Publications

2011
Working Paper

Managerial Practices That Promote Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers

By: Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer and Michael W. Toffel

Process-improvement ideas often come from frontline workers who speak up by voicing concerns about problems and by taking charge to resolve them. We hypothesize that organization-wide process-improvement campaigns encourage both forms of speaking up, especially voicing... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Business Processes; Performance Improvement

SSRN

Read Now

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

(about Martin Luther King Jr.). Savvy From The Start U2's business savvy in the earliest days serves as a lesson for any MBA student. In an industry notorious for its focus on short-term hits and for taking control of an artist's work... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

March 2022
Article

Carbon Footprinting and Pricing under Climate Concerns

By: Marco Bertini, Stefan Buehler, Daniel Halbheer and Don Lehmann

This article studies how organizations should design a product by choosing the carbon footprint and price in a market with climate concerns. The authors first show how the cost and demand effects of reducing the product carbon footprint determine the profit-maximizing... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Carbon Offsetting; Climate Impact; Net-zero Emissions; Pricing; Climate Change; Product Design; Price; Environmental Sustainability; Marketing

November 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Social Salary Setting at Spiber

By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 920-050. The case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; General Management; Employee Benefits; Incentives; Motivation; Compensation and Benefits; Fairness; Motivation and Incentives; Management; Happiness; Negotiation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Japan

January 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Merging American Airlines and US Airways (A)

By: David G. Fubini, David A. Garvin and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In February 2013, US Airways announced that it would merge with American Airlines to create the world’s largest airline. Doug Parker, the CEO of US Airways, would become CEO of the new American Airlines Group (AAL). The case describes a number of critical decisions... View Details

Keywords: Airlines; Merger; Takeover; Integration Strategy; Merger Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Governance; Management Teams; Operations; Organizational Culture; Air Transportation Industry; United States

Educators

September 2016 (Revised October 2017)
Case

KaBOOM!: Play at Scale (Abridged)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

A case on scaling social impact for nonprofits. Founded in 1995, KaBOOM! quickly became a nationally recognized nonprofit in building playgrounds with strong corporate partnerships and volunteer-organizing capabilities. Over the years, KaBOOM! developed new programs,... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Social Enterprise; Scaling Social Impact; Nonprofit Scaling; Nonprofit; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; United States

Educators

January 1998
Case

Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corporation (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Massimo Russo and Steven J. Spear

Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC), a 50-year-old spring manufacturing and metal stamping firm, is experiencing slow sales growth and feeling the impact of global competition. The company has over 800 customers but little understanding of those customers'... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Competency and Skills; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Customer Relationship Management; Quality; Training; Performance Efficiency; Cost Management; Sales; System

Educators

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

looking to boost morale. “People are quitting, and companies are noticing that it’s harder to get people to join the company and hold on to them, so they’re going back to the drawing board.” Hall is working... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

February 2018
Article

Bank CEO Materialism: Risk Controls, Culture and Tail Risk

By: Robert Bushman, Robert Davidson, Aiyesha Dey and Abbie Smith

We investigate how the prevalence of materialistic bank CEOs has evolved over time and how risk management policies, non-CEO executives’ behavior, and tail risk vary with CEO materialism. We document that the proportion of banks run by materialistic CEOs increased... View Details

Keywords: Management; Personal Characteristics; Behavior; Risk Management; Organizational Culture; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

December 2007
Article

Regional Health Information Organizations: Current Activities and Financing

Electronic clinical data exchange promises substantial financial and societal benefits, but it is unclear whether and when it will become widespread. In early 2007 we surveyed 145 regional health information organizations (RHIOs), the U.S. entities working to establish... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Health Industry; United States

Read Now

13 Dec 2018
Blog Post

Working at the Intersection of Business and Environment

the recent Climate Change Challenge assignment in Technology & Operations Management, a required first-year course taught by Mike Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management and BEI... View Details

June 2024
Teaching Note

Beamery: Using Skills and AI to Modernize HR

By: Boris Groysberg, David Lane, Susan Pinckney and Alexis Lefort

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 424-004. Unicorn human relationships startup Beamery evaluates it growth versus depth strategy as its strategic partners and customers could become future competitors in a quickly changing AI based human resources and talent management... View Details

01 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Systemic Risk and the Refinancing Ratchet Effect

Keywords: by Amir E. Khandani, Andrew W. Lo & Robert C. Merton; Construction; Real Estate

March 2023
Supplement

Deepa Bachu (B): Insights and Experiments at Pensaar Design

By: Thomas Graeber, Joshua Schwartzstein and Amram Migdal

In this case, set in June 2019 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Deepa Bachu of Pensaar Design and her team work with client ITC Ltd. to use design thinking and behavioral experiments to improve workplace safety and strive toward the company’s zero-accident goal. The... View Details

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53894 forthcoming Human Resource Management Review Developing Strategic Human Resource Theory and Making a Difference: An Action... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 17, 2018

that extended management theory and improved management practice. This paper draws upon public sources and the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Teaching Note

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-046. Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Sports Industry; United States; North America

Winter 2013
Article

The New Patent Intermediaries: Platforms, Defensive Aggregators and Super-Aggregators

By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

The patent market consists mainly of privately negotiated, bilateral transactions, either sales or cross-licenses, between large companies. There is no eBay, Amazon, New York Stock Exchange, or Kelley's Blue Book equivalent for patents, and when buyers and sellers do... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Platforms; Intermediaries; Aggregator; Patents; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Distribution Channels