Publications

February 2019
Case

Lisa Thomas at LaMont Engineering

By: Boris Groysberg and Carrie A. Blair

The case details the challenges faced by Lisa Thomas of LaMont Engineering after the company is acquired by Munday Consultants, Inc. Thomas, who supported the acquisition, was asked to chair a team charged with implementing the changes necessary to make the acquisition... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2016
Working Paper

Controlling Versus Enabling

By: Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright

Revenue sharing between principals and agents is commonly used to balance double-sided moral hazard. We provide a theory of how, when such revenue-sharing is optimal, a principal allocates control rights over decisions that either party could make. We show that the... View Details

Keywords: Control Rights; Decision Authority; Employment; Independent Contractors; Organizational Theory; Digital Platforms; Governance Controls; Ethics; Vertical Integration

SSRN

April 2015
Article

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

By: Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk assessment and lending decisions. We first show that while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Management Processes; Credit Products; Experimental Economics; Risk Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry

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March 2012
Case

Schuberg Philis

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The Dutch professional service firm Schuberg Philis has within a few years grown into a well-known player in the Dutch IT outsourcing market and regularly wins high customer- satisfaction marks. The growing workload and 100% promise to customers have increased the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Alignment; Information Technology Industry; Netherlands

Article

Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture Capital

By: Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner and Josh Lerner

This paper examines how organizational structure affects behavior and outcomes, studying the performance of different types of venture capital organizations. We find a strong positive relationship between the degree of specialization by individual venture capitalists... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Venture Capital; Organizational Structure; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Behavior; Financial Services Industry

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2008
Chapter

Matching and Market Design

By: Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and Tayfun Sonmez

Matching is the part of economics concerned with who transacts with whom and how. Models of matching, starting with the Gale-Shapley deferred acceptance algorithm, have been particularly useful in studying labour markets and in helping design clearinghouses to fix... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Outcome or Result; Mathematical Methods

23 Nov 2021
News

The Death of the Office Friendship

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

scale Expand your personal and professional network Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can... View Details

September 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Esas Group: Investing Together, Staying Together

By: Christina R. Wing and Alpana Thapar

This case opens in June 2022, after Esas Group, one of Turkey’s largest family-owned investment firms, implements a series of changes to professionalize the business and help transition family members from operators to responsible investors. In December 2019, the Group... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Transition; Business or Company Management; Organizational Structure; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governance; Financial Services Industry; Turkey

24 Feb 2023
Blog Post

My Classroom Experience During Harvard Business School’s Summer Venture in Management Program

discussion groups; and trading stories of life experiences and sidesplitting tales of professional gaffes in the HBS courtyard. Whatever awaited me at Harvard Business School, I thought, would be unforgettable. The SVMP Class of 2022 met... View Details

Program

Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management

effective organizational transformation to drive impact Build a governance system that enables mission performance Expand your personal and professional network Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from... View Details

Teaching Interest

Negotiation

By: Alison Wood Brooks

Negotiation is an Elective Curriculum course for HBS MBA students. Success at work and at home requires the ability to negotiate. Whether you are forging an agreement with your suppliers, trying to ink a deal with potential customers, raising money from investors,... View Details

Research Summary

Current Research

Professor Gardner’s research investigates two primary research questions, both particularly relevant to the management of professional service firms: (1) How are project teams able to most effectively use their members’ expertise in order... View Details

April 27, 2020
Article

A Crisis Playbook for Family Businesses

By: Josh Baron and Ben Francois

In a business crisis, the power of family business owners is magnified. Unlike public companies, which typically focus on maximizing shareholder value, family owners value objectives that usually go well beyond financial returns (e.g., family legacy, reputation). This... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Crisis Management; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships

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Article

Cultural Diversity on Wall Street: Evidence from Consensus Earnings Forecasts

By: Kenneth Merkley, Roni Michaely and Joseph Pacelli

We examine how cultural differences among agents influence the aggregate outcome of a common forecasting task. Using both exogenous shocks to sell-side analyst diversity and panel regression methods, we find that increases in analyst cultural diversity positively... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Forecasting; Sell-side Analysts; Information Aggregation; Diversity; Forecasting and Prediction; Information; Performance Improvement

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2017
Chapter

Paul R. Lawrence: A Career of Rigor, Relevance, and Passion

By: Michael Tushman

Paul R. Lawrence was one of the earliest and most influential figures in the emergence of organizational behavior as a field of study. He was a pioneer in creating a body of work on organization design, leadership, and change in both the private and public sectors.... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Contingency Theory; Public And Private Organizations; Rigor And Relevance; Biography; Organizational Design; Leadership; Learning; Leading Change

August 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Kansas City Zephyrs Baseball Club, Inc. 2006

By: Krishna G. Palepu

This case centers around a dispute between the owners and the players regarding the profitability of professional baseball teams in connection with the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The case describes the financial statements of the baseball... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Financial Statements; Profit; Labor Unions; Measurement and Metrics; Agreements and Arrangements; Performance; Sports Industry; United States

December 2007 (Revised February 2012)
Case

John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

By: Howard H. Stevenson, Janet Kraus and Shirley Spence

The case follows the professional and personal lives of John and Andrea Rice, illustrating the challenge of "juggling" the multiple aspects of life (career, family, community, self) in the pursuit of a personal vision of success. Particular attention is paid to the... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Nonprofit Organizations