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March 1993
Background Note

Note on Information Technology and Strategy

By: Richard L. Nolan and Katherine Seger

Provides a context for the evolution of information technology in business organizations, explains the emergence of information as an important resource to be managed, and provides a framework for assessing the strategic potential of information in the firm. View Details

Keywords: Information; Information Management; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Adoption; Body of Literature; Archives; Annual Reports; Information Technology Industry

2013
Working Paper

Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing

By: Kristina McElheran

Recent contributions to a growing theory literature have focused on the tradeoff between adaptation and coordination in determining delegation within firms. Empirical evidence, however, is limited. Using establishment-level data on decision rights over information... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business Headquarters; Decision Choices and Conditions; Operations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Power and Influence; Adaptation; Cooperation

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2011
Report

State of the Region Report 2011: The Top of Europe's Quest for Resilience--A Competitive Region Facing a Fragile Global Economy

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The State of the Region Reports provide an annual discussion of competitiveness and collaboration across the Baltic Sea Region, covering the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Northern Germany, Northern Poland, and Northwestern Russia. The 2011 edition, the 8th in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Economies and Regions; Policy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Cooperation; Baltic Countries

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June 2006 (Revised July 2009)
Case

MassMEDIC: The Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council

By: Willis M. Emmons III, Michael E. Porter and Spencer Wallace

Set in 2004, as Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) President Tom Sommer contemplates the future direction of a successful medical device cluster association. Focuses on the formation of cluster organizations and their roles and effectiveness,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Industry Clusters; Nonprofit Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Cooperation; Massachusetts

30 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Do Social Movements Sway Voters? Not Really, Except for One

researchers gathered data from Twitter (the platform now called X), Google searches, and high-frequency surveys like The Gallup Poll Social Series, Nationscape, and Cooperative Congressional Election Study to chart the evolution of online... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2010
Working Paper

Disagreement about the Team's Status Hierarchy: An Insidious Obstacle to Coordination and Performance

By: Heidi K. Gardner

Hierarchies are pervasive in groups, generally providing clear guidelines for the dominance and deference behaviors that members are expected to show based on their relative ranks. But what happens when team members disagree about where each member ranks on the... View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Conflict and Resolution; Perception; Status and Position; Cooperation

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February 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Asociacion Colombiana de Industrias Plasticas (Acoplasticos)

By: Michael E. Porter and Willis M. Emmons III

Acoplasticos was established in 1961 as a lobbying group for Colombia's major plastics manufacturing companies. In the early 1980s, the organization shifted its focus toward improving the productivity of the Colombian plastics and rubber cluster, which also included... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Information Technology; Alliances; Research and Development; Business and Government Relations; Performance Productivity; Developing Countries and Economies; Manufacturing Industry; Chemical Industry; Colombia

October 2003 (Revised December 2015)
Supplement

The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: Jan Trow

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

Accompanies The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: An Exercise and provides unique background information on one of the team members. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Knowledge Sharing; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Perspective; Strategy; Cooperation; Telecommunications Industry

15 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 15, 2008

choice thus leads subjects to violate the weak axiom of revealed preference (WARP). Friend or Foe? Cooperation and Learning in High-Stakes Games Authors:FFelix Oberholzer-Gee, Joel Waldfogel, and Matthew White Publication:Review of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Teaching Note

Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear: Bringing the Executive Team Together

By: Boris Groysberg, Tricia Gregg and Katherine Connolly Baden

Teaching Note for HBS No. 417-048. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Communication; Cooperation; Decision Making; Leadership

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

external compliance pressure in their domestic institutional environment, when their buyers take a cooperative approach to monitoring, and when their auditors are highly trained. We find, further, that a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Global Poverty Needs a Global Answer

funded initiatives by Land O' Lakes in some twenty-three poor countries. In Albania, for example, Land O' Lakes has organized 8,000 women into cooperatives for the production of dairy products, providing technical support, veterinary... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

12 Nov 2014
Op-Ed

A Challenge to the New Congress: Pass Housing Finance Reform

funds? Central banks? What form should this private capital take: Should it enter the system through capital markets structures, private mortgage insurance, lender cooperatives or a combination? How costly will reform be? Private capital... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas Retsinas & Rob Couch; Construction; Real Estate

09 Jan 2006
What Do You Think?

Should More Transparency Extend to Education for Management?

"judgment day" of public knowledge of their performance at some time in the future, although public knowledge rarely extends very deeply into an organization. But is the management classroom the place for increased transparency? Not only might non-disclosure... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Education, Technology, and Business: What’s the Catch?

change" in accountability and the huge business need to offer services and programs to help teachers stay on top. Parents will also become more involved as consumers, he added, creating a push for overall school quality to rise. Fishman saw this consumer aspect in... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Education

July 2010 (Revised March 2013)
Case

One Firm One Future at Davis Langdon (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Kaitlyn A. Simpson

Senior Partner Rob Smith just led construction consultancy firm Davis Langdon through a major organizational change in Europe and the Middle East. In the past, compensation arrangements had not incentivized partners to collaborate across the firm to serve clients'... View Details

Keywords: Profit Sharing; Global Strategy; Compensation and Benefits; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Cooperation; Expansion; Consulting Industry; Europe; Middle East

October 1997 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Oxford Health Plans: Specialty Management (A)

By: James L. Heskett, Jody H. Gittell and James Slayton

Describes an innovative approach to organizing health care proposed by Oxford CEO Steve Wiggins. Wiggins contends that the primary care physician "gatekeeper" model typically used by health maintenance organizations to control access to and coordinate specialist care... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Groups and Teams; Innovation and Management; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Cooperation; Management Teams; Health Industry; United States

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March 1991 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Kraft General Foods: The Merger (A)

By: David J. Collis

Describes Philip Morris' acquisitions of General Foods in 1985 and Kraft, Inc. in 1989, focusing on the integration of Kraft and General Foods that forms a $30 billion food subsidiary. Details the steps required to merge these two large companies, emphasizing the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Cooperation; Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal

By: Michel Anteby and Nitin Nohria

Michael Fernandes, the Director of Custom Manufacturing Operations at the pharmaceutical company Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL), schedules a meeting with three of his reports, whose interpersonal conflicts with one another are causing his business development... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Management Skills; Groups and Teams; Conflict Management; Cooperation; Pharmaceutical Industry; India; United Kingdom; Canada