Idea posted: August 2013

Institutions: Southern Methodist University Edwin L. Cox School of Business    Stanford Graduate School of Business    University of Illinois College of Business    University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School   

Hierarchies are everywhere, and the business world is no exception; the distribution of power and status has become a defining feature of today’s organizations. What role, if any, do such…

Idea posted: July 2013

Institutions: MIT Sloan School of Management   

What can statistics and data-based analyses reveal to us about meetings that are effective (leading to consensus and decision-making) and efficient (goals achieved in optimal time)? Because the science of…

Idea posted: May 2013

Institutions: Cornell University    University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business    Washington University Olin Business School    The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania    Vanderbilt University   

In January 2011, a football commentator found himself unceremoniously fired after he made a remark about the appearance of a female match official, and questioned whether another was capable of…

Idea posted: May 2013

Institutions: INSEAD   

Strategic embeddedness is a priority for companies; a strategy is much more likely to succeed if a critical mass of employees understands and accepts it. Despite this, articles on strategic…

Idea posted: May 2013

Institutions: Henley Business School   

In the early 2000s, there was a rush by organizations to outsource and offshore many call centres because of the significant cost savings that could be achieved. But offshoring has…

Idea posted: May 2013

Institutions: New York University Stern School of Business    University of Virginia Darden Business School   

It is standard practice for corporations to have a conference call with stock market analysts after quarterly earnings are released. In this call, executives make a presentation concerning the earnings…

Idea posted: April 2013

Institutions: University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business   

Executives cannot afford to ignore the dangers posed by acting overconfidently. Numerous examples in recent history can attest to this, from the inflation of the dot-com bubble in the late…

Idea posted: March 2013

Institutions: Columbia Business School    Rutgers University   

There are two basic types of exchanges employed by people when forming new relationships: incremental exchanges and constant exchanges. In the former, we ‘test the water’ and build relationships gradually…

Idea posted: February 2013

Institutions: Henley Business School    Zhejiang University School of Management   

In traditional Chinese Confucian culture, an emphasis is placed on the development, maintenance, and exploitation of social networks, which depend on reciprocity, integrity, and the highest individual ethical standards. In…