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Faculty & Research - Business & Environment

their impacts on... September 2024 Teaching Material Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B) By: Michael W. Toffel , Kenneth P. Pucker and Stacy Straaberg The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B) case encourages students to assess Allbirds’ product View Details

October 2017
Case

Shift Technologies, Inc.

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

January 1998
Case

Frontgate Catalog

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Frontgate is a high-end, Lebanon, Ohio-based catalog business. The decision makers are trying to determine how much financial and personnel resources to invest in the development of a Web site. The decision is being made in light of branding issues and competitor's Web... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Ohio

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22 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Salespeople Struggle at Leading

shouldn’t make salespeople sales managers, but I don’t think that’s good advice,” Cespedes says. “Sales managers determine how much money salespeople make and how well they eat. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

14 Nov 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Parallel Search, Incentives and Problem Type: Revisiting the Competition and Innovation Link

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau, Nicola Lacetera & Karim R. Lakhani

March 2021
Article

Increasing the Level of Abstraction as a Strategy for Accelerating the Adoption of Complex Technologies

By: Willy C. Shih

Many new technologies are complex and embody high levels of technical sophistication, and applying them should require significant knowledge and experience. Yet, the rapid adoption and incorporation of these technologies into other innovations seems inconsistent with... View Details

Keywords: Abstraction; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Technological Progress; Diffusion Of Innovation; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Complexity; Information Technology; Strategy

February 1998 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Delamere Vineyard

Delamere Vineyard is a small, integrated winemaking business in Tasmania, specializing in pinot noir (red) and chardonnay (white) wines. Richard Richardson, Delamere's owner and winemaker, manages and operates the vineyard and winery largely alone. His products have... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Quality; Production; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Australia

March 1999 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Xerox: Book-In-Time

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Book-In-Time, developed at Xerox, can dramatically reduce the cost of printing "one" book. Combined with the possibilities of digital content storage and transmittal, the new technology has vast opportunities. Xerox needs a commercial plan. The case describes the state... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Distribution; Planning; Opportunities; Commercialization; Technology Adoption; Publishing Industry

March 8, 2023
Article

How to Help Superstar Employees Fulfill Their Potential

By: Anthony J. Mayo

To better understand the leadership challenges and development opportunities facing high-potential employees, researchers analyzed more than 3,000 applications to Harvard Business School’s High Potentials Leadership Program over a nearly 20-year period. The... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Leadership Development; Personal Development and Career; Management Skills; Business Education

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January 2014
Case

CleanSpritz

By: John A. Quelch and Alisa Zalosh

Sales of CleanSpritz all-purpose cleaning spray have been steadily declining for the past five years, and management believes the decline correlates to a growing environmental concern among U.S. consumers. CleanSpritz's management is considering several options to... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Competition; Marketing Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

Web

Skydeck - Alumni

Soldier On Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones (MPA/MBA 2021) , a Marine Corps veteran, on managing through a school shooting crisis—and what it takes to turn around a city Skydeck Voices: The Most Important Person I Met at HBS Alumni... View Details

August 2022
Teaching Note

BTS & ARMY

By: Doug J. Chung and Kay R. Koo

Industry leaders must define a particular outcome of interest (i.e., an objective) to establish an organization’s strategy. BTS’s initial objective was to increase brand recognition and to acquire a solid fanbase. The proliferation of social network platforms... View Details

Keywords: Cultural Diversity; Brand Equity; Go-to-market Strategy; Social Network; Entertainment Industry; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Music Industry

Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

Background Note Raising Startup Capital By: Jeffrey Bussgang Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Developing expertise in raising... View Details

May 1987 (Revised November 1998)
Case

John Deere Component Works (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Cost vs Benefits; Production; Budgets and Budgeting; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Consumer Products Industry

28 Oct 2020
Blog Post

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged

drives to acquire and to bond are in tension with each other because the first is competitive and the second cooperative. A major part of management is to keep these two drives in healthy balance, for example by giving rewards for both... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

08 Dec 2020
Blog Post

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged

drives to acquire and to bond are in tension with each other because the first is competitive and the second cooperative. A major part of management is to keep these two drives in healthy balance, for example by giving rewards for both... View Details

May 2022
Case

Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC?

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Thomas de Dreux-Brézé, the Head of Strategy and Project Management at Rawbank Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was perplexed as he reviewed annual adoption rates for the bank’s launch of Illico Cash 2.0. As the bank’s mobile money app, Illico Cash... View Details

April 2020
Supplement

Open Innovation at Fujitsu (C)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This follow-on case study provides a multi-year update on the achievements of the Open Innovation Gateway (OIG). Over time, OIG honed a process that enabled open innovation. It developed three streams of activities, namely co-creation projects with major customers and... View Details

Keywords: Open Innovation; Inter-organizational Relationships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Change Management; Relationships; Leadership Development