Publications

Article

Tabulated Nonsense? Testing the Validity of the Ethnographic Atlas

By: Duman Bahrami-Rad, Anke Becker and Joseph Henrich

The Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock, 1967), an anthropological database, is widely used across the social sciences. The Atlas is a quantified and discretely categorized collection of information gleaned from ethnographies covering more than 1200... View Details

Keywords: Ethnographic Atlas; Validation; Culture; Economic Anthropology

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October 6, 2020
Article

Test Your Board's Readiness for the Post-COVID Era

By: Lynn S. Paine

Research suggests that well-run boards take the process of self-evaluation quite seriously, often using a combination of director surveys and personal interviews to assess the functioning and effectiveness of the board, its committees, and its individual members. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Governing and Advisory Boards; Performance Evaluation

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Summer 2018
Book Review

Leslie Berlin, Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age

By: William A. Sahlman

Leslie Berlin's book Troublemakers, is an engaging and insightful people-first exploration of the roots of Silicon Valley, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Berlin portrays seven individuals who played important roles at critical junctures in the... View Details

Keywords: Silicon Valley; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; History; California

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June 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Background Note

Visualizing Data & Effective Communication

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

This note explores three specific ways an analyst can use visualization. Section 1 considers visualization to explore data. Section 2 discusses visualization as a tool for developing a deeper understanding of trends and phenomena encoded in the data. Section 3... View Details

Keywords: Data Visualization; Graphical Guidelines; Charts; Analytics and Data Science; Communication

September 2016
Case

Designing Performance Metrics at GoDaddy

By: C. Fritz Foley and Michael Lemm

Scott Wagner has recently joined GoDaddy, a leading provider of cloud-based software and services that helped individuals and small businesses establish a web presence, in the dual role of chief operating officer and chief financial officer. One of his first tasks is... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry

May 2006
Module Note

Leading Culturally Diverse Teams

By: Robin J. Ely

Describes the Leading Culturally Diverse Teams module (eight class sessions), which teaches students the leadership perspectives and skills necessary to develop high-functioning, culturally diverse teams (teams diverse in, for example, race, ethnicity, gender,... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Diversity; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Perspective; Culture

June 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

NFL-Network Television Contracts, 1998-2005, The

By: Stephen A. Greyser

The National Football League (NFL) is negotiating its next round of national television contracts with its broadcast and cable TV partners. The revenues from these contracts constitute a major source of income for the individual NFL teams. The case provides information... View Details

Keywords: History; Rights; Contracts; Business Earnings; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Budgets and Budgeting; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Warner Cable (A) and (B) (Condensed)

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Change Management; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

Research suggests that well-run boards take the process of self-evaluation quite seriously, often using a combination of director surveys and personal interviews to assess the functioning and effectiveness of the board, its committees, and its individual members.... View Details

Research Summary

Consumer Response to Online Ratings and Recommendations

Jolie is currently conducting several laboratory and field experiments to assess the tendency of individuals to employ predictable heuristics in complex information aggregation tasks, thus leading to search and choice behavior that is suboptimal relative to the fully... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Training, Communications Patterns, and Spillovers Inside Organizations

By: Miguel Espinosa and Christopher T. Stanton

We study direct productivity changes and spillovers after a randomized training program for the frontline workers in a Colombian government agency. While trained workers improved their individual production, we also find substantial spillovers that affected managers'... View Details

Keywords: Spillovers; Labor Productivity; Firm Objectives, Organization, And Behavior; Training; Performance Productivity

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2012
Working Paper

Organization Design for Distributed Innovation

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Systems of distributed innovation—so-called business ecosystems—have become increasingly prevalent in many industries. These entities generally encompass numerous corporations, individuals, and communities that might be individually autonomous but related through their... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Innovation and Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Intellectual Property; Rights; Governance Controls

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December 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid

By: Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Samasource sought to use work, not aid, for economic development. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called microwork) and then sent it to delivery centers in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise

May 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Radiohead: Music at Your Own Price (A)

By: Anita Elberse and Jason Bergsman

In October 2007, the British band Radiohead caused a stir when it announced it would allow customers to decide how much to pay for its new album, released exclusively as a digital download and available only from the band's own website. The pricing plan represented a... View Details

Keywords: Music Entertainment; Price; Marketing Strategy; Distribution; Problems and Challenges; Online Technology; Music Industry

October 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Clinical Change at Intermountain Healthcare

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Erika Ferlins

Provides a detailed description of the way in which several improvements and innovations in clinical care were arrived at. Describes individual insights, how these were evaluated and validated, and how they were translated into improved medical practices. The changes... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Practice; Health Industry