Publications

12 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager

before—coordinating all the top minds in the top office. "CEOs are spending more and more time with their direct reports, in larger and longer meetings," says Julie M. Wulf, an associate professor of strategy at Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Handgun Waiting Periods Prevent Hundreds of Homicides Each Year

in the United States between 1970 and 2014. Forty-four states, including the District of Columbia, had a waiting period policy at some point during these 45 years. And these states saw a 17 percent reduction... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Developing a New Model

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

Bridj, a Boston startup that provides Big Data-powered, "pop-up" bus routes that respond to transportation demand, has been in operation for a little over a year and has recently launched service in Washington, D.C., its second market. Despite media acclaim and... View Details

July 2021
Article

Invisible Inequality Leads to Punishing the Poor and Rewarding the Rich

By: Oliver P. Hauser, Gordon T. Kraft-Todd, David Rand, Martin A. Nowak and Michael I. Norton

Four experiments examine how the lack of awareness of inequality affects behaviour towards the rich and poor. In Experiment 1, participants who became aware that wealthy individuals donated a smaller percentage of their income switched from rewarding the wealthy to... View Details

Keywords: Income Transparency; Income; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Knowledge; Behavior; Outcome or Result; Society; Policy

2021
Working Paper

Who Closed the Schools?

By: Joshua D. Coval

This paper examines the differences in characteristics between U.S. public schools that opted for virtual instruction because of COVID-19, and schools that did not. Much of the variation can be explained by measures of the degree to which districts favored teachers... View Details

Keywords: Public Education; COVID-19; Virtual Learning; Education; Health Pandemics; Teaching; Internet and the Web; Policy; Outcome or Result; United States

Read Now

29 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

The Story of Why Humans Are So Careless With Their Phones

Silvia Bellezza is an assistant professor of marketing at Columbia Business School. Joshua M. Ackerman is an assistant professor of psychology at University View Details

Keywords: by Josh Neufeld; Consumer Products; Retail

23 Jul 2024
In Practice

The New Rules of Trade with China: Navigating Tariffs, Turmoil, and Opportunities

upending longstanding principles of free trade established when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Today, multinational firms must adapt, both in terms of trade and doing business within... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Manufacturing; Retail; Fashion; Industrial Products; Consumer Products; Steel; Transportation; Telecommunications

01 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making

beliefs that foam strikes incurred during the launch of the space shuttle Columbia posed no risk to its fuselage. This propensity to maintain silence, a flaw at once personal and organizational, is... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

Find at Harvard

03 Jan 2018
What Do You Think?

In the Wake of #MeToo, Should Corporate Boards Hire Compliance Officers?

the case in the province of British Columbia in Canada." Lydia asked, "Wouldn't a more positive answer be to attract, hire, & pay equitably & fairly, the many senior qualified women... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

Highways and Spatial Location within Cities: Evidence from India

By: Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R. Kerr

We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the spatial organization and efficiency of manufacturing activity. The GQ project upgraded the quality and width of 3,633 miles of road in India. We use a difference-in-difference estimation... View Details

Keywords: Infrastructure; Transportation; India

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October 2023
Case

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: A Curriculum Provider Puts Itself on the Hook for Student Outcomes

By: John J-H Kim, Derek C. M. van Bever, Michael Norris and Max Hancock

Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) since 2017, was leading the company’s transformation from a legacy textbook publisher to a digital-first student outcomes provider, which earned subscription revenue from digital products and curriculum. In 2023, HMH... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Textbook; Publishing; Leading Change; Change Management; Transformation; Digital Transformation; Expansion; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry; Education Industry; United States

May 2012
Case

Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kerry Herman

This case documents decision-making processes, organizational culture, and other contributors to NASA's failed Columbia mission in 2003. Addresses the question of how organizations should deal with "ambiguous threats" - weak signals of potential crisis - and explores... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Biases; Teams; Organizational Learning; Ambiguous Threat; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Failure; Crisis Management; Aerospace Industry

16 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

Researchers Use Google Street View to See the Future of Cities

pattern, with neighborhoods situated near physically attractive areas tending to become physically attractive themselves. It also found that neighborhoods closer to downtown business districts improved—a relatively new version View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Real Estate

29 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India's GQ Highway Network

Keywords: by Abhiman Das, Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover, William R. Kerr, and Ramana Nanda

June 2003
Case

Booker T. Washington High School

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

For over a decade, Principal Elsie Bailey has led a turnaround of this inner-city high school in Memphis. Although she's made progress, some problems have arisen for this "school of last resort" that deals with some of the more difficult student populations, and... View Details

Keywords: Secondary Education; Social Issues; Social Psychology; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Education Industry; Tennessee

January 2017 (Revised April 2017)
Supplement

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (B): A New Model in Kansas City

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

In late 2016, Bridj was expanding its digital platform to help address urban mobility problems faced by cities across the country and the world. Its founder and CEO, Matt George, weighed up several possible strategies for growth as he aimed to responsibly build the... View Details