532 Posts found for Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge

Many companies preach and practice corporate social responsibility, but their efforts often lack an overall strategy that dilutes their effectiveness. Professor “Kash” Rangan and colleagues offer a pragmatic solution.

Content: Article | Author: Dina Gerdeman | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

How do you create a company that unleashes and capitalizes on innovation? HBS faculty experts in culture, customers, creativity, marketing, and the DNA of innovators offer up ideas.

Content: Article | Authors: Garry Emmons, Julia Hanna, Roger Thompson | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Innovation

Psychologist Frederick Herzberg’s Two-factor theory… focuses on the idea that the factors that determine job dissatisfaction (“hygiene factors”) are completely separate from those that determine true satisfaction (“motivators”). Insufficient financial compensation, for example, falls into the former camp. But having sufficient compensation will not lead to passion for a job; it just takes away the dissatisfaction. Motivation, according to the theory, is determined not by … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Carmen Nobel, Clayton M. Christensen | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Think of innovation strategy as a pyramid: big bets at the top, a few projects in development in the middle, and a broad base of continuous improvements, incremental contributions, and early-stage new ideas at the bottom.

Content: Quotation | Author: Rosabeth Moss Kanter | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Innovation

Trust is the basis of agility, of flexibility. Yet it’s an incredible challenge to establish trust and maybe even harder to maintain it. Underlying the challenge is the question of how to institutionalize trust between buyer and supplier. I’ve got colleagues who maintain that trust can only be established between individuals. But a few souls like Robert and myself say we’ve got to be able … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Trust

When teaching negotiation skills, many educators now focus almost exclusively on an interest-based approach in which both parties openly collaborate to find a mutually satisfying solution. However, argues HBS Professor Mike Wheeler, it’s important for students to know that there’s still a time and place for old-school haggling.

Content: Article | Author: Katie Johnston | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Negotiation

World-renowned innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen explores the personal benefits of business research in the forthcoming book How Will You Measure Your Life? Co-authored with James Allworth and Karen Dillon, the book explains how well-tested academic theories can help us to find meaning and happiness not just at work, but in life. This excerpt describes how marginal thinking can lead to personal, professional, and moral … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Ethics, Personal Development

Upgrades to existing product lines make up a huge part of corporate research and development activity, and with every upgrade comes the decision of how to brand it. Harvard Business School marketing professors John T. Gourville and Elie Ofek teamed up with London Business School’s Marco Bertini to suss out the best practices for naming next-generation products.

Content: Article | Author: Carmen Nobel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Marketing / Sales

More and more I have come to the conclusion that a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Values

Analyzing the e-mails of some 30,000 workers, Professor Toby E. Stuart and colleague Adam M. Kleinbaum dissected the communication networks of HQ staffers at a large, multidivisional company to get a better understanding of what a corporate headquarters does, and why it does it.

Content: Article | Author: Michael Blanding | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Organizational Behavior

A British merchant’s long-forgotten work, An Essay on the State of England, could lead to a rethinking of how modern economies developed in Europe and America, and add historical perspective on the proper relationship between government and business. An interview with business historian Sophus A. Reinert.

Content: Article | Author: Sean Silverthorne | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Economics, History

We are stuck now, not only in the United States but in many European countries, in a polarized polemic in which pundits and politicians alike suggest to us that the essential question of political economy is one of choosing between planning and laissez-faire, between Stalin and Ayn Rand, between stupidity and intelligence. This is as specious as it is dangerous. The encouragement and regulation of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sophus A. Reinert | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Economics

Over the past seven years, Harvard Business School’s Raffaella Sadun and a team of researchers have interviewed managers at some 10,000 organizations in 20 countries. The goal: to determine how and why management practices differ vastly in style and quality not only across nations, but also across various organizations and industries.

Content: Article | Author: Carmen Nobel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: International

Many companies receiving high marks in environmental sustainabilty are hurting the planet in other ways, write professor Michael Toffel and executive Auden Schendler. Here’s where green rankings fall short.

Content: Article | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

The granddaddy of all mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results. This is a hard race to win. So many managers confuse operational effectiveness with strategy. Another common mistake is confusing marketing with strategy. It’s natural for strategy to arise from a focus on customers and their needs. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael E. Porter | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Strategy

In a new book, Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy, Joan Magretta distills Porter’s core concepts and frameworks into a concise guide for business practitioners. In this excerpt, Porter discusses common strategy mistakes.

Content: Article | Authors: Joan Magretta, Michael E. Porter | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Strategy

In the wake of corporate scandals, many companies are looking more closely at how to manage business conduct worldwide. Realizing the complexity of this issue, Harvard Business School professors Rohit Deshpandé, Lynn S. Paine, and Joshua D. Margolis decided to evaluate standards of corporate conduct around the world—one of the most daunting research projects the three faculty have undertaken

Content: Article | Author: Carmen Nobel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Corporate Governance

When evaluating compensation issues, economists often assume that both an employer and an employee make rational, albeit self-interested choices while working toward a goal. The problem, says Assistant Professor Ian Larkin, is that the most powerful workplace motivator is our natural tendency to measure our own performance against the performance of others.

Content: Article | Author: Carmen Nobel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Bad bosses are generally more inept than evil, and often aren’t purposefully bad, says Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. She discusses common bad-boss behaviors, and how good colleagues can mobilize to overcome the roadblocks.

Content: Article | Authors: Carmen Nobel, Rosabeth Moss Kanter | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The mere fact that an online video advertisement reaches a viewer’s computer screen does not guarantee that the ad actually reaches the viewer. New experimental research by Thales S. Teixeira looks at how advertisers can effectively capture and keep viewers’ attention by evoking certain emotional responses.

Content: Article | Authors: Carmen Nobel, Thales S. Teixeira | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Advertising, Marketing / Sales | Industry: Advertising