Publications

June 2023
Case

Block: Creating an Ecosystem of Ecosystems

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Ruoshi Qi

At Investor Day 2022, Block announced a new vision for its businesses: creating an ecosystem of ecosystems. Outside the norm for many public growth companies, Block had recently acquired a variety of new business streams in the creator economy and Bitcoin despite a... View Details

August 2016
Article

'Meso'-Foundations of Dynamic Capabilities: Team-Level Synthesis and Distributed Leadership as the Source of Dynamic Creativity

By: Ikujiro Nonaka, Ayano Hirose and Yusaku Takeda

This article examines the theoretical foundations of an organization's dynamic capabilities—sensing, seizing, and transforming—from the perspective of organizational knowledge creation. Making a distinction between the creative and adaptive aspects of dynamic... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory; Dynamic Capabilities; Middle-up-down Management; Wise Leadership; Phronesis; Multinational Enterprise; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; Creativity; Organizational Structure; Knowledge

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September 2010
Case

New Heritage Doll Company

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Heide Abelli

A manufacturer and retailer of specialty doll products must decide which of two projects to fund. The decision requires the student to compute cash flows for the 2 projects, discount values to the present and compare and contrast different project performance measures. View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Resource Management; Resource Allocation; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry

April 1996 (Revised June 1996)
Case

City Year Enterprise

City Year, a national, nonprofit, youth-service corps, decided to diversify its funding base by seeking opportunities to gain "earned income." In 1995, the initiative, dubbed "City Year Enterprise," had already launched its first project, a collaboration with the... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Partners and Partnerships; Joint Ventures; Social Entrepreneurship; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

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24 Oct 2017
News

Change Management Is Becoming Increasingly Data-Driven. Companies Aren’t Ready

December 2002 (Revised December 2017)
Background Note

Teaching Old Companies New Tricks: The Challenge of Managing New Streams Within the Mainstream

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Describes the challenge of starting new ventures or new activities in established companies, especially if they diverge from the mainstream of ongoing commitments. Fledgling ventures require a different kind of management that acknowledges their uncertainty, intensity,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Teaching; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Corporate Strategy

July 1991 (Revised March 1992)
Background Note

Integrity and Management

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Describes the role that issues of personal integrity play in managers' decisions. Defines personal integrity, the factors that influence it, the situations in which it becomes particularly relevant to company decisions, and ways of overcoming the blind spots that can... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Moral Sensibility; Planning; Situation or Environment; Trust; Value

Fast Answer

Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise

aspects of business and management in emerging markets. Frost & Sullivan - reports on industry research, growing opportunities, market trends encompassing various tech... View Details

July 2014
Case

Venture Capital at the Harvard Management Company in Historical Perspective

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

The compromise between capital preservation and growth has always been central to the performance of the Harvard endowment. Setting an institutional structure for effectively governing this compromise became especially important when the Harvard Management Company... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financial Management; Asset Management; Higher Education; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Cambridge

September 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Hancock Land Company and Hancock Lumber Company (A)

By: John A. Davis, Dwight B. Crane and Kelly M. Mulderry

After inheriting the leadership of their family's land and lumber companies, Matt and Kevin Hancock struggled with how to revise their internally focused governance system. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance; Leadership Style; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Every new firm selects a legal form. Organizing as a corporation, a limited company, or a partnership shapes the firm’s access to capital markets, its governance arrangements and tax liabilities, and its treatment in bankruptcy. We use multinomial choice models... View Details

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

The nature of work is changing. As companies grapple with forces—such as rapid technological change, shifting global product and labor markets, evolving regulatory regimes, outsourcing, and the fast emergence of the gig economy—they must overcome challenges and... View Details

Spring 2014
Article

Attracting Long-Term Investors Through Integrated Thinking and Reporting: A Clinical Study of a Biopharmaceutical Company

By: Andrew Knauer and George Serafeim

Faced with a large percentage of investors that chase short-term returns, companies could benefit by attracting investors with longer-term horizons and incentives that are more consistent with the long-term strategy of the company. The managers of most companies take... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Asset Management; Long-term Investing; Short-termism; Sustainability; Integrated Reporting; Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Pharmaceuticals; Leadership; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Investment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Finance; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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25 Nov 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Misreporting

Keywords: by Aishwarrya Deore, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan

2004
Working Paper

Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

By: Randolph Cohen, Joshua Coval and Luboš Pástor

We develop a performance evaluation approach in which a fund manager's skill is judged by the extent to which his investment decisions resemble the decisions of managers with distinguished performance records. The proposed performance measures are estimated more... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Performance Evaluation; Investment Funds; Investment

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July 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Teaching Note

Uber and Stakeholders: Managing a New Way of Riding

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

This case provides a vehicle to analyze stakeholder relations as a company grows, particularly in the context of new business models that challenge established industries. It introduces the dilemmas posed by rapid growth, new technologies, regulatory uncertainty, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Innovation and Invention; Transportation Industry