Faculty Books

01 Dec 2013

Faculty Books

Re: Thomas R. Eisenmann (Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration Peter O. Crisp Faculty Chair, Harvard Innovation Labs Unit Head, Entrepreneurial Management); Anthony Mayo (Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator); F. Warren McFarlan (Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus); Nitin Nohria (George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor); Ranjay Gulati (Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration); William C. Kirby (T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration); Michael A. Wheeler (MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, Retired)

Topics: Information-Books Business Ventures-Business Startups Negotiation-Negotiation Process Management-Management Skills Globalization-Globalized Economies and Regions

Faculty Research

HBS Working Knowledge offers a first look at new thinking from HBS faculty. Read the complete articles summarized below by visiting their web links.

Unspoken Cues: Encouraging Morals without Mandates
Associate Professor Michel Anteby studied his own employer to better understand how organizations can create moral behavior using unspoken cues.

Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway
Why do businesses evaluate candidates solely on past job performance, ignoring the job's difficulty? Why do university admissions officers focus on high GPAs, discounting influence of easy grading standards? Associate Professor Francesca Gino and colleagues investigate the phenomenon of the "fundamental attribution error."

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking
Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice Joe Lassiter explains why he believes nuclear power and shale gas are on the right side of the fight against climate change, and why markets have a better shot at winning the fight than governments do.

Earnings Calls That Get Lost in Translation
Clear communication is critical for a successful earnings call. The challenge is doubly hard for foreign executives conducting calls in English. New research by Assistant Professors Gwen Yu and François Brochet provides guidance to executives speaking to investors in any language.

Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts
edited by Tom Eisenmann
(O'Reilly Media)

Eisenmann, the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration, annually compiles the best posts from blogs on technology start-up management for the benefit of his students. This book makes his latest collection available to the broader entrepreneur community. Among other topics, the contributors explore the metrics needed to run a start-up, discuss lean prototyping techniques for hardware, identify costly outsourcing mistakes, provide practical tips on user acquisition, offer branding guidelines, and explain how a choir of angel investors often will sing different parts.

The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World
by Michael Wheeler
(Simon & Schuster)

Wheeler, the MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, retired, shows how master negotiators thrive in the face of chaos and uncertainty. They understand negotiation as a process of exploration that demands ongoing learning, adapting, and influencing, and their agility enables them to reach agreement when others would be stalemated. He explains how the best practices of diplomats like George Mitchell, the late dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein (JD 1970/MBA 1971), and Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub apply to everyday transactions like selling a house, buying a car, or landing a new contract.

Management
by Ranjay Gulati, Anthony J. Mayo, and Nitin Nohria
(Cengage Learning)

How are leaders successfully managing competitive companies in the 21st century? The authors demonstrate how success within a constantly changing business environment requires understanding three key management factors: the interactive nature of strategy, organizational design, and individual leadership. Today's managers need to harness technological advances; manage and lead a dispersed, diverse workforce; anticipate and react to constant competitive and geopolitical change and uncertainty; compete on a global scale; and operate in a socially responsible and accountable manner.

Can China Lead? Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth
by Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, and F. Warren McFarlan
(Harvard Business Review Press)

This book provides an updated look at the current difficulties of doing business in emerging markets, particularly in China. Why is it so much harder for companies to operate there today compared to just a decade ago? The authors describe the rapidly changing context and the new challenges shaping business in China, and examine whether companies should rethink their growth aspirations and strategies in the region.