Publications

Blog Post

Health Care Transparency: The Fox Is Guarding the Chicken Coop in Washington Again

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Now that more people can shop directly for their own health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they have been transformed from potential patients to consumers, and like any other consumers of goods or services, they want to know if what they're buying is any... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Health Care; Health Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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February 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Background Note

The Information Superhighway Meets the Highway: Technology and Mobility Trends and Opportunities

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Kevin Rosier

Technological innovation is considered a competitive strength for America, but the nation does not score as high in deploying its technology. U.S. transportation systems are in need of repair and renewal, and the sector is at the cusp of a technological revolution. The... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Transportation; Information Infrastructure

January 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Nivea (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Johann Fuller, Volker Bilgram and Greta Friar

The case describes the efforts of Beiersdorf, a worldwide leader in the cosmetics and skin care industries, to generate and commercialize new R&D through open innovation using external crowds and "netnographic" analysis. Beiersdorf, best known for its consumer brand... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Big Data; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Analytics and Data Science; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 2014
Case

The Weather Company

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

New CEO David Kenny transformed The Weather Company in less than two years from a primary identity as a cable television channel to a multi-platform digital company innovating in the uses of weather data. He assesses progress and considers strategic choices and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Strategy; Strategic Change; Change Management; Expansion; Weather; Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Technology Industry

2014
Other Unpublished Work

Using Big Data to Improve Social Policy

By: Himabindu Lakkaraju, Jon Kleinberg, Jure Leskovec, Jens Ludwig and Sendhil Mullainathan

August 2013 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Catalina In the Digital Age

By: Robert J. Dolan and Uma R. Karmarkar

Catalina in the Digital Age considers how a company with a dominant market position should evolve its established product lines given the rise of novel digital technologies. Since its founding in 1983, Catalina had enjoyed a distinct position in the world of consumer... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Digital Technologies; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science

2015
Working Paper

Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement

By: Frank Nagle and Christoph Riedl

Studies of online word of mouth have frequently posited―but never systematically conceptualized and explored―that the level of disagreement between existing product reviews can impact the volume and the valence of future reviews. In this study we develop a theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Online Word Of Mouth; Online Communities; Viral Marketing; Online Product Reviews; Quality; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Digital Marketing; Analytics and Data Science

SSRN

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March 2013
Teaching Note

Big Data at IBM: What to Do About Hadoop? (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Willy Shih

November 2012
Article

Does Management Really Work?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

HBR's 90th anniversary is a sensible time to revisit a basic question: Are organizations more likely to succeed if they adopt good management practices? The answer may seem obvious to most HBR readers, but these three economists cast their net much wider than that. In... View Details

Keywords: Best Practices; Consulting Firms; Corporations; Cost Control; Employee Training; Executive Ability (Management); Executives—training Of; Hospitals—administration; Industrial Management—research; Productivity Incentives; School Management Teams; Work Environment; Management; Research

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September 2012
Article

The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures

By: Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse

Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review, we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality, such... View Details

Keywords: Risk Preference; Time Preference; Social Preferences; Locus Of Control; Big Five; Economics; Behavior; Personal Characteristics

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June 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Driving Towards a Disruption?

By: Willy Shih and William Noble

As Clayton Christensen drove to the studio to deliver an online executive education class, he pondered the future of management education. How big a threat did online degree programs, corporate universities, and other innovations in the delivery of management training... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Technology; Performance Trajectories; Disruptive Innovations; Business Education; Business School; Internet And Online Services Industries; Disruptive Innovation; Higher Education; Corporate Strategy; Internet; Performance; Education Industry; Boston

July – August 2008
Article

Should You Invest in the Long Tail?

By: Anita Elberse

The blockbuster strategy is a time-honored approach, particularly in media and entertainment. When space is limited on store shelves and in traditional distribution channels, producers tend to focus on a few likely best sellers, hoping that one or two big hits will... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Online Technology; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Retail Industry

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November 2007
Article

Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders

By: Joseph L. Bower

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In his interviews and data analysis, Harvard Business School professor Bower found... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Succession; Planning

Article

Wealth-Making in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain: Industry v. Commerce and Finance

By: Tom Nicholas

This paper refutes the hypothesis put forward by W.D. Rubinstein that a disproportionately large share of Britain's wealth makers were active in commercial and financial trades in London. We use a data set of businessmen active in nineteenth- and early... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Finance; Commercialization; Mathematical Methods; Wealth and Poverty; Great Britain; London