Publications

29 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Intersection of Business & Health Care: Summer Fellow Derek Soled (MD/MBA 2022)

help others. The MBA and the case method in particular prepared me to thrive in this type of collaborative environment. How as the summer influenced your thinking on future involvement in social enterprise?... View Details

31 Jan 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Peer Effects and Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by Ramana Nanda & Jesper B. Sørensen

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

determining their influence, developing a communication management plan, and influencing stakeholders through engagement.” One difference between shareholder and stakeholder management may be in the identification of those carrying the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Greening Walmart: Progress and Controversy

By: Rebecca Henderson and James Weber

In 2005, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing waste and making the company more environmentally and socially conscious. By 2015, the company had made progress on multiple dimensions: energy efficiency in its... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Motivation and Incentives; Reputation; Environmental Sustainability; Retail Industry; United States

2016
Working Paper

Delay as Agenda Setting

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

We examine a dynamic decision-making process involving unrelated issues in which a decision may be endogenously delayed by the allocation of influence resources. Delay is strategically interesting when decision makers with asymmetric preferences face multiple issues... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Resource Allocation; Conflict of Interests; Power and Influence; Strategy

Article

The (Perceived) Meaning of Spontaneous Thoughts

By: Carey K. Morewedge, Colleen Giblin and Michael I. Norton

Spontaneous thoughts, the output of a broad category of uncontrolled and inaccessible higher-order mental processes, arise frequently in everyday life. The seeming randomness by which spontaneous thoughts arise might give people good reason to dismiss them as... View Details

Keywords: Spontaneous Thoughts; Self-Insight; Meaning; Attribution; Judgment And Decision Making; Decision Making; Cognition and Thinking

July 2010
Article

Workplace Peers and Entrepreneurship

By: Ramana Nanda and Jesper B. Sorensen

We examine whether the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity is related to the prior career experiences of an individual's co-workers, using a unique matched employer-employee panel dataset. We argue that coworkers can increase the likelihood that an individual will... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Perception; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence

July 2011
Case

Teach Plus: Mobilizing a New Generation of Teacher Leaders

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of Teach Plus, a non-profit organization founded on the premise that in order for public schools to continuously improve urban student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and retains effective early career... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Decision Making; Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Cambridge; Boston

2018
Article

Prior Ties and the Limits of Peer Effects on Startup Team Performance

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

We conduct a field experiment at an entrepreneurship bootcamp to investigate whether interaction with proximate peers shapes a nascent startup team's performance. We find that teams whose members lack prior ties to others at the bootcamp experience peer effects that... View Details

Keywords: Field Experiment; Peer Effects; Office Space; Knowledge Spillovers; Accelerators; Entrepreneurship; Knowledge Sharing; Performance; Technology Industry; India

17 Oct 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Persuasion by Populist Propaganda: Evidence from the 2015 Argentine Ballotage

Keywords: by Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani, and Ernesto Schargrodsky

March 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Cardinal Health, Inc.

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Robert D. Walter, chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, Inc., responds to questions regarding Cardinal's board and its influence on the acquisition of and merger with Whitmire Distribution. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Power and Influence; Management Teams; Distribution Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry

03 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa

members—Deepak Malhotra, an authority on negotiation strategy; Noel Maurer, an expert on the politics and economics of the energy business; and Magnus Thor Torfason, an authority on how behavior is influenced by the View Details

Keywords: Re: Deepak Malhotra; Energy; Utilities

Deborah M. Winshel

Deborah Winshel is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit of Harvard Business School. She teaches several MBA required courses: Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD), Leadership and Corporate Accountability and the Field Immersion course (2025 in... View Details

January 1996
Background Note

Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Creativity, the production of new and useful ideas by individuals or teams, can appear in many forms and many functions within firms of all kinds--from entrepreneurial start-ups to well-established enterprises. This note describes the varieties of creativity in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Design; Situation or Environment; Creativity

2013
Article

Historical Legacies, Modern Conflicts: State Consolidation and Religious Pluralism in Greece and Turkey

By: Kristin Fabbe

Through a comparative study of state consolidation processes and the acceptance of religious tolerance in Greece and Turkey, this piece shows that there is often a direct link between strategies of state building, the creation of state identities, and contemporary... View Details

Keywords: Religion; Government and Politics; Power and Influence; Turkey; Greece

March 2000 (Revised July 2000)
Background Note

Power to Persuade, The

Presents tools for undertaking five core persuasion tasks: 1) mapping the influence landscape, 2) shaping perceptions of interests, 3) shaping perceptions of alternatives, 4) gaining acceptance for tough decisions, and 5) persuading at a distance. View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Power and Influence

2013
Working Paper

How Do Risk Managers Become Influential? A Field Study in Two Financial Institutions

By: Matthew Hall, Anette Mikes and Yuval Millo

This paper, based on a five-year longitudinal study at two UK-based banks, documents and analyzes the practices used by risk managers as they aim to gather and establish influence in their organizations. Specifically, we examine how influence-seeking risk managers (1)... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Risk Management; Strategic Planning; Power and Influence; Business Strategy; Banking Industry

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

Ask jazz fans the world over to name their favorite compilation, and chances are their response is Kind of Blue. With music that is sophisticated and sublime, spare yet complex, trumpeter and composer Miles Davis (1926-1991) reached dazzling new heights of creativity... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

January 2025
Module Note

Understanding and Addressing Gender Gaps

By: Katherine Coffman

This module provides a framework for students to analyze how gender stereotypes, through their impact on beliefs about others and beliefs about ourselves, contribute to gender gaps in the workplace. The module proceeds in three parts. First, through a case and an... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Gender; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Prejudice and Bias