Learning By Doing - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

‘Intrinsic Joy’ Sparks Ideas Better than Cash

says. But as one developer told Roche, adding cash to the mix can sour the task at hand. “He said, ‘As soon as your sponsor pays for it, even if it's just five bucks, they're holding you accountable to fix their problems.’ And he thought that was absolutely ridiculous... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

30 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Professional Networks in China and America

term for these relationships: guanxi. Guanxi literally means connections or relations, but also refers to the socio-emotional bond that ties people who do business together. Guanxi networks tend to have significant overlap between... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

04 Apr 2023
Book

Two Centuries of Business Leaders Who Took a Stand on Social Issues

While shareholders still reign supreme at many companies, a widespread shift toward more responsible business practices is driving more leaders to take a stand on social and environmental issues today, says Harvard Business School Professor Geoffrey Jones. Jones... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Consumer Products; Fashion; Retail; Green Technology

03 Jun 2015
What Do You Think?

Is the Time Right for Self-Management?

under then-accepted principles of multiunit retail management. As a result, the company raised the number of units for which a manager was responsible from one to ten or more. By necessity, managers could do... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

13 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions

Among the culprits contributing to the recent financial crisis were bank loan officers who approved mortgage loans that were doomed to fail. Many of these frontline workers were motivated by bonuses and other incentives to approve... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

02 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2017

better success getting job interviews, according to research by Katherine DeCelles and colleagues. Having No Life is the New Aspirational Lifestyle It used to be that we equated power and prestige with a leisurely, luxurious lifestyle.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Guts and Bliss: The Entrepreneur’s Journey

it over there and jump on it." Now, she said, thanks to expert coaching, the kids have learned to communicate, coordinate, pass the ball off to their teammates and get it back. Good businesses that want to grow know how to View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

16 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Does Competition Make Us More Creative?

Competition can bring out the best in salespeople, athletes, and participants in hot dog eating contests—but can it make employees more creative? A recent working paper by Daniel P. Gross finds that competition can motivate creative types... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

colleagues studied how experts judged contest entries and found that the greater an evaluator’s expertise, the more likely they were to nix less feasible proposals in favor of safer bets. “Who we select to do our evaluations and to pick... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

03 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

drain from the suburbs, and redefine demographics in many locations, says Choudhury, the Lumry Family Associate Professor at HBS. In The Changing Geography of Work: Priorities for Policy Makers, published recently by the Organisation for... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

Despite widespread investment in entrepreneurship in cities across America, venture capital-funded startups still tend to be founded by white men in Silicon Valley. In contrast, businesses led by women are... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

23 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

All Those Zoom Meetings May Boost Connection and Curb Loneliness

remote work. “There’s a huge value to real interactions even if they are occurring virtually,” says Goldenberg, who is a psychologist by training and an assistant professor at HBS. To test online experiences, the group took advantage of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

29 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Comparing the Cash Policies of Public and Private Firms

Keywords: by Joan Farre-Mensa

09 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Marketing a Country: Promotion as a Tool for Attracting Foreign Investment.

Investment Promotion Like some other activities financed by governments, investment promotion has certain characteristics of tasks typically carried out by the government but others that are normally... View Details

Keywords: by Louis T. Wells & Alvin G. Wint

23 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Management’s Role in Reforming Health Care

individual patient. However, routine practice is itself a fertile source of innovations in care, in both what to do and how to do it. Medical knowledge and how to operationalize it can be View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

23 Nov 2021
Book

What It Takes to Build an Organizational Culture That Wins

led a renewal of the company by discarding performance metrics that discouraged risk-taking, aligning employees behind a mission to empower customers, and proclaiming that the “C” in his title stood for culture. The book, forthcoming in... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

05 Apr 2004
What Do You Think?

Should We Brace Ourselves for Another Era of M&A Value Destruction?

promoting the best managers from each organization, (6) timed their integration activities to avoid significant disclosure prior to regulatory approval of the acquisition while doing whatever necessary to "survive" a sometimes... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

demand which is deemed as justified by a panel ." What isn't off limits when it comes to transparency? What do you think? Original Article When Sony was hacked recently, most observers concentrated on... View Details