Publications

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May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value

18 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Cumulative Innovation & Open Disclosure of Intermediate Results: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Bioinformatics

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau & Karim Lakhani

27 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad

the strategy shifted, and they happened to be on the favored side of that strategy” Harvard Business School Associate Professor Tsedal Neeley and her research colleagues call this "unearned status gain," which can cause problems for those... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

08 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: A Sense of Urgency

The problem with using crises to reduce complacency and create urgency is that the tactic is a potential diamond sitting on a rock surrounded by quicksand and very nasty beasts. Any naiveté about the downside risks can cause disaster. Big... View Details

Keywords: by John P. Kotter

08 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

How Newspaper Closures Open the Door to Corporate Crime

Professor Jonas Heese. When local newspapers shutter, some businesses evidently treat the lack of press coverage as permission to act badly and end up committing more illegal violations, including pollution, workplace safety infractions,... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

February 2005 (Revised March 2005)
Case

The Trustees of Reservations

By: Michael Chu

The executive director and chairman of the board of The Trustees of Reservations, one of the nation's oldest land conservation institutions, undertake a major governance restructuring. Reviews the forces leading to the change, the process by which its undertaken, and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Social Enterprise

Find at Harvard

29 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

March 2002 (Revised January 2010)
Case

BP and the Consolidation of the Oil Industry, 1998-2002

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and David J Hanson

Examines the economics of the oil and gas industry with a focus on 1998 through 2001. Discusses the rationale behind using a growth in scale as a means to increase profitability and to gain competitive advantage. Also examines the classic strategic implications of... View Details

Keywords: Non-Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Consolidation; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Energy Industry

12 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 12, 2007

Human Resource Management (HRM). Written by an international team of academics from universities in the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand, it examines the problems and opportunities facing employers and employees. The book subdivides... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Consumer-centered Health Care Depends on Accessible Medical Records

trusted by consumers," Quelch says. "Can a health insurer counter out of the mold and break the standard prejudice against trusting insurers to develop a closer relationship with the end consumer?" Device companies: Device... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Technology

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Time to Rethink the Corporate Tax System?

another way. You might, in a moment of weakness, depict your situation in a particularly favorable light to your prospective lender and make yourself look worse off to the IRS. Indeed, you might end up with two completely different... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

10 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

they would feel compelled to execute against. Q: Another aspect of collaboration that Robertson discusses in the case is interpersonal harmony. Why was it complicated to get along? A: In business we have the notion that we can create a healthy innovation dynamic where... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

December 2018
Case

Good Energy Group PLC

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

Founded at the end of 1999 by Juliet Davenport and Martin Edwards, Good Energy was the number-two renewable-energy seller in the United Kingdom at the end of 2016, supplying over 71,000 of the country’s 27 million households and small businesses with 100% renewable... View Details

Keywords: Power/Energy; Green Energy; Renewables; Wind Power; Electricity; Power; Strategy Development; Electric Vehicles; Customer Service; Energy Policy; Barriers To Entry; Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

personalities of candidates and ending with artificial intelligence (machine learning) to produce high-quality recommendations to companies about whom they should hire. The case then articulates precisely how three companies—airline ANA... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

markets, such as the one for patents, generally create profit opportunities for intermediaries. We begin with an overview of the problems that arise in patent markets, and how traditional institutions like patent brokers, patent pools,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

14 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Widening Rift Between Corporations and Society

"Rediscovering the End Consumer, Over and Over Again" we show how most "new" business concepts are simply self-referring. They do not move beyond the rules of a certain way of doing capitalism, and therefore they... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

The 2001 Crisis in Argentina: An IMF-Sponsored Default? (A)

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

At the end of 2001, Argentina's economy and society both appeared on the verge of collapse. Furious about controls imposed on the convertibility of their bank deposits into cash (the "corralito") and huge proposed government spending cuts amidst high unemployment and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Banks and Banking; Problems and Challenges; Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency Exchange Rate; Economy; Government Administration; Crime and Corruption; Argentina