychowdhury

We examine how the tightening of the U.S. auditing oligopoly over the last twenty-five years—from the Big 8 to the Big 6, the Big 5, and, then, the Big 4—has affected the incentives of the Big N, as manifest in their lobbying preferences on accounting standards. We... View Details

Keywords: Standards; Accounting Audits; Accounting Industry; United States

SSRN

05 Oct 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Don't More People Get Flu Shots at Work?

With a yearly price tag of roughly $87 billion in lost productivity and adverse health consequences, the flu is nothing to sneeze at. It’s no surprise that workplace flu vaccination clinics have gained popularity as employers try to keep... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Market Research Meets the “People Factor”

overall response rate was a respectable 44 percent. Each step led Zaltman and Deshpandé closer to several factors that they've determined can have a decisive effect on the use of market research. These factors include the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2020
Working Paper

Do Lenders Still Discriminate? A Robust Approach for Assessing Differences in Menus

By: David Hao Zhang and Paul Willen

We use a new methodology to assess mortgage pricing discrimination by race. We make four main contributions. First, we show that existing estimates of mortgage pricing differences by race can be confounded by a "menu problem," which is the problem associated with... View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Financing and Loans; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; United States