Publications

2023
Working Paper

Where Strategy Matters: Evidence from a Global Startup Field Study

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright

The role of strategy for innovative startups is theoretically ambiguous and much debated among practitioners. I interviewed executives of 253 scaling software ventures from 34 countries and scored the alignment of their market and organizational choices to detect... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Scaling Technology Ventures; Global Contextual Intelligence; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy

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January 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Space Data Corporation

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

Space Data Corp. plans to partner with the U.S. National Weather Service to place transceivers on weather balloons and thereby create a national mobile communications network. The company is in the late development stages and is planning to launch a regional test that... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Business Startups; Business Processes; Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

March 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

FinTech Hive at DIFC: Creating a Fintech Ecosystem in Dubai

By: Marco Di Maggio and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2019 as Raja Al Mazrouei, executive vice president of FinTech Hive (the Hive) at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the first and largest financial technology accelerator in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, contemplates her... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Emerging Markets; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Management; Information Technology; Growth Management; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

is defined by formal authority—the ability that comes with a title to impose your will on others. In fact, formal authority is a useful but limited tool. People Want More Than a Formal, Authority-Based Relationship with the Boss Many... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

The Translucent Hand of Managed Ecosystems: Engaging Communities for Value Creation and Capture

By: Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle and Michael Tushman

Management research has increasingly explored the domains of ecosystems, platforms, and open/user/distributed innovation—governance structures focused on engaging with external communities. While these research areas include substantial empirical and theoretical work... View Details

Keywords: Ecosystems; Platforms; Open And User Innovation Strategy; Capabilities; Governance; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation

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Alan MacCormack is the MBA Class of 1949 Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, a member of The Digital, Data, and Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard, and a core faculty member... View Details

Keywords: automotive; communications; computer; e-commerce industry; electronics; high technology; information technology industry; internet; semiconductor; software; telecommunications; venture capital industry

December 2021
Article

Seeing Oneself as a Valued Contributor: Social Worth Affirmation Improves Team Information Sharing

By: Julia Lee Cunningham, Francesca Gino, Dan Cable and Bradley Staats

Teams often fail to reach their potential because members’ concerns about being socially accepted prevent them from offering their unique perspectives to the team. Drawing on relational self and self-affirmation theory, we argue that affirmation of team members’ social... View Details

Keywords: Social Worth Affirmation; Relational Identity; Self-affirmation; Information Sharing In Teams; Concerns About Social Acceptance; Groups and Teams; Identity; Relationships; Knowledge Sharing

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02 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Gear: Why Managers Don’t Act

book. The success formula becomes public and is harder to amend later. Your top executives look alike. Look around. Your company won't stretch itself when all the managers think alike and see the business in the same way. Your competitors... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

What does cyberspace mean for physical retail space? Has online shopping changed the fundamentals of retailing? How should managers evaluate new in-store technologies? Harvard Business Review posed these questions to three retail View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

February 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shaping the Governance Debate at ISS

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Jonah S. Goldberg and Calvin O. Liou

ISS is the world’s largest provider of corporate governance research, data, analytics, and voting services. The case uses the effort of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to impose an array of new regulations that would severely restrict the functioning of... View Details

Keywords: Proxy Advisory Services; Corporate Governance; Research; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Shareholder Relations; Institutional Investing

April 2020
Supplement

Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Investment; Debt Securities; Strategy; Restructuring

2015
Working Paper

Are CEOs Born Leaders? Lessons from Traits of a Million Individuals

By: Renée Adams, Matti Keloharju and Samuli Knüpfer

What makes a CEO? We merge data on the traits of more than one million Swedish males, measured at age 18 in a mandatory military enlistment test, with data on their service as a CEO of any Swedish company decades later. CEOs have higher cognitive and non-cognitive... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Management Teams

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13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

break came about is interesting. Kind of Blue was also a commercial success—the most commercially successful jazz album ever, in fact, which makes it worthy of examination in a business context. Davis himself is a fascinating example of a "manager" of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

more, each unique to their own situation. I decided to become a Certified Financial Planner to improve my ability to advise on these additional areas. That choice began steering me toward a new direction with a clear focus. I noticed a... View Details

10 Sep 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Investment Recommendations

Keywords: by Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim; Financial Services

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 3: Expanding Diversity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the third module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Projects; Risk and Uncertainty; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Opportunities; Perspective; Expansion; Goals and Objectives