Publications

2020
Case

Building Transparency within the Sustainable Apparel Coalition: The Road to Successful Pre-Competitive Collaboration

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) was founded in 2010 to develop a common set of sustainability standards for the apparel, footwear, and home textile industries. The organization was an example of pre-competitive collaboration, a strategy in which companies... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Cooperation; Social Issues; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Apparel and Accessories Industry

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

September 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Briscola—Pizza Society: Scaling Affordable Luxury

By: Gary P. Pisano and Federica Gabrieli

Riccardo Cortese and Federico Pinna were the CEOs of Briscola—Pizza Society, a restaurant chain they had founded in 2014 with a clear ambition: create a distinctive international pizza chain that would combine a fast-casual format with the devotion to quality that... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Geographic Location; Business Model; Ownership Type; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; Italy

2019
Book

Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership

By: Linda A. Hill

In your career, or anyone's, there is one transition that stands out as the most crucial—going from individual contributor to competent manager.

New managers have to learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to... View Details

Keywords: Management; Leadership; Leadership Development; Management Skills; Learning

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Article

How Beliefs about Self-creation Inflate Value in the Human Brain

By: Raphael Koster, Tali Sharot, Rachel Yuan, Benedetto De Martino, Michael I. Norton and Raymond J. Dolan

Humans have a tendency to overvalue their own ideas and creations. Understanding how these errors in judgement emerge is important for explaining suboptimal decisions, as when individuals and groups choose self-created alternatives over superior or equal ones. We show... View Details

Keywords: fMRI; Amygdala; Hippocampus; Medial Temporal Lobe; Caudate Nucleus; Values and Beliefs

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April 2014 (Revised July 2017)
Case

The Park Hotels: Revitalizing an Iconic Indian Brand

By: Jill Avery and Chekitan S. Dev

Priya Paul, chairperson of The Park Hotels, an award-winning portfolio of thirteen boutique hotels scattered across India, was in the midst of a brand revitalization program. Landor Associates, a leading brand consultancy had identified three areas of concern: the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Positioning; Competition; Brands and Branding; Accommodations Industry; India

March 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences

By: Willy Shih, Sen Chai, Kamen Bliznashki and Courtney Hyland

Gordon Zong is trying to teach Chinese universities and research institutes how to do effective technology transfer and IP licensing, but he is trying to do it in an environment with weak property rights and an underdeveloped support infrastructure. As the managing... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Patents; Knowledge Management; Law Enforcement; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

2010
Chapter

Lessons from Catastrophe Reinsurance

By: Kenneth A. Froot

Of the 20 most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001. Is this an omen of what the 21st century will be? How might we behave in this new, uncertain, and more dangerous environment? Will our actions be rational or irrational? A select... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Insurance; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Disasters; Behavior

2008
Working Paper

Laws vs. Contracts: Legal Origins, Shareholder Protections, and Ownership Concentration in Brazil, 1890–1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

The early development of large multidivisional corporations in Latin America required much more than capable managers, new technologies, and large markets. Behind such corporations was a market for capital in which entrepreneurs had to attract investors to buy either... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Governance Controls; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Ownership Stake; Brazil

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January 2001
Background Note

Country Analysis in a "Global Village"

By: Bruce R. Scott

Substantially rewritten to establish the relevance of countries in the global context. It does so in terms of their differing economic performance in recent decades, and also by contrasting those that have "converged" toward the rich country norm (as theory would... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Macroeconomics; Trade; Business Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Industry Growth; Currency; Policy; Development Economics

March 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Coming to Grips with Deregulation: Bay State Gas

In 1995, CEO Roger Young made a surprising decision to bring in Joel Singer, an outsider with an MBA, to lead Bay State through the upcoming turmoil of deregulation. Singer was convinced that in this situation where the boundaries of the industry were being defined,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Emerging Markets; Energy Industry; Massachusetts

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Web

Our Mission | About

not right to lie, cheat, or steal. It involves recognizing that you are a true leader only when you have earned the trust of others, and when others, whether in your organizations or your communities, recognize you as such. “Make a... View Details

Web

Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

since when costs are reduced one must be sure that outcomes are not made worse. Outcomes are also essential parts of value based payment plans like bundled payment. In regional and national expansion of delivery organizations, they are important in determining how to... View Details

24 Oct 2016
Research & Ideas

Bernie Madoff Explains Himself

between right and wrong is not sufficient to avoid falling into the behavioral traps people can face when under pressure to succeed. Answering a single question, Madoff exhibits several all-too-familiar cognitive biases, psychological... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

12 May 2021
Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

also will help you fight the insularity and sense of isolationism that comes with leadership roles. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. Excerpted from Hidden Truths: What Leaders Need to Hear But Are Rarely Told. Copyright © 2021 by David Fubini. All... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

October 2021
Article

Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach

By: Nicolas Padilla and Eva Ascarza

The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details

Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Programs; Consumer Behavior; Analysis