Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
Filter Results: (228) Arrow Down

ManagementRemove Management →

New research on management from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including management strategy, accountability, design and succession planning.
← Page 2 of 228 Results →

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

by Dina Gerdeman

In today's tight job market, employers must focus on how to attract and keep top talent. Giving away stacks of money may not always be the best incentive, warns Ashley Whillans. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Marketplace Scalability and Strategic Use of Platform Investment

by Jin Li, Gary P. Pisano, and Feng Zhu

One well-known feature of marketplace platforms like Airbnb and eBay is their scalability. This paper identifies the strategic trade-off and implications for scalability when a platform provides services to existing and potential sellers that help reduce their fixed costs of running the business. Timing this investment is an important consideration for maximizing marketplace scalability.

These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership

by Bill George

At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, these four corporate leaders stepped forward—and changed how we think of leadership forever, says Bill George. 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.

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

In strategic management research, the dynamic capabilities framework enables a “helicopter view” of how firms achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the critical role of work teams, arguing that managers must leverage the knowledge generated by teams to support innovation and strategic change. It matches types of team learning to innovation activities.

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

by Dina Gerdeman

If you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own management shortcomings, counsels Alison Wood Brooks. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What’s the Best Administrative Approach to Climate Change?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP: James Heskett's readers point to examples of complex environmental problems conquered through multinational cooperation. Can those serve as roadmaps for overcoming global warming? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Make Your Employees Feel Psychologically Safe

by Martha Lagace

To do their best work, people need to feel secure and safe in their workplace. In a new book, Amy C. Edmondson details how companies can develop psychological safety. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets for Technology

by Moritz Fischer, Joachim Henkel, and Ariel Dora Stern

When and how to enter a new market is central to firms’ innovation strategies, including in the medical device industry. The authors show how to evaluate early-mover advantage vs. disadvantage when the primary option to monetize an innovation lies in selling it in an intermediate “market for technology” rather than in a final product market.

The Value Structure of Technologies, Part 2: Technical and Strategic Bottlenecks as Guides for Action

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper presents analytic tools to formulate strategy in large, evolving technical systems. It explains how value-enhancing technical change comes from the effective management of technical and strategic bottlenecks in conjunction with module boundaries and property rights. The analytic tools are used to explain the evolution of three historic technologies: early aircraft, machine tools, and container shipping.

Quantile Forecasts of Product Life Cycles Using Exponential Smoothing

by Xiaojia Guo, Kenneth C. Lichtendahl Jr., and Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Many important business decisions rely on a manager’s forecast of a product or service’s life cycle. One of the most widely used forecasting techniques is exponential smoothing models. This paper introduces a model suitable for large-scale forecasting environments where key operational decisions depend on quantile forecasts.

Baseball’s Billy Beane Shows Companies the Power of Data

Re: Srikant M. Datar

With a relatively small payroll, the Oakland A's baseball team remains competitive by being smarter about data. Srikant Datar discusses the "Moneyball" strategy and how it can be applied in business. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Developing Theory Using Machine Learning Methods

by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ryan Allen, and Michael G. Endres

This paper provides a step-by-step roadmap for using machine learning (ML) techniques to explore novel and robust patterns in data. It introduces management researchers to a new use case for ML tools: building new theory from quantitative observational data. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP Stuck between a rock and a critical POTUS, Harley-Davidson should ignore the politics and operate where best business practices lead it, most of James Heskett's readers advise. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Creative Consulting Company

by Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton

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.

The Transformation of Microsoft

Re: C. Fritz Foley

In early 2015, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood and the rest of senior leadership faced a fundamental choice. Was the company ready to invest in long-term growth at the expense of some short-term profit? Professor Fritz Foley discusses how executives thought through the tradeoffs. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

A Measure of Risk Appetite for the Macroeconomy

by Carolin E. Pflueger, Emil Siriwardane, and Adi Sunderam

This paper sheds new light on connections between financial markets and the macroeconomy. It shows that investors’ appetite for risk—revealed by common movements in the pricing of volatile securities—helps determine economic outcomes and real interest rates.

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

by Rachel Layne

When times are tight, companies usually respond with employee layoffs. But what if they held on to workers and cut their salaries instead? New research by Christopher Stanton and colleagues has the answer. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Careem: Riding the First Unicorn in the Middle East

Re: Shikhar Ghosh

Doubling in size every two-and-a-half months, ride-hailing service Careem was experiencing growing pains operationally and culturally. Shikhar Ghosh discusses how the founders struggled to keep its 4 million customers satisfied. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps

by Julia Hanna

Foreign businesses located in at-war countries are often victims of expropriation. Historian Valeria Giacomin explores how German businesses in the United Kingdom and India mitigated risk and even benefitted when their employees were placed in internment camps during the World Wars. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.