Publications

August 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

E Ink

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Susan Archambault

E Ink is a high-technology start-up attempting to revolutionize print communication through electronic ink displays. The founders and top managers of this two-year-old firm are striving to translate a technological breakthrough into a working prototype, move from... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Organizational Structure; Commercialization; Technology; Information Technology Industry

2024
Working Paper

Determinants of Top-Down Sabotage

By: Hashim Zaman and Karim R. Lakhani

We investigate the conditions that motivate managers to impede the growth of talented subordinates due to fears of future competition for their own positions. Our research expands on existing tournament and contest theory literature that considers peer-to-peer... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Structure; Employee Relationship Management; Performance Evaluation; Organizational Culture; Management Skills

SSRN

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02 Oct 2014
News

The Transparency Paradox: Why We're Less Productive When We Know Someone is Watching

04 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Attention Medical Shoppers: What Health Care Can Learn from Walmart and Amazon

organizational level, with databases and other communication tools. "Health care is the most information intensive industry in the economy, but it uses IT the least," he said. Atul Gawande reminded... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

Currently an adjunct associate professor at NYU’s Stern School, where he teaches about commercializing carbon-reduction technologies in the course Disruption, Entrepreneurship, and Social Impact, Carty... View Details

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: David S. Scharfstein

I teach an MBA course in the elective curriculum called Managing and Innovating in Financial Services. I focus on key functions of the financial system including credit, liquidity, insurance and payments provided by a variety of financial intermediaries including... View Details

2010
Working Paper

The Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-periphery Structures Dominate?

By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak

Any complex technological system can be decomposed into a number of subsystems and associated components, some of which are core to system function while others are only peripheral. The dynamics of how such "core-periphery" structures evolve and become embedded in a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Product Design; Practice; Core Relationships; Software; Information Technology Industry

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Research Summary

The Economics of Enterprise IT

By: Shane M. Greenstein

Why do some organizations adopt new information systems while others do not? Why do some face high costs while others do not? Professor Greenstein has been pursuing this stream of research throughout his career, analyzing the factors shaping the costs of acquiring... View Details

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

system for local managers. "This research is really a starting point," says Campbell. "To our knowledge, no one has drawn this link between the complexity that is imposed by customers with divergent demand preferences View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

Web

Not Waiting for Progress: Diversity and Inclusion in the Film Industry - MBA

where he majored in organizational behavior and management. The Ivy League school was “the first place where I really felt like an adult,” he recalls. Now a member of Brown’s board of trustees, Diamond says,... View Details

June–July 2014
Article

Language as a Lightning Rod: Power Contests, Emotion Regulation, and Subgroup Dynamics in Global Teams

By: Pamela J. Hinds, Tsedal Neeley and Catherine Durnell Cramton

Through an ethnographic study comprised of interviews with and observations of 96 globally distributed members in six software development teams, we propose a model that captures how asymmetries in language fluency contribute to an us vs. them dynamic so common in... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Communication Intention and Meaning; Groups and Teams; Applications and Software; Emotions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Power and Influence; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

March 18, 2020
Article

How Honest Conversations Can Accelerate Corporate Transformation

By: Michael Beer

When CEOs engage a cross section of their key people in an honest conversation about organizational strengths and barriers to the execution of strategic changes required by the changing competitive landscape, transformations are accelerated. The honest conversation... View Details

Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Organizational Culture

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August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (A)

By: Willy Shih

This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Exploration; Dominant Design; Business Growth and Maturation; Business History; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan

September 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Tim Keller at Katzenbach Partners LLC (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, Christopher Marquis and Ayesha Kanji

Tracks of the first 6 months of a recent MBA grad, Tim Keller, at Katzenbach Partners, a boutique consulting firm focused on organizational change and strategy. Covers how Keller initially struggles with his assignment and ends with a question of whether or not he... View Details

Keywords: Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Projects; Situation or Environment; Strategy

01 Apr 2001
News

New Ventures New Gains

technology company that they planned to start. “Having to submit the plan formally and knowing it would be scrutinized forced us to spend a lot more time making sure all the details — especially the... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna and Susan Young; Martin Dubilier (MBA 1952); Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

05 Oct 2016
What Do You Think?

Can the US Economy Regain the Growth and Prosperity of the Past?

meeting the needs facing the threats of rising sea levels and record floods; converting energy systems to truly replaceable sources; reducing fresh water consumption or creating large desalination... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2024
Case

Best Buy Health: Enabling Care at Home

By: Robert S. Huckman, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Antonio Moreno, Bradley Staats and Sarah Mehta

This case explores retailer Best Buy’s decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad—the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Electronics Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Minnesota

November 1998 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Deere & Company: Sustaining Value

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Marlowe Dayley

The question facing Deere & Co. is whether or not to adopt some of the organizational technologies of private equity investors (decentralized equity holdings, use of leverage to control the disposition of cash flows, the externalization of the capital budgeting... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cash Flow; Private Equity; Wealth; Adoption; Manufacturing Industry

June 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Background Note

Creative Destruction of Industrial Age Management Principles and Creative Construction of Information Age Management Principles

By: Richard L. Nolan

Traces the creative destruction of industrial age management principles and creative construction of new management principles more appropriate for the information age. Includes self-administered questionnaire to permit managers to assess the status of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Disruptive Innovation; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Development and Career; System; Information Technology