Publications

July–August 2011
Article

Putting Business Models Under the Microscope

By: K. Merchant, Tatiana Sandino and D. Huelsbeck

The article provides advice for financial managers on evaluating business models for corporate performance measurement. Emphasis is given to a study sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) that examined the business model of a medical... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Financial Management; Performance Evaluation

29 Sep 2020
News

Do debates matter? Do they change minds about elections? Here’s what the data say

28 Feb 2020
News

When It’s This Easy at the Top, It’s Harder for Everyone Else

September 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-term Impact

By: Stacey M. Childress, Geoff Eckman Marietta and Sara Suchman

In June 2008, Jesse Solomon, the founding director of the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR), faced an important decision about the organization's strategic direction. Since its founding in 2003, 125 of its graduates had joined the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and BTR had... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Teaching; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Education Industry; Boston

June 2008
Supplement

Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case focuses on Kit Hindrichs, a 65 year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately-owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By... View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Design; Managerial Roles; Private Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Equality and Inequality; London; San Francisco; New York (state, US)

July 2005
Case

Harvard Business School and the Making of a New Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana, Tarun Khanna and Daniel Penrice

Since its founding in 1908, Harvard Business School's mission has been to perform a much-needed service for American society by turning business management into a profession. One of the most important factors in the founding of HBS and the nation's other new business... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Mission and Purpose; Alignment; Social Issues; Practice

17 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

Economists had predicted that because stimulus money went to many households that didn’t necessarily need it, much of the money would be invested or saved, rather than spent to spur the economy. “We found that they were using the stimulus... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

September 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

d.light

By: Michael Chu, Krishna G. Palepu and Dilyana Karadzhova Botha

Kenyan off-grid-solar pioneer d.light can power entire homes in rural Africa but must now decide how to fund the growth of its asset-heavy business model. Ned Tozun and Sam Goldman founded d.light in 2006 to transform lives through solar solutions enabling access to... View Details

Keywords: Alternative Energy; Business Model; Capital; Emerging Markets; Expansion; Financial Strategy; Renewable Energy; Strategy; Social Entrepreneurship; Energy Industry; Africa; Kenya; India

15 Mar 2024
HBS Case

Let's Talk: Why It's Time to Stop Avoiding Taboo Topics at Work

especially if the person you’re appealing to has other competing needs or distractions. “If I’ve just found out something horrible and you’re piling on with a difficult conversation, it isn’t going to end well,” Wing says. Steve suggests... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

09 Apr 2024
Book

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

another, creating a more individual ritual. Afterward, the researchers interviewed participants and found that the simple act of performing a ritual together made participants feel like the brainstorming task was more meaningful. Some... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0

By: Luis Viceira, Marco Di Maggio and Allison Ciechanover

Founded in 2005, Zillow had become the leading online real estate and home-related marketplace. The brand was recognized as a trusted resource for players in the real estate market, providing information and transparency on home prices. Revenue, which was historically... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Corporate Culture; Intermediation; Brokerage; Startup; Evaluating Business Investments; Property; Information Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Business Startups; Real Estate Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

30 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

Why Anger Makes a Wrongly Accused Person Look Guilty

researchers asked participants how angry they felt and found that participants who had experienced a false accusation were angrier than those who had experienced an accurate accusation. At the end of the experiment, all participants were... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

From Orientation to Behavior: The Interplay Between Learning Orientation, Open-mindedness, and Psychological Safety in Team Learning

By: Jean-François Harvey, Kevin J. Johnson, Kathryn S. Roloff and Amy C. Edmondson

Do teams with motivation to learn actually engage in the behaviors that produce learning? Though team learning orientation has been found to be positively related to team learning, we know little about how and when it actually fosters team learning. It is obviously not... View Details

Keywords: Emergent States; Goal Orientation; Open-mindedness; Psychological Safety; Team Learning; Teams; Groups and Teams; Learning; Goals and Objectives

Article

Political Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring and Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions

By: Laura Huang, Marcia Frideger and Jone L. Pearce

We propose and test a new theory explaining glass-ceiling bias against nonnative speakers as driven by perceptions that nonnative speakers have weak political skill. Although nonnative accent is a complex signal, its effects on assessments of the speakers' political... View Details

Keywords: Spoken Communication; Prejudice and Bias; Competency and Skills; Selection and Staffing; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Decisions

03 Oct 2023
What Do You Think?

Do Leaders Learn More From Success or Failure?

use at business schools across the world, my own experience tells me to expect a bias toward success. ” At that point, John suggested that we examine in depth 10 pairs of companies in the same industries, all with strong cultures, in which one company was succeeding... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

eToro: Building the World's Largest Social Trading Network

By: Elie Ofek and Danielle Golan

Social trading platform eToro was preparing for the launch of its expanded offering in the U.S. The company faced critical decisions regarding product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, positioning and monetization. Moreover, it faced the challenge of how best to make... View Details

Keywords: Social Trading Platform; Investment; Social and Collaborative Networks; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Digital Platforms