Publications

April 2023
Technical Note

Venture Capital Firms: What Drives Success?

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

With the rapid growth of venture capital (“VC”) in recent decades, we might wonder: who succeeds at VC and why? This is a complicated question, as many factors come into play. VC partnerships are comprised of individual investors with varying backgrounds, experiences,... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Success

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

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

of individual decisions. “In teams, and organizations more broadly, self-selection often plays a critical role: Individual team members decide whether to speak up and volunteer their opinion on a topic,... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

09 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Addressing Inequities in Education: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Amal Tariq (MBA 2025)

in public education across the United States, but also because of the community element of the Education Pioneers fellowship. The fellowship has connected me with a supportive and diverse group of individuals and mentors both in DC and... View Details

March 2023
Case

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2018, Ana Owczarzak was appointed to lead Google Ads' new innovation and accelerator team - the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL). The purpose of SAIL was to offer testing and incubation services for individuals within Google Ads who were developing new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Research Summary

Portfolio Betas Do Not Make for Better Asset Pricing Tests

Many papers claim that because using portfolios instead of individual stocks as test assets minimizes idiosyncratic volatility, their use also yields more precise estimates of risk premia. I show that while portfolio formation does lead to more efficient beta... View Details

November 1992 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Advertising Council Earth Share Campaign: Strategy, Execution, and Final Campaign

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jayne D. Kramer

In the several years preceding 1992, there had been a dramatic rise in the public's concern for environmental issues. Yet the Roper Organization reported that fewer than one in ten Americans made personal efforts to help solve environmental problems on a regular basis.... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Research; Environmental Sustainability; Welfare