Harvard Business School Starts Multi-Part Research Paper Series


We are pleased to announce that Harvard Business School has expanded its presence on SSRN by introducing the Harvard Business School Research Paper Series. The Series presents novel and innovative ideas and provides a forum for the circulation of working papers produced by the faculty of Harvard Business School in the following areas: Accounting & Management; Business, Government, & the International Economy; Entrepreneurial Management; Finance; General Management; Marketing; Negotiation, Organizations, & Markets; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; and Technology & Operations Management.

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL RESEARCH PAPER SERIES
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HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ACCOUNTING & MANAGEMENT UNIT
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The Accounting & Management Unit strives to be the worldwide leader in research, course development, and teaching on top managements' use of performance measurement systems.

Unit research, course development, and teaching fall into two broad areas: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Management Accounting. The Unit's research helps scholars and educators understand current best practices for the design and use of performance measurement systems that help managers to build more effective, value-creating organizations by:

• communicating with external investors to ensure that their firms' securities are fairly priced and that they are able to access capital;
• measuring and evaluating their firms' economic performance;
• improving resource allocation and strategy implementation within their firms; and
• building accountability for performance through effective external and internal governance.

The Business, Government, & the International Economy Unit conducts research on, and teaches about, the economic, political, social, and legal environment in which business operates. The Unit is deeply interested in the impact of globalization and the way rules are emerging to govern international economic transactions as globalization proceeds. The faculty includes scholars trained in economics, political science, and history. In its work, it draws on perspectives from all three of these disciplines. The Unit's faculty approach learning and teaching in a variety of ways:

• examining the "rules" and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect business in the United States;
• turning to history to understand the origins of today's business environment as well as some of the alternatives that have emerged from time to time; and
• analyzing other countries' business environments and their historical development.

The Entrepreneurial Management Unit strives to raise the level of academic work in the field of entrepreneurship, in methodological rigor, conceptual depth, and managerial applicability. It also strives to improve the odds of entrepreneurial success for its students and for practitioners worldwide. The complexity of entrepreneurship requires the Unit to view its research through multiple lenses, including:

• the process of entrepreneurship, which seeks to understand the processes of entrepreneurial activity in start-ups and established firms by examining the antecedents and consequences of various forms of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and opportunity pursuit for individuals, organizations, and industries. It sees experimentation and innovation in products, services, processes, and business models as central to entrepreneurial activity;
• the finance of entrepreneurship, which seeks to understand the financing of entrepreneurial ventures by studying the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial funding decisions both domestically and internationally; and
• the context of entrepreneurship, which seeks to understand the ways in which entrepreneurs both respond to and shape the context in which they operate, by examining the history of entrepreneurship across time and national borders and by analyzing the legal and cultural contexts for managerial action.

The Finance Unit faculty produce a broad range of relevant and intellectually rigorous research which addresses issues of present and future importance to managers. The faculty's interests and skills complement one another. Their expertise, combined with the applied focus and access to business organizations, are major advantages that are reinforced by its students and its case approach.

The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:

• the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
• the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
• the relationship of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.

The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:

• Management Policy and Process;
• Management Information Systems;
• Management and Leadership of Socially-Oriented Enterprises; and
• Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility.

The Marketing Unit's faculty work to better understand how consumers use information and make choices and how these choices affect the firm's strategy for new product development, customer relationship management, branding, and other marketing efforts. They examine issues related to:

• branding;
• business marketing;
• global marketing;
• distribution channels;
• pricing;
• interactive marketing;
• sales force management; and
• return on marketing investment.

Several new developments such as the economic crisis, internet search engines, and social networks offer opportunities for the Marketing faculty to make important current and future contributions.

The Negotiation, Organizations, & Markets Unit seeks to:

• understand and improve the design and management of systems in which people make decisions: that is, design and management of negotiations, organizations, and markets; and
• to apply rigorous scientific methods to real-world problems, producing compelling research and pedagogy for both academics and practitioners.

The Unit's work is grounded in the power of strategic interaction to encourage individuals and organizations to create and sustain value (in negotiations, in organizations, and in markets). Its researchers explore these interactions through diverse approaches: Although many have training in economics, the Unit also has members with backgrounds in social psychology, sociology, and law.

The Organizational Behavior Unit engages in research, teaching, and course development which advances the understanding of how to lead and manage. It aims to increase both personal and organizational effectiveness. Although specific research interests span a wide range of subjects, the faculty share a problem-driven, interdisciplinary, multi-method approach that has had a significant impact on theory and practice.

In the last decade, the faculty has been recognized for their work on:

• leadership in an increasingly dynamic environment;
• the evolution of managerial careers in our society;
• managing diversity;
• organizational design and change to meet the evolving needs and expectations in an increasingly global and more competitive economy;
• corporate governance; and
• professional service firms.

The Strategy Unit's research, course development, and teaching draws on multiple disciplines, including economics, sociology, and political science, and focuses on both domestic and global competition.

The Strategy Unit studies firms as competitors in an economic landscape. Key issues include:

• the development and effectiveness of firm strategy at both a business and corporate level;
• the analysis of the competitive environment; and
• the sustainability of strategy over time.

The objective of the work is to generate findings and develop concepts that will help managers improve their strategic decisions while advancing the state of knowledge in the academic study of strategy and related disciplines.

The Technology & Operations Management Unit has evolved to reflect the changes in the world of operations by expanding its research, teaching, and course development in information technology, supply chains, and service industries.

The "TOM" field is concerned with the design, management, and improvement of operating systems and processes. As its researchers seek to understand the challenges confronting firms competing in today's demanding environment, the focus of the Unit's work has broadened to include the multiple activities comprising a firm's "operating core":

• the multi-function, multi-firm system which includes basic research, design, engineering, product, and process development and production of goods and services within individual operating units;
• the networks of information and material flows that tie operating units together and the systems that support these networks; and
• the distribution and delivery of goods and services to customers.

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Posted 3/12/09

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