Publications

30 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 30, 2007

Working PapersRecognizing the New: A Multi-Agent Model of Analogy in Strategic Decision-Making Authors:Giovanni Gavetti and Massimo Warglien Abstract In novel environments, strategic decision-making is often premised on analogy, and recognition lies at its heart.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Selling your Heritage: The Challenge of Legacy Divestitures

This paper studies companies that diversify away from and later divest their historical cores, or "legacy" businesses. There are many reasons a firm might undertake this strategy, including a concentration of the legacy business in a declining... View Details

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides an overview of the business conduct boundaries, strategic boundaries, and internal control systems used to manage risk. Boundary systems—linked to clear, enforceable sanctions—are essential whenever demanding performance goals are set and... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Boundary Systems; Innovation; Internal Controls; Fraud; Human Behavior; Staff Experts; Strategy; Risk Management; Behavior; Governance Controls; Management Practices and Processes; Boundaries; Employees; Business Strategy; Innovation and Invention

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 7: Designing Asset Allocation Systems

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides tools and analyses for acquiring and allocating resources. The module begins by reviewing the importance of setting strategic boundaries as a basis for asset acquisitions. Next, a distinction is made between new assets acquired to meet... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Asset Allocation Systems; Payback; Discounted Cash Flow; Internal Rate Of Return; Strategic Investments; Analyzing Acquisitions; Strategy; Capital Budgeting

Article

Past, Present and Future Research on Multiple Identities: Toward an Intrapersonal Network Approach

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

Psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers have long recognized that people have multiple identities—based on attributes such as organizational membership, profession, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and family role(s) and that these multiple identities... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Research; Organizations; Identity

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March 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Posse Foundation: Implementing a Growth Strategy

The Posse Foundation selected high-potential, non-traditional students to attend selective colleges as part of a group of 10 from the same city. The organization had developed an ambitious growth plan, but because it focused on the most selective colleges, the pool of... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Higher Education; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Development and Career; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry

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Web

Community Values | About

that this is a collective endeavor and that we can ’ t really accomplish our mission without relying on each other. Robin J. Ely ; Baker Foundation Professor Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Emerita Curriculum As... View Details

Web

MBA Experience - Leadership

all students pursue the same course of study: the Required Curriculum and FIELD. By studying under a common curriculum, students build a solid, broad foundation of general management concepts and skills across all the key disciplines.... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

Wide Horizon

There were three critical events that led John Rodakis (MBA 1997) to form the nonprofit N of One in 2014 and ultimately dedicate his life to surfacing breakthrough autism research. The first occurred on Thanksgiving of 2012. He had driven about four hours with his wife... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Photos by Sarah Wilson

15 Aug 2023
HBS Case

(Virtual) Reality Check: How Long Before We Live in the 'Metaverse'?

says. “The timeline is perpetually pushed back. And so, for businesses thinking about making a commitment to the metaverse, it’s still unclear if this is the right moment. We've still got a long way to go on the metaverse, but the View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology; Computer; Information Technology

28 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes

Keywords: by William R. Kerr & Scott Duke Kominers; Technology

June 2025
Case

Kevin Love and the Kevin Love Fund: Inspiring People to Live Their Healthiest Lives

By: Anita Elberse and Riyanka Ganguly

In March 2025, professional basketball player Kevin Love learned the latest numbers for what was to date the most eye-catching initiative of his foundation, the Kevin Love Fund: a mental health campaign revolving around a short, animated film—The Spider Within: A... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Media; Sports; Health ＆ Wellness; Campaigns; Partnerships

November 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 9: Building a Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how to construct a strategy map and build a balanced scorecard. Using an internal value chain model, the module illustrates how a balanced scorecard can support and enable customer management, innovation, operations, and post-sale service... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Performance Measurement; Strategy Map; Business Goals; Customer Measures; Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Business Model

July 2005
Case

Harvard Business School and the Making of a New Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana, Tarun Khanna and Daniel Penrice

Since its founding in 1908, Harvard Business School's mission has been to perform a much-needed service for American society by turning business management into a profession. One of the most important factors in the founding of HBS and the nation's other new business... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Mission and Purpose; Alignment; Social Issues; Practice

16 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

As AI Upends Recruiting, Job Seekers Need a Waze App for Careers

transition is urgently required if more young people are to launch successful careers that will lead to economic security. “What’s left are the things that are hard to automate, called foundational or human skills.” Even as unemployment... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

2024
Working Paper

Igniting Innovation: Evidence from PyTorch on Technology Control in Open Collaboration

By: Daniel Yue and Frank Nagle

Many companies offer free access to their technology to encourage outside addon innovation, hoping to later profit by raising prices or harnessing the power of the crowd while continuing to steer the direction of innovation. They can achieve this balance by opening... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Power and Influence; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Corporate Governance

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October 2012 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Carolina for Kibera

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Beth-Ann Kutchma and Cailin B. Hammer

Carolina for Kibera (CFK) is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote youth leadership and gender and ethnic cooperation in Kibera, the largest unstructured settlement situated in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya. CFK's programs constructively... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Power and Influence; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Enterprise; Negotiation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Kenya; United States

October 2010
Article

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Allen S. Grossman

Many of our largest and most successful companies today did not exist 50 years ago. During this same time interval, companies that ranked among top in the 1960s have disappeared, been merged out of existence, or become much smaller presences in the U.S. industrial... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Accountability; Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations

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