Spring 2021 Issue

Future organizations will be flash powered - recruiting freelancers looking for high-autonomy work and engaging them in a collective production process - to generate innovative solutions for complex business and societal problems. Arvind Malhotra, Ann Majchrzak, and Alpheus Bingham present frameworks through which to understand the rapidly evolving nature of work and organizations and to address the resulting issues.

Firms around the world strive for disruptive leadership. Through a case study of Admiral Jacky Fisher, who completely disrupted the immensely powerful British Royal Navy at the beginning of the 20th century, preparing it for the onset, just four years later, of World War I, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp identifies six key characteristics of disruptive leadership.

Can corporate responsibility persist in the Covid-19 era? If so, how? Paul Argenti explains why now is the time to focus on the long term and think about the opportunity that comes out of crisis.

The first issue of MBR was published earlier this year at the peak of the COVID crisis. This second issue is being released as we enter what we devoutly hope is the beginning of the end of the crisis (and not, as Churchill famously quipped, the “end of the beginning”). Launching a new publication during a global pandemic would certainly not have been our first choice. But Churchill is also credited with saying “never let a good crisis go to waste,” and we strive to follow that advice

Putting Purpose into Practice: How Companies Can Deliver Paul Washington | The Conference Board Thomas Singer | The Conference Board Investors and business leaders are calling on...

Life entails a great deal of uncertainty, shaping our careers and personal paths in unexpected ways. Paul Schoemaker examines eight complementary approaches which can improve the odds of favorable outcomes, both in business and in life. This strategic road map will help you to increase the number of times luck smiles upon you and to incur risks only when you have a sufficient statistical advantage. 

For the Best Paper Published in the Management and Business Review (MBR) This award is named for Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock. By contributing to the...

Stefan Wuorinen, Brian Burgess, and Patrick Wright present a wide range of considerations and strategies to bolster acquisition success by expanding the influence of human resources on the processes. Using insights drawn from interviews with Fortune 500 Chief Human Resource Officers, they examine the role of HR in acquisitions and provide practical advice for increasing its effectiveness.

Direct marketing communication is often seen as unnecessary. Nonetheless, Hannah Kim and V Kumar ask: Can it still help firms to make money? How can they communicate with each customer to increase its effectiveness? Is it possible to determine whether money incentives or relationship building is more effective? More importantly, can firms discover their customers’ preferences without asking?

Harry Markowitz developed the modern portfolio theory which earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize and is today used in managing trillions of dollars in assets. Suresh Sethi describes the fascinating life of a scholar whose footprints led the way to almost everything in finance.