- 01 Jul 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education
Online courses can lack support structures that are often bundled with traditional higher education. Short pre-course interventions can have short-term benefits, but more innovation throughout the course is needed to have sustained impact on student success.
- 27 Apr 2020
- Research & Ideas
How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding
COVID-19 has turned many companies into federations of remote workplaces, but without guidance on how their onboarding of new employees must change, says Boris Groysberg. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 06 Mar 2020
- Book
A Great Teacher's Lessons for Leading
Thomas DeLong, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains in a new book what makes a great teacher—and manager. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 03 Mar 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Do Universities Need 2U To Create Digital Education?
Karim Lakhani and Marco Iansiti discuss how universities are looking for technology partners to deliver digital education, as well as their new book, “Competing in the Age of AI.” Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 06 Jan 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
The Future of Executive Development: The CLO’s Compass and The Executive Programs Designer’s Guide
Digitalization is reshaping companies’ demand for executive education. Executive education providers have to adapt quickly to these new demands and cost structures if they wish to survive. This paper guides providers as well as chief learning officers and chief talent officers who want to chart effective routes through the emerging landscape of executive development.
- 06 Jan 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
From Know-It-Alls to Learn-It-Alls: Executive Development in the Era of Self-Refining Algorithms, Collaborative Filtering and Wearable Computing
Learning happens most reliably and efficiently when it is contextualized, personalized, and socialized. This is important for executive learning in particular and adult learning more generally. Innovators and educational designers can leverage technologies that enable sensing, interacting, computing, searching, and storing to produce learner-optimal experiences.
- 06 Nov 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?
Drawing on 110 interviews with business leaders as part of the Creating Emerging Markets project at Harvard Business School, this paper represents the first systematic attempt to identify and compare investment in education across emerging economies, specifically in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf between the 1960s and the present day.
- 01 Aug 2019
- What Do You Think?
Has the Twitter Age Left the Case Method Behind?
SUMMING UP: Is the business case study method outmoded? James Heskett's readers are divided on whether the case is ripe for replacement. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 07 Jul 2019
- HBS Case
Walmart's Workforce of the Future
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.
- 30 Jun 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training
When sales forces are well managed, firms can induce greater performance from them. For this study, the authors collaborated with a major multinational firm to develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of sales employee responses to various management instruments like compensation, training, and recruiting/termination policies.
- 03 Apr 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning or Playing? The Effect of Gamified Training on Performance
Games-based training is widely used to engage and motivate employees to learn, but research about its effectiveness has been scant. This study at a large professional services firm adopting a gamified training platform showed the training helps performance when employees are already highly engaged, and harms performance when they’re not.
- 02 Apr 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics
Which managerial skills, traits, and practices matter most for productivity? This study of a large garment firm in India analyzes the integration of features of managerial quality into a production process characterized by learning by doing.
- 23 Jan 2019
- Sharpening Your Skills
Sports: Lessons for Managers
When people look to illustrate a great business idea or accomplishment, a sports metaphor usually isn't far away. Why Harvard Business School researchers look for teaching gold on the playing fields of the world. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 20 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Reverse the Curse of the Top-5
Scholars and those who evaluate them for promotion can overweight publications ranked in a discipline’s five top journals. This paper explains the origins of journal rankings, the errors and distortions when journal rankings are used to evaluate faculty research, how they inhibit innovative research on emerging practice issues, and possible reforms to reduce their perverse incentives.
- 23 Jul 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
The Creative Consulting Company
Management theories cannot be tested in laboratories; they must be applied, tested, and extended in real organizations. For this reason the most creative consulting companies balance conflicting demands between short‐term business development and long‐term knowledge creation.
- 27 Jun 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment
For many girls in developing countries, early adolescence is a time of key challenges: school dropout rates rise, and social and economic pressures increase for marriage and motherhood. This randomized control trial involving Zambian adolescent girls finds that negotiation skills can help them navigate these challenges. Girls taught negotiation skills had significantly better educational outcomes over the next three years.
- 20 Apr 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Executive Education in the Digital Vortex: The Disruption of the Supply Landscape
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.
- 07 Jun 2017
- Research & Ideas
How an African History Scholar Became a Modern Righter of Wrongs
A scholar of colonial-era African history, Caroline M. Elkins had dramatic success turning prior knowledge into real-world action—namely, with a groundbreaking lawsuit against the British government, which revealed a chillingly bureaucratic process for destroying evidence of torture. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 03 Nov 2016
- Op-Ed
Forget About Making College Affordable; Make it a Good Investment
Making college affordable is a popular campaign topic this year, but Joseph Fuller argues the real debate should be over increasing the returns for students. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?
Even the most powerful leaders need support and guidance occasionally. Julia Austin offers advice own how and where to find the right type of mentor. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.