Publications

October 2017 (Revised October 2022)
Case

JetBlue: Relevant Sustainability Leadership

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

In 2017, JetBlue, the airline founded on the mission to “bring humanity back to air travel,” was considering becoming one of the first companies to report its sustainability performance according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. SASB... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Turning Away From the State: Trade Shocks and Informal Insurance in Brazil

By: Paula Rettl

How does economic globalization affect vote choices? Conventional wisdom holds that voters who lose from economic integration support parties that propose to expand the welfare state. I argue that a key scope condition of this causal relationship is expectations about... View Details

Keywords: Economic Globalization; Globalized Economies; Government Administration; Economics; Globalization; Globalized Economies and Regions; Voting; Brazil; Latin America

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12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 20 Sep 2016
Webinars: Career

Become an Entrepreneur Without Leaving Your Day Job

What if there was a way to pair the stability of a day job with the excitement and upside of entrepreneurship? Using proven strategies and a range of case studies, author and serial "10% Entrepreneur" Patrick J. McGinnis (MBA 2004) will explain how you can integrate... View Details

May 1996 (Revised October 2001)
Case

BAE Automated Systems (B): Implementing the Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System

By: Lynda M. Applegate, H. James Nelson, Ramiro Montealegre and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Describes the negotiations between the City of Denver officials, airlines, consulting companies, and BAE for the construction of a backup baggage system to enable the Denver International Airport (DIA) to open. When DIA finally opens in February 1995, 16 months behind... View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Management Practices and Processes; Projects; Negotiation; Outcome or Result; Problems and Challenges; Air Transportation Industry; Construction Industry; Colorado

2010
Working Paper

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). The article was based on a multi-company research project to study performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Strategy

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January 1998 (Revised February 2006)
Background Note

Creating Competitive Advantage

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Jan W. Rivkin

A firm such as Schering-Plough that earns superior, long-run financial returns within its industry is said to enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals. This note examines the logic of how firms create competitive advantage. It emphasizes two themes: First, to... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Management; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Value Creation; Pharmaceutical Industry

Allison Mnookin is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit at the Harvard Business School. She currently teaches the TOM and FIELD Global Immersion courses in the required MBA curriculum. In addition, she... View Details

05 Apr 2021
News

Nicklaus: America needs a more resilient medical supply chain, but self-sufficiency isn't the answer

December 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

HEINEKEN—Brewing a Better World

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, José Alvarez, Tonia Junker and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The Dutch company HEINEKEN, one of the leading global brewers known for its brands like Heineken, Amstel, and Desperados and for its award-winning marketing campaigns, seeks to closely integrate its long-term sustainability "Brewing a Better World" approach into its... View Details

Keywords: Beer/brewing Industry; Sustainability; Local Sourcing; Corporate Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2016 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Elon Musk's Big Bets

By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Brandon Kaufmann

Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla’s business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion “gigafactory” that would manufacture... View Details

10 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Long-Tail Economics? Give Me Blockbusters!

no promising blockbusters in the drug pipeline. In a globally integrated market, blockbuster brands that address common consumer needs are more important than ever. Consumers around the world are excited to share common experiences.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation; Pharmaceutical

May 2010 (Revised November 2012)
Case

The Smart Grid

By: Rebecca Henderson, Noel Maurer and Catherine Ross

The development of the smart grid—the integration of traditional elements of energy transmission and delivery with information technology—heralds a new era in the power industry. Many new business opportunities will be created as the smart grid gets developed. What... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development; Information Technology; Strategy; Energy Industry

28 Aug 2009
News

Faculty Pioneer Award in Social Entrepreneurship

March 2020
Article

Context, Time, and Change: Historical Approaches to Entrepreneurship Research

By: R. Daniel Wadhwani, David A. Kirsch, Frederike Welter, William B. Gartner and Geoffrey Jones

The article discusses the value of historical methods and reasoning in strategic entrepreneurship research and theory. A framework is introduced for integrating history into entrepreneurship theory. The framework demonstrates how historical assumptions play a formative... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; History; Research; Theory

Find at Harvard

08 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 8

co-authors, Werner Erhard and Steve Zaffron, and I distinguish integrity from morality and ethics in the following way. Integrity in our model is honoring your word. As such, View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2006
Case

Vipp A/S

By: Robert D. Austin and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Rapidly growing Vipp sells highly differentiated (and expensive) "designer" versions of a product that most buyers think about in purely functional terms: Trash bins. Examines how the company successfully produces and positions a trash bin so that it is regarded as an... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Creativity; Product Design; Luxury; Brands and Branding

August 2019
Case

Legrand's Acquisition of Milestone

By: C. Fritz Foley and F. Katelynn Boland

In June 2017, Legrand, a global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructure which was a serial acquirer, announced it had signed an agreement to buy Milestone AV Technologies, a leading designer and manufacturer of branded audio-video products. This... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Acquisition Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management; Strategy; Corporate Finance; Electronics Industry; Europe; United States