Publications

20 Feb 2018
News

The best use of corporate tax cuts is investing in apprenticeship programs

12 Feb 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Management Practices, Relational Contracts, and the Decline of General Motors

Keywords: by Susan Helper & Rebecca Henderson; Auto

15 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 15, 2008

product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design and produce the different components of a complex artifact (like the processor,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2022
Article

The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Finance and Beyond

By: Josh Lerner and Amit Seru

Patents and citations are powerful tools for understanding innovation increasingly used in financial economics (and management research more broadly). Biases may result, however, from the interactions between the truncation of patents and citations and the changing... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Analytics and Data Science; Corporate Finance; Research

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June 2013
Article

Vacancies in Supply Chain Networks

By: John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers

We use the supply chain matching framework to study the effects of firm exit. We show that the exit of an initial supplier or end consumer has monotonic effects on the welfare of initial suppliers and end consumers but may simultaneously have positive and negative... View Details

Keywords: Matching; Networks; Stability; Vacancy Chains; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain

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September 2015
Teaching Note

Unidentified Industries: Australia 2014

By: Benjamin C. Esty and William E. Fruhan, Jr.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in the firm's financial statements. In this exercise, students are given balance sheet data in percentage form (common-size balance sheets) and other selected financial ratios for a set of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Finance; Financial Management; Australia

November 2008
Supplement

Differences at Work: Sameer (B)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

In Differences at Work: Sameer (B) HBS Case No. 9-609-054, Sameer leaves the firm at the summer's end without confronting his employer about the jokes and wondering whether he made the right choice. Later Sameer's former employer calls him to apologize for their... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Resignation and Termination; Working Conditions; Opportunities; Behavior

October 1999
Case

ZEFER: Building a Business at Hyperspeed

By: John T. Gourville and Joseph B. Lassiter III

In the past 18 months, ZEFER has gone from a several-person Internet consulting firm to a major player in the information-technology services industry. In particular, in the past six months, it has grown from 40 to 400 professionals, has hired a seasoned management... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Recruitment; Venture Capital; Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Managerial Roles; Growth Management; Information Technology Industry

September 2010 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Building Value from the IP Estate

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

The learning objective of this case is to help students recognize the interplay between intellectual property (IP) rights and corporate strategy. We do this by examining what is a fairly atypical circumstance today in which a single firm is able to secure what it... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Rights; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

September 1999
Background Note

Learning from Projects: Note on Conducting a Postmortem Analysis

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky

Describes how firms can learn from projects through postmortem analysis. Focuses on the step-by-step process of preparing and running a postmortem meeting as it is done at Microsoft and other software developers. View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Software; Information Technology Industry

Research Summary

Examples of current projects

By: William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurship, innovation and growth
Transformations for profitable growth
Corporate innovation and venturing
High-skilled immigration and the structure of US firms
Agglomeration forces and cluster... View Details

05 May 2020
Video

Narayana Murthy

Narayana Murthy, who co-founded the India-based software company Infosys in 1981, discusses how he founded the firm with six other like-minded software professionals who pooled their capital

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Research Summary

A Strategic Rationale for Having Overconfident Managers, 2004

We analyze whether it might be desirable for a firm to hire an overconfident manager for strategic reasons. We analyze a tournament type version of Bertrand competition and a linear demand Cournot model. In each case there is an R&D stage where firms can invest in cost... View Details

August 2023
Article

The 5G Spectrum Auction in Chile

By: Juan Escobar, Rafael Epstein, Jose Correa, Pamela Gidi, Jozsef Markovits, Natalie Epstein, Yerko Montenegro and Abner Turkieltaub

In 2021, the Chilean government implemented a first-price package auction to allocate electromagnetic spectrum for 5G mobile services. The auction was run sequentially for different spectrum bands, allowing firms to exploit band complementarities. It was a... View Details

Keywords: Bids and Bidding; Competition; Revenue; Telecommunications Industry; Chile

Read Now

This book provides a framework for business analysis and has been used by business schools throughout the world. It provides a foundation for analysis using four key steps: 1) Strategy analysis: Identifying a firm's strategy and understanding sources of its competitive... View Details

21 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The VC Quandary: Too Much Money

home run" or for U.S. firms that need to penetrate the European market. Mullen spoke as a member of the panel "State of the Venture Capital Industry: Past, Present and Future" at the 11th Annual Venture Capital &... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Financial Services

May 2006 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2006

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

Examines the industry structure and competitive strategy of Coca-Cola and Pepsi over 100 years of rivalry. New challenges in 2006 include boosting flagging carbonated soft drink (CSD) sales and finding new revenue streams. Both firms also began to modify their... View Details

Keywords: History; Competitive Strategy; Industry Structures; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

April 1999
Article

Diversification Strategies of British Trading Companies: Harrisons & Crosfield c1900-c1980

By: G. Jones and Judith Wale

This article examines the diversification strategies and organisational competencies of Harrisons & Crosfield, a British-based multinational, between 1900 and 1980. There is an accumulating body of case study evidence on the historical evolution of British... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Diversification; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Competency and Skills; Great Britain

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May 2017
Teaching Note

Partners Group: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz

Partners Group (PG), a Swiss-based PE manager, initiated a series of strategic shifts and evolved from a predominately fund-of-funds manager into a large, multi-asset class PE firm focused on direct investments. PG was the first PE firm to go public in 2006. A number... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Management Practices and Processes; Private Equity