Publications

March–April 2019
Article

The Dual-Purpose Playbook

By: Julie Battilana, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul and Marissa Kimsey

Corporations are being pushed to dial down their single-minded pursuit of financial gain and pay closer attention to their impact on employees, customers, communities, and the environment. But changing an organization’s DNA may require upending the existing business... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizing; Business And Society; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Model; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Structure; Leadership

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June 2020
Article

Parallel Play: Startups, Nascent Markets, and the Effective Design of a Business Model

By: Rory McDonald and Kathleen Eisenhardt

Prior research advances several explanations for entrepreneurial success in nascent markets but leaves a key imperative unexplored: the business model. By studying five ventures in the same nascent market, we develop a novel theoretical framework for understanding how... View Details

Keywords: Search; Legitimacy; Organizational Innovation; Organizational Learning; Mechanisms And Processes; Institutional Entrepreneurship; Qualitative Methods; Business Model Design; Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Adaptation; Competition; Strategy

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2019
Working Paper

Southern Responses to Gold Certification: Cooperate, Compete, Reject, Revise

By: Kristin Sippl

Artisanal gold mining is a Southern subsistence livelihood posing both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. In 2011, Fairtrade International launched a certification program to address sustainability problems in the sector. Southern activists,... View Details

Keywords: Eco-labeling; Extractive Industries; Emerging Economies; Fair Trade; Environmental Sustainability; Standards; Programs; Governance Compliance; Competition; Adaptation; Mining Industry

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December 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Transforming Verizon: A Platform for Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

A new CEO steps into the shoes of his long-time predecessor who had created the U.S. telecommunications giant via a series of acquisitions and, before departing, had initiated the company's strategic repositioning. The new CEO reflected on Verizon's recent successes,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Globalized Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Telecommunications Industry

November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

February 1996
Case

TRW's Information Services Division: Strategic Human Resource Management

By: Michael Beer and Gregory C. Rogers

Looks at a change effort initiated by a human resources manager within a division of TRW. The effort utilizes a change process to try to deal with some of the division's issues around organizational effectiveness, especially that of a long-term strategy. In so doing,... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Managerial Roles; Strategy; Problems and Challenges

October 1995 (Revised March 1996)
Case

Booz.Allen & Hamilton: Vision 2000

In 1993, Booz.Allen & Hamilton forsook its previous, highly local organizational structure. It was motivated by a desire to serve multinational clients more effectively and to provide greater value to clients with more localized business by collecting best practices... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Service Industry

October 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (A) and (B) Condensed

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States

September 1993
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (B)

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Chemical Industry; France; United States

01 Jun 2001
News

But It's All Right Now (In Fact, It's a Gas)

In 1978, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Boston Harbor was unceremoniously shut down because of contract disputes with its Algerian suppliers. In 1987, the terminal’s owner, Cabot Corp., tapped Gordon Shearer (MBA ’78), “a determined geophysicist... View Details

Keywords: Natural Gas Distribution; Utilities

1997
Chapter

The Politicization of Organizational Life

By: R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Power and Influence

July 10, 2024
Article

Designing a Successful Reskilling Program

By: Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic and Raffaella Sadun

In this article, written as a follow up to the award-winning “Reskilling in the Age of AI”, the authors report the results of a reskilling survey that they conducted with chief human resource officers from approximately 1,200 organizations in the U.S., along with... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Training; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employees

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Article

Why Sexual Harassment Persists and What Organizations Can Do to Stop It

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Long before the #MeToo movement, the insidious effects of harassment were well known to organizational researchers. Women who are harassed often leave their jobs, taking valuable relationships, and potential out the door with them and creating the costly need to hire... View Details

Keywords: Work Environment; Sexual Harassment; Harassment; Organizational Culture; Gender; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change