Publications

March 2020
Article

Organizing Knowledge Production Teams Within Firms for Innovation

By: Vikas A. Aggarwal, David H. Hsu and Andy Wu

How should firms organize their pool of inventive human capital for firm-level innovation? While access to diverse knowledge may aid knowledge recombination, which can facilitate innovation, prior literature has focused primarily on one way of achieving that: diversity... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Recombination; Organization Design; Team Boundary; Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Human Capital; Organizational Design

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Program

Driving Corporate Performance

organizational structures and systems, talent management, and performance measurement, this corporate performance management program improves your ability to actively improve performance, create value, and... View Details

29 Jul 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Learning from the Kursk Submarine Rescue Failure: The Case for Pluralistic Risk Management

Keywords: by Anette Mikes & Amram Migdal

Don't Just Survive - Thrive: Leading Innovations in Good Times and Bad

Battered by contracting markets and frozen credit, many businesses today are fighting for survival. Indeed, the current global financial crisis provides a mandate for restructuring. But survival is not the end goal. In fact, cost cutting and restructuring are simply... View Details

Program

Disruptive Innovation

success. This program is eligible for the Certificate of Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits Examining disruption and strategic decision-making through the lens of Christensen's transformative theory, you will gain a deeper understanding of the levers that... View Details

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

dysfunction had been tracked. Key factors for integrating outcomes measurement into the clinical workflow include ongoing communication between cross-functional teams composed of clinicians and technical professionals, an iterative design process, View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 1991 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances

By: Lynda M. Applegate

In January 1988, Colby Chandler, Kodak CEO, created the Corporate Information Systems (CIS) and appointed Katherine Hudson head. She at once became the first head of IT and first woman corporate vice president in the company. Throughout 1989, Hudson inaugurated a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Partners and Partnerships; Organizational Structure; Success; Trends; Information Management; Service Operations; Manufacturing Industry

March 2020
Case

ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?

By: Willy C. Shih

How should ZEISS, the German manufacturer of precision optical and optoelectronic systems manage two historic businesses that operated fairly autonomously? The Industrial Quality Solutions (IQS) business sold measurement equipment to manufacturing companies in sectors... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; Europe; Germany

March–April 2021
Article

Network-biased Technical Change: How Information Management Tools Overcome Some Biases but Exacerbate Others.

By: Gerald C. Kane and Lynn Wu

Organizations have long sought to improve employee performance by managing knowledge more effectively. In this paper, we test whether the adoption of digital tools for expertise search and access within an organization, often referred to as a support to an... View Details

Keywords: Digital Tools; Social Media; Social Networks; Transactive Memory Systems; Augmented Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Technology Adoption; Knowledge Management; Performance Improvement; Power and Influence; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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June 1985 (Revised April 1989)
Case

Benetton (B)

By: James L. Heskett

The managing director of Benetton is faced with several issues concerning the adequacy of the company's organization to capitalize on the early success it has achieved in an important foreign market, the United States. Specifically, the case raises questions about... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Success; Business Headquarters; Business Subsidiaries; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; United States; Italy

20 Dec 2016
First Look

December 20, 2016

forthcoming Research in Organizational Behavior The Dynamic Componential Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations: Making Progress, Making Meaning By: Amabile, Teresa M., and Michael G. Pratt Abstract—Leveraging insights gained... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Rakesh Khurana

Rakesh Khurana is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School. He is also Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, co-Master of Cabot House at Harvard College, and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College.

Professor... View Details

Keywords: executive search

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Property Finder's Strategy for Online Classifieds in the MENA Region

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Gamze Yucaoglu and Fares Khrais

The case opens in 2020 as Michael Lahyani, founder and CEO of Property Finder, Dubai’s leading online real estate classifieds portal, contemplates the company’s five-year growth strategy.
Since its founding in 2005 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Property... View Details

Keywords: General Business; Real Estate; Entrepreneurship; Property; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Growth Management; Online Technology; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Egypt; Turkey

Together with Prof. Daniel F. Spulber (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University), I edit the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy (JEMS), the leading academic journal on the economics of strategy. JEMS is based at Harvard Business... View Details

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 4: Sensing Opportunity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the fourth module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Perspective; Value Creation; Networks; Alignment

24 Jun 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Don’t Just Survive—Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate & J. Bruce Harreld

July 2013 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation

By: Willy Shih and Chen-Fu Chien

Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation has a horizontal firm structure in an industry that is predominantly organized vertically. While it has been successful in up markets, in the current down market its strategic rationale was being tested. As a capital-intensive... View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

October 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (A) and (B) Condensed

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States

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September 1993
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (B)

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States