Publications

September 2003 (Revised June 2006)
Case

"American Challenge, The:" Europe's Response to American Business

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Meghan Gallagher-Kernstine

Examines the tensions multinationals cause by focusing on Europe's reaction to the growing U.S. multinational investment in the 20th century. Initially, Europeans rarely felt threatened by U.S. investments, however, tensions grew over time. After the Second World War,... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; United States; Europe

25 Aug 2015
Blog Post

Why an MD/MBA from HBS and HMS?

includes not only students in the joint degree program, but also medical students from other schools, as well as physician-trainees and practicing physicians studying at HBS. Even though we are all interested in medicine and business, our... View Details

Web

Marketing - Doctoral

field-based methods, the curriculum enables students to master concepts and research skills directly relevant to business problems. Candidates must come to understand the point of view of practicing managers and be able to bring theory... View Details

November 2001
Background Note

Global Approaches to Anti-Corruption

By: Joseph Hinsey, Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

In the 1970s, a series of unpleasant revelations about corporate conduct, culminating in the public disclosure about unsavory business practices abroad by more than 400 U.S. corporations, jarred popular perceptions concerning business ethics. Congress responded by... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Globalization; Developing Countries and Economies; Laws and Statutes; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Information Industry; United States

Web

Browse All Articles, Research, & Case Studies - HBS Working Knowledge

into what’s driving and limiting the practice of skills-based hiring. The discussion ranges from degree inflation and HR automation to workforce demographics, skills-based promotion and employee retention. Also, how technology can... View Details

Leonard A. Schlesinger

Leonard A. Schlesinger is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School’s Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He has served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to... View Details

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

collaboration—that is, the culture. A model for culture change My colleague Russ Eisenstat and I, in collaboration with senior executives at Becton Dickinson, developed a powerful way to change culture by first coming to an agreement—in very View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

2020
Working Paper

Iterative Coordination and Innovation

By: Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu

Agile management practices from the software industry continue to transform the way organizations innovate across industries, yet they remain understudied in the organizations literature. We investigate the widespread Agile practice of iterative coordination: frequent... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Goals; Specialization; Coordination; Field Experiment; Software Development; Organizations; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Goals and Objectives; Integration; Software

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2006
Book

Service Productivity Management: Improving Service Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis

By: H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance—Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates specific... View Details

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis; Economics; Operations; Mathematical Methods

January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Background Note

A Note on Direct Selling in Developing Economies

By: Michael Chu and Joel Emilio Bregman Segre

Informal and formal direct selling play a particularly important role in developing countries characterized by markets with limited retail sectors. This note explores the practice of direct selling for the company, the sales person, and the consumer, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Developing Countries and Economies; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Sales

March 2007
Supplement

Bain & Company, Inc.

In late 2001, the consultancy Bain must decide whether to launch information technology as a practice area within the firm. The senior executives who are Bain's clients have been asking more and more IT-related questions of the firm's partners, who find themselves... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

March 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

National Parks Conservation Association

By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Briana Huntsberger

The National Parks Conservation Association seeks to help the U.S. National Park Service increase its efficiency by incorporating principles of business management so that American national parks will be better managed. Its efforts raise fundamental questions about the... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Business or Company Management; Corporate Governance; Government and Politics; Natural Environment; Cooperation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Tourism Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

20 Jul 2021
News

Rewriting the Social Contract

23 Aug 2018
News

Why recent stock market gains might not benefit the economy

Teaching Interest

FIELD Foundations

By: Alison Wood Brooks

FIELD Foundations is a course for first-year MBA students in the Required Curriculum. As a complement to case method courses that students take in the first year of the MBA program, FIELD Foundations offers hands-on leadership practice and immersive team... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Helping You Help Me: The Role of Diagnostic (In)congruence in the Helping Process within Organizations

By: Colin M. Fisher, Julianna Pillemer and Teresa M. Amabile

Through an inductive, multi-method field study at a major design firm, we investigated the helping process in project work and how that process affects the success of a helping episode, as perceived by help-givers and/or -receivers. We used daily diary entries and... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Knowledge Management; Performance; Cooperation

SSRN

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2008
Book

Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz

Marketing has a greater purpose, and marketers, a higher calling, than simply selling more widgets, according to John Quelch and Katherine Jocz. In "Greater Good", the authors contend that marketing performs an essential societal function—and does so democratically.... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Marketing; Practice; Welfare

2008
Working Paper

Contracting for Servicizing

By: Michael W. Toffel

Servicizing, a novel business practice that sells product functionality rather than products, has been touted as an environmentally beneficial business practice. This paper describes how servicizing transactions mitigate some problems associated with sales... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Contracts; Market Transactions; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Sales

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November 2003 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Leading the Josie Esquivel Franchise (A)

By: Boris Groysberg and Laura Morgan Roberts

Reviews Josie Esquivel's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, and organizational practices she has developed into a star analyst. Should Esquivel accept an offer to leave Lehman Brothers for Morgan Stanley? To make this... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Job Offer; Franchise Ownership; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage