Publications

Educators

January 2025
Supplement

A Winning Strategy (B): Innovation in Olympic Speed Skating

By: Rebecca Karp, Maria Roche, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Tom Quinn

This case describes the aftermath of decisions made by two innovators in the Olympic sport of speed skating: the U.S. Men’s team, which devised a new approach to the team pursuit event; and Nils van der Poel, a Swedish skater who created a new training plan that defied... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Sports Industry; United States; Sweden; Netherlands; Norway

2025
Working Paper

CEO-Firm Matches and Productivity in 42 Countries

By: Amanda Dahlstrand, Dávid László, Helena Schweiger, Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

Firms are key to economic development, and CEOs are key to firm productivity. Are firms in countries at varying stages of development led by the right CEOs, and if not, why? We develop a parsimonious measure of CEO time use that allows us to differentiate CEOs into... View Details

January 2025
Article

Everyone Steps Back?: The Widespread Retraction of Crowd-Funding Support for Minority Creators When Migration Fear Is High

By: John (Jianqui) Bai, William R. Kerr, Chi Wan and Alptug Yorulmaz

We study funding gaps on Kickstarter across multiple ethnic groups from 2009 to 2021. Scaling the concept of racially salient events, we quantify the close co-movement of minority funding gaps in crowd-funding to inflamed political rhetoric surrounding migration. The... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Immigration; Public Opinion

January 2025
Case

Less Is More: Will Aldi's Expansion Plans Pay Off in a Crowded U.S. Grocery Market?

By: David Collis and Haisley Wert

In 2024, the discount grocery retailer Aldi announced bold U.S. expansion plans. Within five years, the German company would increase its store count by 30% to reach 3,200+ stores across the United States and approach becoming the fifth largest grocery retailer in the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Scope; Grocery; Strategy; United States

Educators

January 2025
Article

Overcoming Barriers to Employee Ownership: Insights From Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

By: John Guzek and Ashley Whillans

This research investigates the limited adoption of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) among small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. Through interviews with 30 SMB owners across various industries, we identify the key barriers to ESOP adoption as lack of... View Details

Keywords: Profit Sharing; Employee Ownership; Management Practices and Processes; Compensation and Benefits; Small Business; Adoption; Employees

2025
Book

Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves

By: Alison Wood Brooks

We all struggle with difficult conversations, but we're often not very good at the easy ones either. Though we do it all the time, I argue that conversation is one of the most complex, demanding, and delicate of all human tasks, rife with possibilities for... View Details

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2025
Chapter

Tracing the Early History of IB Teaching at Harvard Business School

By: Louis T. Wells

January–February 2025
Article

Want Your Company to Get Better at Experimentation?: Learn Fast by Democratizing Testing

By: Iavor Bojinov, David Holtz, Ramesh Johari, Sven Schmit and Martin Tingley

For years, online experimentation has fueled the innovations of leading tech companies, enabling them to rapidly test and refine new ideas, optimize product features, personalize user experiences, and maintain a competitive edge. The widespread availability and lower... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Product Development; Competitive Advantage

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January–February 2025
Article

What People Still Get Wrong About Negotiations: They Assume the Size of the Pie Is Fixed—and So Miss Opportunities to Create Value

By: Max H. Bazerman

Most executives leave value on the negotiating table, for two main reasons: First, many executives mistakenly believe that they’re negotiating over a fixed pie and that gains for one side necessarily mean losses for the other. Second, they focus exclusively on how to... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Offer; Negotiation Tactics; Value; Communication; Trust

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January–February 2025
Article

Why People Resist Embracing AI

By: Julian De Freitas

The success of AI depends not only on its capabilities, which are becoming more advanced each day, but on people’s willingness to harness them. Unfortunately, many people view AI negatively, fearing it will cause job losses, increase the likelihood that their personal... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Perception

January 2025
Teaching Note

Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace

By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim, Margaret Underwood and Gamze Yucaoglu