Publications

2017
Working Paper

Digital Agility: The Impact of Software Portfolio Architecture on IT System Evolution

By: Alan MacCormack, Robert Lagerström, Martin Mocker and Carliss Y. Baldwin

The modern industrial firm increasingly relies on software to support its competitive position. However, the uncertain and dynamic nature of today’s global marketplace dictates that this software be continually evolved and adapted to meet new business challenges. This... View Details

Keywords: Information Systems; Software; Architecture; Modularity; Agility; Coupling; Applications and Software; Design; Decisions; Performance

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February 2010
Case

Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Multinational Firms and Management; Logistics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Trade; Equity; Corporate Finance; United States; Europe

June 2024
Case

Vinalhaven: The Downtown Project

By: Richard S. Ruback, Matthew Preble, Ruth Page and Dave Habeeb

Vinalhaven is an island community located approximately 12 miles off the coast of Maine. The island has a year-round population of about 1,300 people as of 2022, with an additional 3,000 people who reside on the island in the summer months. The two largest industries... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Natural Resources; Natural Environment; Weather; Sustainable Cities; Forecasting and Prediction; Construction; Property; Infrastructure; Capital Budgeting; Projects; Project Finance; Negotiation; United States; Maine

December 2010
Case

Leadership, Culture, and Transition at lululemon

By: Michael Tushman, Ruth Page and Tom Ryder

The case examines leadership and organizational change within a strong culture context through a multimedia study of lululemon, a specialty retailer of high-end athletic apparel. Video segments trace the company's history from its founding in 1998 as a single retail... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Transition; Growth Management; Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Governing and Advisory Boards; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Vancouver; United States

31 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 31, 2017

democracy as well as its resilience over time. The book adapts the case method to revitalize conversations about governance and democracy and show how the United States has often thrived on political conflict. Each of the book’s nineteen... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

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Online Leadership and Management Courses | HBS Online

Certificate Courses (10) Leadership Principles Professors Joshua Margolis & Anthony Mayo Learn to bring out the best in others by applying and adapting your leadership style and managing the conditions that drive team performance. 6... View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

That Was Then, This Is Now

It started with a question. But before that, it started in the classroom. Tony Deifell (MBA 2002) loved the discussions in his LEAD course, taught by Professor (and now former Dean) Nitin Nohria; wanting to make them more tangible, Deifell adapted the idea of... View Details

Keywords: Photographed by Tony Deifell (MBA 2002); edited by Julia Hanna. Above: Heidi Brooks, photographed in 2003 and 2023.; life experience; family; leadership

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

for years, many of whom had been working two jobs to sustain their families,” she says. “They took OneTen’s model and adapted it to address the challenges and opportunities that Delta faced.” What can other business leaders learn? To... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Browse All topics Accounting Audits (3) Accounting (119) Acquisition (20) Activity Based Costing and Management (2) Adaptation (7) Adoption (3) Advertising Campaigns (6) Advertising (77) Agency Theory (3) Age (3) Agreements and... View Details

October 2019
Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia

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Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

Globalized Markets and Industries ; Government and Politics ; AI and Machine Learning ; Innovation and Management ; Innovation Strategy ; Innovation Leadership ; Leadership Style ; Leading Change ; Management ; Product Design ; Product Development ; Organizational... View Details

Research Summary

The Game Has Changed

By: Max H. Bazerman

Many prior books on negotiation, including books co-authored by Max Bazerman, have addressed how to create and claim value in negotiation. These ideas have proliferated in business schools, where negotiation is often the most popular course. Class participants... View Details

04 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Navigating Consumer Data Privacy in an AI World

Opportunity: Customers’ Routines When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

Preference for Established Structure. Measures preference for operating in more established and structured business environments rather than a preference for building new ventures where the structure must adapt to an uncertain and rapidly... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

Research Summary

Overview

Pushing decision authority downward and increasing employee autonomy have become watchwords for the modern organization. Leaders of contemporary organizations view efforts to replace “command and control” systems with less-hierarchical approaches to organizing as... View Details

Keywords: Formalization; Teams; Decentralization; Hierarchy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Self-managing Organizations; Future Of Work; Flat Organization

Research Summary

Overview

In industries characterized by extreme dynamism, complexity, and uncertainty, formal structure often “falls behind” actual work processes. The nature of work in these environments evolves continuously while formal structure can only do so at specific times in discrete... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Organizational Identity; Identity Work; Strategy; Strategic Change; Collaboration; Cross-functional Integration; Cognition; Organizational Evolution; Organizational Alignment; Social Media

2023
Working Paper

PRIMO: Private Regression in Multiple Outcomes

By: Seth Neel

We introduce a new differentially private regression setting we call Private Regression in Multiple Outcomes (PRIMO), inspired the common situation where a data analyst wants to perform a set of l regressions while preserving privacy, where the covariates... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods