Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,466)
- Faculty Publications (282)
- February 2010
- Case
Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)
Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details
- Article
The Cost Structure, Customer Profitability, and Retention Implications of Self-Service Distribution Channels: Evidence from Customer Behavior in an Online Banking Channel
By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei
This paper uses the context of online banking to investigate the consequences of employing self-service distribution channels to alter customer interactions with the firm. Using a sample of retail banking customers observed over a 30-month period at a large U.S. bank,... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
International Differences in the Size and Roles of Corporate Headquarters: An Empirical Examination
By: David J. Collis, David Young and Michael Goold
This paper examines differences in the size and roles of corporate headquarters around the world. Based on a survey of over 600 multibusiness corporations in seven countries (France, Germany, Holland, UK, Japan, US, and Chile) the paper describes the differences among... View Details
Keywords: Business Headquarters; Size; Organizational Structure; Culture; Japan; France; Germany; Netherlands; United Kingdom; United States; Chile
- November 2009
- Article
Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry
Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarter's ability to control its local managers' behavior and satisfy... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised August 2012)
- Case
Novasys Medical
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Lauren Barley
Novasys has developed a new medical device and procedure for the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence that is cheaper and can be performed in doctors' offices. In spite of FDA approval, the American Medical Association has been unwilling to approve the... View Details
- June 2009 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
Colbún—Powering Chile
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Gustavo A. Herrero and Sanjay Patnaik
This case is about Colbún, Chile's second largest electricity generator, which is facing significant uncertainty regarding the cost and availability of alternative energy sources. Problems with the contracted supply of natural gas and the volatility of oil prices,... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act
By: Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin J. Forbes
This paper analyzes the impact on firm behavior of the Homeland Investment Act of 2004, which provided a one-time tax holiday for the repatriation of foreign earnings by U.S. multinationals. The analysis controls for endogeneity and omitted variable bias by using... View Details
- May 2009
- Case
Tokyo Electron Ltd.
By: Willy C. Shih and Andrew A. King
Tokyo Electron Ltd. operates in a constrained innovation environment, defined by modular boundaries that are long standing in the industry that it serves, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. While the original motivation for these boundaries was division... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
- Case
Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda
By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim
In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Sanctuary Soft: International Expansion Strategies
By: Boris Groysberg, Geoff Marietta, Tim Marshall and Adam Hartley
Sanctuary Soft CEO Elizabeth Smalley faced increasing pressure from her primary investor to expand operations internationally. If successful, the expansion could enlarge Sanctuary’s customer base and enable the firm to better serve existing clients’ overseas offices.... View Details
- April 2009
- Teaching Note
Amylin Pharmaceuticals: Diabetes and Beyond (TN)
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Rachel Gordon
Teaching Note for [809011]. View Details
- January 2009 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
Disaster in April: The Obligations of Kelly Construction
By: John D. Macomber, Christopher M. Gordon and Ben Creo
A construction company experiences a crane accident with multiple fatalities. The CEO, a client, and an employee must make choices to meet the company's obligations. Set in 2006, the case looks at the choices faced by board members of a museum that is an important... View Details
- December 2008 (Revised October 2013)
- Case
Amylin Pharmaceuticals: Diabetes and Beyond (A)
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Rachel Gordon
Ginger Graham, CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, joined the company with the expectation of taking the company's signature drug, Symlin, to market. However, unforeseen regulatory challenges have put the approval process in jeopardy. At the same time, the company has a... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
The Architecture of Platforms: A Unified View
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard
The central role of "platform" products and services in mediating the activities of disaggregated "clusters" or "ecosystems" of firms has been widely recognized. But platforms and the systems in which they are embedded are very diverse. In particular, platforms may... View Details
- Article
Managing Proprietary and Shared Platforms
In a platform-mediated network, users rely on a common platform, provided by one or more intermediaries, that encompasses infrastructure and rules required by users to transact with each other. A fundamental design decision for firms that aspire to develop... View Details
- April 2008
- Teaching Note
Viagen: Revolutioning the Livestock Industry (TN)
By: David E. Bell, Mary L. Shelman and Eliot Sherman
Teaching Note for [507021]. View Details
- April 2008
- Teaching Note
Marketing Chateau Margaux (TN)
By: John A. Deighton and Leyland Pitt
Teaching Note for [507033]. View Details
- April 2008
- Case
Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (A)
By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong
In late November 2000, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, who headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry
By: Dennis Campbell
Many companies operate units which are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarters' ability to control its local managers' behavior and... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Performance and Control across Multiple Markets
By: Tatiana Sandino, Dennis Campbell and Shelby Yu
Chain organizations typically operate units across different types of markets, with significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion potentially influences performance through two channels: it makes performance a noisier indicator of store manager... View Details