by Malcolm Baker - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Nov 2024
HBS Case

What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

“[These leaders] learned a tremendous amount from the mission focus and discipline that came from the military,” says Simons, a Baker Foundation Professor and Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. “There is a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Entertainment & Recreation

17 Nov 2020
In Practice

How Retailers Can Thrive in a Shopping Season Like No Other

retailers struggle to match supply with demand. Many e-retailers are urging consumers to “buy early” this holiday season, citing concerns about postal services and shipping. Given capacity constraints placed upon retail stores by many... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Retail

26 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

What Perceived Power Brings to Negotiations

other party and how that party viewed them. Wolfe is a research associate at Princeton, while McGinn is the Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. In her office at Baker Library, McGinn discussed the... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

15 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Americans Voted for an Income Tax

that the taxes they endorsed started out small in scope and size but have multiplied by a factor of eight as a share of our economy, have we gone off course? After all, when an income tax was introduced in 1862 to fund the Civil War, it... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew C. Weinzierl

18 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

New at the Helm: A Talk with HBS Dean Light

convinced him that he needed more management skills. By his own recollection, he was virtually "clueless" about the very special place to which he was heading. His application to the MBA Program caught the attention of... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Education

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Relational Contracts

George Baker is exploring (with Robert Gibbons of MIT and Kevin Murphy of the USC) how relational contracts--contracts secured by reputation and trust, rather than by legal enforcement--affect the performance and boundaries of firms. Such relational contracts are... View Details

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

18 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

GM’s IPO: Back to the Future

investment banking--give their points of view. Joseph Bower, Baker Foundation Professor The GM IPO represents the beginning of the end of a remarkable piece of intervention by the Obama administration. The... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

05 Feb 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t We Figure Out How to Select Leaders?

potential use of power, and motives. As Matthew Tuttle suggested, "Many of the traits are ... difficult to see in an interview." One answer to the challenge was suggested by Kirk Richardson: "There is only one true way to... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

more efficient at slow thinking by improving processes for deliberation and making decisions. Do you agree with what Kahneman implies here? Does bureaucracy have its advantages? Is this one of them? What do you think? To Read More: View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

23 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Strategy-Focused Organization

strategy can be powerful. Brian Baker described it this way: "I firmly believe that if I change one measure on my scorecard, change will happen." Baker is saying that View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

31 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The Faculty Reader: Who is Reading What This Summer?

So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Ibram Kendi’s How to Be An Anti-Racist. I’ve been keen to re-read The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Information; Publishing

15 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

A Mass Crisis Can Overwhelm Health Care. Liberia Found a Solution.

Community training helps fight Ebola A new case study about Last Mile Health by HBS Senior Lecturer Brian L. Trelstad and V. Kasturi Rangan, the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, outlines how CEO Raj... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

08 Jan 2007
What Do You Think?

Neuro Economics: Science or Science Fiction?

made in the subconscious after some amount of preparation. That is, study the problem, sleep on it, and decide without further analysis. It's the type of decision making described by Malcolm Gladwell in his... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles, Papers of the Decade

HBS Working Knowledge readers want it all, judging by our all-time most popular articles. Here you'll find stories on everything from maintaining a professional image to writing a business plan, from how to market on social media to why... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

over the next decade or so, where more and more things that are considered creative breakthroughs will be made by people whose names are never going to be known as famous individuals,” says Amabile, a Baker... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Connection between 1930s Weather and Today's Labor Unions

to make sure these farmers don’t take our jobs.’” Oklahoma dust bowl refugees, San Fernando, California, 1935. (The Farm Security Administration Photograph Collection, Baker Library, Harvard Business School. Photo View Details