Publications

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

were instituted, the company’s most productive salespeople left the firm at a significantly higher rate (28 percent) than other agents. The result was a 6 percent sales decline. However, among those who stayed, their workloads did not... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

Business School, Emerita, who has studied workplace creativity for more than 40 years. “Those breakthroughs will be made by collaborative groups of ‘ordinary people,’ by open innovation contests and other open innovation processes, by... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Background Note

Power Dynamics in Organizations

By: Linda A. Hill

Designed to introduce the concepts of power and power dynamics to students in the MBA second-year elective course Power and Influence. Defines "power" and "influence," and explores the role of power dynamics in managerial work and in the life of organizations. Combats... View Details

Keywords: Power and Influence; Organizations; Conflict and Resolution

Research Summary

Science-Based Business and the Business of Science

By: H. Kent Bowen

Science and technology can provide strategic advantage to companies' through differentiated products and processes. The focus of our research is on unusually productive and creative labs that are the sources of breakthroughs that create platforms for sustained... View Details

January 2014
Case

CleanSpritz

By: John A. Quelch and Alisa Zalosh

Sales of CleanSpritz all-purpose cleaning spray have been steadily declining for the past five years, and management believes the decline correlates to a growing environmental concern among U.S. consumers. CleanSpritz's management is considering several options to... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Competition; Marketing Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

1990
Article

Social Influences on Creativity: Evaluation, Coaction, and Surveillance

By: T. M. Amabile, P. Goldfarb and S. C. Brackfield

Two experiments examined the effects of evaluation expectation and the presence of others on creativity. In both experiments, some subjects expected that their work would be evaluated by experts, and others expected no evaluation. Evaluation expectation was crossed, in... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Social Psychology; Situation or Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation

Find at Harvard

07 Jan 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs

Professor Mukti Khaire's challenge to management students is lofty, even by Harvard MBA standards. Don't just change the way people live, change the way they think. Change culture. In her new elective course, Creative High-Impact... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

2009
Working Paper

It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money...No, Really, It's Okay

In this paper, we examine the apparent conflict between artistic and commercial objectives within creative companies, taking as our point of departure a particularly energetic debate during a symposium at the 2007 Academy of Management meetings. We surface the... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Commercialization; Creativity

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February 2004 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Pratt & Whitney: Engineering Standard Work

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

As the engineering of state-of-the-art jet engines becomes more and more complex, Pratt & Whitney leaders face major competitive problems. Product development projects are not meeting the cost, quality, and lead-time targets. The leadership develops a design,... View Details

Keywords: Design; Engineering; Cost; Knowledge Management; Time Management; Product Launch; Standards; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Creativity; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

May 1986
Supplement

Gillette Co.: Dry Idea Advertising (A), Video

Presents an audiovisual account of the five year struggle to solve creative problems on the Gillette Co.'s Dry Idea brand antiperspirant. The Dry Idea creative review is divided into three parts: 1) review of early advertising, 2) reenactment of a 1983 meeting attended... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Consumer Products Industry

September–October 2024
Article

How AI Can Power Brand Management

By: Julian De Freitas and Elie Ofek

Marketers have begun experimenting with AI to improve their brand-management efforts. But unlike other marketing tasks, brand management involves more than just repeatedly executing one specialized function. Long considered the exclusive domain of creative talent, it... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; AI and Machine Learning; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Customer Focus and Relationships

February 2025
Teaching Note

Influencer-Led Brand Building: Hairitage and the McKnights

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-066. Mindy McKnight started in 2009 as an early influencer on social media whose videos of creative hairstyles for girls launched her family on an entrepreneurship journey. The McKnights transitioned from YouTube ad revenue to brand... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Social Media; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Power and Influence; Expansion; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

June 2025
Article

Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond

By: Julian De Freitas, G. Nave and Stefano Puntoni

The use of large language models (LLMs) in consumer research is rapidly evolving, with applications including synthetic data generation, data analysis, and more. However, their role in creative ideation—a cornerstone of consumer research—remains underexplored. Drawing... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; AI and Machine Learning; Creativity; Innovation Strategy

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