Publications

July 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Symantec vs. McAfee: Competing in the Consumer Anti-virus Industry

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

Symantec and McAfee hold 53.6% and 18.8% respectively, of the anti-virus software market as of 2006. While the market is concentrated with five firms controlling over 90%, Microsoft is on the eve of releasing a consumer security subscription packed called OneCare Live.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Software; Information Technology Industry

2012
Book

Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. I show that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those... View Details

Keywords: Change; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Innovation and Invention; Management; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Research; Strategy; Complexity; Value

August 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Finland's S Group: Competing with a Cooperative Approach to Retail

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Tarun Khanna, Samuli Skurnik and Jordan Mitchell

The case looks at the two dominant Finnish retailers: S Group and Kesko. S Group is a customer-owned cooperative, which has a unique holding structure whereby 1.7 million residents (or 70 percent of Finnish households) own 22 regional cooperatives. In turn, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Cooperative Ownership; Public Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; Finland

Educators

January 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Module Note

Competing through Business Models (B): Competitive Strategy vs. Business Models

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Joan E. Ricart

Keywords: Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy

25 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Is Baseball Ready to Compete for the Next Generation of Fans?

While football and basketball are now the most popular and financially successful of the four major professional sports leagues, Major League Baseball appears to be rallying. Last week, MLB said revenue for the 2022 regular season, which featured an American League... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Media & Broadcasting; Sports

July 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Advanced Micro Devices: Competing in the Shadow of a Giant (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Andrew A. King

As the only significant competitor to Intel Corporation in PC microprocessors, Advanced Micro Devices faced daunting investment choices. Not only did it have to fund microprocessor design teams, it also had to fund silicon process R&D, and it faced huge capital... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry

September–October 2017
Article

Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?: Neither Great Leadership Nor Brilliant Strategy Matters Without Operational Excellence

By: Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom and John Van Reenen

A recurring message in business education is that you can’t compete on the basis of management processes because they’re easily copied. Operational effectiveness is table stakes in the competitive universe, it is often assumed, and thus cannot serve as a sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Effectiveness

Register to Read

26 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

When Other Companies Compete Like Crazy, Dare to Be Different

Want to be different? Change your world, not your tactics. As HBS professor Youngme Moon argues in Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, competition too often breeds conformity. Yet there is plenty of space for adventurous companies keen to break free of the pack.... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

20 Aug 2024
Book

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

The following is an excerpt that was adapted and lightly edited from chapter nine of Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win, written by Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao and published August 20, 2024. In today's global digital and... View Details

Keywords: by Feng Zhu; Technology; Information Technology

1986
Chapter

The Capital Factor: Competing for Capital in a Global Environment

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Keywords: Capital; Competitive Advantage

May 2001
Article

Competing at Home to Win Abroad: Evidence from Japanese History

By: Mariko Sakakibara and Michael E. Porter

The study explores the influence of domestic competition on international trade performance, using data from a broad sample of Japanese industries. Domestic rivalry is measured directly using market-share instability rather than employing structural variables such as... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Global Range; History; Japan