Publications

22 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 22

Alfaro and Andrew Charlton Publication:American Economic Review 99, no. 5 (December 2009) Abstract We use a new firm-level dataset that establishes the location, ownership, and activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries. Using a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

ABB: 'In China, for China'

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Elena Corsi and Elisa Farri

ABB, a power and automation Swiss engineering company had to decide if they wanted to be even more integrated into the Chinese economy, ABB's biggest market, or if they should instead increase their presence in other emerging markets such as India and Brazil. View Details

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; Engineering; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; China; India; Brazil

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

isolate the effects of channel expansion. We argue for advantages to using zip code level data for methodological and consumer data privacy reasons. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-043.pdf Multinational Firms, FDI... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2013 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Walmart around the World

By: Juan Alcácer, Abhishek Agrawal and Harshit Vaish

After reaching the limits of its successful expansion in the United States in the early 1990s, Walmart sought growth opportunities in markets abroad. This case describes Walmart's attempts to replicate its successful U.S. business model in Mexico, Canada, Brazil,... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Success; Globalized Markets and Industries; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Failure; Retail Industry; Germany; China; Argentina; South Korea; Canada; Japan; Brazil; Africa; United Kingdom; United States; Mexico

10 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 10, 2007

of directors of Medtronic, Inc., a company known for its commitment to effective corporate governance, must prepare for the departure of Chairman & CEO Bill George and the retirement of four long-time directors. The View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2009
Case

Philips versus Matsushita: The Competitive Battle Continues

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development of the global strategies and organizations of two major competitors in the consumer electronics industry. Over four decades, both companies adapt their strategic intent and organizational capability to match and counter the competitive... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture; Multinational Firms and Management; Restructuring; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry

July 2021
Teaching Note

Digital Transformation 2.0: CEO Elie Girard at Atos

By: Tsedal Neeley

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-024. Elie Girard has taken the helm as CEO of multinational IT giant Atos to lead the company into the next era of digital transformation. Noticing that customers’ digital needs were evolving to become even more specialized and global... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Leading Change; Mergers and Acquisitions; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Information Technology Industry

September 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Bühler: Mobilizing Industry around a Common Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati, Franz Wohlgezogen and Malini Sen

Bühler Group, a Swiss multinational processing technology provider, started by selling machines for processing grains and later transitioned into selling food processing solutions. A family-owned business in the fifth generation, Bühler’s high-end milling, grinding,... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Customer Focus and Relationships; Machinery and Machining; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Innovation Leadership; Switzerland

2017
Working Paper

A Historical Approach to Clustering in Emerging Economies

By: Valeria Giacomin

Clusters are defined as geographically concentrated agglomerations of specialized firms in a particular domain. The cluster concept in its broader meaning of industrial agglomeration has been the focus of longstanding debates in the social sciences. This working paper... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Research; Theory; Developing Countries and Economies; History; Analysis; Globalization

Read Now

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

October 2020
Case

Israelis, Palestinians and the Technology Bridge Between Them: A Work in Progress

By: Elie Ofek and Lia Weiner

In Israel of 2020 the demand for software engineers was endless. Meanwhile just miles away, Palestinian universities were graduating 3,000 engineers a year, and many of them could not find jobs in the still nascent Palestinian tech sector. Could these dots be... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; Technology Ecosystem; Software Engineers; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Business Startups; International Relations; Cooperation; Opportunities; Problems and Challenges; Technology Industry; Israel; Palestinian state

September 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Claudine Deborah Madras

How do companies develop a strategy that is both low-cost and differentiated without becoming squeezed in the middle? Describes how Teva, Israel's first and largest multinational, achieved its globally dominant position in generic pharmaceuticals, an industry that has... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Rank and Position; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; India; Israel

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

Hythem El-Nazer, a young investment professional at TA Associates, believes he has found an attractive investment opportunity for the firm, MetroPCS, a wireless telecomm service provider. However, two months earlier, TA had invested considerable resources on this... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Feb 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Integrated Reporting and Investor Clientele

Keywords: by George Serafeim; Accounting

April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Amazon in China and India

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey

Amazon has been unsuccessful in its efforts to develop a business in China. Even though Amazon was an early entrant into China’s e-commerce space, its domestic rivals, especially Alibaba, created innovative business models uniquely suited for the conditions in China. ... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Retail Industry; China; India; United States

22 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Humans vs. Machines: Untangling the Tasks AI Can (and Can't) Handle

people, deeply in your context,” explains Edward McFowland III, assistant professor at Harvard Business School and one of the study’s authors. "The challenge right now is that this is brand new. Companies cannot simply ignore these tools,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

forthcoming Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations By: Neeley, Tsedal Abstract—For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2011 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Hindustan Unilever's 'Pureit' Water Purifier

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Mona Sinha

The case asks students to formulate a strategy to respond to various competitive threats to its Pureit Water purifier, launched in 2008, targeted at millions of low-income Indian consumers who did not have access to safe drinking water. The case describes in detail the... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Social Enterprise; Competitive Strategy; India

July 2004 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century

By: Geoffrey Jones, Elisabeth Koll and Alexis Gendron

This case examines the role of Jardine Matheson, a trading company founded by two Scottish merchants, in the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. The two Opium Wars fought between Western powers and China, which sought to stop opium... View Details

Keywords: History; Globalized Economies and Regions; Ethnicity; Multinational Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Trade; Social and Collaborative Networks; China; United Kingdom