Publications

01 Nov 2024
In Practice

Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

one-on-ones, to digital messaging. Your storytelling challenge isn’t over after one grim layoff email. Frances X. Frei is the UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at HBS. Anne Morriss is a leadership coach. Their latest book is... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

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

March 2000 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Stainless Steel Studios, Inc.

Stainless Steel Studios is the latest entrepreneurial venture of renowned computer game designer Rick Goodman. Goodman must now decide the role of customer feedback in crafting the next generation of computer games. This case addresses how operations systems can be... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Video Game Industry

May 2014
Article

Right Up the Middle: How Israeli Firms Go Global

By: Jonathan Friedrich, Amit Noam and Elie Ofek

The article considers international business enterprises based in Israel and how they successfully expanded from their origins as small businesses. A common technique of those companies in which they focused on market entry in other countries whose markets were too... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Israel

Read Now

22 Oct 2014
Video

Social Impact Investing: Measuring Success

January 1996 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Digital Imaging in 1995: Opportunities in the Descent to the Desktop

The dramatic shifts of the imaging industry from analog to digital technology is creating emerging markets in 1995. How can a competitor position itself to enter the market successfully? This case describes the key technologies, market segments, competitors, and... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

Over the last few decades, the U.S. economy has exhibited a significant shift from manufacturing towards services. This transition has been particularly prominent in an important subcategory of services industries that drives innovation and employs many high-wage... View Details

June 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Euronext.liffe and the Over-the-Counter Derivatives Market (A)

Euronext.liffe, a derivatives trading exchange, had just finished rolling out three new services targeted at the over-the-counter (OTC) market in 2004. The services offered automated confirmation and clearing for OTC equity derivatives. Yet, developments in the... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Product Positioning; Competition; Financial Markets; Network Effects; Cooperation

March 1995 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Datavision (A)

By: Michael Beer and Gregory C. Rogers

Depicts a "team-building" intervention by an organizational consultant at a small computer company. View Details

Keywords: Employees; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks; Computer Industry

September 2001 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Rapid Rewards at Southwest Airlines

By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Southwest Airlines is well known as the low-fare airline that has achieved ongoing financial success in one of the most financially troubled industries in the United States. Told from the perspectives of two Southwest customers--a frequent flier and a more typical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Air Transportation Industry

December 2018
Case

Good Energy Group PLC

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

Founded at the end of 1999 by Juliet Davenport and Martin Edwards, Good Energy was the number-two renewable-energy seller in the United Kingdom at the end of 2016, supplying over 71,000 of the country’s 27 million households and small businesses with 100% renewable... View Details

Keywords: Power/Energy; Green Energy; Renewables; Wind Power; Electricity; Power; Strategy Development; Electric Vehicles; Customer Service; Energy Policy; Barriers To Entry; Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

25 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 25, 2008

Amazon.com, Inc., specializing in the provision of web-based storage and computing services to web developers. The case focuses on the issues facing Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, in 2008 as AWS faces... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

11 Sep 2020
News

Even the Threat of a Tougher Rule on Financial Advice Has Helped Investors

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

outwardly the situation smells of economic anarchy. Where are the market forces, when thousands of talented programmers—and even many commercial firms—spend inordinate amounts of time writing and sharing computer source code: an activity... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

January 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery, Anat Keinan and Liz Kind

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

Kim B. Clark joined the Harvard faculty in 1978 and served as Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Business School from 1995 to 2005. He received the B.A. (1974), M.A. (1977), and Ph.D. (1978) degrees in economics from Harvard University.

Professor Clark's research has... View Details

September 2002
Case

Abercrombie & Kent

By: Frances X. Frei, Brian Corbett, Mark Partin and Daniel Rethazy

Describes Abercrombie & Kent, the outdoor adventure company that has provided services throughout the entire history of the outdoor adventure industry. Provides an opportunity to learn how the company successfully grown into a premier player in the industry by adapting... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Service Operations; Marketing Reference Programs; Product Development; Business Growth and Maturation; Balance and Stability; Marketing Channels; Transportation; Growth and Development Strategy; Travel Industry

February 1986 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Donna Dubinsky and Apple Computer, Inc. (A)

Describes a major conflict within Apple Computer in 1985 over control of product distribution. The founder and chairman, Steve Jobs, proposed a new distribution process which would transfer many responsibilities away from distribution manager, Donna Dubinsky. Dubinsky... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Computer Industry; United States