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New research on systems from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including systems architecture and modularity.
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‘Organizing’, ‘Innovating’, and ‘Managing’ in Complexity Space

by Michael C. Moldoveanu

This paper explores organizational complexity by proposing a two-dimensional framework to help us understand organizational coping mechanisms and failure modes. The framework makes it possible to ask new questions about organizational adaptations to complexity that investigate its underlying structure and dynamics.

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

by Dina Gerdeman

Researchers believe gender stereotypes hold women back in the workplace. Katherine Coffman's research adds a new twist: They can even cause women to question their own abilities. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

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.

Knowing What Your Boss Earns Can Make You Work Harder

by Rachel Layne

Learning what your co-worker earns can make you less productive, but knowing your manager's paycheck can motivate you to work harder. Research by Zoë Cullen. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Celebrating 'The Men and Women of the Corporation' 40 Years Later

by Robin J. Ely

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s Men and Women of the Corporation inspired and informed a generation of scholars studying gender, status, and power. Robin J. Ely interviews Kanter about her groundbreaking research and why it remains relevant today. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Increase Middle Class Incomes

by Roberta Holland

New research by Ethan Rouen and colleagues suggests that corporate tax cuts contribute to income inequality. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Complex Disclosure

by Ginger Zhe Jin, Michael Luca, and Daniel Martin

This study shows that companies looking to hide unfavorable information might strategically be making contract terms unnecessarily complex, harming consumers and undermining the effectiveness of disclosure. These results highlight a role for regulation that would encourage simpler forms of disclosure.

Corporate Tax Cuts Increase Income Inequality

by Suresh Nallareddy, Ethan Rouen, and Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato

This paper examines corporate tax reform by estimating the causal effect of state corporate tax cuts on top income inequality. Results suggest that, while corporate tax cuts increase investment, the gains from this investment are concentrated on top earners, who may also exploit additional strategies to increase the share of total income that accrues to the top 1 percent.

Credit Supply Shocks, Network Effects, and the Real Economy

by Laura Alfaro, Manuel García, and Enrique Moral-Benito

Using data for Spain between 2003 and 2013, this study examines firms’ responses to credit supply shocks during times of boom (expansion) and bust (financial crisis and recession). Results indicate that propagation of these shocks through the Spanish production network doubles the magnitude of the real effects typically estimated in the literature. This study also shows how such effects vary greatly during booms and busts.

Leadership Lessons from a Young Martin Luther King, Jr.

Re: William W. George

As a young man, Martin Luther King, Jr. was unsure about his future as a leader of a social change. Bill George explains how King grew to become one of the most powerful civil rights leaders in history. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

by Laura Alfaro, Nick Bloom, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros, Andrew F. Newman, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

The study develops a simple model and provides new data to examine the relationship between vertical integration and delegation of decision-making, two critical aspects of a firm organizational design that are typically studied in isolation. The results show that delegation and vertical integration are positively correlated.

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

This paper based on a large online study finds that individuals tend to differentiate in their concerns about fairness along specific dimensions, especially time and money, and are much more worried about fairness in one (time) than the other (money). These attitudes may help explain a seemingly wide variety of phenomena.

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

by Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson, and Jeremy C. Stein

Between 2008 and 2014, the Top 4 banks sharply decreased their lending to small business. This paper examines the lasting economic consequences of this contraction, finding that a credit supply shock from a subset of lenders can have surprisingly long-lived effects on real activity.

Investors as Stewards of the Commons?

by George Serafeim

This paper lays out a framework suggesting that index investors and adequately funded asset owners are a potential mechanism to build and sustain pre-competitive collaborations for addressing environmental and social issues. With long time horizons and significant common ownership of companies within the same industry or supply chain, investors could serve as vehicles for the establishment and/or stability of collaborations between companies.

Exploring the Relationship Between Architecture Coupling and Software Vulnerabilities: A Google Chrome Case

by Robert Lagerström, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Alan MacCormack, Dan Sturtevant, and Lee Doolan

Managing software vulnerabilities is a top issue in today’s society. By studying the Google Chrome codebase, the authors explore software metrics including architecture coupling measures in relation to software vulnerabilities. This paper adds new findings to research on software metrics and vulnerabilities, bringing the field closer to generalizable and conclusive results.

Researchers Prove C-Suite Gender Gap—but Can’t Explain It

by Carmen Nobel

In research involving virtually every top executive in Sweden, Matti Keloharju and colleagues document what many already believe: women get fewer opportunities at top positions and lower pay when they get those positions. But just what is causing this gender gap is not so clear. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What Will It Take to Achieve Gender Equality in Leadership?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP James Heskett's readers question the meaning of "gender equality" and ponder ways to give women access to the same management opportunities as men. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Explaining China's Crash

by Christina Pazzanese

After a decade of massive growth, China’s stock market began a precipitous summer slide that that hasn't slowed yet. Dante Roscini explains what's deflating markets worldwide. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Income Inequality: What’s the Right Amount?

by Jim Heskett

Summing Up Comments were large in number and broad of opinion reflecting on Professor Jim Heskett's question, Does income inequality promote or stunt economic growth? Is there a "right" right amount of income disparity? Closed for comment; 67 Comment(s) posted.

The Silo Lives! Analyzing Coordination and Communication in Multiunit Companies

by Sarah Jane Gilbert

A new Harvard Business School working paper looks inside the communications "black box" of a large company to understand who talks to whom, and finds the corporate silo as impenetrable as ever. Q&A with professor Toby E. Stuart. Key concepts include: Inside the studied company, practically speaking, little interaction occurred across three major corporate boundaries: business units, organizational functions, and office locations. Communication patterns were extremely hierarchical: Executives, middle managers, and rank-and-file employees communicated extensively within their own levels, but there were far fewer cross-pay-grade interactions in the firm. Junior executives, women, and members of the salesforce were the key actors in bridging the silos. Relative to men, women participate in a greater volume of electronic and face-to-face interactions and do so with a larger and more diverse set of communication partners. Server logs can provide valuable information to managers on communication flows within their own organizations. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.