Publications

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05 Sep 2023
Book

Failing Well: How Your ‘Intelligent Failure’ Unlocks Your Full Potential

results. “An intelligent failure is an undesired result in new territory,” says Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at HBS. “There’s no way you can know for sure whether it will work out without trying it.”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

Moving Beyond Schumpeter: Management Research on the Determinants of Technological Innovation

By: Gautam Ahuja, Curba Morris Lampert and Vivek Tandon

Schumpeter's conjecture that large monopolistic firms were the key source of innovation in modern industrial economies has been the underpinning for much work on the topic of innovation. In this review paper we consciously move beyond the Schumpeterian tradition of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Management; Strategy

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March 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Background Note

Diagnosing and Overcoming Barriers to Agreement

Synthesizes and extends work on barriers to negotiated agreement. Five key types of barriers are described--structural, strategic, psychological, institutional, and cultural. Approaches to overcoming these barriers are discussed. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Problems and Challenges

September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Supplement

Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A2)

By: V.G. Narayanan, Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber

The A1 and A2 versions of the “Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)” split the original A case into two parts. The A1 case ends as activists Sardar Biglari and Phil Cooley prepare to meet with CEO Don Smith at Friendly's headquarters in September 2006. The... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Conflict and Resolution; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business or Company Management; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Article

Team Scaffolds: How Mesolevel Structures Enable Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: M. Valentine and A. C. Edmondson

This paper shows how meso-level structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Fluid Personnel; Team Scaffolds; Team Effectiveness; Role-based Coordination; Multi-method; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Performance Efficiency

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2014
Working Paper

Team Scaffolds: How Meso-Level Structures Support Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: Melissa A. Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper shows how meso-level structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Fluid Personnel; Team Scaffolds; Team Effectiveness; Role-based Coordination; Multi-method; Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Structure; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Networks; Behavior; Balance and Stability; Health Industry

SSRN

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July 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (A)

Introduces a "new-economy" company, Madison Avenue, facing challenges of mega-success. In the two years since its founding, the company's revenues have grown from zero to nearly $30 million, head count has swollen from the start-up handful to more than 200, and the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

Tirole, an economist at the University of Toulouse and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In their new working paper, "The Simple Economics of Open Source," Lerner and Tirole make the case that an idealistic notion of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

Article

Team Scaffolds: How Mesolevel Team Structures Enable Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: Melissa A. Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper shows how mesolevel structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Health Care and Treatment; Cooperation; Health Industry

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26 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change

begin a task, pivoting your perspective of where you are and what you can do as your environment changes. Artificial intelligence can’t do that yet—and the machines may have a long way to go before they can truly replicate this near-instant View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

managers' influence activities. An explicit focus on toolmaking extends accounting research that has hitherto focused attention on the structural arrangements and interpersonal connections when explaining the emergence of the influential... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

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

05 Jul 2022
Op-Ed

Hear Me Out: Introverts Can Be Loud and You Might Like Microsoft Teams

We've been encouraging readers to share feedback and observations about Working Knowledge articles by email, resulting in a slew of thoughtful responses. Here are a few comments from June, published with permission: Re: "Extroverts, Your... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Research Summary

The Toyota Production System: Rules for Activity, Connection, and Pathway Design and Improvement

Researchers have established that Toyota enjoys advantages in cost, quality, lead time, and flexibility when compared to its competitors in automobile assembly. Differences in generating value have been attributed to differences between the Toyota Production System... View Details

01 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 1, 2008

discipline-based, flexible MBA program to full-time, evening, weekend, and executive MBA students. At a time when other MBA programs were introducing significant changes to their curricula, Chicago felt its traditional approach View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa’s Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details