Publications

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property in this country is worth more than $5 trillion—about twice the amount of the current federal budget. The question: Are companies taking advantage of this value? Not... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

March 2012
Article

Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914-1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski

This article is concerned with business strategies of political risk management during the twentieth century. It focuses especially on Beiersdorf, a pharmaceutical and skin care company in Germany. During World War I, the expropriation of its brands and trademarks... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Government and Politics; Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Communication Technology; Cost; Trademarks; Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Germany

Find at Harvard

September 1985 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Business and Government Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Bangladesh

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

cooperate, the company's strategy will be inconsistent and weak.— Benson Shapiro If marketing and sales do not cooperate, the company's strategy will be inconsistent and weak; and execution will be flawed... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

September 2008
Case

TCS: The MCA 21 Project

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading outsourced software services provider based in India, must decide whether to bid on a high-profile government project within India. The project, if completed successfully, would mark another step in TCS's progression from a... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Developing Countries and Economies; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Projects; India

Teaching Interest

IFC Asia: China's Belt & Road Initiative

By: Willy C. Shih

The course objective is to provide students perspectives and insight into one of the major political and economic development programs of China – its Belt and Road Initiative, a strategy that involves infrastructure development and investments in countries spanning... View Details

Keywords: China; Globalization; Trade; Infrastructure; China; Southeast Asia; South Asia; Central Asia

January 2017
Article

Beyond Zeroes and Ones: The Intensity and Dynamics of Civil Conflict

By: Stephen Chaudoin, Zachary Peskowitz and Christopher Stanton

There is a tremendous amount of variation in conflict intensity both across and within civil conflicts. Some conflicts result in huge numbers of battle deaths, while others do not. Conflict intensity is also dynamic. Conflict intensity escalates, deescalates, and... View Details

Keywords: Civil Wars; Political Economy; Conflict; Trade Interdependence; War; Microeconomics

Find at Harvard

02 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

The Curse of Double-Digit Growth

its current status as a low-income country to a middle-income one by 2030. “The timeline could be two or three years, or a decade later” While the International Monetary Fund predicted the country could... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

2013
Working Paper

Network Effects in Countries' Adoption of IFRS

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ewa Sletten

If the differences in accounting standards across countries reflect relatively stable institutional differences (e.g., auditing technology, the rule of law, etc.), why did several countries rapidly, albeit in a staggered manner, adopt IFRS over local standards in the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Network Effects; Standards; Adoption; Value

SSRN

2006
Chapter

Competitiveness in Developing Economies: The Role of Clusters and Cross-Cutting Policies

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Competitiveness is high up on the policy agenda for countries around the world and at all stages of development. But while there is little disagreement that countries need to "upgrade their competitiveness"—even more so as the level of globalization is increasing—there... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Framework; Globalization; Policy; Growth and Development; Industry Clusters; Competitive Strategy

October 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

MasterCard: Driving Financial Inclusion

By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga was investing significant time and attention to increase financial inclusion among individuals with historically no access to banking or financial services in countries around the world with large underserved populations. The effort included... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Financial Services; Financial And Social Return; Financial Inclusion; Strategic Management; South Africa; Nigeria; Ajay Banga; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; South Africa; Nigeria

Article

Positioning The Nation State

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz

Having a clear, differentiated positioning gives a country an advantage in attracting investment, business and tourism, and in building markets for its exports. Countries like Greece, Spain and Chile are successfully repositioning themselves using coordinated marketing... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Country; Product Positioning; Global Strategy; Government and Politics

Find at Harvard

April 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh (Abridged)

By: James E. Austin

Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Publishing; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Agreements and Arrangements; Product; Nonprofit Organizations; Pharmaceutical Industry; Bangladesh; Washington (state, US)

February 2008 (Revised November 2011)
Case

The International Monetary Fund in Crisis

By: Rawi Abdelal, David Moss and Eugene Kintgen

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in late 2007, he faced a number of significant changes. The organization had lost much of its legitimacy over the previous decade, and countries seemed increasingly reluctant to... View Details

Keywords: History; Globalized Economies and Regions; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Government and Politics; Financial Institutions; Business Strategy; Macroeconomics; Financial Services Industry

27 May 2020
Research & Ideas

What South Korea Teaches the World About Fighting COVID

distribution of face masks and the promotion of their use, are winning strategies in this battle. As other countries begin to reopen their economies, how can they apply these lessons to combat COVID-19?... View Details

Keywords: by Doug J. Chung; Health

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Identify Emerging Market Opportunities

Companies are increasingly looking to emerging markets like China as a vital source of growth. The problem is these companies often lack an effective strategy for identifying which countries to do business... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha

August 2023
Case

Floward

By: Krishna Palepu and Namrata Arora

In 2022, Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, CEO and co-founder of Floward, an online flower and gifting company established in Kuwait in 2017, contemplated the firm's growth trajectory. Floward, an e-commerce enterprise that offered fresh-cut flowers sourced directly from... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Information Technology Industry; Middle East; North Africa; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates; Jordan