Short Fat Data - Publications - Faculty & Research

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

immediate and long-term goals in mind. One respondent summed up the challenge in a particularly apt way: “Shifting existing organizational structures from ‘peacetime’ value creation to ‘wartime/survival’ in a very short period of time As... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

1950s, Unilever manufactured convenience foods, such as frozen foods and soup, ice cream, meat products, and tea and other drinks. It manufactured personal care products, including toothpaste, shampoo, hairsprays, and deodorants. The oils and View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

June 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (B)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain founded in 1988 by brothers Marcus, Mikael and Fredrik Dahnelius. The company operated 84 stores, all company-owned, located mainly in the metropolitan areas of Sweden’s most popular cities: Stockholm, Gothemburg... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

Citation

Purchase

05 Sep 2023
Book

Thriving After Failing: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Triumphs

inevitable that [failures are] going to happen.” Edmondson is not saying people should resign themselves to mishaps. “It doesn’t mean don’t strive or do your very best work,” she says. “But it does mean don’t beat yourself up over the inevitability of falling View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

product quality or reductions in costs. Short-run versus long-run responses. Over longer periods, the observable consumer response to a price change may be much different than in the short run. Evidence indicates consumers may take three... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

03 May 2024
Research & Ideas

How Much Does Proximity Influence Startup Innovation? 20 Meters' Worth to Be Exact

100,000-square-foot coworking space that is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. The facility hosts companies focused on financial technology, marketing technology, and software development, and assigns office space to new entrants randomly. The... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

vulnerable to conflicts of interest, and how data and technology—from satellite sensing to AI—are transforming how carbon credits are verified and rated. The conversation also highlights key themes in the voluntary carbon market,... View Details

18 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas, April 18

March 27, 2017 Harvard Business Review How the Water Industry Learned to Embrace Data By: Cespedes, Frank V., and Amir Peleg Abstract—Most current talk about “big data” seems to assume the disintermediation or replacement of physical... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 2, 2018

forthcoming Annual Review of Economics History, Micro Data and Endogenous Growth By: Akcigit, Ufuk, and Tom Nicholas Abstract—Economic growth is concerned with long-run changes, and as a result historical View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

12 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing: A Practical Guide

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance (Harvard Business Press). As a practical guide, The New Science of Retailing helps retailers mine their sales data to identify and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Retail; Auto

2022
Article

Becoming a Learning Organization While Enhancing Performance: The Case of LEGO

By: Thomas Borup Kristensen, Henrik Saabye and Amy Edmondson

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a knowledge work context for the purpose... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Citation

Read Now

Web

Research - Global

data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender... June 1, 2025 Article Boston Globe How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next? By: William C. Kirby... View Details

Web

Profiles - MBA

human-computer interaction, data engineering, generative AI, venture capital, consumer technology Formative experience at the intersection of technology and business: At a time when political polarization seems to be the new normal,... View Details

22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

TikTok knows what users care about, it serves them more content they may enjoy. Users feed the app data all the time because TikTok makes it fun to create and consume. And the algorithm can then serve a wider variety of content to see... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

Article Expectations of Returns and Expected Returns By: Robin Greenwood and Andrei Shleifer We analyze time-series of investor expectations of future stock market returns from six data sources between 1963 and 2011. The six measures of... View Details

10 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

some categories,” he says. “Those shortages are putting pressure on prices. And they're still contributing to the high levels of inflation we see now.” Shifting shortages on store shelves To examine the relationship between stockouts and inflation, the researchers... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

03 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa

these revolutions should be welcomed for increasing freedom and dignity for millions—but there are also hard-headed reasons to support them. Although they bring uncertainty and higher oil prices in the short term, we should cheer for the... View Details

Keywords: Re: Deepak Malhotra; Energy; Utilities

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

Among them are low setup cost, allowing companies to start advertising for as little as $10 a day; precise targeting—to specific demographics, or based on life events such as birthdays or similarity to current customers; short creative... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

Web

HBS - The year in Review

and ideas outside of HBS; and a core that provides key data and administrative services. More on the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society Established The Institute for the... View Details

12 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 12, 2017

the basis of management processes because they’re easily copied. Operational effectiveness is table stakes in the competitive universe, it is often assumed, and thus cannot serve as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. But data... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Publications