Closed Systems - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

“family-sustaining jobs” in 10 years. “I [don’t] know what this will turn into,” but “we have got to start somewhere,” Bastian said during a meeting with two Delta executives he worked closely with on diversity, equity, and inclusion... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

26 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

with the candidates’ [timelines], so you could be developing and training people for someone else. They could leave your company before they become your senior manager.” Look closely at what motivates candidates and HR Had the ShopCo team... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

from government. Suggestions of causes of the current challenge of rapidly rising costs in relation to quality of outcomes, at least by the imperfect measure of life expectancy, included waste in the system (Julie Maire, Edward Hare, and... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

that contribute to large-scale organizational failures, and to explore the linkages among the psychological and sociological forces involved at the individual, group, and organizational system level. In sum, all leaders would be... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

traditional rating and ranking system. The new process involved informal monthly meetings between managers and their reports, and it more closely tied bonuses to business performance. Would it serve to motivate employees? Could its... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Aug 2022
What Do You Think?

Does Religious Belief Affect Organizational Performance?

(iStockphoto/35007) Anyone who has tried to pick up a Chick-fil-A sandwich on Sunday knows how religious belief affects organizational policy in that company. Chick-fil-A honors Christian beliefs and closes on Sunday. Whether it affects... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

12 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

believed. While the share of US imports from China fell, they were replaced by imports from other locations. For instance, the share of imports from Vietnam and Mexico, the paper notes, increased 2 percentage points and close to .7... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

from that.” The new inventory system was actually something Whole Foods had started to implement before the Amazon deal, pressured by activist shareholders who had seen the grocer’s stock and sales margins slipping for two years. “This is... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory

of decisions regarding any of a firm's constituencies. The world may be complex and difficult to understand. It may leave us in deep uncertainty about the effects of any decisions we may make. It may be governed by complex dynamic systems... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Restoring a Global Economy, 1950–1980

industries. Europe and Japan had to spend the immediate postwar decade undergoing extensive reconstruction, heavily dependent on official aid from the United States, yet over time Europe and Japan closed the technological and productivity... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

ChatGPT’s buzzy debut has made for a rough few months for Google. Close watchers of the tech giant say: It didn’t have to go this way. Essentially scooped by a competitor on its home turf, Google has scrambled to release its own... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

cannot be valuable within an organization.” As his community deteriorates, Miller’s behavior spirals How did Miller end up in prison in the first place? Research shows that poverty and imprisonment are closely linked. A 2018 Brookings... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

February 2016
Article

Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tracy Dumas

Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Equality and Inequality; Spoken Communication; Organizations; Japan; United States

Citation

Find at Harvard

26 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 26, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55668 2019 Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences Multivariate Unsupervised Machine Learning for Anomaly Detection in Enterprise Applications By: Elsner,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

31 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Ben Franklin’s ‘Way to Wealth’ Introduced American Capitalism to the World

from Mao Tse Tung to Bangladeshi bloggers, Reinert says the essay’s initial influence was limited primarily to North America and Europe, tracking closely with the first parts of the world to enter the Industrial Revolution. “Most of my... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

26 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017

Umit Gurun, and Scott Duke Kominers Abstract—The patent system is commonly justified as a way to promote social welfare and, more specifically, technological progress. For years, however, there has been concern that patent litigation is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2021
Book

Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Why does the gender gap persist and how can we close it? For years women have made up the majority of college-educated workers in the United States. In 2019, the gap between the percentage of women and the percentage of men in the workforce was the smallest on record.... View Details

Keywords: Women; Career; Gender Gap; Glass Ceiling; Gender; Employment; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Culture; Diversity; Management; Strategy

Citation

Purchase

21 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 21, 2009

Working PapersHow Firms Respond to Being Rated (revised) Authors:Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel Abstract While many rating systems seek to help buyers overcome information asymmetries when making purchasing decisions, we... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Income Inequality Is Rising. Are We Even Measuring It Correctly?

solely on the Gini, we would treat places like Teton and Monroe County the same. But that may not be the right thing to do. "Reducing inequality can be achieved by both reducing the difference between low-income and medium-to-high-income earners and by View Details

Keywords: by Jon M. Jachimowicz, Kristin Blesch, and Oliver P. Hauser

18 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

Is the globe’s thirst for oil finally topping out? A major international energy watcher says yes, predicting last month that demand for global oil for transport will peak around 2026, plateau for all uses by 2028, and possibly hit a zenith by the end of the decade.... View Details

Keywords: by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette; Energy; Industrial Products; Auto; Green Technology

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