Publications

SSRN

2008
Book

Managing Your Boss

By: John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter

Managing your boss: Isn't that merely manipulation? Corporate cozying up? Not according to John Gabarro and John Kotter. In this handy guidebook, the authors contend that you manage your boss for a very good reason: to do your best on the job—and thereby benefit not... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Decision Making; Information Management; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Tactics; Performance Productivity; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Personal Characteristics

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January 2010
Article

Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation

By: William R. Kerr

We investigate the speed at which clusters of invention for a technology migrate spatially following breakthrough inventions. We identify breakthrough inventions as the top one percent of U.S. inventions for a technology during 1975-1984 in terms of subsequent... View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Labor; Immigration; United States

April 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

AQR's Momentum Funds (B)

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Lauren H. Cohen, Randolph B. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy

This is a (B) case for AQR's Momentum Funds. It follows the first year of performance of the funds after launching, and gives students a critical inflection point for analyzing the nascent stages of a new product launch and the potential path dependence of the product... View Details

Keywords: Change; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Product Launch; Product; Performance; Perspective; Strategy

November 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Amazon: Cult or Culture?

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Tricia Gregg

Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a customer-centric culture that permeated all... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Technology Companies; Retail; Human Resource Practices; Growth; Founder; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Growth Management; Information Technology; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Retail Industry; Technology Industry

Article

Creating Value Together

By: Maxim Sytch and Ranjay Gulati

Conventional wisdom suggests that companies should avoid growing dependent on their business partners. If one company, the thinking goes, grows too dependent on a counterpart by getting the entire input for a particular activity from it and is not able to switch... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Power and Influence; Value Creation

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Article

The Role of the Board Chair During a Crisis

By: Achim Schmitt, Gilbert Probst and Michael Tushman

A company’s long-term survival during a crisis depends on complementary roles, strategic alignment, and chemistry between the chair and CEO. View Details

Keywords: Board Chair; Management Teams; Crisis Management; Relationships

October 1990 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Cambridge Software Corporation

Cambridge Software Corp. must decide whether or not to offer multiple versions of a new software product. The firm has identified five market segments for the software and is deciding which, if any, of three product versions (a high end "industrial" version, a... View Details

Keywords: Software; Decision Making; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

August 2007
Background Note

Assessing and Enhancing Individual Power in the Family Business System

By: John A. Davis

Describes how to asses and enhance an individual's bases, sources, and levels of power in a family business system. Relies on Franch and Raven's framework that identifies five bases of social power (reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert), describing how... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Situation or Environment; Power and Influence

13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Turning High Potential into Real Reward

Professor Joseph B. Lassiter III's research explores entrepreneurial marketing in high-potential ventures. He describes entrepreneurial marketing as a mindset and a process, one that involves gathering specific evidence that convinces a specific group of individuals to... View Details

Keywords: Re: Joseph B. Lassiter; Consumer Products

April 2010
Article

Complex Business Models: Managing Strategic Paradoxes Simultaneously

By: Wendy K. Smith, Andrew Binns and Michael Tushman

As our world becomes more global, fast paced and hypercompetitive, competitive advantage may increasingly depend on success in managing paradoxical strategies - strategies associated with contradictory, yet integrated tensions. We identify several types of complex... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Management; Strategy

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July 1994 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

The largest ski resort in Colorado must determine how to select customer segments to focus its promotional and service-delivery efforts. Making segmentation work depends on reordering its pricing policy and "service packages." View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Colorado

03 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

NFL Black Monday: How Much Do Coaches Really Matter?

turns out that these research findings hold value not only for football teams, but for any organization that depends on leadership for success. An empirical study of coaching ability In 2009, scholars Tim R. Holcomb, R. Michael Holmes... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

It's safe to say that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act was not pretty. Plagued by technical problems on Healthcare.gov, and stymied by a lack of political support in around half of the 50 states, the federal healthcare exchange set up by the ACA—commonly... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

07 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

'Be Yourself (Within Reason)' and Other Job Search Survival Tips

Credit: iStock If you think looking for a job in your profession is difficult, try being an accounting PhD looking for work in academia. Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ethan Rouen advises job hunters to start a physical exercise regimen to prepare, be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Accounting; Education

April 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Background Note

Note on Pre-Money and Post-Money Valuation (A &B), A

Provides a brief introduction to calculations inherent in pre-money and post-money evaluations at multiple stages of financing. Relies on three different examples to illustrate how valuations can be calculated depending on the information provided. View Details

Keywords: Information; Valuation; Financing and Loans

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Looking for CEOs in All the Wrong Places

At a recent gathering of chief executives in New York City, the CEOs of two companies shared pleasant dinner conversation. The first led a large, successful corporation; the second also served as a director of a telecommunications firm that was looking for a new CEO.... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs; Employment

August 1980 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Freemark Abbey Winery

Freemark Abbey must decide whether to harvest in view of the possibility of rain. Rain could damage the crop but delaying the harvest would be risky. On the other hand, rain could be beneficial and greatly increase the value of the resulting wine. This decision is... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Forecasting and Prediction; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry