Publications

22 Nov 2019
HBS Seminar

Edward Glaeser (Paper Joint with Naomi Hausman), Harvard University

September–October 2021
Article

Internalization of Advertising Services: Testing a Theory of the Firm

By: Alvin J. Silk, Birger Wernerfelt and Shuyi Yu

In 1956, a group of trade associations representing publishers and independent advertising agencies signed a consent decree aimed at ending a set of trade practices that for half a century effectively precluded advertisers from owning and operating in-house agencies.... View Details

Keywords: Internationalization; Specialization; Theory Of The Firm; Advertising Agencies; Advertising; Organizational Structure; Theory

Find at Harvard

August 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Case

HCL Technologies (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Tarun Khanna and Emily Stecker

When Vineet Nayar became president of HCL Technologies, a global IT services business, in April 2005, he knew the company needed drastic change. Since its founding as a hardware company in the 1970s, HCL had grown into an enterprise with $3.7 billion in revenues and a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competition; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; India

2021
Working Paper

Multi-location Workers in Multinational Firms? Tradeoffs in Contextual Specialization of Employees and Organizational Outcomes

By: Hise O. Gibson, Ryan W. Buell and Prithwiraj Choudhury

We study how “contextual specialization,” the act of focusing workers’ organizational tasks within a particular locational context, and “contextual non-specialization,” the practice of diversifying workers’ organizational tasks among multiple locational contexts,... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Performance; Experience and Expertise; Selection and Staffing; Strength and Weakness; Personal Development and Career

February 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (A): A Company Is Born

By: Ashish Nanda

Charles Ferguson has just heard from a venture capital (VC) consortium that it is willing to finance Vermeer Technologies, a company he has cofounded for developing Internet software. The funds are sorely needed, but the VCs have imposed some onerous conditions,... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Selection and Staffing; Applications and Software; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Restaurant Brands International: Version 2.0

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2010, 3G Capital acquired Burger King, the second largest burger chain globally. 3G expanded Burger King’s operations via acquisitions into a multi-brand business, renamed Restaurant Brands International. The acquisition had been a financial success story for 3G.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Growth and Development; Performance Evaluation; Private Equity; Franchise Ownership; Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Human Resources; Information Technology; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

September 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Zurich Insurance: Global Job Structure and Data Analysis

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case “Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People... View Details

Keywords: Managing Change; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Architecture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Human Capital; Change Management; Organizational Structure; Insurance; Organizational Culture; Globalization; Human Resources; Insurance Industry

29 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers

Working Paper Summaries

How do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

Keywords: by Juliane Begenau and Emil Siriwardane; Financial Services

December 2021
Supplement

Troverie (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham

Resolves the questions raised in Troverie (A); recounts pivots and efforts to raise capital from strategic investors and sell Troverie; and shares the founder's post-mortem reflections on what went wrong and what he might have done differently. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Failed Startup; Luxury Goods; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Failure; Luxury; Fashion Industry; United States

September 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Whole Foods: The Path to 1,000 Stores

By: David F. Drake, Ryan W. Buell, Melissa Barton, Taylor Jones, Katrina Keverian and Jeffrey Stock

The case examines the operations strategy of Whole Foods, one of the largest natural grocery chains in the United States. In late 2013, Whole Foods was expanding rapidly, with a publicly-stated goal of growing from 351 to 1,000 domestic stores by 2022. It was also... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Food; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

2022
Working Paper

An Anatomy of Performance Monitoring

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

Performance monitoring is a mainstay management tool in most organizations. Yet we still know little about whether—and why—better monitoring yields better performance in practice. To shed light on these questions, we study the introduction of a performance monitoring... View Details

Keywords: Performance Monitoring; Worker Skills; Skill Depreciation; Managerial Inattention; On-the-job Training; Productivity; Multitasking; Quick Serve Restaurants; Performance Evaluation; Employees; Competency and Skills; Training; Performance Productivity; Management; Information Technology; Food and Beverage Industry; Puerto Rico

January 2023
Case

Cleave Therapeutics: Taking a Risk on Oncology Drug Discovery

By: Regina Herzlinger and Brian Walker

What should a successful executive (HBS Baker Scholar) assess as her next move as the CEO of a firm with a promising and yet uncertain new drug? Amy Burroughs’ mandate to successfully commercialize Cleave Therapeutics’ drug for a cancer with no current successful... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Leadership; Health Testing and Trials; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Condition; Partners and Partnerships; Pharmaceutical Industry

Web

Faculty & Research

from a one-time relaxation of household liquidity constraints (Field et al., 2013), and track schooling and business outcomes over the subsequent 11 years. On average, treatment households, who were made wealthier through the experiment, increase View Details

14 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Widening Rift Between Corporations and Society

range of adaptation, however. As markets and technologies undergo historic change, so too must the current model of capitalism. Each new episode of capitalism emerges from the complex interplay of three forces: (1) New View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Adjusting the Fit for Government

productivity revolution due to the loss of skills in society. "The other key underpinning is education," he continued. "In South Africa in particular, the legacy of apartheid was extremely destructive, and human View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Web

Curriculum - MBA

Markets Leadership Execution and Action Planning Making Markets Managing Human Capital Managing International Trade and Investment Managing with Data Science Managing, Organizing, & Motivating for Value... View Details

2009
Working Paper

Management and the Financial Crisis (We have met the enemy and he is us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-9 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis

August 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Australia-Japan Cable: Structuring the Project Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Carrie Ferman

In late September 1999, representatives from Telstri, Japan Telecom, and Teleglobe met to discuss the structure of the Australia-Japan Cable (AJC) project, a $520 million submarine cable system that would run from Australia to Japan. The sponsors, excited by the... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Cooperative Ownership; Organizational Structure; Investment; Ownership; Capital; Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Communication Technology; Projects; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry; Australia; Japan