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New research on managing change from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including corporate reinvention, disaster preparedness and recovery, and culture change.
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Lessons for Retailers from the Rebirth of Indie Bookstores

by Michael Blanding

Independent bookstores are resurging. Their strategies offer lessons for many disrupted industries to compete against Amazon and other digital retailers, says Ryan Raffaelli. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Manager's Guide to Leveraging Disruption

by Sean Silverthorne

Clayton M. Christensen's seminal book, The Innovator's Dilemma, helped ignite the idea of innovative disruption. His Harvard Business School colleagues have been adding to innovation research ever since. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Are Paywalls Saving Newspapers?

by Kristen Senz

Newspapers with reputable brands and unique content are finding success behind paywalls. For most papers, however, the future is not so clear, says Doug J. Chung. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

by Julia Hanna

A case study by William Kerr explores Walmart's plans for future workforce makeup and training, and its search for opportunities from digital infrastructure and automation. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

by Danielle Kost

Technology doesn't drive disruption—customers do. In a new book, marketing professor Thales Teixeira argues that successful disruptors are faster to spot and serve emerging customer needs than larger competitors. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Business of Saving the Planet

by Sean Silverthorne

The biggest challenge facing today's business leaders? Putting their operations in harmony with the environment. Read the latest research around building sustainability into business processes and management practices. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Big Companies Can Outrun Disruption

by Martha Lagace

Large companies can be easy targets for disruption, but Gary Pisano says there are steps that can keep them ahead of the innovation curve. Rule 1: Don't emulate startup cultures. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

by Roberta Holland

We can forecast hurricane paths with great certainty, yet many businesses can't predict a supply chain snafu just around the corner. Yael Grushka-Cockayne says crowdsourcing can help. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Using Fintech to Disrupt Eastern Bank from Within

Re: Karen Mills

When Eastern Bank decided to battle a threat from new competitors, it hired a fintech executive to set up Eastern Labs and start innovating. Karen Mills discusses her case study on what happened next. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

by Dina Gerdeman

Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Executive Education in the Digital Vortex: The Disruption of the Supply Landscape

by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

The competitive landscape of executive education is feeling a tectonic shift even as demand grows for managerial skills. This study maps and analyzes the major providers of executive education programs, including business schools, consultancies, and corporate universities, to better understand and explain the industry’s present and future dynamics.

Nowcasting Gentrification: Using Yelp Data to Quantify Neighborhood Change

by Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca

This study finds that data from digital platforms (in this case, Yelp) can help forecast which neighborhoods are gentrifying and provide new ways to measure business landscape changes that accompany demographic changes.

How to Heed BlackRock's Call for Corporate Social Responsibility

by Julie Battilana

BlackRock's Larry Fink is challenging CEOs to serve a social purpose as well as a financial one. Institutional change expert Julie Battilana discusses what it will take to create this "transformation of capitalism." Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2017

by Sean Silverthorne

The most visited stories on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge in 2017 included new research on gender and racial bias, personal productivity, and happiness. What do you think were the most powerful business trends of the year? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

by Carmen Nobel

Every successful social movement requires three distinct leadership roles: the agitator, the innovator, and the orchestrator, according to institutional change expert Julie Battilana. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Reinventing the American Wine Industry: Marketing Strategies and the Construction of Wine Culture

by Ai Hisano

Since the 1960s, the United States has seen spectacular growth in wine consumption. This paper explores how businesses reinveted the image of wine. This creation of the new market, like other consumer products, had social and cultural consequences. In the US, wine became a status symbol and a renforcer of social and class divisions.

A Three-Box Solution to Managing Innovation

by Michael Blanding

In The Three-Box Solution, Vijay Govindarajan adapts an ancient Hindu philosophy to balance a company's often competing realities of past, present, and future. The more we can plan for opportunity, the better the possibility of creating a successful future. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

When CEOs Become Activists

by Carmen Nobel

More and more, CEOs are promoting social causes that lie far outside their core business interests. Research by Mike Toffel and Aaron Chatterji explores the rise of CEO activists and the effects on their companies. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Do Leaders Get Their Timing Wrong?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP: Is good management timing primarily a function of strategy or culture? James Heskett's readers add their opinions. What do YOU think? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Does Gender Diversity Improve Financial Performance?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP Why does having more women in leadership positions make for more successful companies? James Heskett's readers offer a variety of theories. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.