Publications

Read Now

July 2021
Teaching Note

Digital Transformation 2.0: CEO Elie Girard at Atos

By: Tsedal Neeley

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-024. Elie Girard has taken the helm as CEO of multinational IT giant Atos to lead the company into the next era of digital transformation. Noticing that customers’ digital needs were evolving to become even more specialized and global... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Leading Change; Mergers and Acquisitions; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Information Technology Industry

July 2025
Article

Reputation Burning: Analyzing the Impact of Brand Sponsorship on Social Influencers

By: Mengjie Cheng and Shunyuan Zhang

The growth of the influencer marketing industry warrants an empirical examination of the effect of posting sponsored videos on influencers' reputations. We collected a novel dataset of user-generated YouTube videos created by prominent English-speaking influencers in... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Mathematical Methods; Marketing Reference Programs; Social Media; Brands and Branding

Emily Tedards is a Doctoral Student in the Organizational Behavior program at Harvard Business School and a Doctoral Fellow for the Reimagining the Economy Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School. Emily is interested in interorganizational networks, alliances, and the... View Details

2022
Chapter

Capitalism and the Environment

By: Geoffrey Jones

Capitalism drove the environmental decimation of the planet. The environment was seen as a free good, while the consequences of dirty industrial and agricultural processes were seen as external to the firm. Public policies largely allowed this to happen, as politicians... View Details

Keywords: History; Environment; Sustainability; Capitalism; Ethics; Business History; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Climate Change

February 2005
Article

Managing the Ecosystem

By: Marco Iansiti

The days of the corporate lone wolf are over. In our increasingly interconnected world, standing alone is no longer a viable business model. Instead, smart companies rely heavily on networks of partners, suppliers, and customers to achieve market success and sustain... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Corporate Reporting; Partners and Partnerships; Industry Clusters; Customers; Markets; Situation or Environment; Banks and Banking; Insurance; Software

Research Summary

Performance Management Systems in Healthcare

By: Susanna Gallani

Performance management in healthcare provider organizations presents particular challehges, motivate by historical industry practices, market structures and dynamics, and cultural peculiarities. Through her research studies and case studies, Prof. Gallani explores... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Compensation; Incentive Systems; Burnout; Health Industry

06 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Technology Re-Emergence: Creating New Value for Old Innovations

re-emergence. “What this research suggests is that it is possible to prolong the life of some technologies, along with the organizations and communities that support them” Take, for example, the mechanical wristwatch. Swiss watchmakers... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Apparel & Accessories; Technology; Consumer Products

Derrick Bransby

Derrick studies how teams accomplish complex work in novel contexts. His dissertation advances the idea of disciplined flexibility: a strategy teams use to navigate uncertainty... View Details

October 2002 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Starbucks and Conservation International

By: James E. Austin and Cate Reavis

Starbucks, the world's leading specialty coffee company, developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International, a major international environmental nonprofit organization. The purpose of the alliance was to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Production; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Alliances; Nonprofit Organizations; Food and Beverage Industry; Mexico

Educators

May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Background Note

Location Choice for New Ventures: Cities

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster... View Details

Keywords: City; Business Startups

Educators

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The Power of Personal Connections: How Shared Experiences Boost Performance

naturally want to be and that, then, can motivate them to do better.” In health care settings and beyond, organizations could craft deeper interactions—at the beginning of the careers for other professionals or well into their... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Strategic responses to collective activism in the U.S. biomass sector

By: Shon R. Hiatt

Almost all companies face constraints and pressure from collective activists. Using tactics such as protests, boycotts, and lobbying, social movement organizations and collective actors can draw significant media attention to issues facing industries and organizations,... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business and Community Relations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Identity; Forest Products Industry; United States

13 Aug 2020
Blog Post

The U.S. Job Search for International Students

do international students approach the U.S. job search? As a student, it is important to understand the timing of recruiting for a given industry or company, and the degree of networking that you will have to undertake in the job search,... View Details

January 2021
Case

Digital Transformation 2.0: CEO Elie Girard at Atos

By: Tsedal Neeley and James Barnett

Elie Girard has taken the helm as CEO of Atos—multinational IT giant—to lead the company into the next era of digital transformation. Noticing that customers’ digital needs were evolving to become even more specialized and global in scope, he made a bold first step as... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change; Leadership; Technology Industry

Educators

Dennis W. Campbell is currently the Dwight P. Robinson Jr. Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research and teaching activities focus broadly on how management control systems can be designed to balance short-term strategy execution... View Details

Keywords: service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry

2018
Book

Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business

By: Sunil Gupta

Disruption and transformation get a lot of hype and for good reason. Digital technologies have disrupted entire industries and incumbents have often struggled in this new world. Typical approaches used by legacy players such as using technology to improve efficiency,... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Information Technology; Transformation; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Organizational Structure; Digital Strategy