Publications

November–December 2020
Article

Dancing with Giants: How Small Women-and Minority- Owned Firms Use Soft Power to Manage Asymmetric Relationships with Larger Partners

By: Kisha Lashley and Timothy G. Pollock

We explore how minority- and women-owned suppliers lacking hard power manage asymmetric relationships with larger, more powerful buyers in the context of supplier diversity relationships. We examine how these suppliers create and use soft power to manage the... View Details

Keywords: Women-owned Businesses; Minority-owned Businesses; Soft Power; Buyer-supplier Relationshships; Cognitive Centrality; Hard Power; Influencers; Supplier Diversity; Small Business; Relationships; Sales

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September 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Suntech Power

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Suntech, a Chinese manufacturer of photovoltaic cells and solar panels, is the third largest solar company in the world. About 90 percent of its sales have been in Europe—especially Germany and Spain. But with its new "pluto" technology, and with new governmental... View Details

Keywords: Solar Power; Renewable Energy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Strategy; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; China

September 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Module Note

Building Effective Working Relationships

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

This note introduces a framework for deliberately building effective interpersonal relationships. First, we will define the necessary attributes of these relationships. Next, we will discuss common barriers to effectiveness. Lastly, we will provide tools to build and... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Relations; Power And Influence; Networks; Interpersonal Communication; Performance Effectiveness

December 2017
Case

La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A)

By: Christine L. Exley, John Beshears and Alison Wood Brooks

This case follows the program director of La Ceiba, a Honduras-based microfinance institution, as he navigates four challenging negotiation scenarios involving the organization's loan clients. Students are asked to adopt the perspective of the Program Director and to... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Power; Apology; Negotiation Process; Microfinance; Power and Influence; Situation or Environment

October 2013
Article

When Power Makes Others Speechless: The Negative Impact of Leader Power on Team Performance

By: Leigh Plunkett Tost, Francesca Gino and Richard P. Larrick

We examine the impact of subjective power on leadership behavior and demonstrate that the psychological effect of power on leaders spills over to impact team effectiveness. Specifically, drawing from the approach/inhibition theory of power, power-devaluation theory,... View Details

Keywords: Power; Leadership; Team Performance; Groups and Teams; Performance; Leadership Style; Power and Influence

2021
Book

Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone's Business

By: Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro

We want to change how people see power: not just as a blunt tool reserved for the privileged few, or as a dirty business that one should stay away from, but as energy for everyone to harness to make our life, work, and society better. We hope that our democratizing... View Details

Keywords: Power Relationships; Power and Influence; Change; Society

December 2017
Supplement

La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (B)

By: Christine L. Exley, John Beshears and Alison Wood Brooks

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Power; Apology; Negotiation Process; Microfinance; Power and Influence; Situation or Environment

December 2017 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A) and (B)

By: Christine L. Exley, John Beshears and Alison Wood Brooks

Teaching Note for cases 918-014 and 918-015. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Power; Apology; Negotiation Process; Microfinance; Power and Influence; Situation or Environment

Article

Power, Competitiveness, and Advice Taking: Why the Powerful Don't Listen

By: L. P. Tost, F. Gino and R. Larrick

Four experiments test the prediction that feelings of power lead individuals to discount advice received from both experts and novices. Experiment 1 documents a negative relationship between subjective feelings of power and use of advice. Experiments 2 and 3 further... View Details

Keywords: Advice Taking; Power; Expertise; Confidence; Competitive Mindset; Competition

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23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How Relationships are Building Biotech

career relationships help to build up organizations. The study of careers seems to act as a powerful lens for examining the birth of biotech. Higgins, who specializes in research, teaching, and course... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Mallory Stark

September–October 2002
Article

Market Power and Power Markets

By: Jurgen Weiss

The paper provides results of a serious of experiments with experienced subjects exploring the relationship between elements of electricity market design and competitive outcomes. The two primary variables examined are a) the price formation (nodal versus uniform with... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Market Design; Competition

2011
White Paper

Brands Are People Too! Harnessing the Power of Brand Warmth and Competence

By: Chris Malone, Jill Avery and S. T. Fiske

Research in customer behavior has revealed that the way humans respond to brands is simply an extension of the way they instinctively perceive, judge, and behave towards one another. Understanding how consumers judge brands using social processes akin to those used in... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Brand Positioning; Brand Equity; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

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Article

The Pursuit of Power Corrupts: How Investing in Outside Options Motivates Opportunism in Relationships

By: D. Malhotra and F. Gino

Across three laboratory studies, this paper illustrates how a common strategic decision aimed at increasing one's own power—investing in outside options—can lead to opportunistic behavior in exchange relationships. We show that the extent to which individuals have... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Motivation and Incentives; Opportunities; Relationships

July–August 2014
Article

Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

By: Jill Avery, Susan Fournier and John Wittenbraker

Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: people now expect companies... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; CRM; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship

of this work could explain how relationships that began as unbalanced, with one player holding most of the cards—as is typical in industrial markets—could evolve from adversarial to collaborative. "In any relationship, the dependence... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

How Market Power Affects Dynamic Pricing: Evidence from Inventory Fluctuations at Car Dealerships

By: Ayelet Israeli, Fiona Scott-Morton, Jorge Silva-Risso and Florian Zettelmeyer

This paper investigates empirically the effect of market power on dynamic pricing in the presence of inventories. Our setting is the auto retail industry; we analyze how automotive dealerships adjust prices to inventory levels under varying degrees of market power. We... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Pricing; Market Power; Pricing; Price Discrimination; Inventory Production; Marketing; Price; Competitive Strategy; Auto Industry; Retail Industry

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August 2014 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Husk Power

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Sid Misra

In late 2013, Husk Power Systems found itself falling further and further behind plan. The founding CEO had decided to resign. His co-founder is faced with the decision of quitting his corporate job in the US to head to India and help form a new management team. Husk... View Details

March 2015
Module Note

Power and Influence in Society

By: Julie Battilana

This module aims to help students understand how power and influence are employed, both to reproduce the status quo and to effect change in society. It first helps them to understand why, more often than not, power is used to reproduce the existing way individuals and... View Details