Publications

May 2010
Case

CEIBS: A Global Business School Made in China

By: John A. Quelch

In 2009, just 15 years after it was founded, the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) has achieved the remarkable 8th position in the Financial Times Global MBA rankings. The case describes the short history of the school and the reasons for its success.... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Quality; Business History; Competitive Advantage; Business Education; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; China

24 Apr 2006
News

Keeping the Core Healthy

May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Marshall & Gordon: Designing an Effective Compensation System (A)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Kerry Herman

CEO Kelly Browne wrestles with the design of a new compensation system to promote the collaboration and cross-selling necessary for supporting her firm's new strategy. Marshall Gordon International, a global public relations (PR) firm, has recently expanded its service... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Relationship Management; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Alignment; Public Relations Industry

September 2002
Case

Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (A): The Freedom Agenda

Describes efforts in Seattle Public Schools, under the leadership of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske, to replace the district's centralized budgeting process with school-level budgets. Olchefske's decentralization effort, referred to locally as the Freedom Agenda,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Education; Education Industry; Seattle

Article

Can the Virtuous Mouse and the Wealthy Elephant Live Happily Ever After?

By: James E. Austin and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

What happens when small iconic socially oriented businesses are acquired by large corporations? Such mergers create significant opportunities for creating both business value and substantially expanded social value, but they also pose unusually difficult challenges... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Style; Agreements and Arrangements; Social Enterprise; Social Issues

22–23 Sep 2020
Virtual Programming

Driving Impact: A Dialogue on Capitalism, Climate, and Social Change

Join Professor Rebecca Henderson and Sir Ronald Cohen (MBA 1969) as they debate the theories of change. The conversation will compare and contrast the authors groundbreaking approaches to rethinking the role of business in driving impactone through the lens of... View Details

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Scott Tucker (A): Race to the Top

By: Aiyesha Dey and Amram Migdal

The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Fairness; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; United States

30 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Retirement Planning

place an undue burden on workers who don't have the interest, time, or expertise to manage their finances. A pioneer in translating finance and mathematics into practical, Wall Street-ready models, Merton was awarded the 1997 Nobel... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

can be difficult in a decentralized organization. When the business environment shifts, traditional organizations use their management layers to provide enterprise-wide direction. This is something Buurtzorg... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

02 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

Employees Out Sick? Inside One Company's Creative Approach to Staying Productive

Managers can forge close relationships with other managers so they can borrow employees from one another to fill in the absentee gaps, according to his forthcoming research in the Journal of the European... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Fashion

18 Jun 2007
Op-Ed

Leveling the Executive Options Playing Field

managers at the expense of investors and tax authorities.” My comments below provide an overview of the financial and tax accounting systems and their treatment of incentive compensation. Independently, the topics of financial accounting,... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai

March 2018
Article

Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Rebecca Henderson and Nelson P. Repenning

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details

Keywords: Capability; Short-termism; System Dynamics; Tipping Point; Business or Company Management; Earnings Management; Resource Allocation

November 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case

The LEGO Group: Envisioning Risks in Asia (A)

By: Anette Mikes and Dominique Hamel

On January 1, 2012, the LEGO Group announced a major new initiative to enhance its market penetration in Asia. Later in the year, a cross-functional group of senior managers gathered at company headquarters to discuss the status of the Asian initiative and the risks... View Details

Keywords: LEGO; Toy Industry; Fashion And Creative Industries; Organizational Structure; Risk Management; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Design; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Denmark; Asia

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Adams + Beasley Associates

By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana Mogosanu

This case illustrates how a strong culture, founder-led SME designed and used a unique performance metric—the job security index—to manage through periods of economic uncertainty. The case centers specifically on how the job security index was used in an interactive... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Measurement and Metrics; Employee Ownership; Risk and Uncertainty; Small Business; Leadership; Organizational Culture

2020
Working Paper

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff

We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other... View Details

Keywords: Self-employed; Occupation; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Industry Clusters; Ethnicity; Immigration; Networks; United States

Read Now

Blog

In-Person Programs: Q&A with Portfolio Directors

After a long hiatus, HBS programs have started to return to campus. Vicki Good and Lisa Hughes, portfolio directors for the Advanced Management Program (AMP) and the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) respectively, weigh in on the... View Details

Malcolm P. Baker

Malcolm Baker is the Robert G. Kirby Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches the required course in finance and a short immersive program on investing in life sciences.

His research is in the... View Details

Keywords: asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management; asset management

January–February 2025
Article

Why People Resist Embracing AI

By: Julian De Freitas

The success of AI depends not only on its capabilities, which are becoming more advanced each day, but on people’s willingness to harness them. Unfortunately, many people view AI negatively, fearing it will cause job losses, increase the likelihood that their personal... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Perception