Publications

2012
Case

Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd.

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao and Yuren Fang

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasing integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting the foreign brands... View Details

Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Management Controls; China; China

February 2019
Case

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group: Acquisition of Volvo Cars

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Willy Shih and Nancy Dai

Zhejiang Geely Holding Company's acquisition of Volvo cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitions. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of... View Details

Keywords: Merger Integration; Organization Culture; Organization Behavior; Organizational Alignment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Alignment; Organizational Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Auto Industry; China; Sweden

January 2020
Teaching Plan

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group: Acquisition of Volvo Cars and Volvo Cars: Acquisition by Geely

By: Willy Shih

This teachning plan is for the two cases 619-041 which describes Geely's acquisition of Volvo Cars, and 619-042 which describes Volvo Cars' acqusition by Geely. The case is designed to illustrate the different sides of an M&A transaction and the organizational culture... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; China; Sweden

January 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Wenzhou Kangning Hospital: Changing Mental Healthcare in China

By: William C. Kirby, Wei Zhang, Yuanzhuo Wang and Nancy Hua Dai

The city of Wenzhou in the Province of Zhejiang, long known in China for entrepreneurship, now hosts the country’s largest privately owned mental health hospital group. This case traces the development of Wenzhou Kangning Hospital Co, Ltd. from founding to just before... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Hospital; IPO; China; Zhejiang; Wenzhou; Private Healthcare; Private Hospital; Health Care and Treatment; Private Ownership; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development; Entrepreneurship; Health Industry; China

Mengjie (Magie) Cheng is a Ph.D. student in Marketing at Harvard Business School. She received her B.S. in Finance from Chu Kochen Honors College at Zhejiang University and M.S. in Management Science and... View Details

2011
Teaching Note

Juner New Materials: On the Road to IPO (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Donglin Xia, Ning Jia and Ziqian Zhao

Juner New Materials (Juner) is a private China-based company that develops, produces, and distributes modified plastic compounds. Founded in 1995 by female serial entrepreneur Xiaomin Chen, Juner has exhibited strong performance and growth potential in the past fifteen... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Financial Statements; IPO; Valuation; Women Executives; China; Plastics; China

William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He serves as Chairman of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: education industry; wine

13 May 2024
Research & Ideas

Picture This: Why Online Image Searches Drive Purchases

“headphones,” with suggested refinements like “noise-cancelling headphones,” aided by images and text. Farronato wrote the paper with Lu Fang and Zhe Yuan of Zhejiang University; Yanyou Chen of the University of Toronto; and Yitong Wang,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology; Consumer Products; Retail

February 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy

By: Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan, Keith Chi-ho Wong and Tracy Manty

With an almost forty-year history as a business in China, the Wanxiang Group has navigated through the significantly different political and economic changes in China to succeed as a global leader in the auto parts industry and to develop into a broad business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Global Strategy; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Hangzhou; United States

13 May 2014
Op-Ed

The Alibaba Effect

guessing among them and probably an eventual change in policies and views. Losing Alibaba really stung.) Alibaba was founded in 1999 in the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province in eastern China. In those early days, it was a small,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill Kirby & Warren McFarlan; Retail

16 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Report from China: The New Entrepreneurs

Travel Dates: June 11-18 Travel Party: Fifteen people, including nine faculty members. Locations: The cities of Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. Companies and institutions visited include Tsinghua Science Park, Microsoft, Li-Ning, Gome, Beijing Genomics, View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2000 (Revised December 2001)
Case

Alibaba.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Lane

This case focuses on the strategic issues of an emerging dot-com in a rapidly emerging Internet nation-China. Alibaba, a bulletin board company based in Hangzhou, China, is trying to carve out a niche in the B-to-B e-commerce world. It also shows the speed and... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Strategy; Service Industry; Information Technology Industry; Hangzhou; Europe; United States