Publications

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April 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Wawa Inc.

By: Blythe J. McGarvie, Dennis Campbell and Kristin Stack

Retailing requires attention to detail and customer and employee loyalty. Wawa is a 50-year old food retailer with almost a cult-like following. With $9 billion in revenues, Wawa is the 50th largest privately-held company in the US. Learn how they have accomplished... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Management

April 1997
Case

Battle of Mannheim, The

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Focuses in detail on implementing a corporate restructuring program in ABB's German subsidiary. Special attention is given to Germany's unique form of industrial governance. Two major problem areas--power plants and power transformers--are described in detail, as is a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Energy Generation; Salesforce Management; Business or Company Management; Restructuring; Programs; Energy Industry; Germany

October 2019
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

August 1998
Case

Electronic Commerce at Air Products

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

In 1998,chief information officers (CIOs) in the highly competitive international gases and chemicals business faced the reality that electronic commerce capability was a strategic necessity. The results of annual surveys of technology officers in the chemical industry... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Information Technology; Globalized Markets and Industries; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

There is no more important decision a board can make than naming a CEO. Yet most companies pay scant attention to the issue of succession other than a few whispered names in the hallways. The result? The hiring of an outsider who quickly... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

20 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting the Marketing Mix Right

Businesses rely on solid marketing strategies to boost sales—yet the tools used to evaluate these strategies often provide misleading results, leaving managers with the inability to accurately measure how they can get the best bang for... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

05 Sep 2023
Book

Failing Well: How Your ‘Intelligent Failure’ Unlocks Your Full Potential

results. “An intelligent failure is an undesired result in new territory,” says Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at HBS. “There’s no way you can know for sure whether it will work out without trying it.”... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The New Rules for Remote Work: Pandemic Edition

personal level, for instance, by asking how everyone is holding up. “It can be harder to pay attention to a long meeting online versus face-to-face.” Afterward, managers should articulate key outcomes of the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2024
Working Paper

Digital Platforms 2.0: Learnings, Opportunities, and Challenges

By: Shrabastee Banerjee, Ishita Chakraborty, Hana Choi, Hannes Datta, Remi Daviet, Chiara Farronato, Minkyung Kim, Anja Lambrecht, Puneet Manchanda, Aniko Oery, Ananya Sen, Marshall W Van Alstyne, Prasad Vana, Kenneth C Wilbur, Xu Zhang and Bobby Zhou

Platform-based digital ecosystems form the backbone of our interactions with the Internet. Over the past decade, digital ecosystems have witnessed significant growth, both in terms of industry footprint and academic research. Yet, the challenges associated with their... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; E-commerce; Market Design

SSRN

Read Now

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

companies are willing to rethink how they define loyalty and how they manage their people. Reevaluating Loyalty Loyalty should not be viewed as an either/or proposition. It's true, the experts say, that to produce their best work,... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

31 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 31

attention has been given to how managers can effectively allocate work across tasks and time to improve workers' performance. In this paper, we use the learning curve framework to investigate how... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2015 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Building an Integrated Biopharma Company: Crucell (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Marianne Van Der Steen and Susan S. Harmeling

By 2009, Crucell had become the largest biopharma company in the Netherlands and a symbol of national pride. The case traces the evolution of the company from a University spin-off into a fully-integrated company. Crucell's success, particularly in the vaccine space,... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Biopharmacy Company; Licensing; Licensing Agreements In Biopharmacy; Human Cell-line Technology; Vaccine; Healthcare Innovation; Global Health; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Netherlands

June 2021
Article

Deals in the Time of Pandemic

By: Guhan Subramanian and Caley Petrucci

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the period between signing and closing in M&A transactions. Transactional planners heavily negotiate the provisions that govern the behavior of the parties during this window, not only to allocate risk between the... View Details

Keywords: Takeovers; COVID-19; Material Adverse Effect; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Pandemics

SSRN

20 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

On Good Scholarship, Goal Setting, and Scholars Gone Wild

Keywords: by Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky & Max H. Bazerman

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Corporate Strategy

Research Summary

Overview

By: Jorge Tamayo

Professor Tamayo’s research focuses on theoretical modeling and structural estimation of firm decision-making and productivity.

Professor Tamayo studies dynamic competition for customer membership. Generally, firms that implement a membership model charge a... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization, Industrial Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Energy Generation; Performance Efficiency; Market Design; Crime and Corruption; Manufacturing Industry; Energy Industry

November 2006 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Clocky: The Runaway Alarm Clock

By: Elie Ofek and Eliot Sherman

Gauri Nanda is the creator of an innovative new product: an alarm clock named Clocky that, in addition to ringing, rolls around the room in order to force its owner to get out of bed. Beset by media attention and consumer interest but still at least a year away from... View Details

Keywords: Management; Product Positioning; Partners and Partnerships; Production; Marketing Strategy; Media; Entrepreneurship; Independent Innovation and Invention; Product Launch

2007
Article

Pharmacovigilance and the Missing Denominator: The Changing Context of Pharmaceutical Risk Mitigation

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

In the wake of Vioxx, Avandia, and other recent prominent cases of drugs found to cause side effects after marketing, the safety of pharmaceuticals has come to the forefront of American public policy. Press attention, congressional investigations, and legislative... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Policy; Risk Management; Government Legislation; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Customers; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States