Publications

July–August 2021
Article

Surfacing the Submerged State: Operational Transparency Increases Trust in and Engagement with Government

By: Ryan W. Buell, Ethan Porter and Michael I. Norton

Problem definition: As trust in government reaches historic lows, frustration with government performance approaches record highs. Academic/practical relevance: We propose that in co-productive settings like government services, peoples’ trust and... View Details

Keywords: Government Services; Behavioral Operations; Operational Transparency; Government Administration; Service Operations; Programs; Perception; Attitudes; Behavior; Trust

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Role of Government When All Else Fails

now—at the dawn of the twenty-first century—it is hard to conceive of any more important or pervasive governmental function. The federal government now devotes a larger part of its budget to social insurance (such as unemployment and... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

Article

Can You Cut 'Turn Times' Without Adding Staff?

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

The president of RSA Ground, the subsidiary of Rising Sun Airlines responsible for servicing its planes at airports across Japan, goes undercover as a service crew member to discover how and whether his employees can speed up cleaning, checking, restocking, and... View Details

Keywords: Employee Empowerment; Employee Motivation; Turnaround; Service Operations; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Air Transportation Industry; Japan

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01 Sep 2023
News

Bless this Stress

and mental reframing strategies—tools that he practices and eventually relies on to get himself across the crane. With a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in social psychology (also from Harvard), Akinola ordinarily studies the... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

08 May 2006
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Cutting in Line

the queue? And how would social norms and a sense of fairness play out along the line? The results were quite surprising. As might be expected, the higher the amount of payment offered, the more likely individuals were to allow a stranger... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

Reporting Advances Integrated reporting is an emerging management practice that involves the integration of a company's required financial report with its voluntary (except for a few countries) corporate social View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

March 2006
Background Note

Business, Law, and Society: The Systems Approach to Law and Management

Presents the systems approach to law and management, a construct for understanding how public law affects the competitive environment and a firm's resources. Describes how the legally astute manager can use legal tools to assess opportunities, develop the firm's value... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Law; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

March 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Teaching Note

ISS A/S: The Buyout

By: Lucy White and Carsten Bienz

Provides the opportunity to value a leveraged buyout; and to examine the nature and extent of a company's responsibilities to its bondholders. Here, the context is a "going private" transaction in Europe, where the financing plan called for the addition to the... View Details

Keywords: LBO; Private Equity; Contracts; Global Business; International Business; Finance; Ethics; Law; Service Industry; Europe

February 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

ISS A/S: The Buyout

By: Clayton Rose, Carsten Bienz and Lucy White

Provides the opportunity to value a leveraged buy-out; and to examine the nature and extent of a company's responsibilities to its bondholders. Here, the context is a "going private" transaction in Europe, where the financing plan called for the addition to the... View Details

Keywords: LBO; Private Equity; Contracts; Global Business; International Business; Finance; Ethics; Law; Service Industry; Europe

11 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 11, 2006

2006) Anyone in sales will tell you that social networks are critical. The more contacts you have, the more leads you'll generate and, ultimately, the more sales you'll make. But that's a vast oversimplification. Different configurations... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

innovation, and peer production—relate to theories of the firm, with particular attention on “sociality” in firms and markets. We first briefly review extant theories of the firm and then discuss three theoretical aspects of sociality... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2011
Article

The Wise Leader

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Leadership Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

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June 1989 (Revised May 1993)
Supplement

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill, Inc. (C)

By: John A. Quelch

Teaching objectives: 1) to consider legal and other obligations advertising agencies owe to their clients, 2) to show how aggressive marketing can lead to allegations of misconduct, 3) to explore conflicts of interest which may arise for professional service companies... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; New England

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

plan, has implications jointly for DCF and stock prices. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210039-PDF-ENG United Breaks Guitars John Deighton and Leora KornfeldHarvard Business School Case 510-057 When social media... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Feb 2023
News

Accelerating Climate Solutions

March 2011
Article

Meeting the Challenges of a Person-Centric Work Psychology

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

In this article, the authors discuss person-centric work psychology, a paradigm developed by H. M. Weiss and D. E. Rupp regarding daily work life psychology. They cited three challenges of the paradigm such as the collection, and analysis of data, the certainty of the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Social Psychology; Emotions; Perception; Motivation and Incentives

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September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Supplement

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (B)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

As Acumen Fund, a global venture philanthropy firm, moves forward with an investment portfolio exceeding $22 million, it runs into two critical measurement problems. First, how should it track the performance of each investment when its interest is not just the bottom... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Social Enterprise; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Kenya

March 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Good for the Seller, Good for the Buyer and Good for Society: Sampo-yoshi, Sustainability and Trust at ITOCHU

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Bethelehem Y Araya

In 2024, ITOCHU CEO Masahiro Okafuji was at a crossroads. As the thirteenth CEO since ITOCHU’s founding in 1858, he had fueled the company’s growth since 2011 by bringing ITOCHU’s founding philosophy of Sampo-yoshi (good for the seller, good for the buyer and... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Trust; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Japan