Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

self-serving this system is. Q: What strikes me about this book, and I think anyone who's going to read it, is the tone. You're actually calling players in the health care View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

appropriate when addressing complex problems we have not encountered before. But both Systems 1 and 2 can lead to poor decisions both in terms of content and timing. Can we roughly equate bureaucracy to View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

Teaching Interest

Decision Making Under Uncertainty

By: David E. Bell

Many of the decisions we face are made complicated by having uncertain consequences: how should I set my inventory when I don’t know what demand will be, should I refinance my mortgage when rates might go lower, how big a bet shall I make in a new business, and so... View Details

July 2003
Article

Probabilistic Representation of Complexity

By: Nabil I Al-Najjar, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Emre Ozdenoren

We study individuals' behavior in an environment that is deterministic, but too complex to permit tractable deterministic representation. Under mild conditions, behavior is represented by a unique probabilistic model in which the agent's inability to think through all... View Details

Keywords: Complexity; Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Planning

Citation

Find at Harvard

22 May 2024
HBS Case

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

understands users’ emotions TikTok presents videos it thinks a user might engage with, rather than waiting for the user to choose posts they prefer or follow those of influencers or friends. Its single-page vertical videos allow the app... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

09 Feb 2024
HBS Case

Slim Chance: Drugs Will Reshape the Weight Loss Industry, But Habit Change Might Be Elusive

what may at first blush appear to be an easier fix: new drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, says Harvard Business School Professor Regina E. Herzlinger, who has studied the American health care system for decades. Wegovy has been... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Health; Pharmaceutical

09 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Moving From Bean Counter to Game Changer

Early Warning System that conveyed the bank's "risk view." Management started using these tools to frame important debates, such as the evaluation of divisional heads' performance at quarterly business reviews. The View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Banking

01 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 1, 2008

does not, by itself, create a performance drag. Radically Simple IT Authors:David M. Upton and Bradley R. Staats Publication:Harvard Business Review 86, no. 3 (March 2008): 118-124 Abstract Many managers think that developing and rolling... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

obvious disconnect between the companies’ pro-diversity messages and the actual acceptance of diverse applicants, yet she doesn’t believe employers are using these messages as a way to trap and weed out minorities that do apply. “I don’t View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

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

systemic and equitable changes in how they hire and promote from within. “It’s not simply about recruiting and getting people into the role. How are you going to give them sponsorship, give them mentorship?” says Hill, who coauthored the... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
Case

KangaTech

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Patrick J. Ferguson, Sarah Fleischer, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

On a warm January afternoon in 2019, Steve Saunders, Dave Scerri, Carl Dilena, and Nick Haslam (see Exhibit 1 for biographies), co-founders of KangaTech, wrapped up the latest round of discussions about the future direction of their sports-technology start-up. Focused... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Technology Commercialization; Prototype; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Sports; Health; Commercialization; Research and Development; Decision Making; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Sports Industry; Health Industry; Australia

Citation

Educators

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04 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Want to Make Diversity Stick? Break the Cycle of Sameness

of the time and white people 75 percent of the time. “People ... seem to ignore the diversity of the remaining group, which is what you’d think they’d care about if they think that diversity is good... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

21 Mar 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility

Keywords: by Hao Liang, Christopher Marquis, Luc Renneboog & Sunny Li Sun

09 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 9, 2008

markets, highlighting concerns as China strives to modernize its financial system to meet global competition and support its fast growing economy. Purchase the note: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

value, in part because their study didn’t include operating systems, the part of a computer system that controls all the other programs. “When we first came up with numbers in the trillions, we thought, ‘Nobody's going to believe this,’”... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

14 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Feeling Stressed? Try Sniffing Your Romantic Partner's Shirt

suggests that cortisol reactions may represent energy mobilization within the metabolic system in preparation for a potential threat (the ‘fight or flight’ response), and that this cortisol reaction may not be accessible to the subjective... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

31 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back

According to Tabellini, white people fear losing status and access to public resources or jobs, as has long been posited in sociology and psychology literature. “When the minority group becomes larger, the majority group feels more threatened,” says Tabellini. “This is... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

amount of each resource available and more on how people both think about and choose to spend those resources. Overall, focusing on time leads to greater happiness than focusing on money. Moreover, people enjoy greater happiness from... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

26 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

STEM Needs More Women. Recruiters Often Keep Them Out

much as 80 percent of tuition for delivering top applicants. “If you're not really thinking about how these little subtle differences might occur here, before people even apply, then maybe you're missing out on potential non-traditional... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

09 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 9

Cases & Course Materials Harvard Business School Case 612-016 Lowell General Physician Hospital Organization This case focuses on the Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), a novel payment program designed to incentivize providers to deliver less costly, high... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Publications