Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,686)
- Faculty Publications (177)
- December 2014
- Article
The Discipline of Business Experimentation
By: Stefan Thomke and Jim Manzi
The data you already have can't tell you how customers will react to innovations. To discover if a truly novel concept will succeed, you must subject it to a rigorous experiment. In most companies, tests do not adhere to scientific and statistical principles. As a... View Details
- Article
Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business
By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani
When Google bought Nest, a maker of digital thermostats, for $3.2 billion just a few months ago, it was a clear indication that digital transformation and connection are spreading across even the most traditional industrial segments and creating a staggering array of... View Details
- September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling
By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall
With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Scheduling; Local Autonomy; Automation; Metrics; Organizational Change; Human Resource Management; Process Improvement; Performance Measurement; Transparency; Southern United States; Retailing; Department Stores; System Outsourced Services; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Governance Controls; Resource Allocation; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Applications and Software; Family Business; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; United States
- 2014
- Chapter
Too Big To Trust? Managing Stakeholder Trust in Business in the Post-Bail-Out Economy
By: Deepak Malhotra
This chapter considers the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, and specifically the subsequent “bail-out” of the large financial institutions by the American government, from the perspective of trust in the post-bail-out economy. The author considers the impacts... View Details
- April 29, 2014
- Column
Corporate Reporting in the Big Data Era
By: George Serafeim
Advancements in information technology can improve corporate communication with shareholders, but not through incessant data dumps. Instead, companies will more likely be poised for continued success if they use digital platforms for long-term oriented engagement and... View Details
Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Big Data; Corporate Reporting; Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; Corporate Governance; Accounting; Reporting; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Accountability; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology; Communication; Financial Reporting; Business and Shareholder Relations
- April 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
GE and the Industrial Internet
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman
CEO Jeff Immelt considers whether GE is moving fast enough on its new Industrial Internet initiative. The undertaking includes building out an Industrial Internet, connecting machines and devices, collecting their data and operations, and providing services to clients... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Operations Management; Strategy; Big Data; Business Analysis; Corporate Strategy; Digital Technology; Digital Innovation; General Management; General Strategy; Global Competitiveness; Global Strategy; Innovation; Innovation And Management; Industrial Internet; GE; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Air Transportation Industry; Energy Industry; Health Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Rail Industry; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; North and Central America; Asia; Europe; Middle East; Latin America
- 2014
- Book
Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World
By: John P. Kotter
Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter. It's a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and... View Details
- April 2014
- Article
The Limits of Scale: Companies That Get Big Fast Are Often Left Behind. Here's Why.
By: Hanna Halaburda and Felix Oberholzer-Gee
The value of many products and services rises or falls with the number of customers using them; the fewer fax machines in use, the less important it is to have one. These network effects influence consumer decisions and affect companies' ability to compete. Strategists... View Details
- 2013
- Book
Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment
By: Anita Elberse
What's behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Enterprises, and the NFL—along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge... View Details
Keywords: Entertainment; Business; Strategy; Media; Digital Technology; Blockbuster; Superstar; Film; Television; Music; Publishing; Performing Arts; Nightlife; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Music Entertainment; Success; Sports; Business Strategy; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Music Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Publishing Industry
- 2013
- Book
Democracy and Its Elected Enemies: American Political Capture and Economic Decline
By: Steven Rosefielde and Daniel Quinn Mills
Democracy and Its Elected Enemies reveals that American politicians have usurped their constitutional authority, substituting their economic and political sovereignty for the people's. This has been accomplished by creating an enormous public service sector... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised August 2014)
- Case
Catalina In the Digital Age
By: Robert J. Dolan and Uma R. Karmarkar
Catalina in the Digital Age considers how a company with a dominant market position should evolve its established product lines given the rise of novel digital technologies. Since its founding in 1983, Catalina had enjoyed a distinct position in the world of consumer... View Details
- March 2013
- Case
Grupo ABC and Nizan Guanaes's Path from Brazil to the World
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Gustavo Herrero and Ricardo Reisen De Pinho
Internationally recognized Brazilian Nizan Guanaes, co-founder of Grupo ABC, a rapidly growing global advertising firm ranked 18th in 2011, had aspirations to be in the top 10 by 2015. Grupo ABC thrived by identifying national (Brazilian) challenges and incorporating... View Details
- December 2012
- Article
The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line
By: Francesca Gino and Bradely R. Staats
What's the best way to lift people out of poverty? The social entrepreneurs in the new "impact sourcing" industry believe the answer is providing work, not aid. Their organizations hire people at the bottom of the pyramid to perform digital tasks such as transcribing... View Details
- Article
The Future of Economic, Business, and Social History
By: G. Jones, Marco H.D. van Leeuwen and Stephen Broadberry
Three leading scholars in the fields of business, economic, and social history review the current state of these disciplines and reflect on their future trajectory. Geoffrey Jones reviews the development of business history since its birth at the Harvard Business... View Details
Keywords: Economic History; Business History; History; Asia; Africa; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America
- October 2012
- Article
Target the Right Market
By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh
SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States
- June 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
Driving Towards a Disruption?
By: Willy Shih and William Noble
As Clayton Christensen drove to the studio to deliver an online executive education class, he pondered the future of management education. How big a threat did online degree programs, corporate universities, and other innovations in the delivery of management training... View Details
- 2011
- Book
I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze
By: Deepak Malhotra
Now a Wall Street Journal Best-seller! If you were a mouse trapped in a maze and someone kept moving the cheese, what would you do? Over a decade ago, the best-selling business fable Who Moved My Cheese? offered its answer to the question: accept that change is... View Details
- March 2011
- Article
Zoom In, Zoom Out
Zoom buttons on digital devices let us examine images from many viewpoints. They also provide an apt metaphor for modes of strategic thinking. Some people prefer to see things up close, others from afar. Both perspectives have virtues. But they should not be fixed... View Details
- January – February 2011
- Article
Creating Shared Value
By: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer
The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business has been criticized as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely thought to be prospering at the expense of their communities. Trust in business has fallen to new... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised November 2010)
- Case
Ze-gen: Commercializing Clean Tech
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Kaitlyn Lyons and Scott Prozeller
The Ze-gen case covers the first five years in the life of a clean-tech start-up. Ze-gen had developed an innovative technology that converted solid waste into synthesis gas (called syngas). This technology was in testing at the company's pilot plant, built next to the... View Details