Profit - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Jun 2005
What Do You Think?

Is a “Level Playing Field” a Good Thing?

China and India as competition but as profit centers to improve our short term return on investment. We need to reexamine that paradigm. . . . Sometimes the kids in the global community don't play fair. We don't have to take our ball... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

21 Jan 2022
Blog Post

Tipping Point: Investing in the Women of Kenya’s Coffee Farms

market is under $1 a pound, while the actual cost to produce that pound is between $1.62 and $2. The coffee farms are profitable only when they rely on free labor, typically from the women in the farming family. During harvest season in... View Details

September 2017
Case

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking service provider with several of the... View Details

Keywords: Tencent; Tencent Holdings; WeChat; Social Networking; Social Networks; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Video Games; Computer Games; Mobile Gaming; Portals; Payments; Mobile Payments; O2O; Online-to-offline; E-commerce; Messaging; Subscription Model; Freemium; Mobile App Industry; Smartphone; PC; Monetization Strategy; Antitrust; Streaming; Cloud Computing; Artificial Intelligence; Big Data; Alibaba; Facebook; JD.com; Tesla; Bundling; Synergies; Digital Strategy; Imitation; Licensing; Agility; Entry Barriers; Online Platforms; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Joint Ventures; Restructuring; Communication; Communication Technology; Blogs; Interactive Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Positioning; Social Marketing; Network Effects; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Industry Growth; Monopoly; Media; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; Groups and Teams; Networks; Opportunities; Social and Collaborative Networks; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Value Creation; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; China; Canton (province, China)

Citation

Educators

Purchase

12 Nov 2021
News

Alumni Business Leaders on Confronting the Climate Change Challenge

margin provides cash for more R&D, and profits for market reception and possible capital market access. In essence, this is a competitive response to the market and demand for more climate-friendly products. Consumers will drive this, of... View Details

Web

Business Economics Online Course | HBS Online

different forms of auctions See how conjoint analysis can be used to understand customer preferences 12 hrs Module 3 Suppliers and Cost Understand fixed versus variable costs and economies of scale. Highlights The Profitability of Going... View Details

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

profits when the company says it stands for excellent quality. Or disrespecting the legitimate needs of employees. A very experienced senior executive once told me: "If you want to show that you're committed to your values, fire a high... View Details

04 Feb 2021
News

Andy Jassy Named Amazon’s New CEO

Amazon announced this week that Andy Jassy (MBA 1997) will take over the role of CEO from founder Jeff Bezos later this year. Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997 and currently runs Amazon Web Services, which the Wall Street Journal notes is one of the company’s... View Details

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

debate between economists such as the Chicago school’s Milton Friedman, who argued that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit for (and presumably transfer wealth to) shareholders by any legal and ethical means, and Yale’s... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2008
Chapter

Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model

By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis

Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Ethics; Managerial Roles; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Mathematical Methods; Behavior

Citation

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

Financial performance is the result of operating performance. Operating performance includes all the things that a company must do to win the competitive battle in its industry to attract, retain, and profitably serve customers. It varies... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

04 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Maersk’s Journey to Decarbonize Shipping

profit into long-term investments that aligned with the company’s decarbonization goals. Maersk has a unique scale that makes its decarbonization targets particularly important, with the company singlehandedly responsible for... View Details

Research Summary

The Panama Canal

The Big Ditch is the first quantitative economic history of the Panama Canal and its effect on Panama, the United States, and the world economy. It makes three general arguments. First, that the Panama Canal was very important to... View Details

02 Aug 2007
What Do You Think?

How Will Millennials Manage?

thus invigorate their teams and provide cultures that are profitable not because they are forced to, but because they want to." David Mullings added, "We will in fact treat our employees the way we expect to be treated."... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

with some as large as 9,000 square feet, each stocking as many as 25,000 titles. BookHampton owner Carolyn Brody offers just a small selection of games and knickknacks—which offer higher profit margins than books do. “I want this to be a... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

2014, facing the task of bolstering the Company’s growth and financial performance. Two years earlier she had come up with the controversial insight that a more profitable business model for YouTube should be based not on the number of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

11 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Mixing Open Source and Proprietary Software Strategies

has its die-hard supporters. Meanwhile, other firms try to maximize profits by keeping a tight, proprietary hold on all intellectual property. Increasingly, however, software companies are taking a "best of both worlds" approach by... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Web Services

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

evaluating new opportunities, we should base our decisions on marginal costs and revenues. The book cites the fall of movie rental giant Blockbuster. Ten years ago, the company decided not to explore the market of then-upstart Netflix, because Netflix sported View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

world’s most profitable and valuable companies. Further, the open policy had encouraged the production of more than a million apps, many of which were thought to increase the amount of time that Facebook users spent on the site, thus... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Information Technology

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

shrinking product lifecycles and rapidly changing technology are under pressure to bring new goods to market faster. Corporate spending on research and development (R&D) in the United States has also been outpacing inflation, raising the stakes for View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

09 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

profitability and returns for shareholders. During the last two recessions, layoffs were an almost universal go-to cost-saving choice in the United States. Compared with other recessions since 1973, companies were much more likely to lay... View Details

Keywords: by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg; Aerospace; Electronics

Publications