Publications

August 2019
Case

Bark Gift Shop Ltd.

By: Susanna Gallani, Jan Bouwens and Peter Kroos

This case describes a setting in which the CFO of Bark Gift Shop Ltd., a gift items retailer, discovers an undesired pattern in the performance data suggesting that her shop managers that perform well during the first part of the year, purposely reduce their effort in... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; Employees; Behavior; Performance; Management; Goals and Objectives; Motivation and Incentives; Analysis

01 Sep 2020
Blog Post

6 Ways to Support COVID-Weary Employees

as their mental well-being—a forthcoming article in American Psychologist examines current organizational psychology research to help business leaders manage COVID-related fallout in the workplace and develop solutions to ease the stress... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

29 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation

Keywords: by Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner, and Ratnika Prasad

November 1988 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Technology Transfer at a Defense Contractor

By: Linda A. Hill

At a time of great changes in the corporate environment, Larry Yoshino, a design lab manager at Parsons Controls Corp., faces a delay in a costly defense project due to the inability of one of his subordinates to gain the cooperation of engineers at Parsons'... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Conflict Management; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Employees; Competitive Strategy; Projects

2010
Working Paper

Multinational Strategies and Developing Countries in Historical Perspective

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper offers a longitudinal and descriptive analysis of the strategies of multinationals from developed countries in developing countries. The central argument is that strategies were shaped by the trade-off between opportunity and risk. Three broad... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Business and Government Relations

Read Now

2025
Chapter

Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter argues that since the nineteenth century capitalism has created much wealth, but at the cost of massive ecological destruction, which has been particularly severe in Latin America. During the first global economy before 1929, considerable wealth was... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business History; Globalization; Economic Growth; Latin America

Find at Harvard

08 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

How to Demotivate Your Best Employees

productivity. More than 80 percent of companies dole out work-related awards like "employee of the month" or "top salesperson." Managers often view these awards as inexpensive ways to improve worker performance; many believe that when... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Service

19 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

Here Comes Internet2—Time to Shed Dot Vertigo

The dot-com implosion has left many managers wary of the promised wonders of information technology, but those who ignore the next phase of the Internet—dubbed Internet2—do so at their peril, says HBS professor Richard Nolan. "The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Nov 2017
What Do You Think?

What Are the Real Lessons of the Wells Fargo Case?

team (had been given) sufficient power and resources to do their work.” “Former Employee” maintains that “Wells Fargo has no HR presence at the local level, which means there is no buffer between rogue View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Banking

October 2004 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Making China Beautiful: Shiseido and the China Market

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Akiko Kanno and Masako Egawa

Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Competition; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China; Japan

11 Feb 2021
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Ali Evans (MBA 2019)

student business manager within HSA, I gained valuable business and leadership experience managing teams of up to 25 employees and helped launch a startup that was venture funded and is still growing today.... View Details

Building Sustainable Cities

By 2050 the number of people living in cities will have nearly doubled, to 6 billion, and the problems created by this rampant urbanization are among the most important challenges of our time. Of all resource-management issues, the author argues, water, electricity,... View Details

04 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 4, 2008

project, if completed successfully, would mark another step in TCS's progression from a provider of low-cost technical resources to their goal of becoming an end-to-end technology-enabled services provider. However, the project was not... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

27 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery

leadership in mobilizing people and resources in highly dynamic situations.” Each winter, 900 HBS students dispatch around the world to see businesses up close, learn what they can about how they are run, and share their own knowledge... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities; Retail

03 May 2024
Research & Ideas

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

some sort of mechanism that brings us together,” says Roche. “Our study shows that geography can be super powerful because you don’t necessarily pick who you’re going to run into, as it’s more provided by the physical environment.” Roche cowrote the paper, recently... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

scorecard’s authors. “All employers are not created equal in terms of the type of springboard they provide for advancement,” says Fuller, who co-leads the Managing the Future of Work project at HBS. “And that's something that workers and... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

February 2008 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Olympia Machine Company, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Benson P. Shapiro

The management team of an industrial equipment supplier is debating the company's method of compensating salespeople. Different executives have offered different alternatives to the current method of straight salary plus expenses. Each option has different implications... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Compensation and Benefits; Mission and Purpose; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Industrial Products Industry