Publications

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Best Buy Co., Inc.: Customer-Centricity

By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Irina Tarsis

With FY2005 sales of $27.3 billion, Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy Co., Inc. was the leading retailer of consumer electronics, home-office products, and related services in North America. Its operations included the distinct store formats Best Buy, Future Shop in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Operations; Business Earnings; Financial Crisis; Failure; Business Model; Leadership; Segmentation; Value Creation; Electronics Industry; United States; Canada; Mongolia

November 1985 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Harnischfeger Corp.

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Presents an analysis of Harnischfeger's quality of earnings, and the investment potential of the company's stock in light of the company's turnaround strategy. View Details

Keywords: Financial Condition; Revenue; Stock Shares; Profit; Economic Growth; Financial Reporting; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Safety; Utilities Industry

October 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

LinkedIn Corporation

By: Francois Brochet and James Weber

The case is set at the end of the first public trading day of LinkedIn, an online professional network company. It provides information on the company's business model, financial statements, competitive landscape, and IPO terms, to help the reader critically assess the... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Growth and Development; Earnings Management; Risk Management; Valuation; SWOT Analysis; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Web Services Industry

22 May 2020
In Practice

Post-COVID Health Care: More Screens, Less Red Tape?

apps for frontline employees to contain the pandemic. The experience will like reshape the entire health care industry for years to come. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Health Care Initiative at Harvard Business School how... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

April 2023
Case

Strive Asset Management

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine and Aldo Sesia

Strive Asset Management, which launched in 2022, was actively targeting several leading U.S. companies in the upcoming 2023 proxy voting season to stop acquiescing to those large asset managers and other institutional shareholders who were pressing those companies to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Shareholder Activism; Asset Management; Investment Funds; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Climate Change; Diversity; Equity; Financial Services Industry; United States

June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Supplement

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Supplements the (A) Case. View Details

February 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

CNET 2000

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Pauline M Fischer

CNET's managers explain the strategic analysis that led to their decision to increase their annual marketing budget from $1 million to $100 million. CNET is an online information intermediary that helps consumers make purchase decisions about PC hardware and software,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Strategy; Decisions; Growth and Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Divisions; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Consumer Behavior; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

“The single greatest driver of cash in a business is typically the selling cycle,” says Cespedes. “Accounts payable are accumulated during selling, and accounts receivable are largely determined by what’s sold, how fast, and at what... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

27 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Trained as an industrial engineer, Tucker is interested in the perspective of frontline workers in productivity and process improvement, including how internal supply chains and other... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

October 2018
Supplement

Zenefits Board of Directors (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Leadership; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California

18 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 18, 2007

to other firms than non-star analysts. Purchase the paper from SSRN.com ($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w13633 The Impact of Component Modularity on Design Evolution: Evidence from the Software Industry Authors:Alan MacCormack, John... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 12, 2017

for firms from industrialized economies and negative effects for firms in other emerging economies, which are less export-intensive and more import-intensive. Motivated by these facts, we build a dynamic model in which real depreciations... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

to Multinationals examines the evolution of multinational trading companies from the eighteenth century to the present day. During the Industrial Revolution, British merchants established overseas branches which became major trade... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September–October 2013
Article

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

By: Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel

Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly onerous when outsourcing the monitoring and... View Details