Productive Tension - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

motivated, to find meaning at work during this crisis. Research by Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria and colleagues suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

23 Aug 2016
First Look

August 23, 2016

affects interventional cardiologists deciding between two types of cardiac stents. Analyzing 147,000 choices over six years, we find that individuals do respond to negative news by using the focal production tool less often. However, we... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Leadership - Faculty & Research

Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch on organizational integration , sparked the field of Organizational Behavior. Early work by Michael Beer on leading organizational change , Rosabeth Kanter on innovation for productivity , John Kotter on power... View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

October 2023, news broke that filming of the book would begin in fall 2024, backed by Anonymous Content, the US production company behind Spotlight and The Revenant, and Korea’s Anthology Studios. Deeply personal and highly... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographs by Jun Michael Park; private equity; fiction; financial crisis; leadership; Korea

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

runs), and scaling (the development of a full-fledged new product or service). "Becoming a corporate explorer is not a route to a safe or easy career." The authors share the stories of influential explorers, such as retired IBM manager... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

safety. In fact, the relationship between business entities and the state in autocracies can involve a delicate dance. While many authoritarian regimes desire capitalists for the growth and legitimacy they can generate, a tension of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

multinational, dispersed shareholder, and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Business History - Faculty & Research

production technology who used attorneys in connection with his patenting work at a time when Japan was still in the process of formally institutionalizing its patent attorney system. In accordance with Lamoreaux and Sokoloff's... View Details

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

particular field your venture intends to address, you may need a cofounder with domain specific expertise. Having domain expertise will not only inform the product strategy, but will also help the venture gain credibility in the market... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

of Research in Marketing 29 (2012) Abstract We examine the underlying process behind the IKEA effect, which is defined as consumers' willingness to pay more for self-created products than for identical View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Strategy Execution Online Course | HBS Online

Execution Participant Design new structures and systems to manage the core tensions of strategy execution and meet business goals. I’ve found HBS Online's courses to be immediately applicable to my work, and they’ve made me a more View Details

06 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Technology Re-Emergence: Creating New Value for Old Innovations

introduced low cost production methods to manufacture highly accurate quartz watches. Swiss business historians refer to this as the "Quartz Crisis." Companies like Seiko and Casio seized the quartz market. By 1983, two-thirds... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

23 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Arla Foods: How Sustainable Can A Dairy Company Be?

Arla had an appreciation for the natural resources that allowed their business to thrive, but we had several questions about how they anticipated resolving that tension long-term in a world where dairy View Details

04 Nov 2009
What Do You Think?

What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?

economic model . The problem with this model is that we are greedy human beings." Paul Browne commented, "Capitalism as an economic ideology that confers control of productive institutions to the owners of capital is often at... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

28 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 28

exchange for taking on the risk of young companies in uncertain environments, venture capitalists receive board level oversight privileges, which range from approval of budgets and advice on product development to the right to replace the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

30 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is Management’s Role in Innovation?

of their scarcest resources." Another senior executive will ask whether creativity scales. Can an innovator be more productive with the substantial resources that a large organization can provide? Or does the process work better in... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Dec 2023
News

A Continuum of Innovation

As senior associate dean and chair of the MBA Program, Matt Weinzierl has a running list of questions that he and Jana P. Kierstead, the executive director of MBA and Doctoral programs, always keep in mind. They range from the curricular (How can we ensure that the MBA... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

like that was explicitly designed to engage the drives, the skills, the smarts, and the emotions of such people in a collaborative effort to design, produce, and sell products and services of value to the wider world? After we have... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

at the company. He then turned his attention to the e-commerce platform the firm launched in 2018 to sell products directly to retail consumers. Now, as the case “Digital Transformation at Tata Steel” explains, Narendran had to decide... View Details