Publications

24 Sep 2008
Working Paper Summaries

CEO and CFO Career Penalties to Missing Quarterly Analysts Forecasts

Keywords: by Rick Mergenthaler, Shiva Rajgopal & Suraj Srinivasan

July 2018
Teaching Note

Ron Johnson: A Career in Retail

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Development; Legal Industry; Procurement; Professional Service Firms; Pricing; Competition; Organizational Behavior; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Situation or Environment; Failure; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

12 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

The Unexpected Link Between Cadavers and Careers

explains Michel Anteby, an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School who cowrote the paper with Filiz Garip of Harvard University, Paul V. Martorana of Wagner College, and Scott Lozanoff of the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education; Health

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry

By: Malcolm Baker

I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Valuation; Venture Capital; Investment; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality

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17 May 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Delivering a Personalized Shopping Experience with AI

Keywords: Re: Jill J. Avery

December 2022
Article

Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics

By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald

In nascent industries—whose new technologies are often poorly understood by regulators—contending with regulatory uncertainty can be crucial to organizational survival and growth. Prior research on nonmarket strategy has largely focused on established firms in mature... View Details

Keywords: Technological Change; Innovation; Qualitative Methods; New Categories; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy

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August 2002
Exercise

Career Choice-Making Case Assignment, The

By: Monica C. Higgins, David A. Thomas and Shoshana Zuboff

Sets the stage for self-assessment as an integral component in the process of career development. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Practices and Processes; Personal Development and Career

September 1996
Background Note

Some Thoughts on Career Management

By: William A. Sahlman

A view of career management for people interested in starting or playing a major role in an entrepreneurial venture is presented. View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career

June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Crafting a Career Narrative for New Professionals

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Adam Zalisk

Description: This note suggests an approach for developing an effective "career narrative"—a tool for packaging and sharing a professional's past achievements, long-term goals, and forward-looking needs through a compelling story. It focuses mostly on the ways junior... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career

December 2001
Case

Sarah Vickers-Willis: Career Decisions (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Lynda M. Applegate, Sarah Harden and Susan Saltrick

Sarah Vickers-Willis, HBS MBA 1999, faces a critical career decision: Does she redirect the Internet start-up she helped found or join in shaping a for-profit firm with a social mission? Sarah, a young Australian business executive, has always strived to "find space"... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Business Startups

April 2003 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Abby Joseph Cohen: A Career Retrospective

By: Ashish Nanda

This case provides a career retrospective as of 2003 on Goldman Sachs strategist Abby Joseph Cohen. It reviews Cohen's career path and progress through key decision points. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Personal Development and Career

November 2008
Case

Partner Promotion and Development at DLA Piper

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Personal Development and Career

November 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Managing Xerox's Multinational Development Center

Describes a manager's role in developing a staff group responsible for enhancing the efficiency of Xerox's worldwide logistics and inventory management systems. Illustrates a range of management strategies for upward and lateral influence in a complex organizational... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management

July–August 2013
Article

Relaxing the Taboo on Telling Our Own Stories: Upholding Professional Distance and Personal Involvement

By: Michel Anteby

Scholars studying organizations are typically discouraged from telling, in print, their own stories. The expression "telling our own stories" is used as a proxy for field research projects that, in their written form, explicitly rely on a scholar's personal involvement... View Details

Keywords: Fieldwork; Research Practiced; Distance; Involvement; Taboo; Practice; Ethics; Education Industry

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20 May 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Career Concerns of Banking Analysts

Keywords: by Joanne Horton, George Serafeim & Shan Wu; Banking; Financial Services

26 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Where will Pokémon Go with Your Personal Information?

technology perspective? Shih: A lot of people talk about data fusion, how to tie together different pieces of data. What’s really impressive is how cleverly the developers were able to tie augmented reality together with geospacial... View Details

Keywords: Re: Willy C. Shih; Video Game; Entertainment & Recreation

1982
Article

Managerial Roles and Career Paths of Gatekeepers and Project Supervisors

By: R. Katz and Michael Tushman

Keywords: Management; Personal Development and Career

2008
Case

Thomas Green:Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis

By: W. Earl Sasser

The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who, after being rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis. Green and Davis disagree on work styles and market projections. Green believes the sales goals set by Davis are based... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Personal Development and Career; Conflict and Resolution; Failure; Accounting; Creativity