Publications

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

in press Academy of Management Journal Compromised Ethics in Hiring Processes? How Referrers’ Power Affects Employees’ Reactions to Referral Practices By: Delfer-Rozin, R., B. Baker, and F. Gino Abstract—In this paper, we explore... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2021
Case

ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Ashiana Jivraj and Jane Barrow

The case illustrates the application of value-based health care to dental medicine. ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers was a rapidly-growing network of dentist-owned independent implant clinics. The targeted market included 23 million people, 15% of the US adult... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Dental Medicine; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Business Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; United States

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

fast-food restaurant chain that wanted to improve its milkshake sales. The company started by segmenting its market both by product (milkshakes) and by demographics (a marketer's profile of a typical milkshake drinker). Next, the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

Rosabeth M. Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders worldwide through teaching, writing, and direct... View Details

June 1999 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Snapple

By: John A. Deighton

Tells the story of Snapple's rise and fall, and poses the question "Can it recover?" Many soft-drink brands flourished in the 1980s serving New York's Yuppies, but only Snapple made the big time. It went from local to national success and was poised to go international... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Industry Growth; Failure; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry

With rising CEO turnover, companies are increasingly looking outside for qualified candidates. Sure, externally recruited CEOs bring fresh perspectives and connections. But they lack the in-depth knowledge of the company s culture and history that they need to succeed.... View Details

March 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Bets on Clean Hydrogen

By: Gunnar Trumbull, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), an engineering manufacturer headquartered in Japan, was aiming to scale up its hydrogen production and establish a global hydrogen supply chain. The initiative was in line with Japan's energy strategy, as the country seeks to transition... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Demand and Consumers; Competition; Growth and Development Strategy; Infrastructure; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry; Energy Industry

January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

By: Robert L. Simons

Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; North and Central America

April 2000
Article

The Fable of Fisher Body

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber

General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Failure; Contracts; Vertical Integration; Market Transactions; Investment; Trust; Production; Assets; Supply Chain; Opportunities; Technology; Auto Industry

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May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Tropos Networks

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

As Ron Sege, president and CEO of Tropos Networks, walked through the halls of the firm's offices, he realized that the space they had moved into only about a year ago was already becoming too small. The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, was founded in late 2000... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Wireless Technology; Sunnyvale

2003
Conference Paper

Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction

By: John D. Macomber

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Technological Innovation; Construction; Design; Performance Improvement; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Management; Adoption; Business Model; Capital Structure; Supply Chain

May 2018
Article

Linda Babcock: Go-getter and Do-gooder

By: Max Bazerman, Iris Bohnet, Hannah Riley-Bowles and George Loewenstein

In this tribute to the 2007 recipient of the Jeffrey Z. Rubin Theory‐To‐Practice Award from the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM), we celebrate Linda Babcock's contributions to diverse lines of research, her tireless and effective efforts to put... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Biography; Research; Negotiation; Leadership; Practice

August 2008
Article

From Clusters to Cluster-Based Economic Development

By: Christian H.M. Ketels and Olga Memedovic

Over the last decades, changes in the global economy and the emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) have raised the interest in understanding the specific conditions and cross-company interactions within and across locations. For companies, the need to choose the... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economy; Value; Business Strategy; Competition; Performance Productivity; Cost; Natural Environment; Policy; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Framework; Industry Clusters

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. He is currently teaching an elective MBA course on the Business of Smart Connected Products/IOT. He has been responsible for the retailing curriculum and has served as the course... View Details

September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Finland

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

First, the supply chain in health care is a mess. There are so many intermediaries selling to other people, and Amazon has done extremely well by streamlining the supply chain.... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

April 2021
Article

The Effects of Quota Frequency: Sales Performance and Product Focus

By: Doug J. Chung, Das Narayandas and Dongkyu Chang

This study investigates the comprehensive and multidimensional effects of quota (goal) frequency on sales force performance. We develop a theory of salespeople’s behavior—aggregate effort and the product type focus—in response to the temporal length of a sales-quota... View Details

Keywords: Sales Force Compensation; Field Experiment; Quotas; Quota Frequency; Commissions; Bonuses; Goals; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Goals and Objectives; Behavior; Performance

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November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank

Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship