Publications

06 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Updating a Classic: Writing a Great Business Plan

ventures are "born global": They seek to address a global market and attract funding from global investors. Should a business plan be tailored in some way for a global audience? A: We live in a world of democratized access to ideas, View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

not take a great deal of capital nor technological expertise to launch an entrepreneurial venture in many beauty products—although for such a venture to have any hope of success, high levels of imagination and creativity have always been... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

11 Jul 2016
HBS Case

Neurodiversity: The Benefits of Recruiting Employees with Cognitive Disabilities

pieces with irregular shapes. “One of the things that we’ve done historically in human resource management is, we’ve asked people to trim away the parts of themselves that are irregularly shaped, and then we ask them to plug themselves... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Technology

01 Mar 2024
News

Game On

SmartCourt technology is more commonly used by NBA teams and NCAA programs, and represents one part of the club’s $1 million tech investment, says McCarthy, who was an avid racquetball player and developed half a billion dollars in... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Edward Linsmier; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment

09 Apr 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

The Dark Side of Performance Bonuses

used in CEO bonus plans, relatively little attention is paid to the design of the bonus plan or unintended consequences. Equality and Equity in Compensation Why do some firms such as technology startups offer the same equity compensation... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 2024
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Labor Markets; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Change Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Employment; Global Range; Employment Industry

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

technologies which they leveraged to carve a leadership role in the inherently risky artificial fertilization business. As the company grew, its executives grappled with managing the political, ethical, and business risks associated with... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

that on the African subcontinent, only 30 percent of people have been vaccinated, while in the rest of the world, that number is closer to 80 percent?” More essentially, Rangan asks with his research: “How can it be that with regard to access to medicine, which is such... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

28 Mar 2024
News

Rooms with a View

think ambitiously about how it attracts and uses talent, Mirza concludes in Talent Disruption. “Failure to act strategically will only accelerate the crisis and permanently shrink employment in an industry that has a rich history of entrepreneurship,” he writes. “By... View Details

Keywords: April White; photos by Christina Gandolfo; Hospitality

2024
Working Paper

The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Bart S. Vanneste and Amirhossein Zohrehvand

Can generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) transform the role of the CEO? This study investigates whether Gen-AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees display aversion to Gen-AI communication. We present a framework of Gen-AI aversion that distinguishes... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; AI and Machine Learning; Perception; Communication

SSRN

Read Now

September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000-person global workforce, had raised concerns of... View Details

01 May 2020
What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

work as the new normal It is not a technological issue, but a managerial one. The technology more or less exists today. What we don’t have yet (in many cases) is the new mindset.” Do you agree with Zicari?... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Social Salary Setting at Spiber

By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 920-050. The case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; General Management; Employee Benefits; Incentives; Motivation; Compensation and Benefits; Fairness; Motivation and Incentives; Management; Happiness; Negotiation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Japan

13 Dec 2016
First Look

December 13, 2016

Conconi Abstract—In recent decades, advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have led firms to retain within their boundaries and in their domestic economies only a subset of their production stages.... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

May 2019 (Revised February 2022)
Background Note

The Gig Economy: Leasing Skills to Pay the Bills

By: Joseph Fuller, William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

This primer provides a comprehensive exploration into the gig economy and how it is reshaping global business. It shows how the Uber driver, the freelancing programmer in India, and the independent corporate consultant are all different variants of the modern-day gig... View Details

Keywords: Gig Economy; COVID-19 Pandemic; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Labor; Strategy; Management; Globalization; North America; Europe; United States; United Kingdom

08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

or trainer. Technology is increasing these possibilities via game-like simulations, virtual video environments, and online media that allow more behavioral assessments by more people with less travel and time. The real constraint in many... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

Use of Crowd Innovation to Develop an Artificial Intelligence-Based Solution for Radiation Therapy Targeting

By: Raymond H. Mak, Michael G. Endres, Jin Hyun Paik, Rinat A. Sergeev, Hugo Aerts, Christopher L. Williams, Karim R. Lakhani and Eva C. Guinan

Importance: Radiation therapy (RT) is a critical cancer treatment, but the existing radiation oncologist work force does not meet growing global demand. One key physician task in RT planning involves tumor segmentation for targeting, which requires substantial... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; AI Algorithms; Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; AI and Machine Learning