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Explores how the purchase of services is managed within the organization, the risks associated with current services purchasing practices, and how to improve the professional management of services purchases. Survey data obtained from benchmarking research performed by CAPS Center for Strategic Supply Research reveal that purchasing services is viewed as more difficult than purchasing goods. In addition, while purchasing of services is growing in importance and magnitude, the resources to manage it are not. Accordingly, there are huge opportunities for organizations to improve their services purchasing in terms of cost and value by dedicating more, and perhaps different, resources to services purchasing. Developing an outstanding capability to purchase services, and to manage that purchase, could truly be the next frontier for improved supply chain and organizational performance.

In the past, most industrial firms focused on applying technology assets in their own products and services. Along with the trend towards open innovation, however, many firms have recently started to actively license out technology. These firms consider technology licensing a strategic activity, which may include all technology assets and which goes far beyond the marginal activity of commercializing residual technologies. The research collected for this article shows that the strategic drivers of technology licensing are often more important than generating licensing revenues. The strategic drivers strengthen the interdependencies between internally and externally commercializing technology. Product marketing and licensing are complements rather than substitutes in technology exploitation.

The popular "bottom of the pyramid" (BOP) proposition argues that large companies can make a fortune by selling to poor people and simultaneously help eradicate poverty. While a few market opportunities do exist, the market at the BOP is generally too small monetarily to be very profitable for most multinationals. At the same time, the private sector can play a key role in poverty alleviation by viewing the poor as producers, and emphasize buying from them, rather than selling to them.

Connects the impairment of the public's trust in nonprofit organizations to managerial actions in five transactions that lie at the core of the relationship between nonprofits and the public. For each core transaction it asks: What does the public trust mean? How may that trust be impaired by managerial action? What concepts in a relationship-marketing message might help restore that trust? What are the conditions or antecedents that might materially modify the results of any of these messages? Offers important lessons to help clarify, manage, and restore the public's trust in nonprofit organizations when that trust is impaired by managerial action.

Investigates what it means for corporate social responsibility (CSR) to be "mainstreamed" in a company. Rather than a single 'best practice,' narratives provided by managers revealed that mainstreaming can be understood in terms of three distinct CSR orientations: the business-case model, the syncretic stewardship model, and the social values-led model. These different orientations and approaches to mainstreaming CSR are the result of three interrelated factors: an "external market for virtue," an "internal market for virtue," and the established culture of the company. For business case and social values-led firms, incentives can be developed that encourage them to gravitate toward the syncretic stewardship orientation, which may well represent the most sustainable dimension of CSR.

Within the past few years, executives have come under increased scrutiny and criticism for the levels of compensation they receive. At the same time, corporate practices surrounding the design and review of executive compensation programs have received increased attention. While some recent executive misconduct has involved violations of the law, many academics and other corporate critics view the issues involving executive compensation more from an ethical than a legal perspective. Several dimensions of the executive compensation decision process offer significant opportunities for ethical choices. Identifies the major components of executive compensation and highlights decision points in the design and administration of each component where ethical issues may arise. Proposals to reduce the potential for ethical misconduct are also offered.

Postulates that successful viral marketing campaigns trigger an emotional response in recipients. Working under this premise, examines the effects of viral messages containing the six primary emotions (surprise, joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) on recipients' emotional responses to viral marketing campaigns and subsequent forwarding behavior. According to findings, in order to be effective, viral messages need to contain the element of surprise. By itself, however, surprise is not enough to guarantee message success; therefore, it must be combined with other emotions. The effectiveness of the viral message is also moderated by gender, with disgust-based and fear-based campaigns being more likely to be forwarded by male recipients than female recipients. To ensure forwarding behavior, the message must capture the imagination of the recipient, as well as be clearly targeted. Moreover, achieving fit between a campaign and the featured emotions is important, as this ensures an increased chance of forwarding. In addition to relaying these and other findings, shares and discusses the managerial implications of using different emotions in viral marketing campaigns. Finally, culture is recognized as an influencer.

In recent years, the practice of using corporate Web sites to recruit job applicants has increased steadily. Despite this trend, however, studies show that approximately 75% of job seekers find the sites too complicated to use successfully (Brown, 2004) and that more than 20% have rejected job opportunities based on poorly designed Web sites (Pastore, 2000). To address this problem, joins Internet marketing and employee recruitment research to offer six development implications for creating an effective "e-recruitment" source on a corporate Web site. Based on a job marketing approach to the recruitment process and consumer behavior research on persuasive communication and decision making, we present considerations important to creating an online recruiting Web site that effectively influences the search decisions and behaviors of a target market of desired job candidates.

Open source software (OSS) is a dramatically disruptive force in the software industry. While businesses see OSS succeeding, many of them have trouble gleaning the lessons that can be learned from the OSS phenomenon, since OSS development appears to be far removed from traditional business practices and principles. A major observation resulting from research on OSS products is that OSS product development is not only enabling innovations by its users, but also providing a structure for them to back-propagate into OSS products, a process that enhances compatibility in OSS products and presents a low-cost solution to the more general problem of servicing highly segmented markets. Argues that this innovative management process carries important insights for both commercial software vendors and companies outside the software industry.

Conventional wisdom assumes that trust develops from a history of interpersonal interactions and communication, through which people come to 'know and trust' one another. In virtual teams, however, establishing trust can be complicated: members may have no past on which to build, no future to reference, and may never even actually meet face-to-face. Swift but fragile trust can develop early in a team's life cycle. Yet, if swift trust doesn't develop or even dissipates, members need to find ways of building trust in each other. To this end, an understanding of how trust impacts a virtual team's development will help managers and team leaders to facilitate and improve team success. Describes the three components of trust (ability, integrity, and benevolence) and identifies which of these are critical to each life cycle stage (establishing the team, inception, organizing, transition, and accomplishing the task) of the virtual team. Proposed action steps for each stage show managers and team leaders how to help members develop trust and sustain it through the project's successful completion.

Venture capital in Asia has exhibited remarkable growth over the last two decades. Researchers and practitioners have, however, expressed doubts as to whether what is being reported as venture capital in Asia can really be classified as such. Authors of scholarly studies often avoid this debate and, consequently, fail to caution readers about the applicability of their research findings. Through an exploration of the history, development, and composition of venture capital in Asia, not only confirms significant differences between Asian and traditional venture capital, but also finds that venture capital in Asia differs little from what is commonly called private equity. As such, a need exists within the venture capital literature to recognize this peculiarity of the Asian venture capital market. Moreover, venture capitalists considering expansion into Asia must comprehend the nature of the Asian market in order to avoid disillusionment and frustrations which may result from inadequate understanding.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. While most managers would think long and hard before bringing to market a product that lacked patent protection and could be easily imitated, many invest in sales promotions--sweepstakes, coupons, time-limited price discounts, free gifts or samples, special events, displays, membership rewards, consumer-directed promotions, and so on--that are easier to imitate than the simplest new product. Others sign off on plans so generic that they seem unrelated to the brand or company offering them, despite the fact that sales promotions may absorb a significant portion of a company's promotional dollars--currently a reported 31% of marketing budgets. By contrast, a strategic focus--considering how customers and competitors will react to any promotional effort, as well as the message delivered and the stature in the marketplace of the brand delivering it--leads to promotions that defy or delay imitation and yield disproportionate benefit for companies that have already developed a strong competitive position. Suggests that when all these strategic factors are aligned, the result is a successful promotion, and illustrates that with successful promotions conducted by General Motors, Home Depot, and Procter & Gamble, among others. However, such promotional strategies require inventiveness, originality, and swift action--qualities neither present nor encouraged in many corporate cultures in which familiarity and predictability are prized. Managers in such organizations not only must successfully tailor a promotion to its intended market, but also skillfully shepherd it through internal barriers. Knowing why, how, and for whom sales promotions will most likely be profitable surely will help in that regard.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The place of multinational corporations (MNCs) in China has rapidly changed since the 1970s. No longer expected to bring cash and management expertise to China, argues that MNCs have taken on a new role as teachers and role models. However, recent high-profile mistakes, including a McDonald's Corp. (Oak Brook, Illinois) ad that over 80% of Chinese surveyed found offensive, show that MNCs are not entirely up to this task. Illustrates the consequences of this inability to cope and suggests eight strategies for improving MNC's success in China: think local--act global, don't apply double standards, don't bend the rules, avoid making "symbolic" acquisitions, avoid employing aggressive tactics over intellectual property rights, guard against management insensitivity, don't "strip mine" profits, and don't use China as a lab. Shows how these strategies can be executed to increase MNC's profits and standing in China.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In studying teams at large companies in Europe and the United States, finds that diversity and complexity are becoming the rule. Diverse teams bring to bear a range of experiences and attitudes to tackle companies' hardest challenges. Paradoxically, however, the very nature of team diversity often creates conditions that reduce teams' innovative capacity. Illustrates many failures in collaboration and knowledge-sharing that resulted from faultlines--subgroups or coalitions that emerge naturally within teams, typically along demographic lines such as age, gender, and functional background, yet finds that some teams were able to collaborate and share knowledge despite the presence of faultlines. A defining factor was the behavior of the team leader and, in particular, the extent to which the leader was task-oriented or relationship-oriented. Where it is likely strong faultlines will emerge, many leaders tend to encourage team members to come together. However, simple socializing can make people's differences more apparent and cause faultlines to solidify. Recommends that leaders vary their leadership style according to how long a team has been together and outlines four steps for successful functioning of diverse teams: leaders should diagnose the likely extent of faultlines in a new team; focus on task orientation when a team is newly formed; consider when a switch in leadership style would be most appropriate; and finally, build a relationship-oriented style. Switching from task orientation to relationship orientation will be successful only when a team has developed a clear protocol for communication and coordination and an established operational structure.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many markets are affected by the complex interactions of multiple variables: geopolitics, technical innovation, capital market swings, competitive dynamics, shifting consumer preferences, and so on. These volatile markets throw out a steady stream of opportunities and threats, and managers can neither predict nor control the form, magnitude, or timing of future events with accuracy. In such environments, the traditional linear view of strategy--plan then execute--is woefully inadequate because it hinders people from incorporating new information into action. But instead of thinking of strategy as a linear process, why not consider it as inherently iterative--a loop instead of a line? According to this view, every strategy is a work in progress that is subject to revision in light of ongoing interactions between the organization and its shifting environment. To accommodate those interactions, the strategy loop consists of four major steps: making sense of a situation, making choices on what to do (and what not to do), making those things happen, and making revisions based on new information. Reconceptualizing strategy as an iterative loop is simple enough, but putting that new mindset into practice is not. Here, the crucial thing to remember is that discussions--formal and informal, short and long, one-on-one and in groups--are the key mechanism for coordinating activity inside a company. Thus, to put the strategy loop into practice, managers at every level in the organization must be proficient at leading discussions that reflect the four major steps (making sense, making choices, making things happen, and making revisions). Companies such as Diageo Ireland, All America Latina Logistica, and Onset Venture Services demonstrate that each of the four types of discussions has a different objective that requires a specific tone, supporting information, leadership traits, and accompanying tactics.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. For executives running global companies, the challenge of keeping abreast of events in markets around the world is mind-boggling. The problem is not a lack of information--it is having the time and energy to process the information. How should executives prioritize their time to ensure that it is focused on the countries and subsidiaries that need the attention? Which markets should they emphasize, and which ones can they allow to fall off their radar screen? Researches executive attention at global companies for five years, interviewing 50 executives at 30 corporations--including ABB, Dun & Bradstreet, Nestle, and Sara Lee--and finds that executives end up prioritizing a handful of markets at the expense of the others, but they don't always select the most promising ones. Because executive attention is so limited, executives tend to focus on the home market or on "hot" markets, always at the expense of other opportunities. Examines the nature of executive attention and identifies mechanisms by which subsidiary companies attract attention from the top executives. Although attention can be harmful as well as helpful, focuses on the positive aspects, three elements in particular: support, in terms of how headquarters executives interact with and help subsidiary managers achieve their goals; visibility, in terms of the public statements headquarters executives make about how the subsidiary is doing; and relative standing, in terms of the subsidiary's perceived status vis-a-vis other subsidiaries in the organization.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. It is estimated that of the $255 billion spent per year on information technology projects in the United States, more than a quarter is burned up in failures and cost overruns. Project professionals and management experts have attempted to respond to these failures by improving the formal systems related to program governance, project management, and project-related technologies. Though these new approaches have produced improved results, with more than two out of three projects continuing to disappoint, something is still missing. Suggests five crucial questions to ask to help prevent project failure; are we planning around facts, is the project sponsor providing support, are we faithful to the process, are we honestly assessing our progress and risk, and are team members pulling their weight? Examines the success of project managers who do engage in these conversations, and then lays out a plan for using them in the organization.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Dynamic pricing, in which prices respond to supply and demand pressures in real time or near-real time, has long been used by airlines and hotels. Now dynamic pricing is making inroads in many different sectors, including apparel, automobiles, consumer electronics, personal services, telecommunications, and second-hand goods. These companies are making use of new findings on dynamic pricing and of increases in data processing power to raise their average realized prices, thereby increasing revenues and profits. There are two mechanisms for dynamic pricing: posted prices that customers can see; and price-discovery mechanisms, in which customers determine prices through their own actions. These two mechanisms are employed in seven different forms: yield management (commonly used by airlines), demand-based pricing, three types of auctions, group buying, and negotiations. Describes eight situations for using the various forms of dynamic pricing. An important constraint in employing dynamic pricing is consumers' Latitude of Price Acceptance, which varies for different products and situations and which can be discovered through observation, surveys, or analysis of demand elasticities. Customer participation in the pricing process decreases the chances of a consumer backlash. Customers also tend to embrace dynamic pricing in the following situations: where the price reflects intensity of demand for the product, there is communication between the seller and the consumer, and the price difference is explained by a difference in perceived value across channels through which the transaction occurred. The more the seller understands the buying cycles and habits of the customer, the more he is able to manage price margins to the rhythm of the customer's shopping, to segment customers, and to develop price discrimination.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In the past, companies have tried to manage risks by focusing on potential threats outside the organization: competitors, shifts in the strategic landscape, natural disasters, or geopolitical events. They are generally less adept at detecting internal vulnerabilities that creep into organizations and other human-designed systems. Indeed, as companies increase the complexity of their systems they often fail to pay sufficient attention to the introduction and proliferation of loopholes and flaws. A crucial thing to remember is that the possibility of random failure rises as the number of combinations of things that can go wrong increases, while the opportunity for acts of malicious intent also goes up. Build new applications on top of legacy systems and errors creep in between the lines of code. Merge two companies and weaknesses sprout between the organizational boundaries. Build Byzantine corporate structures and processes and obscure pockets are created where bad behavior can hide. Furthermore, the enormous complexity of large systems like communications networks means that even tiny glitches can cascade into catastrophic events. In fact, catastrophic events are almost guaranteed to occur in many complex systems, much like big earthquakes are bound to happen. So, without the benefit of perfect foresight, how can businesses uncover and forestall the fatal flaws lurking within their organizations? There are three complementary strategies: (1) Assess the risk to make better-informed decisions, such as purchasing an insurance policy to cover the risk; (2) spot vulnerabilities and fix them before catastrophic events occur; and (3) design out weaknesses through resilience. These ideas have been around for years, but researchers have recently had to reinvent them in the context of extremely complex, interconnected, cascade-prone systems.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Numerous studies confirm that few people can make it through a typical day without lying. So it should not be surprising that falsehoods and deception are widespread in business negotiations as well. The unspoken, and perhaps unconscious, thought is that if everyone lies, why is it so bad? Examines legal and ethical views of lying, noting that while courts often hold parties to the truth of their representations, negotiators have many ways to mislead the opposing side. For example, negotiating tactics such as nondisclosure and evasion are rarely considered illegal. Indeed, it is often possible to avoid liability by using misleading behaviors that make no representations but which seem to. In light of the moral and legal ambiguity of lying, offers suggestions for how to detect lies and how to protect oneself against bargaining deception, including: establishing negotiating ground rules before the discussions begin; asking the same question in different ways; asking questions to which you already know the answer; including written claims in the final agreement; and using contingent agreements, an escrow agent, or a performance bond.