Publications

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the "disruptive"... View Details

Portrait Project

Daniella Bertolotti

ceased being myself. To fit in. To not feel ridiculous. I pursued others’ view of success, and I strove to become reasonable, even admirable. And when I did, it felt worse than ever. It took me 28 years, chronic anxiety, and a burnout to... View Details

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Customers Want from Your Products

frequently bought milk shakes. Next, they invited people who fit this profile to evaluate whether making the shakes thicker, more chocolaty, cheaper, or chunkier would satisfy them better. The panelists gave clear feedback, but the... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook & Taddy Hall; Consumer Products

01 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation

Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Jones Lang LaSalle (2012): Integrated Services and the Architecture of Complexity (D)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2008 and 2012. In 2008, in order to strengthen the firm's brokerage team, JLL merged with The Staubach Company, a real estate services provider with a first-rate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

March 2009
Article

Risk Management and Calculative Cultures

By: Anette Mikes

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has recently emerged as a widespread practice in financial institutions. It has been increasingly codified and encrypted into regulatory, corporate governance and organisational management blueprints. A burgeoning literature of... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Practice; Banks and Banking; Corporate Governance; Value; Business and Shareholder Relations; Managerial Roles; Culture; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business or Company Management; Financial Services Industry

Many professionals aspire to work for a start-up. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today’s dynamic innovation economy. Yes, start-ups look magical, but they can also be chaotic and inaccessible. Many books are written for... View Details

01 May 2013
What Do You Think?

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

the concept. That's the view of Mark Stanley, who commented that "These terms do not fit together-Servant & Leader It's just another way poor leaders attempt to elevate themselves above those they 'serve' an entirely unhealthy... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

2019
Working Paper

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Retail Industry

SSRN

Read Now

09 Feb 2024
HBS Case

Slim Chance: Drugs Will Reshape the Weight Loss Industry, But Habit Change Might Be Elusive

Year after year, millions of people make a new year’s resolution to lose weight. But because success traditionally depends on making major lifestyle changes, like eating healthier and exercising more, many people fall short of their View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Health; Pharmaceutical

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

selection and gradual learning regarding the entrepreneurial earnings process. The model accurately fits entry patterns into self-employment by age. The option value of returning to paid work is found to constitute a substantial portion... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

12 Apr 2022
Book

Racism, Colonialism, and Britain's Legacy of Violence

Britain’s 20th century empire was the largest in human history, with a quarter of the world’s land and nearly 700 million people. Yet the empire drew its strength from violence. That’s the conclusion Harvard Business School Professor Caroline Elkins draws in her new... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

2018
Book

Business and the Natural Environment: A Research Overview

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and Susse Georg

The fields of corporate environmentalism, green business and corporate sustainability have grown significantly over the past twenty-five years, such that the academic research domains of business decision-making, accounting, organizational behaviour, and the protection... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Regulation; Research

2017
Book

Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Managerial Roles; Job Search

10 Feb 2016
HBS Seminar

Chris Blattman, Associate Professor, Columbia SIPA

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

than luxurious prizes like electronics or trips. It’s even better if a gift feels personalized. A manager could give an employee who enjoys fitness activities a gift card to a store that sells workout clothes, while giving another worker... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Learning; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Diversification; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

Educators

June 2021
Case

HelloSelf: Launch

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2021, Charles Wells, founder and CEO of HelloSelf was reflecting on the company’s progress since it launched two years earlier. HelloSelf’s goal was to help the mentally ill recover and those who were mentally fit to stay well and feel even better. To do this,... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Health Care and Treatment; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Great Britain

Educators