Publications

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September 2004 (Revised November 2012)
Module Note

Module I: Moral Challenge Class Summaries

By: Sandra J. Sucher

What is a moral challenge? Explores four main types of moral challenge: the challenge of survival, the conflict between "two rights," a moral dilemma—or situation in which it is impossible to satisfy conflicting moral obligations and commitments—and the challenge of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Conflict of Interests

January 22, 2020
Article

Making Honest Conversations the Norm

By: Michael Beer

Much admired companies like Boeing and Wells Fargo sacrifice their competitive advantage. Some make huge ethical blunders. As a result, shareholders suffer huge losses in value while employees, customers, and society lose trust and confidence in the institution. Based... View Details

Keywords: Honesty; Interpersonal Communication; Framework; Organizational Culture; Trust; Performance Effectiveness

March 2002
Background Note

Forget Me Not

Aphorisms intended to remind managers of some simple but easily forgotten truths about people behavior, learning, thinking, communication, change, and relationships. A list of well known verities that need constant reminder. View Details

Keywords: Management; Social Psychology

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03 Nov 2003
What Do You Think?

Can Investors Have Too Much Accounting Transparency?

who wrote, "... legislative and regulatory response treats the symptoms (means) rather than the disease (motivation). Transparency is only as successful as the least creative obscurantist." He recommends, among other things,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

29 Mar 2019
Blog Post

My Concerns About Learning Accounting at HBS

first day at HBS. My name is Melanie Sperling and I am a first-year student here at HBS. Before attending school, I worked for four years at the One Love Foundation – America’s leader in health relationship education - View Details

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

physicians’ behavior and medical costs. This paper examines whether these reforms also affect incentives to develop new technologies. We find that, on average, laws that limit the liability exposure of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 28, 2018
Article

How Intermittent Breaks in Interaction Improve Collective Intelligence

By: Ethan Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer

People influence each other when they interact to solve problems. Such social influence introduces both benefits (higher average solution quality due to exploitation of existing answers through social learning) and costs (lower maximum solution quality due to a... View Details

July 1982 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Esmark, Inc. (B)

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Esmark's management sells its most valuable business and its most unattractive business in an effort to reposition itself and maximize shareholder value. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Product Positioning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Reputation; Value

Educators

April 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Monster Networking

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and David Andrew Vivero

The management at Monster.com, the leading U.S. provider of online recruitment services, must decide how to proceed with Monster Networking (MN), a new business launched in late 2003. MN helps users identify other individuals who can offer career advice. Monster.com... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Social and Collaborative Networks; Recruitment; Service Industry; Employment Industry; United States

Educators

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 3: Expanding Diversity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the third 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; Business Processes; Projects; Risk and Uncertainty; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Opportunities; Perspective; Expansion; Goals and Objectives

2009
Chapter

Creating Superior Customer Value in a Connected World

By: Ranjay Gulati

"In the early twenty-first century, customers are more demanding than ever, and difficult economic times make them all the more so. As customers tighten their wallets and increase their demands, firms face greater pressure to provide superior customer value. Reducing... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Product Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value Creation

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Board’s Effectiveness

and monitor the CEO, scrutinize the performance of the company's leadership team, oversee financial reporting and disclosure, and ensure compliance with View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

May 2012
Article

Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices with Incentives for Truth-telling

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Drazen Prelec

Cases of clear scientific misconduct have received significant media attention recently, but less flagrant transgressions of research norms may be more prevalent and in the long run more damaging to the academic enterprise. We surveyed over 2,000 psychologists about... View Details

Keywords: Research; Practice; Motivation and Incentives; Surveys; Values and Beliefs; Measurement and Metrics

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November 2003 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Leading the Josie Esquivel Franchise (A)

By: Boris Groysberg and Laura Morgan Roberts

Reviews Josie Esquivel's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, and organizational practices she has developed into a star analyst. Should Esquivel accept an offer to leave Lehman Brothers for Morgan Stanley? To make this... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Job Offer; Franchise Ownership; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

Educators

2019
Article

Big Data

By: John A. Deighton

Big data is defined and distinguished from a mere moment in the “ancient quest to measure.” Specific discontinuities in the practice of information science are identified that, the paper argues, have large consequences for the social order. The infrastructure that runs... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Digital Infrastructure; Privacy; Algorithm; Data Generators; Marketplace Icon; Analytics and Data Science; Infrastructure; Power and Influence; Society

01 Oct 1999
News

Eight Among Many: Antoinette J. ("Toni") Rapone

Behavioral ecologist Toni Rapone knows that natural selection is the law of the planet. But for the vibrant and down-to-earth MBA-cum-scientist, that knowledge comes from more than textbooks. Rapone, whose... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

Summing Up Why do managers choose to pursue profit so directly? The word "profit" in this month's column provoked a wide range of issues and emotions among respondents. It set off several debates. They ranged from definitions of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

2011
Working Paper

Matthew: Effect or Fable?

In a market context, a status effect occurs when actors are accorded differential recognition for their efforts depending on their location in a status ordering, holding constant the quality of these efforts. In practice, because it is very difficult to measure... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Status and Position; Measurement and Metrics; Quality