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2022
Chapter

Interrogating Corporate Purpose: Values Based Firms and the Struggle to Build a Just and Sustainable World

By: Rebecca Henderson

Book Abstract: Defining a just economy in a tenuous social-political time. If we can agree that our current social-political moment is tenuous and unsustainable—and indeed, that may be the only thing we can agree on right now—then how do markets, governments, and... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Social Issues

Article

Is it Better to Average Probabilities or Quantiles?

By: Kenneth C. Lichtendahl, Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Robert L. Winkler

We consider two ways to aggregate expert opinions using simple averages: averaging probabilities and averaging quantiles. We examine analytical properties of these forecasts and compare their ability to harness the wisdom of the crowd. In terms of location, the two... View Details

Keywords: Probability Forecasts; Quantile Forecasts; Expert Combination; Linear Opinion Pooling; Forecasting and Prediction

2018
Article

Revenue Farming Reconsidered: Tenurial Rights and Tenurial Duties in Early Modern India, ca. 1556–1818

By: Sudev J Sheth

The meaning of land revenue farming in Indian history has eluded consensus. Some view it as an administrative aberration indicating weak state control, while others see it as a strategy for consolidating authority. This essay traces the historical development of iqṭāʻ... View Details

Keywords: Iqṭāʻ; Ijārah; Revenue Farming; Financial Agents; Mughal Empire; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Property; Finance; South Asia

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Article

How Warm Days Increase Belief in Global Warming

By: Lisa Zaval, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Eric J. Johnson and Elke U. Weber

Climate change judgments can depend on whether today seems warmer or colder than usual, termed the local warming effect. Although previous research has demonstrated that this effect occurs, studies have yet to explain why or how temperature abnormalities influence... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Attitudes

June 2013
Case

Olympic Rent-A-Car U.S.: Customer Loyalty Battles

By: John Deighton and James T. Kindley

The marketing and operations managers for Olympic Rent-A-Car meet to decide how to respond to changes in the loyalty rewards program at the market-leading competitor. The competitor's program gives awards based on dollars spent instead of days rented and eliminates... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Auto Industry; Service Industry

Educators

April 2014
Article

Who Lives in the C-Suite? Organizational Structure and the Division of Labor in Top Management

By: Maria Guadalupe, Hongyi Li and Julie Wulf

Top management structures in large U.S. firms have changed significantly since the mid-1980s. While the size of the executive team—the group of managers reporting directly to the CEO—doubled during this period, this growth was driven primarily by an increase in... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Functions; Centralization; M-form; Hierarchy; Top Management Team; C-Suite; Activities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Diversification; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Management Teams; United States

2008
Chapter

The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

During the past 15 years, new biotechnology companies have promoted DNA typing as a sophisticated criminal and paternity identification technique. Private testing laboratories produce results that link individuals with crime scenes and fathers to their children.... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Courts and Trials; Organizational Structure; Practice; Genetics; Science-Based Business; Trust; Commercialization; Vertical Integration

Article

The Information Technology Ecosystem: Structure, Health, and Performance

By: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards

A number of modern industries are organized as complex networks of firms whose integrated efforts are necessary to deliver value to end customers. The complexity of these networks, or business ecosystems, and the associated interdependencies among firms, make... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Networks; Value; Customers; Performance Productivity; Product; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Business Model; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology Industry

This case analyzes IBM's financial performance and its capital allocation decisions over a 10-year period from 2004-2013, during which IBM returned more than $140B to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. During this time, CEO Sam... View Details

03 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why a Failed Startup Might Be Good for Your Career After All

charismatic but controversial cofounder of WeWork, who quit as CEO in 2019 after a bungled initial public offering amid questions about his business practices. “The market values the experience they have and rewards them in terms of high... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2023
Blog Post

8 FAQs on the MBA Application

position in the public, private, or nonprofit sector by the time you enroll at HBS. Co-ops or internships done while in school or during the summers between terms are not insignificant, but typically do not count toward professional work... View Details

25 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The Importance of Teaming

gel, as individual members are delegated to new projects—and therefore new teams—on a hectic as-needed basis. Professor Amy Edmondson maintains that managers should think in terms of "teaming"—actively building and developing... View Details

Keywords: Re: Amy C. Edmondson

Web

Courses - Entrepreneurship

total enterprise. There are a variety of entrepreneurship related elective courses to choose from. Course Title Faculty Name Term Quarter Credits 5 Technologies that Will Change the World Shikhar Ghosh Spring 2024 Q3Q4 3.0 The American... View Details

April 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Background Note

Customer Acquisition and the Cash Flow Trap

By: E. Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

Startups as well as existing firms recognize the need to invest in order to acquire customers for their new ventures. And as each customer is expected at some point to have generated sufficient gross margins to cover their CAC, management expects that, soon enough, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Business or Company Management

Educators

May 2024
Article

Selfish Corporations

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Niels Gormsen and Timothy McQuade

We study how perceptions of corporate responsibility influence policy preferences and the effectiveness of corporate communication when agents have imperfect memory recall. Using a new large-scale survey of U.S. citizens on their support for corporate bailouts, we... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Policy

Article

Multinationale et fermetures de filiales : les conséquences sociales et politiques de décisions économiques

By: Sabine Pitteloud and Leo Grob

À travers l’analyse détaillée de deux cas de fermeture de filiale dans les années 1970, cet article s’intéresse aux conséquences sociales et politiques multiples des décisions de désinvestissement des sociétés multinationales. La première étude de cas porte sur la... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Labor Relations; Corporate Citizenship; Business ＆ Government Relations; Disinvestment; Multinational Firms and Management; Business and Government Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

May 2015 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Generating Higher Value at IBM (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

This case analyzes IBM's financial performance and its capital allocation decisions over a 10-year period from 2004-2013, during which IBM returned more than $140B to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. During this time, CEO Sam... View Details

Keywords: Dividends; Share Repurchases; Earnings Guidance; Financial Statement Analysis; Financial Ratios; Payout Policy; Earnings Per Share (EPS); Earnings Management; Change Management; Leadership; Transformation; Financial Strategy

Educators

2015
Article

Percentage Cost Discounts Always Beat Percentage Benefit Bonuses: Helping Consumers Evaluate Nominally Equivalent Percentage Changes

By: Bhavya Mohan, Pierre Chandon and Jason Riis

Marketing offers that are framed as a "percentage change" in consumer cost vs. benefit can have highly non-linear impacts in terms of actual value for consumers. Even though two offers might appear identical, we show that consumers are better off choosing the offer... View Details