Publications

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July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (A)

By: Nour Kteily, Deepak Malhotra and David Lane

As founders of the software company Basecamp, Jason Fried and David H. Hansson were used to being the subjects of social media attention. Both maintained active and dedicated Twitter followings for their unique perspectives on management and life. But on April 26,... View Details

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use ten years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed over 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

are being caused by rapid technological changes on the one hand and tectonic shifts in customer preferences and societal behaviour on the other. Marketing knowledge and practices have to advance at a significantly higher pace to address... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

As CEO of Caribu, Tuchman set about to expand its online library of books and games and became one of the few Latina founders with a technology-based growth company. Miami native Felecia Hatcher held corporate jobs in technology until the... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

March 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

CEO Activism (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Aaron K. Chatterji and Julia Kelley

This case introduces CEO activism, a phenomenon in which business leaders engage in political or social issues that do not relate directly to their companies. The case uses several examples to describe why business leaders are engaging in CEO activism and the potential... View Details

24 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Open Source Software

Commonly used free and open source software (FOSS) is one of the most significant technological trends of the decade. After all, 80-90 percent of a typical application contains FOSS components. And that trend is only increasing with its... View Details

Keywords: by Frank Nagle and Jenny Hoffman; Computer

September 2015
Case

GovDelivery

By: Mitchell Weiss

Is government the biggest, worst customer in the world? And is that a reason for venture investors to back companies that sell to government or to stay away? It had been seven years since Scott Burns joined his friend Zach Stabenow to get a company called GovDocs off... View Details

Keywords: GovDelivery; Public Entrepreneurship; B2G; Business-to-Government; Scott Burns; Entrepreneurship; Government Administration; Venture Capital; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Minnesota; United States

02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

listen and communicate poorly, make cross-cultural gaffes, fail to respond effectively to hardball styles, and so on. One of the most common tactical errors arises when people become fixated on their bargaining "positions"... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

motivates employees to execute strategy effectively. The value of these programs is measured by the value they create in the enterprise, not by how little is spent on them. An adequate technology infrastructure and standard transaction... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Technical Note

Algorithmic Bias in Marketing

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza

This note focuses on algorithmic bias in marketing. First, it presents a variety of marketing examples in which algorithmic bias may occur. The examples are organized around the 4 P’s of marketing – promotion, price, place and product—characterizing the marketing... View Details

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

acquired 62 companies, as it races to dominate the Internet server and communication equipment fields. From the target company's point of view, an acquisition is often desirable, since it takes a massive amount of money to build a... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

June 2014
Case

Going Social: Durex in China

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Aaron Smith

When Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a leading consumer goods company, first entered China, it encountered significant challenges. RB's strategy relied on selling high margin products supported by cost-effective advertising and distribution, but the highly competitive Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Multinational Firms and Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; China

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers

Healthcare Initiative, with broad community support, with cooperation from the Centers for Disease Control, and with backing from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Also, we've been testing these ideas with our students: Kent in the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

2008
Working Paper

Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis

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

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Information Technology Industry