Publications

13 Feb 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Electronic Hierarchies and Electronic Heterarchies: Relationship-Specific Assets and the Governance of Interfirm IT

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee, Marco Bettiol & Maria Chiarvesio; Technology

October 2013
Article

Shattering the Myth of Separate Worlds: Negotiating Non-Work Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

How much of our self is defined by our work? Fundamental changes in the social organization of work are destabilizing the relationship between work and the self. As a result, parts of the self traditionally considered outside the domain of work, i.e., "non-work"... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Diversity; Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Work-Life Balance

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January 2008
Article

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Five Forces Framework; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy

30 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

How Technology Adoption Affects Global Economies

look at how technology interacts with geographical diffusion." In a series of research papers, Comin and colleagues investigated the relationship between a country's historical rate of technology adoption and its per capita income. It... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

09 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Climate Goals, Housing Policy, and Corporate R&D Collide, Social Good Can Emerge

For almost four years, Omar Asensio and his colleagues have been studying the impact of federal energy programs on low-income neighborhoods. The intersection of technology—artificial intelligence, in particular—and public policy has long been an area of focus for... View Details

Keywords: by Glen Justice

March 1994 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Lisa Benton (A)

By: Linda A. Hill

Lisa Benton is in her fourth month as an assistant product manager at Houseworld, a leading consumer products company. She has been on the job since graduating from the Harvard Business School, and she has been frustrated from the start by a lack of responsibility, by... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Jobs and Positions; Power and Influence; Relationships; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

May 2024
Teaching Note

Vineyard Wind Starts Spinning: Overcoming Onshore Challenges to Offshore Wind

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-113. To activate the first wind turbines in the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard eventually supplying clean energy to 400,000 households, Vineyard Wind’s leaders had to navigate the permitting process, numerous delays, and objections from... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Renewable Energy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Massachusetts; Martha's Vineyard; New Bedford

26 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 26, 2019

available. Purchase this case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/218032-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 719-451 Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters No abstract available. Purchase this case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/719451-PDF-ENG Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2004 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century

By: Geoffrey Jones, Elisabeth Koll and Alexis Gendron

This case examines the role of Jardine Matheson, a trading company founded by two Scottish merchants, in the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. The two Opium Wars fought between Western powers and China, which sought to stop opium... View Details

Keywords: History; Globalized Economies and Regions; Ethnicity; Multinational Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Trade; Social and Collaborative Networks; China; United Kingdom

Educators

July–August 2012
Article

What Good Are Shareholders?

By: Justin Fox and Jay W. Lorsch

The article looks at the role outside shareholders play in corporate governance in the U.S., and the relationship between companies' shareholders and managers, as of 2012. It recounts the shift beginning in the 1970s toward shareholders claiming an increasing amount of... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism; Corporate Governance; Decision Making; Managerial Roles; United States

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24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

The world's fair in New York City at the end of the depression decade was a big deal. Planning began in 1935. The fairgrounds covered 1,216.5 acres in what had been a garbage dump in Queens. By opening day, April 30, 1939, the moonscape that had been Flushing Meadows... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Making Credibility Your Strongest Asset

power of his idea. But Rovell knew that T.V. and newspaper sports departments are flooded with resumes and demo tapes from thousands of wannabe reporters. To ensure that his material wouldn't be lost in the shuffle, he mailed it in the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

2009
Article

Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in 'Thick' Perspective

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

This article provides a critical reflection on the heavily normative nature of current accountability debates. In particular, it explores three streams of normative discourse on nonprofit accountability: improving board governance, improving performance-based... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Accounting; Governance; Performance Evaluation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Accounting Industry

11 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Secrets of the Successful Businesswoman

magazine's fifty most powerful women in corporate America for the past two years, smiled and nodded knowingly. "Treat the appointment with your family like you would treat the appointment with your CEO," she counseled. "Put... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

Shadow of the Contract: How Contract Structure Shapes Inter-Firm Dispute Resolution

By: Fabrice Lumineau and Deepak Malhotra

This paper investigates how contract structure influences inter-firm dispute resolution processes and outcomes by examining a unique dataset consisting of over 150,000 pages of documents relating to 102 business disputes. We find that the level of contractual detail... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Contracts; Rights; Negotiation; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

2019
Article

Creativity from Paradoxical Experience: A Theory of How Individuals Achieve Creativity while Adopting Paradoxical Frames

By: Goran Calic, Sébastien Hélie, Nick Bontis and Elaine Mosakowski

Purpose: Extant paradox theory suggests that adopting paradoxical frames, which are mental templates adopted by individuals in order to embrace contradictions, will result in superior firm performance. Superior performance is achieved through learning and creativity,... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Learning

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10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Motivation and the Cross-Sector Alliance

relationships to attain the desired outcome. Of comparable importance is an understanding of why the other partner wishes to engage in the collaboration so that the participant can be responsive to those goals and needs. In thinking about... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin, Ezequiel Reficco & SEKN research team

30 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

Professional Networks in China and America

Most managers understand at some level the wisdom of the adage, "It's not what you know; it's who you know." Indeed, building the right professional relationships is critical for business success. In China, View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Europe, Russia, and the Age of Gas Revolution

By: Rawi Abdelal, Leonardo Maugeri and Sogomon Tarontsi

The 2014 Ukraine crisis once again exposed the mutually limiting knot—a web of commercial relationships and oil and gas pipelines—that historically tied the European Union and Russia closely. In this crisis, a familiar conundrum preoccupied minds in the corridors of... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Business and Government Relations; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; European Union; Russia; Ukraine

Educators