Publications

21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

Repeated and, as of this writing, ongoing revelations of corporate wrongdoing over the past two years have eroded public trust in business institutions and executives to levels not seen in decades. A recent Gallup poll indicates that... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

November 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Kickstarter: Crowdfunding for the Arts

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Alexis Lefort

Kickstarter was a virtual crowdfunding platform and community that allowed creators of all kinds to raise funding for creative projects. The executive team was wrestling with a tension in its business model: the organization earned the majority of its revenue from... View Details

Keywords: Fundraising; Mission; Crowdfunding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Arts; Web Services Industry; United States

May 2023
Article

Do Internal Control Weaknesses Affect Firms' Demand for Financial Skills? Evidence from U.S. Job Postings

By: Janet Gao, Kenneth J. Merkley, Joseph Pacelli and Joseph H. Schroeder

Ineffective internal controls over financial reporting often relates to a lack of qualified personnel with sufficient accounting and technical expertise. In this study, we examine whether firms respond to internal control failures by increasing their demand for... View Details

Keywords: Internal Controls; Labor Demand; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Experience and Expertise; Recruitment; Competency and Skills; Corporate Finance

SSRN

Article

Culture Is Not the Culprit: When Organizations Are in Crisis, It's Usually Because the Business Is Broken

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Emily McTague

When organizations get into big trouble, fixing the culture is usually the prescription. That's what most everyone said GM needed to do after its recall crisis in 2014—and ever since, CEO Mary Barra has been focusing on creating "the right environment" to promote... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Cultural Reform; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Business Processes

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04 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

The Real Cost of Bribery

understanding of the benefits of bribery—facilitating entry into a market, for starters," says Serafeim, an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management unit. "But we still have a much more limited understanding about... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

December 2005
Article

Up to Code: Does Your Company's Conduct Meet World-Class Standards?

By: Lynn Paine, Rohit Deshpandé, Joshua D. Margolis and Kim Eric Bettcher

Codes of conduct have long been a feature of corporate life. Today, they are arguably a legal necessity—at least for public companies with a presence in the United States. But the issue goes beyond U.S. legal and regulatory requirements. Sparked by corruption and... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Standards Of Conduct; Globalized Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance

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Andy Zelleke

Andy Zelleke is the MBA Class of 1962 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. A member of the General Management unit, he is the Faculty Chair of HBS’ Middle East & North Africa Research Center.

Since Spring 2021, Dr. Zelleke has taught “Unpacking... View Details

Keywords: federal government; professional services; defense; financial services

Carliss Y. Baldwin

Carliss Y. Baldwin is the William L. White Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She studies the process of design and its impact of design architecture on firm strategy, platforms, and business ecosystems. With Kim Clark, she authored... View Details

Keywords: computer; electronics; software

June 2015
Article

The Organization of Enterprise in Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Recent research reveals that the joint stock corporation was not a superior form of business organization in many countries historically. In Japan, however, it played a more fundamental role. Between 1896 and 1939 joint stock enterprises accounted for 44 percent of... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Legal Form; Enterprise; Modernization; Business Organization; Entrepreneurship; Japan

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Read Now

March 1993 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Sierra On-Line, Inc. (A)

Sierra On-Line, a fast growing software developer, is criticized by a Forbes journalist for excessively capitalizing software development costs. In contrast to most other software developers that typically capitalize about 20% of R&D costs, Sierra capitalizes 80%.... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Financial Statements; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

21 Jul 2020
News

New Models for a New World

20 Dec 2006
Op-Ed

Investors Hurt by Dual-Track Tax Reporting

accounting earnings. Corporate tax shelters that reduce book income are rarely, if ever, undertaken, and the main benefit of many shelters is the book income they produce. The proposal to publicly report... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

July 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Banking on Change: Aligning Culture and Compensation at Morgan Stanley

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This case study was prepared as part of a research project on Culture, Conduct, and Governance in Financial Firms. The objective of this project is to compare and contrast the efforts of U.S. and European banks to induce changes in organization culture in the aftermath... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Corporate Governance; Banks and Banking; United States; Europe