Publications

May 2011
Article

The Wise Leader

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Leadership Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

12 Jan 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Leadership Lessons from a Young Martin Luther King, Jr.

might follow in his footsteps. Kenny: Of course, we know he didn't do all of this alone. Coretta Scott King was a hugely important influence on him. What made them such a good team, and I wonder could he have been as successful without... View Details

Program

Leadership for Senior Executives

Summary Uncertainty and change are relentless challenges for today's leaders. Between expanding globalization, rapid technological shifts, and evolving social norms, how can leaders make the right strategic decisions and leadership... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Racial Inequality in Organizations: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

By: Sanaz Mobasseri, William Kahn and Robin Ely

This paper uses systems psychodynamic concepts to develop a theory about the persistence of racial inequality in U.S. companies, treating White men as the dominant group and Black people as an illustrative subordinate group. We theorize that this persistence is rooted... View Details

Keywords: Systems Psychodynamics; Organizational Inequality; Masculinity; Equality and Inequality; Race; Gender; Identity; Power and Influence

September 2018
Article

Aggregation of Consumer Ratings: An Application to Yelp.com

By: Weijia Dai, Ginger Jin, Jungmin Lee and Michael Luca

Because consumer reviews leverage the wisdom of the crowd, the way in which they are aggregated is a central decision faced by platforms. We explore this "rating aggregation problem" and offer a structural approach to solving it, allowing for (1) reviewers to vary in... View Details

Keywords: User Generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Yelp; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information; Internet and the Web; Learning; Mathematical Methods; E-commerce

06 May 2024
Research & Ideas

The Critical Minutes After a Virtual Meeting That Can Build Up or Tear Down Teams

but if the person aligns themselves with only one side, be careful, as that may sharpen the conflict.” In future research, Perlow plans to examine how the backstage influences behavior at companies with hybrid working arrangements, where... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

Marketing: What Works? Purchase decisions are influenced differently in social networks than in the brick-and-mortar world, says Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta. The key: Marketers should tap... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

October 2023
Case

Kevin O'Leary: Building a Brand in Shark-infested Waters

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

For more than fifteen years, successful Canadian entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary had developed his brand into a global powerhouse. Since his first appearance on the Canadian television program Dragons’ Den in 2006 and his meteoric rise to stardom through the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Brand; Crisis; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Social Media; Public Opinion; Power and Influence; Financial Services Industry

Educators

2022
Book

Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from Antiquity to the Present

By: Tarun Khanna and Michael Szonyi

How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These are not new concerns. Scholars, educators, and political and economic... View Details

Keywords: Merit; Meritocracy; Society; Government and Politics; History; Power and Influence; Leadership; Competency and Skills; China; India

February 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

James Madison, the 'Federal Negative,' and the Making of the U.S. Constitution

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

On June 8th, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, delegates from across the United States began discussing a curious proposal to expand federal power over the states. James Madison of Virginia had suggested that the new constitution include a... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Law; Government and Politics; Power and Influence; History; South Carolina; Philadelphia; United States

Educators

May 1990 (Revised April 1995)
Teaching Note

Karen Green, Teaching Note

By: Linda A. Hill

The video depicts Karen Green, a manager in her early thirties, on a company retreat. She is being considered for a project manager position, a promotion she does not receive. During the retreat, the circumstances that influenced the decision become evident. The... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Power and Influence

Article

Reputation When Threats and Transfers Are Available

By: Ernesto Dal Bo, Pedro Dal Bo and Rafael Di Tella

We present a model where a long-run player is allowed to use both money transfers and threats to influence the decisions of a sequence of short-run players. We show that threats might be used credibly (even in arbitrarily short repeated games) by a long-lived player... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decision Choices and Conditions; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods; Interests; Power and Influence; Reputation

Article

Shadow of the Contract: How Contract Structure Shapes Inter-Firm Dispute Resolution

By: Fabrice Lumineau and Deepak Malhotra

This paper investigates how contract structure influences inter-firm dispute resolution processes and outcomes by examining a unique dataset consisting of over 150,000 pages of documents relating to 102 business disputes. We find that the level of contractual detail... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Contracts; Rights; Negotiation; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

September 1994
Case

Bob Fifer

By: David A. Thomas and Doug Cohen

Explores the life and concerns of Bob Fifer, HBS class of 1979 and CEO of Kaiser Associates. Explores the many influences on Bob's development and his subsequent career choices. It is written as a biography with extensive quotes from interviews with Bob. He describes... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Identity; Leadership Style; Ethnicity; Management Teams

Educators