Learning By Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

When It Comes to Climate Regulation, Energy Companies Take a More Nuanced View

Common wisdom holds that oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and other industries known for their large carbon emissions generally oppose clean energy policies. Now, a study of corporate advocacy spanning 30 years reveals that many companies are more flexible... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Utilities

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

better-performing companies. Learning from the network If this intensive style doesn’t come naturally to a founder-manager, the good news is it can be learned, Koning says. “What’s encouraging about this paper is that we found that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Jan 2007
HBS Case

The Challenge of Managing National Security

only beginning to learn about these matters. And by the way, we don't have security clearances. The case is based on publicly available documents and information. The role of this case is not to assess how... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

15 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

stayed home full time, according to a new study. Men raised by working mothers are more likely to contribute to household chores and spend more time caring for family members. “There are very few things that have such a clear effect on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

31 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

jobs that require a college degree pay roughly two-thirds more than jobs that don’t, a number that has doubled over the past 40 years, according to recent research coauthored by Letian (LT) Zhang, an assistant professor at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

street-to-prison cycle that had ravaged his youth. He had passed a high school equivalency test and had earned a college degree, and by that point could envision a bright future as a budding accountant at Arthur Andersen, the firm he... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

August 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding

By: Jill Avery

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details

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09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

students. So we thought, why not?” “This is orders of magnitude more complex,” says Casadesus-Masanell, the Herman C. Krannert Professor of Business Administration at HBS. “I don’t think the School has ever done anything quite like this.... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

10 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

How to Live Happier in 2023: Diversify Your Social Circle

strangers,” he says, “but you could reallocate an hour here and there from one person to another person and see how that goes.” He advises people to take stock of their own portfolio of social interactions, and, if it seems out of balance, take the extra time to reach... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Banks Ditch Coal: The Impact Is 'More Than Anyone Thought'

Consumers who are eager to mitigate climate change can take many actions, such as reducing the number of airline flights they take or installing solar panels on their homes. But the planet is in a race against time, and individual action alone won’t help most countries... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis; Financial Services; Mining

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The New Rules for Remote Work: Pandemic Edition

With more people working remotely right now, many of us have experienced a videoconference interrupted by barking dogs or hungry kids demanding snacks, punctuated, perhaps, by cabinet doors slamming and ice... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

believed. While the share of US imports from China fell, they were replaced by imports from other locations. For instance, the share of imports from Vietnam and Mexico, the paper notes, increased 2 percentage points and close to .7... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

21 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

When a Competitor Abandons the Market, Should You Advance or Retreat?

training, I thought these positive market forces might counterbalance or dominate any potential learning or herding behavior. But it turns out that, on average, the perception of increased failure risk is stronger than the draw of less... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Health

24 Jul 2018
Op-Ed

4 Ways Managers Can Exercise Their 'Agency' to Change the World

harness the power of business to address some of society’s most significant problems, not as a separate part of employees’ lives—businessperson by day, volunteer by night—but as an integrated whole, working... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

18 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Marketing After the Recession

quality, measured objectively, has remained constant. Stay focused on costs. Many manufacturing industries (as opposed to services industries) are plagued by global overcapacity, relative even to pre-recession demand. Combined with excess... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

Delta employees—which was considered a bold action by a high-profile CEO, Hill says. That summer he went on a “listening and learning tour,” holding in-house sessions with Delta’s Black workers and meetings... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

18 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Leaning In

Last summer, Christine Exley polled 200 American adults with a simple yes/no question: Do you think women should negotiate their salaries more often? Seventy percent of respondents answered in the affirmative. She wasn’t surprised View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

02 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Increase Middle Class Incomes

Halfpoint In the worlds of economic theory and conservative political orthodoxy, corporate tax cuts, such as the 2017 tax reform in the United States, should create benefits beyond businesses. As the thinking goes, middle class workers... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

04 Mar 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Lessons from Running GM’s OnStar

tenure as head of OnStar, one of his former employees, now a second-year student at HBS, enrolled in a relatively new course called Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise, taught by Christensen. The final paper required that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Auto

04 Apr 2011
HBS Case

Reinventing the National Geographic Society

TV, cable programming—but is still trying to figure out the best strategy for integrating them. Despite repeated structural changes, employees still operate in silos. In short, the National Geographic case is fertile learning ground for... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

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