Publications

SSRN

September 1987
Background Note

What Do Venture Capitalists Do?

By: William A. Sahlman

Presents the results derived from 49 responses to a questionnaire mailed to 100 venture capitalists in late 1984. The purpose of the survey was to shed light on the relationship between venture capitalists and their portfolio companies. The survey revealed that the... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Recruitment; Surveys; Managerial Roles; Service Operations; Relationships; Service Industry

November 2006
Article

The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Using a detailed database of managerial job descriptions, reporting relationships, and compensation structures in over 300 large U.S. firms, we find that firm hierarchies are becoming flatter. The number of positions reporting directly to the CEO has gone up... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Change; Business Ventures; Compensation and Benefits; Rank and Position; Wages; Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Jobs and Positions; United States

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January 1996
Background Note

The Motivation for Creativity in Organizations

By: Teresa M. Amabile

People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself--when they are driven by a deep involvement in their work and a passion for it. This note describes the ways in which creativity... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Managerial Roles; Organizations; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Satisfaction

Web

Research & Teaching - Creating Emerging Markets

Uses for Research & Teaching Research Guidelines Teaching Guidelines Research Guidelines The Creating Emerging Markets project provides a unique and freely accessible resource for scholars and researchers. In his Oral History in Latin... View Details

June 2017
Article

The Social Trajectory of a Finance Professor and the Common Sense of Capital

By: Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana

This paper traces the career of Michael Jensen, a Chicago finance PhD turned Harvard Business School professor to reveal the intellectual and social conditions that enabled the emergence and institutionalization of what we call the “neoliberal common sense of capital,”... View Details

Keywords: Executive Pay; The Firm; Michael Jensen; Neo-Liberalism; Shareholder Value; Agency Theory; Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Transformation

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

really gets accentuated when you need the cash and the resources to go to scale. It requires explorers like Carol Kovac to respect the tension in the organization and to manage from the outside in. As soon... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

30 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Amager Bakke: A Look into the Future of Waste Incineration

Amager Bakke, a waste incinerator in Copenhagen, Denmark. The plant was built in 2016 by Amager Resource Center, a management company owned by the five municipalities the incinerator serves. The project... View Details

03 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First

Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

August 2020
Article

Workplace Knowledge Flows

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

We conducted a field experiment in a sales firm to test whether improving knowledge flows between coworkers affects productivity. Our design allows us to compare different management practices and to isolate whether frictions to knowledge transmission primarily reside... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Performance Productivity; Sales; Motivation and Incentives

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01 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

A Penny for Your Thoughts? For Big-Picture Ideas, the Right Pay Structure Matters

Want employees to think outside the box? Start by taking a good, hard look at how you’re paying them. That’s the implication of new research examining the impact of different compensation structures on employee innovation. While there is endless handwringing about what... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

29 Mar 2022
Book

5 Qualities That Help Companies Thrive for Decades—Even Centuries

“Problems happen in family management when there are three or four brothers. All brothers may not be of equal capability and commitment.” Successful family-owned enterprises build mechanisms that over time recognize the value that each... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

20 Oct 2023
News

Highlights from the Fall 2023 Alumni Board Meeting

sense of rigor in the classroom have returned to what they were before the pandemic, adding that the School is also supporting students’ educational journeys at HBS in new ways. Kierstead discussed the naming of Rupal Gadhia (MBA 2004) as the new View Details

Web

Interviewing - Alumni

that person. Thank You Email After Interview: Dear Mr. Bolletaris, Thank you for providing me with an excellent introduction to Alpha Galactic. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and learning more about the Manager of Marketing position.... View Details

October 1996 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (D): Gasoline Marketing

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Mobil US Marketing & Refining has shifted from a centralized staff-driven organization to decentralized business-units. Staff functions now must negotiate service agreements with a buyer's committee consisting of representatives from the profit-center business units.... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Management Teams; Human Resources; Agreements and Arrangements; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customers; Situation or Environment; Business Units; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

19 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

What Makes Employees Trust (vs. Second-Guess) AI?

choices, resulting in more efficient organizations. “It’s about how we think about talent and resource allocation,” Paik says. You Might Also Like: When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

March 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Gender and Free Speech at Google (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Martha J. Crawford and Sarah Mehta

In August 2017, Google fired James Damore, a 28-year-old software engineer who had been employed by the company since 2013. The move came after Damore penned an internal company memo titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” which posited that innate biological... View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Representation; Diversity; Gender; Race; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry; United States; California

March 2018
Case

Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Inakshi Sobti

After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Group, a billion-dollar conglomerate in Nepal, decides to play a pivotal role in rebuilding the country. The Group's philanthropic arm (Chaudhary Foundation) works with stakeholders and develops a blue print for short- and... View Details

01 Jun 2000
News

Going Public: Margaret M. Crotty

year after graduating from Princeton with a degree in history. As a consultant, she evaluated community development programs throughout Indonesia and helped rural women build microenterprises. The resourcefulness of the women impressed... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

August 2009 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Cabot Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and John T. Gourville

Traces the 12-year career of a pharmaceutical salesperson, Bob Marsh, from recruitment to termination. Marsh has had an uneven career with Cabot Pharmaceuticals and eventually is asked to resign. Following his termination, a number of Marsh's former customers complain... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Performance Evaluation; Salesforce Management; Alignment; Pharmaceutical Industry