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27 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 27

expansion, and intrinsic business characteristics. The Indian models are all focused factories, but one is a hub and spoke model, with a hospital hub and ambulatory spokes, while the other offers only ambulatory services and is located on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 5, 2007

supplement: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=807158 Westin Hotels and Resorts: Operations of a Lifestyle Experience Harvard Business School Case 607-129 Westin Hotels and Resorts adopted a new "lifestyle" brand strategy which... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 1990 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Lowe's

By: Walter J. Salmon

Lowe's chain of 306 stores was anticipating fierce competition from their major market rival, Home Depot. As they reformulated the size of their new prototype stores and the mix of their merchandise, what would be the ultimate format? What impact would it have on their... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Buildings and Facilities; Markets; Service Delivery; Competition

August 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Blake Landro

The business of surrogacy, a boutique practice with client costs upwards of $100,000, allowed couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations to build families. This case examines Circle Surrogacy (CS), one of the premier surrogacy... View Details

Keywords: Family Planning; Platform; Competitive Advantage; Law; Globalization; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; United States; Ukraine

November 2004 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Launching the New MINI

By: Douglas B. Holt and John A. Quelch

Focuses on how strategy is transformed into creative branding materials. Reports on the development of a wide variety of brand communication materials produced to support the MINI launch in the United States. MINI USA executives worked with their ad agency Crispin... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Creativity; Auto Industry; United States

March 2010
Case

Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Michael Roberto and Ranjay Gulati

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Robert Mueller, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sought to transform the storied Bureau. The FBI had long served as both the chief law enforcement agency and the main domestic intelligence wing of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Government Administration; National Security; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Acquisition; Law Enforcement; Public Administration Industry; United States

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

September 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brightcove, Inc. in 2007

By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

Brightcove, a technology and services provider to content owners in the Internet television field, aimed to become a media distribution company in its own right. On October 30, 2006, it relaunched its Website—and, in effect, its business. With its new, consumer-facing... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Diversification; Digital Platforms; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Distribution; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

15 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

3 Steps to Reduce Financial System Risk

expertise among the spaghetti bowl of supervisory bodies; second, encourage rating agencies to improve their modeling of new and complex derivative products; and third, induce new investors to evaluate the ratings issued by the View Details

Keywords: by Mohamed El-Erian; Financial Services; Financial Services

October 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

America Online, Inc.: Disclosure Strategy

By: Amy P. Hutton and David Lane

Since going public, AOL had disclosed on a quarterly basis supplemental metrics meant to give analysts and investors a way of tracking growth in its subscriber base and the value created through its marketing efforts. These metrics gave management's conversations with... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Internet and the Web; Corporate Disclosure; Media; Digital Marketing; Information Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

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2014
Working Paper

Friends with Close Ties: Asset or Liability? Evidence from the Investment Decisions of Mutual Funds in China

By: Xinzi Gao, T.J. Wong, Lijun Xia and Gwen Yu

When fund managers have close ties to their investees, it can facilitate efficient information sharing but can also increase the possibility of favoritism. Using the investment choices of mutual funds in China, we test whether funds with close ties to their investees... View Details

Keywords: Social Ties; Conflict of Interests; Asset Management; Investment Portfolio; Networks; Financial Services Industry; China

March 2023
Case

Interior Collab

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

After venture capital-funded online interior design agency Homepolish collapsed, its former freelance designers met to discuss next steps. The bitter experience led some of them to create a workers’ collaborative called Interior Collab. The founding members needed to... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Employee Ownership; Trust; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

29 Apr 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Exclusive Preferential Placement as Search Diversion: Evidence from Flight Search

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman & Zhenyu Lai; Publishing; Technology

09 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim & V. Kasturi Rangan

September 2021
Case

Publicis Groupe 2021: Changing Nearly Everything

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain

After succeeding long-time CEO Maurice Levy as top leader of the world’s third largest advertising, marketing, and communications company, headquartered in France, Arthur Sadoun accelerates digital transformation through a new platform drawing on talent from any of the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change Management; Transition; Transformation; Leadership; Digital Transformation; Advertising Industry; France; United States

13 Jul 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Economic Catastrophe Bonds

Keywords: by Joshua D. Coval, Jakub W. Jurek & Erik Stafford; Financial Services

March 2023
Supplement

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2018, Ana Owczarzak was appointed to lead Google Ads' new innovation and accelerator team - the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL). The purpose of SAIL was to offer testing and incubation services for individuals within Google Ads who were developing new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Organizational Culture; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details