Publications

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Research Summary

Overview

I study how people collaborate with each other as they define, change, and solve problems while working on creativity and innovation projects in organizations.

Conference Proceedings:
Cromwell, J. & Gardner, H. 2017. High-stakes innovation: When... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Startups; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Teams; Team Process

28 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

Should Industry Competitors Cooperate More to Solve World Problems?

for the whole industry. We are unlikely to see progress in cases where collaboration is unprofitable in both the short and the long term. Second, large institutional investors... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Manufacturing; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Mining

2017
Book

Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

Today's global enterprises increasingly involve collaborative work by teams of experts operating across different professions, organizations, and industries. Extreme Teaming provides new insights into the world of complex, cross-industry projects and the ways... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Complexity

20 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

long-time scholar of institutional change, has identified common themes among those social movements that don't merely broadcast the need for a social change, but actually create long-term impact. According... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

June 2020
Case

RBC: Transforming Transformation (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Aldo Sesia

In 2017, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a Canadian financial icon, mandated a swat team of “enablers of collaboration” (their job description) to support the personal and commercial bank in the enterprise-wide RBC Cultural Transformation initiative. Historically,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Transformation; Change Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Decision Making; Human Resources; Management Systems; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

Educators

2009
Other Unpublished Work

When Weak Ties and Social Alternatives Benefit Organizational Commitment: Evidence from Wikipedia

This study examines the social mechanisms reinforcing participant commitment to collaborative work. Previous literature largely fails to acknowledge the wider context of individual workplace commitments, or suggests that multiple concurrent work and life commitments... View Details

Keywords: Social and Collaborative Networks

22 Aug 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Investors as Stewards of the Commons?

Keywords: by George Serafeim

21 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

What's Missing from the Racial Equity Dialogue?

The Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS) welcomed scholars to Harvard Business School last year to advance their research about race, diversity, inclusion, and inequality. As the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

October 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Toni Sacconaghi at Sanford C. Bernstein

By: Linda A. Hill and Dana Teppert

Toni Sacconaghi, a senior sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein covering U.S. IT hardware companies, thinks about the challenges and opportunities presented by the firm's new office in Hong Kong. Sacconaghi was previously the only analyst covering... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research; Social and Collaborative Networks; Financial Services Industry; Hong Kong; United States

15 Aug 2018
Book

Why Entrepreneurs Must Focus on Building Trust

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 2014 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Houston We Have A Problem: NASA and Open Innovation (A)

By: Michael Tushman, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf and Kerry Herman

Jeff Davis, director of Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) at NASA, has been working for several years to raise awareness amongst scientists and researchers in his organizations of the benefits of open innovation as a successful and efficient way to collaborate on... View Details

Educators

September 2011
Article

A Cancer Center Puts the New Approach to Work: Pilot

By: Heidi W. Albright and Thomas W. Feeley

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, located in Houston, Texas. Seeing more than 30,000 new patients every year, MD Anderson accounts for approximately 20% of cancer care within the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Quality; Measurement; Costing; Accounting; Health; Quality; Health Industry; North and Central America

Article

What Really Motivates Workers

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

This essay appears in "The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2010," which is compiled by this journal in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The ten problems and the innovative solutions are discussed in each essay. This particular essay describes research... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Invention; Research; Performance Improvement; Managerial Roles; Motivation and Incentives; Creativity

19 May 2016
Research Event

Crowdsourcing, Patent Trolls, and Other Research Insights Highlighted at Harvard Business School Symposium

said. Crowdsourcing isn’t exactly new. Lakhani, who is the Principal Investigator of the Crowd Innovation Lab and NASA Tournament Lab at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, pointed out... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman & Carmen Nobel

2007
Working Paper

Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage

By: Alan MacCormack, Theodore Forbath, Peter Brooks and Patrick Kalaher

Many recent studies highlight the need to rethink the way we manage innovation. Traditional approaches, based on the assumption that the creation and pursuit of new ideas is best accomplished by a centralized and collocated R&D team, are rapidly becoming outdated.... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Research and Development; Performance Improvement; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Competency and Skills; Framework; Competitive Advantage; Global Strategy; Opportunities; Cost

Read Now

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

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

advocates from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, recently discussed the approach at a seminar hosted by the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society (BiGS). COVID-19 heightened urgency... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

September 2023
Article

The Changing Role of Managers

By: Letian Zhang

This study argues that the increase in middle management in recent decades was accompanied by a major shift in managerial roles. Increased task complexity and a new management philosophy have reduced the need for direct supervision but generated a much greater... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Change; Organizational Structure

September–October 2023
Article

Reskilling in the Age of AI

By: Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic and Raffaella Sadun

In the coming decades, as the pace of technological change continues to increase, millions of workers may need to be not just upskilled but reskilled—a profoundly complex societal challenge that will sometimes require workers to both acquire new skills and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; AI and Machine Learning; Training; Adaptation; Employees; Digital Transformation