Publications

October 1989 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Managing Selling and the Salesperson

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Written for a module in the Marketing Implementation course (a second-year elective in the MBA program). Provides a brief introduction to common issues involved in recruiting, training, compensating, and evaluating field salespeople. Also offers questions to consider... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

April 1971 (Revised February 1984)
Case

Gould, Inc.: Graphics Division

Describes the decision of a battery manufacturer to diversify into the computer field through acquisition and the development of a new product. Among the issues to be discussed are the company product fit, phases in new product introduction, product positioning, and... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Acquisition; Product Development; Computer Industry; Battery Industry

07 Nov 2014
Video

Andrea de Cholnoky - Making A Difference

John Beshears

John Beshears is the Albert J. Weatherhead Jr. Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit, teaching the second-year MBA course "Negotiation." He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.... View Details

November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank

Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship

2009
Working Paper

A Decision-making Perspective to Negotiation: A Review of the Past and a Look into the Future

By: Chia-Jung Tsay and Max H. Bazerman

Through the decision-analytic approach to negotiations, the past quarter century has seen the development of a better dialog between the descriptive and the prescriptive, as well as a burgeoning interest in the field for both academics and practitioners. Researchers... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Ethics; Negotiation; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions

Read Now

01 Jan 2008
News

Honorary Doctorate, University of Geneva

25 Apr 2011
News

Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Renato Tagiuri Dead at 91

May 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

The Kashagan Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Florian Bitsch

When discovered in the 1990s, the Kashagan oil field was the second largest oil field in the world. The project sponsors (equity investors) signed a 40-year production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Kazakh government in 1997, with the expectation the field would... View Details

February 1994
Case

Project Ghost Busters (A)

Describes a field study project undertaken by four students, attacking a specific quality problem in an auto assembly plant. How should they approach this problem to reduce its frequency by 50%? How should they manage this team project to get the most out of all... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Production; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

Find at Harvard

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

Find at Harvard

Rebecca Karp is an Assistant Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches Strategy in the MBA required curriculum. Professor Karp is a field researcher and ethnographer. Her research examines how companies formulate and... View Details

21 Mar 2019
Blog Post

What I Didn't Know About HBS Faculty

yourself with are truly important to your success and development. Before coming to HBS I heard a lot about how great the professors were in their fields and that we would have a chance to learn a great deal from them and our fellow... View Details

Matter Over Mind, by David Brooks

I had a fantastic visit to the Harvard Decision Sciences Lab...and I got to meet several of the researchers there.

I got to hear Amy Cuddy of the Harvard Business School, describe her research. I... View Details

14 Jan 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Engineering Serendipity: The Role of Cognitive Similarity in Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Production

Keywords: by Jacqueline N. Lane, Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaule, Eva C. Guinan, and Karim R. Lakhani

2015
Working Paper

Bureaucratic Norms and State Capacity in India: Implementing Primary Education in the Himalayan Region

By: Akshay Mangla

Himachal Pradesh outperforms other Indian states in implementing universal primary education. Through comparative field research, this article finds that bureaucratic norms—unwritten rules that guide public officials—influence how well state agencies deliver services... View Details

Keywords: India; Norms; State Capacity; Civil Society; Policy Implementation; Education; Policy; Performance Capacity; Education Industry; Public Administration Industry; India

Read Now

October 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Garage.com (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Silicon Valley's Garage.com matches venture capital and corporate angel investors with high-tech start-ups that are looking for early stage funding. As a Web-based service, Garage.com fields inquiries from entrepreneurs and investors around the world, and is eager to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Venture Capital; Investment; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Operations; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Technological Innovation; Brands and Branding; Information Technology Industry