Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

28 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Rethinking the Fairness of Organ Transplants

approval," Trichakis says. "The Office of Civil Rights is involved too. Everyone is still in the loop of thinking about how the system should look: how many points for dialysis time, waiting time,... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Health

fall 2008
Article

Toward a Theory of Behavioral Operations

By: Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano

Human beings are critical to the functioning of the vast majority of operating systems, influencing both the way these systems work and how they perform. Yet most formal analytical models of operations assume that the people who participate in operating systems are... View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Operations; Mathematical Methods; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Perspective; Theory

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23 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Management’s Role in Reforming Health Care

clinicians' working lives. Understanding the relationship between the four components, and between the operating systems for delivering care and learning from care, will be essential for care delivery organizations as they View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

30 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Only Capitalists Can Save Capitalism

If capitalism was a stock, the market would appear rather bearish on its future. Bank failures, economic crises, and middle-class riots across the globe appear symptomatic of large systemic weaknesses in the market system, highlighted by... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

February 2004
Case

Note on Human Behavior: Reason and Emotion

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

Human beings are driven by reasons and emotions. On the one hand, as rational choice theorists assert, human beings are resourceful and evaluative as they strive to maximize their own interests. An individual's interests can converge or diverge from the interests of... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Interests; Organizations; Organizational Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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25 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

meaningful relationships, the research says. Ultimately, Jachimowicz hopes his work can prompt thinking about systemic change. “People who are poor should feel like they have some control over their lives,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Firm Competitiveness and Detection of Bribery

Keywords: by George Serafeim

Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop

It is easy to condemn obvious wrongdoers such as Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, Harvey Weinstein, and the Sackler family. But we rarely think about the many people who supported their unethical or criminal behavior. In each case there was a supporting cast of... View Details

November 8, 2018
Article

Transitioning Payment Models: Fee-for-Service to Value-Based Care

By: Thomas W. Feeley and Namita Seth Mohta

In a survey of the NEJM Catalyst Insights Council in July 2018, 42% of respondents say they think value-based reimbursement models will be the primary revenue model for U.S. health care. Indeed, this transition is already happening. Respondents report that a quarter of... View Details

Keywords: Payment Methods; Value-based Healthcare Reimbursements; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Transformation

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25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

we are willing to contribute ideas in the workplace or try to compete for a promotion,” Coffman says. “If talented women in STEM aren’t confident, they might not even look at those fields in the first place. It’s all about how good we View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2009
Article

Finance and Politics: A Review Essay Based on Kenneth Dam's Analysis of Legal Traditions in The Law-Growth Nexus

By: Mark J. Roe and Jordan I. Siegel

Strong financial markets are widely thought to propel economic development, with many in finance seeing legal tradition as fundamental to protecting investors sufficiently for finance to flourish. Kenneth Dam finds that the legal tradition view inaccurately portrays... View Details

Keywords: Financial Development; Economic Development; Kenneth Dam; Finance; Government and Politics; Information; Law

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April 2013
Case

The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King (Abridged)

By: Michael G. Rukstad and David J. Collis

The first ten pages of this case are comprised of the company's history, from 1923 to 2001. The Walt years are described, as is the company's decline after his death and its resurgence under Eisner. The last five pages are devoted to Eisner's strategic challenges in... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Corporate Strategy; Boundaries; Brands and Branding; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

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Educators

06 Aug 2015
Blog Post

What I Was Not Expecting: Rerouting Towards My Passion at HBS

and I think I am in the right track to soon figure it out (or at least temporarily feel like I have). What this whole thing has made me reflect on is that when it comes to recruiting, you are most likely going to find a good support View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media / Sports

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 on a how-to guide about HR View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Web

Business Economics - Doctoral

Zhuo Business Economics Sagar Saxena Business Economics “ HBS is the ideal environment because I get to think about the world like an economist, but I have the freedom and resources to draw on methods from other disciplines as I study... View Details

2015
Book

What Great Service Leaders Know and Do: Creating Breakthroughs in Service Firms

By: James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Based on decades of collective field experiences, the authors present anecdotal evidence in support of eight things that great service leaders know and do. Great service leaders know that (1) leading a breakthrough service is different, and they take steps to ensure... View Details

Keywords: Management; Leadership; Service Operations; Service Delivery

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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

27 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 27, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=207039 Vipp A/S Harvard Business School Case 607-052 Rapidly growing Vipp sells highly differentiated (and expensive) "designer" versions of a product that most buyers View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

“Too Big To Fail”: Reining In Large Financial Firms

it fails, that will lead to a systemic problem.' Same with AIG, Fannie and Freddie, and Citibank. But not with Lehman, although I think in retrospect they may believe they made a mistake on that one." To... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

2015
Working Paper

Online Word of Mouth and Product Review Disagreement

By: Frank Nagle and Christoph Riedl

Studies of online word of mouth have frequently posited―but never systematically conceptualized and explored―that the level of disagreement between existing product reviews can impact the volume and the valence of future reviews. In this study we develop a theoretical... View Details