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Research Summary

Current Research

Professor Gardner’s research investigates two primary research questions, both particularly relevant to the management of professional service firms: (1) How are project teams able to most effectively use their members’ expertise in order... View Details

25 Nov 2019
News

Navigating Conflict

Rebecca A. Karp

Rebecca Karp is an Assistant Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches Strategy in the MBA required curriculum. Professor Karp is a field researcher and ethnographer. Her research examines how companies formulate and... View Details

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

What’s Law Got to Do with It: A Systems Approach to Management

Keywords: by Constance E. Bagley; Legal Services

October 2014 (Revised January 2016)
Case

IDEO: Human-Centered Service Design

By: Ryan W. Buell and Andrew Otazo

The case describes IDEO, one of the world's leading design firms, and its human-centered innovation culture and processes. It is an example of what managers can do to make their own organizations more innovative. In reaction to a rapidly changing competitive landscape,... View Details

Keywords: Design Thinking; Innovation; Service Management; Service; Design; Service Delivery; Innovation and Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Peru

26 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Emily Truelove, MIT Sloan School of Management

September 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Mod IV Product Development Team

By: Anne Donnellon and Joshua D. Margolis

Focuses sharply on a crossfunctional product development team at Honeywell's Building Controls Division. Traces the history of teams at the division, which introduced them as a response to intensifying competition and the need for faster development. Reveals the... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Teams; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Competitive Strategy

2024
Report

The Economic Benefits of a Public Sector Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (nMSME) Grading Agency: Evidence from Nigeria

By: Saveshen Pillay, Zaakirah Ismail, Anywhere Sikochi and Charles Odii

This is a summary of our working paper exploring the possibility of creating a public sector small and medium enterprise (SME) grading system in Emerging Markets. Using research and insights from ongoing work with the Nigerian government, the first country in Africa to... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Public Sector; Emerging Markets; Small Business; Africa; Nigeria

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November 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

In January 2009, when Paul Polman was appointed CEO of Unilever, he inherited a company in long-term decline at the beginning of a major global financial crisis. As the first outsider ever recruited to lead the company, Polman lost little time in challenging the... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry

15 Mar 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Initiating Divergent Organizational Change: The Enabling Role of Actors’ Social Position

Keywords: by Julie Battilana

15 Jun 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Slack Time and Innovation

Keywords: by Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini, Avi Goldfarb, and Hong Luo

16 Sep 2012
News

'Green' warrior says doing nothing has a cost, too

August 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Accounting for Nuclear Power Provisions at RWE

By: Paul Healy and Jonas Heese

In early 2016, RWE, a utility that operates nuclear power plants in Germany, came under scrutiny from regulators and the media over the adequacy of its provisions for costs of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) its nuclear power plants. Accounting standards required... View Details

Keywords: Liabilities; Provisions For Long-term Obligations; Discounting; Accounting; Energy Generation; Energy Industry; Germany

2024
Working Paper

Why Has Construction Productivity Stagnated? The Role of Land-Use Regulation

By: Leonardo D’Amico, Edward Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, William Kerr and Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto

We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then plummeted after 1970. The productivity boom from 1940 to 1970 shows... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Performance Productivity; Local Range; Construction Industry

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Benjamin Esty is the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses ranging from advanced corporate finance and project finance to competitive strategy and leadership. He... View Details

Keywords: banking; asset management; investment banking industry; consumer products; shipping; wine; financial services

November–December 2018
Article

Slack Time and Innovation

By: Ajay Agrawal, Christian Catalini, Avi Goldfarb and Hong Luo

Traditional innovation models assume that new ideas are developed up to the point where the benefit of the marginal project is just equal to the cost. Because labor is a key input to innovation when the opportunity cost of time is lower, such as during school breaks or... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding; Slack Time; Innovation and Invention; Labor; Projects; Complexity; Value

Find at Harvard

January 2013
Supplement

Cabot Corporation: The Fuel Cell Decision (B)

By: Willy Shih and Ying Zhou

Managers at Cabot Corporation are faced with deciding the future of its fuel cell program. The (A) case recounts the view of the business manager and the technical project lead, and the (B) case describes the perspective of a senior manager who is the head of the New... View Details

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

suggests new research based on an international competition to design a NASA robot. "When experts have a been-there-done-that mindset, potential breakthroughs may hit the discard pile before companies can evaluate them in full." Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

July 2003 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Singapore Airlines: Customer Service Innovation

By: Rohit Deshpande and Hal Hogan

The members of Singapore Airlines' (SIA) management committee needs to decide whether to cancel the implementation of the new lie-flat seats in business class after the effects of the global recession on the travel industry in September 2001. SIA was considered the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Air Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Singapore