Publications

03 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 3, 2009

Contractibility and Contract Design in Strategic Alliances Authors: Josh Lerner and Ulrike Malmendier Publication: American Economic Review (forthcoming) Abstract We analyze how variations in contractibility affect the View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Jun 2017
Blog Post

MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences – A Q&A with Professor Robert Howe

Professor Rob Howe has been thinking about the intersection between business and technology for a number of years now. Before joining the SEAS faculty at Harvard (where he focuses on robot and human manipulation and the sense View Details

15 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 15, 2019

farms to its processing plants to its vast sales and distribution operation that reached over 100,000 outlets. Notwithstanding its diverse portfolio, the core of Almarai’s business was (1) sales View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 1999
Case

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A small manufacturer of car wash facilities has been unable to develop management systems because of rapid growth. Now size dictates the need for such systems because the current personal management style is proving inadequate. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Growth Management; Manufacturing Industry

13 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 13

modernity in the 1920s and 1930s, Chanel's designs wrapped high and low cultural references into beautiful yet practical clothing and jewelry for women of Europe and the Americas. In their articulation View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

itself into the world's third largest luxury retailer with multiple brands. The company had performed well even after the departure of star designer Tom Ford and former CEO Domenico De Sole. However, the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Mar 2022
Blog Post

Celebrating Black History Month at HBS

year to design a new Harvard Business School (HBS) course, Scaling Minority Businesses, in which students learn about the unique challenges of Black-owned businesses. Students are grouped into teams and... View Details

December 1999 (Revised November 2001)
Background Note

Note on Private Equity Securities, A

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Josh Lerner

Provides an overview of the primary securities used in private equity, their structures, and the economic motivation behind their designs. View Details

Keywords: Design; Private Equity; Debt Securities; Industry Structures; Motivation and Incentives

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

than learning from the experience, and revert to the "comfort zones" of behavior consistent with their roles on the team (that is, junior experts reduce contributions and more senior members become increasingly directive). “The very best... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

We designed the PELP Coherence Framework to create a picture of how the parts fit together. In order to develop the picture, we studied a number of districts that are producing... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

reacting to the company's own organizational difficulties. Frei, Evenson and Harker point out that institutions generally suffer from a lack of overall customer focus when the design View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

November 2017
Case

Outrageous Ambition: Duke University

By: William C. Kirby and Yuanzhuo Wang

Duke University had grown from a one room schoolhouse in rural North Carolina in 1859 to one of the leading research universities in the U.S. and the world. Since the late 1950s, Duke’s leaders had consciously used the process of strategic planning to guide the... View Details

2012
Book

Auctions, Market Mechanisms, and Their Applications: Second International ICST Conference, AMMA 2011

By: Peter Coles, Sanmay Das, Sebastien Lahaie and Boleslaw Szymanski

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Second International ICST on Auctions, Market Mechanisms, and Their Applications (AMMA 2011) held in New York, August 22–23, 2011. The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully... View Details

Keywords: Internet; Market Design; Internet and the Web; Auctions; Information Management; Computer Industry

December 2007
Background Note

Tools and Tactics for Transformation: Three "Whats" and Three "Hows"

By: James K. Sebenius and Stephen Friedman

Important transformation at Goldman Sachs, where one of the authors was Chairman, required analysis, political leadership, and management in order to fundamentally shift the strategy, people, and culture on a sustainable basis. After describing the actions needed to... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Business Strategy; Organizational Culture; Transition; Strategic Planning; Core Relationships; Multinational Firms and Management; Leadership Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Private Equity

24 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 24

is currently provided by GAAP financial reporting. The purpose of this paper is to examine the optimal design of information intermediaries that can increase the impact View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (E): New Beginning

By: Ashish Nanda

The Vermeer team is pleasantly surprised by the benefits and hospitality that their new surroundings offer. Their happiness is tempered, however, by discomfort with some elements of the "Microsoft Way." As the Vermeer engineers embark on a punishing schedule for the... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Horizontal Integration; Organizational Design; Organizational Culture; Product Development; Information Technology Industry