Fundamentals - Publications - Faculty & Research

2015
Article

The Corporate Headquarters in the Contemporary Corporation: Advancing a Multimarket Firm Perspective

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch and David J. Collis

The corporate headquarters (CHQ) is the central organizational unit in the contemporary corporation and is critical for value creation in the overall firm. Since the early 1960s, a significant body of research on the CHQ has evolved along two separate but related... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Headquarters; Corporate Center; Corporate Parent; Corporate Strategy; Multimarket Firm; Multibusiness Firm; Multinational Corporation; Management; Organizations; Strategy

Seeking and giving advice are central to effective leadership and decision making, and they require emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and patience on both sides. But managers tend to view these competencies as “gifts” that one either has... View Details

31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

challenger mindset and willingness to disrupt Digitally mature companies encourage employees to challenge the status quo—even if this means fundamentally rethinking the core business. Everyone in the organization is responsible for... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

Web

Asia Pacific - Global

largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his letter, the activist investor criticized the firm’s strategy, leadership, and financial performance. In fact, he was calling for fundamental... View Details

11 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

When Parents Tell Kids to ‘Work Hard,’ Do They Send the Wrong Message?

inequality is due to lack of effort are less likely to rectify that inequality. "Our studies show that the way parents explain why some people have more than others in society can fundamentally shift what their kids believe." These... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

28 May 2024
In Practice

Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

demand. “When openings are so scarce, remember that there are a huge array of consulting firms with different strengths and specialties.” Given these challenges, students hoping to go into consulting need to fundamentally rethink their... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

The Toyota Production System: Rules for Activity, Connection, and Pathway Design and Improvement

Researchers have established that Toyota enjoys advantages in cost, quality, lead time, and flexibility when compared to its competitors in automobile assembly. Differences in generating value have been attributed to differences between the Toyota Production System... View Details

16 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Governing Misvalued Firms

Keywords: by Dalida Kadyrzhanova & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

01 Oct 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Choosing Passion: A Founder’s Mission to Meet a Need for Obesity Care

Keywords: Re: Jon M. Jachimowicz; Health

July–August 2016
Article

How to Pay for Health Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan

The United States stands at a crossroads in how to pay for health care. Fee for service, the dominant model in the United States and many other countries, is now widely recognized as perhaps the biggest obstacle to improving health care delivery. A battle is currently... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Finance; Health Industry; United States

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June 2015
Article

The Organization of Enterprise in Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Recent research reveals that the joint stock corporation was not a superior form of business organization in many countries historically. In Japan, however, it played a more fundamental role. Between 1896 and 1939 joint stock enterprises accounted for 44 percent of... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Legal Form; Enterprise; Modernization; Business Organization; Entrepreneurship; Japan

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October 2014
Article

Hidden Structure: Using Network Methods to Map System Architecture

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Alan MacCormack and John Rusnak

In this paper, we describe an operational methodology for characterizing the architecture of complex technical systems and demonstrate its application to a large sample of software releases. Our methodology is based upon directed network graphs, which allows us to... View Details

Keywords: Architecture; Modularity; Dominant Designs; Complexity; Product Design; Software

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November – December 2011
Article

Explaining Influence Rents: The Case for an Institutions-Based View of Strategy

By: Gautam Ahuja and Sai Yayavaram

Research in strategy has identified and tried to explain four types of rents: monopolistic rents, efficiency rents, quasi rents, and Schumpeterian rents. Building on previous work on political and institutional strategies, we add a fifth type of rent: influence rents.... View Details

Keywords: Institutions; Influence Rents; Generic Strategies; Strategy; Organizations; Renting or Rental; Economics

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07 Sep 2017
HBS Seminar

Martin Dimitrov, Tulane

Innovation and Design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

At the heart of any innovation process lies a fundamental practice: the way people create ideas and solve problems. This “decision making” side of innovation is what scholars and practitioners refer to as “design.” Decisions in innovation processes have so far been... View Details

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

their tactics to try something new. The strategies that incentivize early users to join are fundamentally different from those required to scale up the platform. The hardest decision faced by any growing startup is when to abandon the... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Andrei Shleifer SEP 2021 The financial crisis of 2007–2008 has revived academic interest in price bubbles. The authors introduce diagnostic expectations into a standard setting of price formation in which investors learn about the View Details

27 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Religion in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know

to be clear from a brand perspective about the profile they’re putting forward in terms of whom they hire,” van Bever says. “But employers need to understand that where that runs into trouble is when their business prerogative conflicts with a person’s View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage; Apparel & Accessories

06 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

The Truth About Authentic Leaders

teammates" While these writings have garnered plenty of press attention, their critiques of authentic leaders reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of authenticity. Webster defines authenticity as “real or genuine; not copied or... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

December 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Lorin A. Fries

Corporate Head of Agriculture Hans Jöhr's mind raced in anticipation of the executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural... View Details