Publications

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Program

Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation—Virtual

sessions on innovation and organizational learning; generating evidence about an intervention's effectiveness; building a culture of performance measurement; and managing for... View Details

August 2019
Case

The Allstate Corporation, 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In July 2019, Allstate, the United States’ number-three property and casualty (P/C) insurer, released its second-quarter earnings, which reported first-half revenues of $22.1 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year. Shareholders cheered the top-line growth, but P/C premiums... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Change; Insurance; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry; North America

2011
Case

The Haidilao Company

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

Haidilao Hot Pot brings customers delightful dining experiences. Like most restaurants, its workforce is mostly composed of young employees born in underdeveloped suburban areas. Instilled with the founder's unique entrepreneurial values, they are enthused and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Customer Service; Employee Empowerment; Global Corporate Cultures; Organizational Values; Transformations; China; Restaurants; China

02 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization

Keywords: by Maria Guadalupe & Julie M. Wulf

April 2016
Teaching Note

IBM and the Reinvention of High School (C): Toward P-TECH's Rapid National Expansion

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Kelsi Stine-Rowe

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 316-130. This Teaching Note accompanies the third case in a 3-case series on P-TECH and the Reinvention of High School. The case focuses on the development and early diffusion of organizational innovation—how to create pilot projects for... View Details

Keywords: IBM; P-TECH; Stanley Litow; Robin Wilner; Cuomo; Scaling; Innovation; New York State; New York City; Business Model; Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Education; Business and Community Relations; Change; Technology Industry; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY)

April 2018
Case

Cisco Systems and OpenDNS: Strategic Integration

By: Andy Wu, George Gonzalez and David Wang

With more than 72,000 employees and revenues approaching the $50B mark, Cisco Systems is one of the largest information technology and networking firms globally. As the company grew and expanded into different lines of businesses, Cisco consistently looked outwards for... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry

May 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

U.S. in 2001, The: Macroeconomic Policy and the New Economy

By: Huw Pill

Presents four views of U.S. macroeconomic developments in the late 1990s: an HBS professor, the Federal Reserve, the Clinton administration, and President George W. Bush. Develops the implications of the new economy--technological and organizational change--for... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Economy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; United States

2016
Working Paper

Diversified Business Groups in the West: History and Theory

By: Asli M. Colpan and Takashi Hikino

This working paper examines the historical origins, evolutionary paths, and long-term resilience of diversified business groups in contemporary developed economies of Western Europe, North America, and Oceania. It aims to come up with a new theoretical understanding of... View Details

Keywords: History; Diversification; Business Divisions; Theory; Oceania; North America; Europe

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March 2001
Case

Yvette Hyater-Adams and Terry Larsen at CoreStates Financial Corp.

By: David A. Thomas, Nancie Zane PHD and Emily Heaphy

Yvette Hyater-Adams, senior VP of CoreStates Bank, and CEO Terry Larsen reflect on their five-year mentor-protege relationship. They describe how building a relationship across both race and gender was challenging and ultimately highly rewarding. Their relationship... View Details

Keywords: Race; Gender; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Management Teams; Relationships; Banking Industry

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Innovation Corrupted: The Rise and Fall of Enron (A)

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents a brief historical overview of Enron's rise, its strategic successes and failures, the evolution of its business model, and the organizational processes relied upon by Enron's management to drive and monitor the business. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Adaptation; Success; Business Model; Business History; Growth Management; Governance Controls; Innovation and Management; Failure; Business Processes; Energy Industry; United States

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Strategy and the Internet

companies were forced to adapt their ways of doing things to the software. As a result, IT has been a force for standardizing activities and speeding competitive convergence. Internet architecture, together... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter

Teaching Interest

Cities, Structures, and Climate Shocks

By: John D. Macomber

This course is about building sustainable and resilient cities, future proofing real estate and infrastructure assets, and examining how businesses and investors find opportunities in climate adaptation.

The world faces substantial challenges in the face of... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Economic Development; Climate Finance; Migration; Climate Change; Adaptation; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Insurance Industry; Banking Industry

2022
Article

Sea Level Rise and Pacific Small Island Developing States: Implications and Pathways

By: Srimayi Tenali

Sea level rise poses severe consequences for the economic stability, habitability, and existence of Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Recent legal developments have offered conflicting interpretations of the 1982 'UN Law of the Sea Convention', but under... View Details

Keywords: Natural Environment; Climate Change; Adaptation; Environmental Law; Oceania

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24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory

game. It just tells them how the score will be kept. That is the role of value maximization in organizational life. It doesn't tell us how to have a great defense or offense, or what kind of plays to create or practice, or how much to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

January 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

First to Fight? Culture, Tradition, and the United States Marine Corps (USMC)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Akhil Iyer and Joel Malkin

Over a history of more than 240 years, the United States Marine Corps has forged a distinct culture and institutional identity centered on its “warrior ethos.” In the wars of American history, Marines fought with uncommon valor, rising to international prominence for... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Government Administration; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Effectiveness; United States

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

changing aspirations. Secondly, Unilever developed strengths in the acquisition of other firms, and their subsequent "Unileverization." After the failed merger attempts of the late 1960s, Unilever... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

Research Summary

Trust

By: Sandra J. Sucher

In this research, I aim to provide a practical orientation to trust—how to build it, how it can be damaged, how it might be repaired—grounded in my experience as an executive and in the research on organizational trust and moral philosophy. As a case researcher, I... View Details

May 2012
Supplement

Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (B)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kerry Herman

Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Teams; Organizational Learning; Ambiguous Threat; Risk and Uncertainty; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Corporate Disclosure; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Public Administration Industry; Aerospace Industry

2025
Working Paper

Generative AI and the Nature of Work

By: Manuel Hoffmann, Sam Boysel, Frank Nagle, Sida Peng and Kevin Xu

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology demonstrate a considerable potential to complement human capital intensive activities. While an emerging literature documents wide-ranging productivity effects of AI, relatively little attention has been paid... View Details

Keywords: Generative Ai; Digital Work; Open Source Software; Knowledge Economy; AI and Machine Learning; Open Source Distribution; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Labor