Publications
Publications
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(5,582)
- Faculty Publications (508)
- 2020
- Book
Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy
By: Michael Beer
Is Silence Killing Your Strategy?
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details
Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust; Strategy; Performance Effectiveness
- 2019
- Report
A Recovery Squandered: The State of U.S. Competitiveness 2019
By: Michael E. Porter, Jan Rivkin, Mihir Desai, Katherine M. Gehl, William R. Kerr and Manjari Raman
In this report, the authors synthesize their views on U.S. competitiveness and unveil the findings of the 2019 HBS surveys on U.S. competitiveness. Specifically, this report—built on the survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the... View Details
- Article
The Magic That Makes Customer Experiences Stick
By: Stefan Thomke
Why do some customer experiences have that magical "wow" factor, making them all destined for success, while others get few, if any, enthusiastic customer responses? How would we "design" a great customer experience? These are some of the questions that the article... View Details
- August 2019
- Case
Volkswagen and Suzuki (A): A Match Made in Heaven?
By: Ranjay Gulati and Saloni Chaturvedi
The alliance between Volkswagen and Suzuki in 2009 was expected to help Volkswagen become the world’s largest carmaker and Suzuki gain expertise in fuel-efficient technologies. In addition, each promised to help the other in the two largest emerging markets. While... View Details
- 2019
- Chapter
The Great Divergence and the Great Convergence
By: Geoffrey Jones
This chapter provides a new lens to the extensive debate among economists and economic historians concerning why the West grew rich and the rest of the world lagged behind as modern industrialization took hold in the 19th century. The literature has focused heavily on... View Details
- July 2019
- Supplement
Omidyar Network's Impact Investment Framework
By: Vikram S Gandhi
A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent... View Details
- July 2019
- Supplement
Omidyar Network's Investment Decisions: MicroEnsure and Lenddo
By: Vikram S Gandhi
A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent... View Details
- July–August 2019
- Article
The Soul of a Startup
By: Ranjay Gulati
There’s an essential, intangible something in start-ups—an energy, a soul. It inspires enthusiasm and fosters a sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. While this spirit persists, engagement is high and businesses keep their edge.
But all too often,... View Details
But all too often,... View Details
- July–August 2019
- Article
Where Is Your Company Most Prone to Lapses in Integrity?
By: Eugene F. Soltes
Every sizable organization has integrity gaps—areas where what’s considered appropriate behavior diverges from the norms set by its leaders. Within these pockets, things like offensive language, overly aggressive sales practices, or conflicts of interest may be... View Details
- Article
'Matter Battles': Cognitive Representations, Boundary Objects, and the Failure of Collaboration in Two Smart Cities
By: Tiona Zuzul
In this paper, I present a longitudinal study of two smart city projects that brought together experts from diverse knowledge domains. Both projects structured collaboration around the development of boundary objects that could integrate actors’ expertise. In both... View Details
- 2019
- Chapter
International Business and Emerging Markets in Historical Perspective
By: Geoffrey Jones
This chapter examines international business in emerging markets over the long run. It shows how the strategies of Western multinationals evolved over time. In the first era of globalization in the 19th century, Western firms sought access to resources, and they faced... View Details
- Winter 2019
- Article
Leadership Forged in Crisis
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Five great leaders from history (Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Ernest Shackleton, Rachel Carson, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer), according to Koehn, had their leadership forged in crisis. She writes that “leaders can emerge from many different backgrounds, genders,... View Details
- January 4, 2019
- Article
How Companies Can Balance Social Impact and Financial Goals
By: Marya L. Besharov, Wendy K. Smith and Michael Tushman
It’s notoriously difficult for a business to manage two separate-but-equal goals—making money and creating social value at the same time, for example, or managing an existing business at the same time that you invent a new one. Most attempts at managing these... View Details
- 2019
- Article
Big Data
By: John A. Deighton
Big data is defined and distinguished from a mere moment in the “ancient quest to measure.” Specific discontinuities in the practice of information science are identified that, the paper argues, have large consequences for the social order. The infrastructure that runs... View Details
- December 2018 (Revised August 2019)
- Case
Super Bowl Storytelling
By: Shelle Santana and Jill Avery
The one day a year when consumers not only tolerate but actually eagerly anticipate ads is during the NFL's Super Bowl. In sharp contrast to their behavior on the other 364 days of the year, consumers watch an average of 89 commercials per Super Bowl game for an... View Details
Keywords: Television Advertising; Entertainment; Brand Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Television Entertainment; Brands and Branding; Media; Cost vs Benefits; Advertising Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Sports Industry; United States; North America
- 2018
- Article
Cracking the Organizational Challenge of Pursuing Joint Social and Financial Goals: Social Enterprise as a Laboratory to Understand Hybrid Organizing
By: Julie Battilana
While in recent decades the social and business sectors have evolved on fairly separate tracks, today companies are increasingly expected to generate social value in addition to profit. As a result, they also increasingly face the distinct challenge of pursuing social... View Details
- November 2018
- Supplement
Greg Mazur and the Purchase of Great Eastern Premium Pet Foods
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
- November 2018
- Case
Yatooq: Longing for Arabic Coffee
By: Mark Roberge, Gamze Yucaoglu and Samer Al-Rachedy
As one of the few female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, Lateefa Alwaalan had been trying to produce the perfect cup of Arabic coffee for over a decade. In 2007, she began testing various coffee blends, which she later branded Yatooq, the Arabic word for “craving” or... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Sales; Entrepreneurial Selling; Entrepreneurial Marketing; Barrier To Entry; Business Start-ups; Yatooq; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Patents; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Adaptation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Saudi Arabia; Asia
- October 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Teaching Note
La-Z-Boy (A)
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Julia Kelley
Kurt Darrow, CEO of La-Z-Boy furniture, must decide whether to continue an overhaul of the company's strategy in the face of a collapse in demand during the great recession. Having pared back La-Z-Boy's portfolio of brands and manufacturing network, he intends to... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Manufacturing; Organizational Transformations; Reorganization; Furniture Industry; Corporate Strategy; Home Fashion; Turnaround; Portfolio Rationalization; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Brand Repositioning; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Vertical Integration; Transformation; Retail Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- October 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Financial Crisis: Hank Paulson in 2008
On the afternoon of Monday October 13, 2008, Hank Paulson Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, walked into the large conference room across the hall from his office in the Treasury Department. Joining him were Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,... View Details