Publications

Read Now

December 2020
Supplement

France Télécom (B): A Wave of Staff Suicides

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery and Ashley V. Whillans

In the B case we learn that at least 19 France Telecom employees took their own lives between 2006 and 2009, 12 others attempted suicide, and eight suffered from serious depression for reasons reportedly related to work. Some of these deaths occurred in public places,... View Details

01 Dec 2005
News

The Deleterious Effects of Dirty Money

Baker: Chronicler of dirty money. In his new book, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), Raymond W. Baker (MBA ’60) chronicles the widespread illegal flow of money... View Details

Keywords: Lewis I. Rice; Finance

March 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Aguas Argentinas: Settling a Dispute

By: Louis T. Wells Jr. and Alexandra de Royere

The French-owned Aguas Argentinas faces a demand from the Argentine government that it renegotiate its concession to operate the Buenos Aires water and sewage services. The company must decide whether to continue with efforts to settle on a new contract or to exercise... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Contracts; Infrastructure; Privatization; Business and Government Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Business Strategy; Utilities Industry; France; Buenos Aires

01 Jun 2003
News

Up Against The Firewall

to law enforcement? How much disclosure is legally required, and how much is appropriate ethically? How will disclosure affect the company’s stock price and prospects for... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Robert Austin; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ’Fortune Tellers’

effort they enjoyed wide institutional backing. Courts of law routinely supported those who made predictions based on dispassionate scientific rules rather than those who, say, enlisted the help of the stars. Many U.S. jurisdictions... View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

October 1991 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Lotus MarketPlace: Households

By: Lynn S. Paine

Managers at Lotus and Equifax must decide what to do about their new jointly developed database and software product Lotus MarketPlace which has been criticized as a threat to individual privacy. The Product, which would allow small businesses to buy targeting mail... View Details

Keywords: Information; Business or Company Management; Rights; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Applications and Software; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

calculators" to explain benefits of new law in person. Stressed and Strained (25%): Those who wanted healthcare, but were too overwhelmed to think about it. Strategy: Emphasize affordability View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

September 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

EnergyNow: Powering a New Market

By: Alexander MacKay and James Barnett

In August 2022, EnergyNow co-founder and CEO Stuart MacWilliam (MBA 2015) considers the company strategy for building solar panels to provide power in South Africa’s recently deregulated energy market. View Details

29 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 29, 2007

Cultural Change (forthcoming) Abstract We examine the impact of the 1993 Land Law of Vietnam which gave households the power to exchange, transfer, lease, inherit and mortgage their land-use rights. We use... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2014 (Revised February 2023)
Module Note

Legal Analysis: Customers

By: Lena G. Goldberg

This Note introduces the Module on Responsibilities to Customers taught in Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required course in the Harvard Business School MBA program. The Note outlines the asymmetries inherent in the company-customer relationship and... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Legal Liability; Customer Relationship Management

August 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Raiser Senior Services--The Stratford (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Focuses on modifying operations to increase profitability at an upscale senior care facility in California. Jennifer Raiser, president of Raiser Senior Services, opened the Stratford in 1992 as a high-end, continuing-care retirement community. Ten years later, the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Profit; Saving; Health Care and Treatment; Age; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Ethics; Legal Liability; Business Growth and Maturation; Health Industry; Service Industry; California

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51195 Spring 2016 Business History Review California Fair Trade: Antitrust and the Politics of 'Fairness' in U.S. Competition Policy By: Sawyer, Laura Phillips Abstract—In the decades before... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Finding Alignment to Make Impact: Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017)

After college, Ramirez planned to attend law school and took a proactive approach to crafting her career trajectory. Goal-oriented by nature and encouraged by her parents, she... View Details

12 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 12, 2006

Protection Agency (US EPA) program that encourages companies to self-disclose violations of environmental laws and regulations in exchange for reduced sanctions. We find that facilities are more likely to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Background Note

Note on Corporate Strategy

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Introduces students to the study of corporate strategy. Focuses on questions of scope and ownership. Examines both horizontal and vertical integration. Underscores the point that economies of scope, or the existence of relationship-specific investments, are... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Contracts; Ownership; Corporate Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

also present a panoply of challenges for communities and states. Surprisingly, federal laws are chief among those challenges despite the fact that online marketplaces facilitate transactions traditionally... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 7, 2009

Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the U.K., is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value