Learning By Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

IPO or M&A? How Venture Capital Shapes a Startup's Future

Entrepreneurs rarely consider who will ultimately own their startups—and what that means for founders—when they court venture capitalists. New research suggests they should. A startup funded by VCs who tend to work with the same group of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

12 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

believed. While the share of US imports from China fell, they were replaced by imports from other locations. For instance, the share of imports from Vietnam and Mexico, the paper notes, increased 2 percentage points and close to .7... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

30 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Asking Questions Can Get You a Better Job or a Second Date

questions. What holds them back?” One reason might be ego. People may be so focused on sharing what they know that they aren’t considering what they might learn from others. Or, they may think to ask a... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

05 Jun 2009
What Do You Think?

What Does Slower Economic Growth Really Mean?

Summing Up If not useful growth, what are we measuring? And why? This column does not thrive on general agreement. And this past month discussants came close to general agreement on the proposition that economic growth is not measured properly View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

Equally, it is evident that major reputational crises can inflict major damage on corporations in developed markets. One only has to think of the ongoing damage to the German auto manufacturer VW caused by... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

18 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

It’s Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works

industries (computing, telecommunications, and health care) by shadowing them at their jobs. The team recorded every activity in the managers' workday, collecting a total of 256 hours' worth of observations. "As we analyzed data we... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

16 Feb 2018
Video

Sachin Jain: Pursuing Revolutionary Change

04 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

"Substantial recent research implies that clustering—the degree to which people with whom a person is connected are themselves connected to each other—can improve problem-solving performance by increasing coordination," the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Video Game; Web Services

01 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. "It was interesting for us to think about how part of your identity seems to go away as you go through that process." “It was interesting for us to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Web Services; Service; Telecommunications

3 PM – 4 PM EST, 11 Dec 2017
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Entrepreneurship: Failing Well

Most ventures fail. Most lives are built on journeys that did not get to their desired destination. How can we think about failure as a necessary part of growth and learn to fail well? View Details

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

for the pricing of bids made by its foreign subsidiaries. The company believed that its U.S.-based executives would be more effective in making pricing decisions because they had a broader purview of the company's needs. But the time... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

lessons of the course was around change. From her service experience, Frei learned that making small changes are often more trouble than their worth-but in order to make big, meaningful changes, you often have to change at a pace faster... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

06 Aug 2021
Book

Steve Jobs and the Rise of the Celebrity CEO

and services inextricably linked to bosses with outsized personalities. Think Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Elon Musk of Tesla. All these leaders have one thing in common: charisma—and in fact, today it’s a quality that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

14 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Firm Competitiveness and Detection of Bribery

Keywords: by George Serafeim

21 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change

Public trust in business remains relatively unshaken amid economic turbulence and a lingering pandemic, even as faith in the media and government falters, but leaders could do more to address social issues, a new global opinion survey shows. However, not everyone... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

21 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

What Happens in Vegas Could Shape the Metaverse

competing incentives in building the metaverse, our view is that the metaverse can still succeed,” they write, “but it might call for a shift in mindset and an openness to learning from seemingly distant domains of knowledge.” Along those... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Nover; Computer; Information Technology

07 Sep 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Entrepreneurs (Co-) Working in Close Proximity: Impacts on Technology Adoption and Startup Performance Outcomes

Keywords: by Maria P. Roche, Alexander Oettl, and Christian Catalini

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

by harnessing a new business model. The bold approach worked. Gilead, one of the world’s leading antiviral makers, would sell its branded Hepatitis C medicines while offering local manufacturers voluntary licenses to produce generics,... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

13 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions

Among the culprits contributing to the recent financial crisis were bank loan officers who approved mortgage loans that were doomed to fail. Many of these frontline workers were motivated by bonuses and other incentives to approve... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

23 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

As Climate Fears Mount, More Investors Turn to 'ESG' Funds Despite Few Rules

Investor interest in social responsibility has skyrocketed in the past three years, even as US regulations to hold companies accountable remain in flux and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) label itself draws backlash. Investors are willing to pay a... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

Publications