Publications

06 Jan 2015
News

Digital Business Models Should Have to Follow the Law, Too

An Economy Doing Half Its Job

This report presents the findings of HBS' 2013-14 survey on U.S. competitiveness. While HBS alumni saw strengths in elements of the business environment that influence firms' success, the weaknesses in elements that drive prosperity for the average American indicate... View Details

June 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Background Note

Politics Comes to ESG Investing

By: Shawn Cole and Jonah Zahnd

While the past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the incorporation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards into investor practices, this momentum has shifted recently in the United States, as some politicians argued that ESG investing practices... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States

Research Summary

Mapping temporal associations among conflict, participation, and changes in teams [Dissertation, data analysis]

This dissertation paper looks at how communication patterns in teams map on to moments of conflict, participation, and changes in the teams’ power structure. I use approximately 240 hours of meeting transcripts (analyzed in STATA, displaying speaking turns by speaker... View Details

Research Summary

Relational Contracts

George Baker is exploring (with Robert Gibbons of MIT and Kevin Murphy of the USC) how relational contracts--contracts secured by reputation and trust, rather than by legal enforcement--affect the performance and boundaries of firms. Such relational contracts are... View Details

June 2019
Supplement

KaBOOM!: Play at Scale (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This (B) case describes the changes in the organization’s strategy from one of Building Playgrounds to Influencing Play. It describes the implementation of the strategy and the challenges it faced internally and externally. It goes on to describe how the organization... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Social Enterprise; Scaling Social Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Nonprofit Scaling; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; United States

December 2018
Teaching Note

Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road…but When?

By: William Kerr and James Palano

The autonomous vehicles have enormous implications for business and society. But, despite the headline-laden attention paid to the technology, there remain more questions than answers. Students will learn about the complex industry and have explicit discussions about... View Details

Keywords: Technology Management; Artificial Intelligence; General Management; Robotics; Technological Innovation; Transportation; Disruption; Information Technology; Management; Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

Research Summary

Current working papers

Organizational restructuring: the influence of formal and informal structure on tie formation. This paper considers how changes in formal structure and a key element of informal structure – the embeddedness of employee... View Details

December 2015
Article

Emotion and the Art of Negotiation: How to Use Your Feelings to Your Advantage

By: Alison Wood Brooks

Negotiations can be fraught with emotion, but it's only recently that researchers have examined how particular feelings influence what happens during deal making. Here the author shares some key findings and advice. Anxiety leads to poor outcomes. You will be less... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Style; Emotions

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Research Summary

Sleep

Most people spend about a quarter to a third of their lives sleeping. For an activity that is such a large part of our lives, we know very little about it. Dr. Bos is working together with the Center for Sleep and Cognition at the Harvard Medical School to investigate... View Details

24 Sep 2015
News

Why Do Women Think About the Downsides of Promotions More Than Men Do?

31 Oct 2014
News

Identifying the Biases Behind Your Bad Decisions

April 2018
Case

Hawk Electronics, Inc.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and John J. Lafkas

Hawk Electronics ("Hawk") presents the problems that a company can encounter when its divisions have distinct strategies, especially when one division has been favored at another's expense. It also highlights how such problems can reflect cognitive biases, which... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Resource Allocation; Strategy; Innovation and Management

Program

Creating Brand Value

curating, and managing successful brands. Details Establish brands that resonate with today's consumers Evaluate brands from the consumer's point of view to uncover their sources of value Employ effective brand storytelling Capitalize on brand View Details

October 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Pete Carroll: Building a Winning Organization through Purpose, Caring, and Inclusion

By: Ranjay Gulati, Matthew Breitfelder and Monte Burke

Competing at the highest levels of the National Football League (NFL) requires tremendous skill, dedication and persistence. The most successful coaches in the NFL know how to draw out a higher level of performance and consistency from their players. This is typically... View Details

Keywords: National Football League; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Relationships; Performance; Success; Sports; Sports Industry

September 2008 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Pat Fili-Krushel, CEO and president of WebMD and past president of ABC Network, contemplates accepting Richard Parson's offer to become the first executive vice president of administration at AOL Time Warner. Accepting this position would be a move back into mainstream... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Job Offer; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Tactics; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Media and Broadcasting Industry

July 2010
Other Article

Clusters and Entrepreneurship

By: Mercedes Delgado, Michael E. Porter and Scott Stern

This article examines the role of regional clusters in regional entrepreneurship. We focus on the distinct influences of convergence and agglomeration on growth in the number of start-up firms as well as in employment in these new firms in a given region-industry.... View Details

Keywords: Economics

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2000
Article

The Consequences of Customization on the Use of Management Accounting Systems

By: J. Bouwens and Margaret A. Abernethy

The understanding of the antecedent conditions influencing the design of management accounting systems (MASs) is very limited. In recent years, significant research attention has been devoted to understanding how different strategic priorities influence these systems.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Systems; Accounting; Customization and Personalization

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2009
Working Paper

The Impact of Private Equity Ownership on Portfolio Firms' Corporate Tax Planning

By: Brad Badertscher, Sharon P. Katz and Sonja Olhoft Rego

This study investigates whether private equity (PE) firms influence the tax practices of their portfolio firms. Prior research documents that PE firms create economic value in portfolio firms through effective governance, financial, and operational engineering. Given... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Taxation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation