Complex Technical Systems - Publications - Faculty & Research

22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

the voice of the presenter.” One way to think about it, Ghosh says, is that TikTok “views you as this complex being. Even when something has worked with you, it will favor that, but it will not exclusively give you that. Because it knows... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

29 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 29, 2008

Purchase this note: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=308066 System on a Chip 2008: Global Unichip Corp. Harvard Business School Case 608-159 Though much of the semiconductor industry has shifted to a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 25, 2006

changes in incentives for achieving integration. Examining a systemic tradeoff consciously acknowledged by the organization, we further argue that alignment encouraged by this collaborative engagement can be more important than achieving... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

Who Rises to Power in American Business?

have far greater access to opportunities. But, who has access to these elite programs? Are they simply part of a long feeder system for the privileged class that starts in private nursery schools? Are they truly open to all? Education has... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Capitalism and the Party-State: The People's Republic of China at 70

By: Meg Rithmire and Courtney Han

In 2019, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) turned seventy-years-old and became the longest active authoritarian regime in recent history. By then, China was the world’s second largest economy by GDP (after the United States), and a high-technology industrial... View Details

Keywords: Party-state; Economic Systems; Business and Government Relations; Economy; Society; International Relations; China

Citation

Educators

Purchase

28 May 2024
In Practice

Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

deploy with experience that suits client needs. In this increasingly complex world, there is no shortage of client demands for digital transformation, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications, renewable energy, risk mitigation,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

27 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Share Their DEI Data (Even When It’s Unflattering)

that Black workers make up 19 percent of frontline employees and 4 to 6 percent of executives. However, aggregating the data disguises the problem, showing Black workers technically comprise 12 percent of the total workforce. The flagship... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta

12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

transportation system. Like cars and taxis, PRT vehicles carried small groups—often just a single passenger—with no need to wait for a shared vehicle to arrive or for others to board. Yet PRT followed train systems in using an exclusive... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

families lost their homes, personal bankruptcies soared, and it seemed that every weekend one financial firm after another failed. There was substantial doubt about the ability of the financial system to return to any kind of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

02 May 2023
What Do You Think?

How Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated—if at All?

that, “High-risk AI systems should be designed and developed in such a way that natural persons can oversee their functioning.” Regulation raises a complex set of challenges. For example, the set of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Information Technology; Technology

07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

described the proliferation of "digital positions" in their companies, from Digital Project Manager or Digital Director to Chief Transformation Officer or Chief Innovation Officer. In one roundtable discussion, participants predicted that, over time, more senior... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

October 2012
Teaching Note

Liberia (TN)

By: Eric Werker and Ian Cornell

From 1989 to 2003 civil war raged in Liberia, causing GDP per capita to drop an unprecedented 90% from peak to trough. The roots of Liberia's conflict and economic decline are complex and intertwined, resting on over a century of discriminatory elite rule and twisted... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Economic Systems; War; Economy; Government and Politics; Liberia

Citation

Purchase

03 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

When Showing Know-How Backfires for Women Managers

negatively associated with their departments’ performance. Implications beyond retail and gender While Feldberg’s research focused on a bricks-and-mortar grocery chain, its findings apply to other fields. Women engineering managers, concerned that subordinate engineers... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Consumer Products

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

from government. Suggestions of causes of the current challenge of rapidly rising costs in relation to quality of outcomes, at least by the imperfect measure of life expectancy, included waste in the system (Julie Maire, Edward Hare, and... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

14 Jun 2023
Op-Ed

Every Company Should Have These Leaders—or Develop Them if They Don't

needs of the organization. Organizations will have BTLs and LTLs who are specialists and generalists. BTL specialists oversee multiple function areas and rely on information from across the organization while also understanding the View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

limbic system of your brain. And then you deliver that information into your prefrontal cortex and you decide how to act on it. And once you understand how that process works, which is what we're writing about in this book. Look, this... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

30 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 30

Taiwan-based HTC Corp. faced difficult times by 2012. CEO Peter Chou, who drove HTC's transformation from an unknown manufacturer of PDAs for other companies to a well-known global player in smartphones, faced an uncertain and complex... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

1929 by a merger of British and Dutch soap and margarine companies, 1 it has ranked as one of Europe's, and the world's, largest consumer-goods companies. Its sales of $45,679 million in 2000 ranked it fifty-fourth by revenues in the Fortune 500 list of largest... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

13 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Science Business: What Happened to Biotech?

uncertainty, the complex and heterogeneous nature of the scientific knowledge base, and the rapid pace of scientific progress. "The health of the sector depends on how well it can cope with all three of these challenges," writes... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

fact that despite careful attention to the importance of neighborhood priority, Boston’s implementation of its 50-50 reserve–open seat split was nearly identical to the outcome of a counterfactual system without any reserves. Transparency... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Publications