Publications

December 2018 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Creating the French Behavioral Insights Team

By: Michael Luca, Ariella Kristal and Emilie Billaud

This case explores how neuroscientist Mariam Chammat helped set up the first behavioral insights team at the center of the French government, and encouraged French administrations to innovate and create policy initiatives based on psychological theories of influence... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Negotiation; Decision Making; Economics; Taxation; Entrepreneurship; Consumer Behavior; Public Administration Industry; Europe; France; Paris

03 Nov 2011
What Do You Think?

The Ultimate Question in Management

more important: 'Why?'" So is the ultimate question really "Why?"? What do you think? Original Article The publication this month of The Ultimate Question 2.0 (revised from an earlier edition) provides us with an... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2019
Case

Data.gov (Abridged)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Robert D. Austin and Yumi Yi

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Management; Information Management; Public Administration Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

January 2011
Supplement

Matrix Capital Management (B)

By: Malcolm P. Baker and David Lane

Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale... View Details

Keywords: Public Ownership; Cash Flow; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Valuation; Partners and Partnerships; Markets; Performance Efficiency; Patents; Stock Shares; Decisions; Financial Services Industry

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

more than 14 million Google results). But the initial characterization of this concept in Getting to Yes (Fisher, Ury, and Patton 1991) as well as many later interpretations can be problematic, limiting, and even misleading in several... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Mondavi Winery

Examines Mondavi Winery's struggle to communicate its value proposition to the market following an apparently successful IPO. The Mondavi Winery had a strong reputation for innovation in the wine industry and had undertaken an IPO to secure the funding needed to... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Initial Public Offering; Innovation and Management; Communication Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

24 Jul 2013
Op-Ed

Detroit Files for Bankruptcy: HBS Faculty Weigh In

successful, the economic engine runs backwards, and we become poorer, less educated, suffer from worse pollution, get sicker, and are miserable. We get Detroit. The demise of Detroit was easy to see and hard to address. Consider the causes: Decline of a major industry,... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber, Robert C. Pozen, Eric D. Werker & Benjamin Kennedy; Auto

19 Jan 2021
In Practice

Leadership Advice for Biden: Restore a Sense of Calm

missed this opportunity in the aftermath of the financial crisis, let’s hope that we will not miss this opportunity this time around. Julie Battilana (@julie_battilana) is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at HBS and founder of the Social... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

Keywords: by Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton & Elizabeth W. Dunn

2018
Book

Business and the Natural Environment: A Research Overview

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and Susse Georg

The fields of corporate environmentalism, green business and corporate sustainability have grown significantly over the past twenty-five years, such that the academic research domains of business decision-making, accounting, organizational behaviour, and the protection... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Regulation; Research

Find at Harvard

08 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

How Newspaper Closures Open the Door to Corporate Crime

Some may shrug at the inevitable passing of the local newspaper, writing it off as a dinosaur that doesn’t have much to offer in our modern world of blogs, social media sites, and streamed soundbites. But no news is not necessarily good... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

20 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Gender-Diverse Companies Thrive Only Where Diversity is Embraced

usual methodology of studying organizations in a particular industry or geography, Zhang went wide and deep. He developed a longitudinal sample of 1,069 leading public firms in 35 countries and 24 industries. His chief finding: The social... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

How Numbers Talk to People

Thomas H. Davenport and Jinho Kim offer an introduction to the best methods for consuming data. In this excerpt, Davenport and Kim discuss multiple ways to tell a story with data, "the best way to communicate results to nonanalytical... View Details

19 May 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

any initiative to empower the poor and the equally critical importance of available credit to allow poorer families to invest in their future. Despite the plethora of education-related activities and the rapidly growing success stories in... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Financial Services

2020
Discussion Paper

Acting Now While Preparing for Tomorrow: Competitiveness Upgrading Under the Shadow of COVID-19

By: Christian H.M. Ketels and Peter Clinch

This paper aims to provide policy makers, especially those focused on the longer-term growth potential of their countries, with an initial framework to think about their action priorities in the context of the overall COVID-19 response. Our focus is on the... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; COVID-19 Pandemic; Competition; Government Administration; Health Pandemics; Economy; Supply Chain; Safety

Read Now

July 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Sycamore Networks

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Daniel J. Green

Founders Desh Deshpande and Dan Smith reflect on Sycamore's sales strategies and consider how going public might affect the morale of its key employees. In the optical networking sector, technological change and exploding demand has created a market for talent in which... View Details

Keywords: Applied Optics; Entrepreneurship; Sales; Business Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Retention; Employees; Communication Technology; Technological Innovation; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

What Great American Leaders Teach Us

a small subset of the database available to the public on the Leadership Initiative Web site, the full database is available to other scholars interested in studying the business leadership landscape. There... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

20 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

businesses often have less than 20 days’ worth. While forecasts vary, many public health experts don’t expect the coronavirus outbreak to subside for at least eight weeks, assuming that social distancing and other mitigation efforts can... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Service; Food & Beverage

July–August 2016
Article

How to Pay for Health Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan

The United States stands at a crossroads in how to pay for health care. Fee for service, the dominant model in the United States and many other countries, is now widely recognized as perhaps the biggest obstacle to improving health care delivery. A battle is currently... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Finance; Health Industry; United States