Publications

January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!

By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta

In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that... View Details

09 Oct 2014
News

One in four Americans think poor people don’t work hard enough

01 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

When Do Alliances Make Sense?

To answer one of the oldest business quandaries—is it better to partner or go solo on a project—John Beshears looked for answers in an unusual place: the oil and gas drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico. But instead of mining for energy sources, Beshears dug for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities

10 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID's Surprising Toll on Careers of Women Scientists

COVID-19 is claiming an unexpected career toll among scientific researchers, and particularly on women, new research shows. If you are female, have young children, or work in a lab, you are more likely to feel the career-crunching effects dealt by the pandemic,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Biotechnology; Health

October 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Ben Walter

By: Andre F. Perold and David S. Scharfstein

Ben Walter is thinking of purchasing Butler Lumber and needs to decide how he would run the business and how much to pay for it. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Valuation

Research Summary

Pay-What-You-Want

In pay-what-you-want settings, typical marketplace dynamics are inverted: buyers, not sellers, determine the price. According to classic economic theory, the rational response of consumers in such situations is to pay nothing, but that is not what happens in actual... View Details

April 1996 (Revised December 2011)
Background Note

Responding to Market Failures

Broadly defines the concept of market failure and explores options for responding to it. It pays particular attention to the role of business leaders in addressing market deficiencies. View Details

Keywords: Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

October 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

uberPOOL

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and Amram Migdal

This case describes Uber's uberPOOL service, which let multiple Uber users who were headed in the same direction share a ride and pay substantially lower fares. View Details

Keywords: Uber; uberPOOL; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Transportation; Transportation Networks; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry

2021
Working Paper

The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take breaks together and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers can be advantageous for their careers, and that this phenomenon contributes to the... View Details

Keywords: Career; Promotions; Social Interactions; Networking; Gender; Personal Development and Career; Wages; Social and Collaborative Networks

Read Now

01 Oct 2015
News

The Rise of the Angel Investor

08 Oct 2010
What Do You Think?

Will Transparency in CEO Compensation Have Unintended Consequences?

out, "There is already available in proxy statements what the compensation is. It's supposed to be public knowledge, except few of the public learn of it, and few investors, apparently, get upset." Ravindra Edirisoorlya said that "the market for CEOs... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

09 Aug 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

Productivity Tips You Probably Haven't Considered Before

Source: rawpixel Hit a wall trying to increase your productivity? Recent research by Harvard Business School professors might help. The following articles address some basic questions: Should we deal with easy tasks first? Do employees know better than management about... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

beneficial effect reverses (i.e., cost transparency backfires) when it is revealed that a firm's profit margins are high relative to those of its competitors. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=48019 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jul 2016
News

Wellness Programs Take Aim At Workplace Stress

January–February 2023
Article

Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility

By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson

A lot of leaders believe that the formula for attracting and keeping talent is simple: Just ask people what they want and give it to them. The problem is, that approach tends to address only the material aspects of jobs that are top of employees’ minds at the moment,... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Recruitment; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Satisfaction