Shipping Industry - Publications - Faculty & Research

October 1989
Case

Federal Express: The Money Back Guarantee (A)

Discusses a large overnight express company, which guarantees its service, and which has created a major headache for one of its customers. The problem exposes deficiencies in its service and in the guarantee it has advertised heavily. A formal complaint is made to the... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Crisis Management; Service Industry; Service Industry

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06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

A Toolkit for Customer Innovation

pace of change in many markets accelerates and as some industries move toward serving "markets of one," the cost of understanding and responding to customers' needs can easily spiral out of control. In the course of studying... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke & Eric Von Hippel

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

An online shipping platform that uses social networks and smartphones. Low-cost medical care and monitoring that helps seniors to live at home. The "Skype" of broadband, offering free Internet service. On an April morning known as "Super... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Tackling Climate Change Will Cost Less Than We Think

business model, and the transition from a world in which throwing CO2 up the chimney was free to one in which throwing away CO2 is a costly activity. This won't be easy, but it will be easier than we expect. Between 1942 and 1944, for example, the United States nearly... View Details

Keywords: by Rebecca Henderson; Energy; Utilities

06 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Determinants of Corporate Venture Capital Success

Corporate-sponsored venture funds first appeared in the 1960s, about two decades after the first flowering of the venture capital industry. Ever since, they have mirrored the cyclic nature of the industry as a whole. But there are... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner

June 2002
Teaching Note

PSA: The World's Port of Call, TN

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Maddy Kadish

Teaching Note for (9-802-003). View Details

Keywords: Shipping Industry; Shipping Industry

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08 Sep 2015
First Look

September 8, 2015

demonstrates why some places, times, and industries should be associated with a greater degree of experimentation by investors. Investors respond to financing risk—a forecast of limited future funding—by modifying their focus to finance... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

pioneered shipbuilding techniques that not only allowed him to build ships at unprecedented rates, but he also spurred the whole shipbuilding industry to do the same. His fame made him the object of envy and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Yellow Corporation: On the Verge of Bankruptcy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Yellow Corporation, one of the country’s oldest and largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, was nearing its 100th anniversary in 2024. Whether it would reach that milestone, however, was uncertain as the company was attempting to restructure its operations to... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Financial Management; Ethics; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Truck Transportation; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

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October 1989
Case

Exxon Corp.: Trouble at Valdez

Discusses the events leading to and repercussions following the 11 million gallon oil spill in Prince William Sound off the Alaskan coast. This was the largest spill in U.S. history. Examines the response to the spill by Exxon management, government agencies, and... View Details

Keywords: Natural Environment; Crisis Management; Energy Sources; Shipping Industry; Shipping Industry; Alaska

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20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

with Lula and had to decide what to do to attenuate these political pressures. What could Agnelli do to deal with political pressures at home? Was the purchase of large vessels to ship iron ore to Asia a good decision at a time when the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

effects of corporate governance should be greatest when firms become overvalued. We test this simple yet powerful idea. Using proxies of firm and industry price deviations from fundamentals and standard measures of corporate governance,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 27, 2007

Cases & Course MaterialsDesign: More Than a Cool Chair Harvard Business School Note 607-026 This introduction to the Design industry includes definitions, and industry statistics, as well as descriptions... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Rebuilding Commercial Real Estate

time MBAs pile into a field, it's a good contrarian indicator. Gallows humor aside, market pros see parallels, but no repeat of the 1989 crash. That optimism rests on the knowledge that the industry today bears little resemblance to the... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Construction; Real Estate

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

development of the U.S. railroad industry in the latter half of the 19th century. Al went straight to the sources and expanded upon them in a series of important articles in the Business History Review. That work developed into his... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

more elusive than ever. A recent McKinsey study reveals that the annual churn in the wireless industry increased from 17 percent in 1995 to 32 percent in 2000. This trend holds true even in industries less... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

be non-American. Andy Grove, a survivor of the Holocaust, would not have wanted to come to a country that didn’t welcome immigrants. Moreover, it is no wonder that Silicon Valley is up in arms over this policy. Our most dynamic industry... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

09 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Read All About It: Digital CEO Buys Traditional Media!

third-party retail sales might cannibalize some of Amazon's own revenues in certain product categories. Then Amazon went a step further with its Prime membership announcement, offering participants free shipping for all transactions for... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Journalism & News; Publishing

08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

The book had its origins at Harvard Business School some years ago through a fortuitous combination of circumstances. A prominent Chilean shipping entrepreneur and alum, Sven von Appen, heard me speak about my ambition to encourage global... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 2001 (Revised October 2004)
Case

PSA: The World's Port of Call

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Nancy Bartlett, Dolly Chang-Leow and Neo Boon Siong

Details the evolution of an e-business strategy and capabilities over a 16-year period. What began in 1984 as an effort to automate the port of Singapore to achieve productivity savings, by 2000 had evolved into a global e-business called Portnet.com. Closes as senior... View Details