Publications

23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

and analysis," says Quelch. A Smoking Market Uncertainty over health data hasn't hurt the product's popularity. In 2013, electronic cigarettes tripled in sales in the US to approximately $3 billion. (The overall tobacco retail market... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

Is there a single best investment allocation strategy for the long-term investor? Some theories favor a one-portfolio-for-all investors approach, emphasizing a best-mix-of-assets program. The more traditional approach, which developed out... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

January 2008
Article

Entrepreneurship and Urban Success: Toward a Policy Consensus

By: Zoltan J. Acs, Edward L. Glaeser, Robert E. Litan, Lee Fleming, Stephan J. Goetz, William R. Kerr, Steven Klepper, Stuart S. Rosenthal, Olav Sorenson and William C. Strange

Like all politics, all entrepreneurship is local. Individuals launch firms and, if successful, expand their enterprises to other locations. But new firms must start somewhere, even if their businesses are conducted largely or exclusively on the Internet. Likewise,... View Details

Keywords: Business Headquarters; Business Startups; Development Economics; Economy; Entrepreneurship; Policy; Taxation; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Business Processes; Expansion; Internet

Read Now

May 2024
Case

Pernod Ricard: Uncorking Digital Transformation

By: Iavor Bojinov, Edward McFowland III, François Candelon, Nikolina Jonsson and Emer Moloney

This case study explores the opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation journey of French wine and spirits company Pernod Ricard. As part of the transformation, the company launched four key digital programs (KDPs) aimed at using data and artificial... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Business Divisions; Talent and Talent Management; Global Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Advertising; Sales; Organizational Culture; Product Development; Decision Making; Technology Adoption; Alignment; Expansion; Food and Beverage Industry; France; Europe

20 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

How Much Is Freedom Worth? For Gig Workers, a Lot.

considerations in choosing gig work, despite the lack of benefits and legal protections that other employees enjoy. Armed with data on 426,385 meal-delivery drivers working for DoorDash in California, Oberholzer-Gee, the Andreas Andresen Professor in the View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology

04 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

Bezos was still working on Wall Street. After decades of tax-free sales, ecommerce was just 11.4 percent of US retail sales in 2019, according to the Department of Commerce. Meanwhile, social media usage on the major platforms had been... View Details

Keywords: by Frank V. Cespedes

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

Working PapersIncorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting Authors:Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur, and Ananth Raman Abstract As numerous papers have argued, sales, inventory, and gross margin for a View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 28, 2015

of the business model as decisions enforced by the authority of the firm; this definition enables the analysis of business models through the analysis of individual firm choices. We situate negotiation outcomes within the strategy... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Sunōmi Switchel: Time to Switch?

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Shani Carter McKinney and Alexandra Horvitz

Nicole Blank has bootstrapped her functional beverage company, Sunōmi Switchel, to contracts with leading grocery retailers. She is now faced with a series of choices for if and how to continue to grow the business. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Start-up; Startup Management; Burnout; Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurial Journey; Bootstrap; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Crisis Management; Financial Condition; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; District of Columbia

14 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 14, 2015

(2) structure-oriented approaches that redesign specific incentives, tasks, and decisions to reduce temptations to cheat in the environment. This paper explores how these approaches can change behavior. We argue that integrating both approaches while avoiding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

nontraditional expansion strategy of entering the developed markets of Europe and the United States as a niche player before venturing into Middle Eastern and neighboring Asian markets. Looking ahead to the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2024
Case

Lucky Ones Coffee: Employing People with Disabilities

By: Richard S. Ruback, Robin Greenwood, Joe Higgins, Matthew Preble and Dave Habeeb

Katie Holyfield and Taylor Matkins founded The Lucky Ones Coffee in 2017 with a mission to create jobs in Park City, Utah for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The company quickly earned strong support from the local community, and by early 2023... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Utah; United States

26 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Winners and Losers in the Internet Economy

publishers and retailers to social networks and gaming sites. Job growth on the Internet stands in sharp contrast to the US economy as a whole, which has suffered from high unemployment for years. The report found that the gross domestic... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Publishing

September 2021
Case

Worldreader: Helping Readers Build a Better World

By: Marco Bertini, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2010, Worldreader was an international nonprofit organization that promoted reading to children around the world. For many years, Worldreader distributed e-readers to under-resourced communities and funded its operations primarily through philanthropic... View Details

March 1969 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Industrial Products, Inc.

By: Joseph L. Bower and John W. Rosenblum

Involves the decision of whether to construct a new plant in another part of the country for a line of fire protection equipment. Capital funds set aside for the construction are blocked by Fireguard's continued record of substantial operating losses and divisional... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Capital; Construction; Financing and Loans; Expansion; Business Earnings; Markets; Product; Manufacturing Industry

Find at Harvard

February 1999
Case

Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

In 1997, Lifeline Systems continues to grow its service business to $32 million, 56% of the company's total revenues. More local hospital Lifeline programs turn over their monitoring service to Lifeline Central, expanding the company's subscriber base by 30%. The... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Expansion; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Age; Investment; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Cambridge; Boston

2011
Article

Strategic Change and the Jazz Mindset: Exploring Practices That Enhance Dynamic Capabilities for Organizational Improvisation

By: Ethan S. Bernstein and Frank J. Barrett

How can leaders adopt a mindset that maximizes learning, remains responsive to short-term emergent opportunities, and simultaneously strengthens longer-term dynamic capabilities of the organization? This chapter explores the organizational decisions and practices... View Details

Read Now