Publications

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

tool for achieving strategic alignment. How Fixed-performance Contracts Ensure Underperformance At its simplest, a company's budget process consists of each unit producing a sales forecast (assuming it's a profit center) and a capital... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

30 Jun 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

The Role of Emotions in Effective Negotiations

high-stakes player contracts involving millions of dollars. He intuitively understood that emotions were an important factor in dealing with people as passionate as athletes. "The last thing I wanted to do was create an excuse for a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation; Sports

04 Jun 2020
Book

It’s Not About You: Why Leaders Need to Look Outward

earned paychecks for goods and services, pledge our lives to another person in marriage, cast a ballot for someone who will represent our interests. We rely on laws and contracts as safety nets, but even those systems are ultimately built... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

September 2012 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Addleshaw Goddard LLP (Abridged)

By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and James Weber

Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the UK, is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea and set of services launched by Dr. Jim Hever... View Details

Keywords: Price; Innovation and Invention; Service Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Legal Services Industry; United Kingdom

01 Mar 2024
News

The War Within

When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Nataliia Zhyliak’s world was upended in a matter of days. At the time, Zhyliak, a psychologist in the western Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, was working at an education and rehabilitation... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; illustration by Daniel Bejar

18 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How Eliminating Non-Competes Could Reshape Tech

include them in the contracts of new and prospective employees, and most new employees are not in a position to negotiate against the inclusion of the non-compete term. When a state government does nothing, non-competes by default are... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

earlier research with Iris Bohnet and Alexandra van Geen found that people are less sexist when assessing multiple people.) Even changing where on the page people sign contracts can encourage honesty. When people sign a form before... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Investors Often Lose When They Sue Their Financial Adviser

vulnerable, especially when they’ve been physically harmed by a product or service. Many people don’t realize that they’re waiving their right to sue in a US court when they sign contracts or click “Agree” to a company’s terms of service.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

opening up the shareholding of the parent trading company, but by floating separate 'free-standing' firms on the British capital markets, which the merchant houses continued to control through management contracts and other means in the... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

Web

Invention of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

engineer and graduate of MIT who became quality control officer at Polaroid; and Richard T. Kriebel, a gifted writer who became director of public relations. In 1934, Eastman Kodak signed a contract with Land-Wheelwright Laboratories to... View Details

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

associated with layoffs. There are also administrative and benefits costs associated with furloughs. For this reason, some CEOs argue that furloughs make sense in response to a temporary change in demand but not in response to permanent shifts. Still, some workers,... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

May 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

David Dao on United Airlines

By: Benjamin Edelman and Jenny Sanford

In widely circulated videos, United staff and Chicago security forcibly remove a passenger from his paid seat on an aircraft, injuring him severely. United leadership must decide how to respond to public outcry. View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Service Operations; Air Transportation; Contracts; Reputation; Air Transportation Industry; Chicago

24 Oct 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

Keywords: Re: William R. Kerr; Manufacturing

March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Addleshaw-Goddard LLP

By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and James Weber

Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the U.K., is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea and set of services launched by Dr. Jim... View Details

Keywords: Price; Innovation and Invention; Service Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Legal Services Industry; United Kingdom