Publications

February 2017
Article

The Throne vs. the Kingdom: Founder Control and Value Creation in Startups

By: Noam Wasserman

Does the degree to which founders keep control of their startups affect company value? I argue that founders face a "control dilemma" in which a startup's resource dependence drives a wedge between the startup's value and the founder's ability to retain control of... View Details

Keywords: Founders; Entrepreneurial Management; Value Creation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups

2023
Working Paper

How Private Investors Value 'Platformness': An Exploratory Study of Unicorns

By: David B. Yoffie, Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer, Sarah von Bargen and Kwesi Acquay

This paper explores the premium investors have been willing to pay for private companies (unicorns) that are digital platforms vs. traditional companies. View Details

Keywords: Platforms And Ecosystems; Digital Platforms; Investment Portfolio

January 1997
Background Note

Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and effective customer service to achieve customer satisfaction and high profitability. View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Framework; Performance Efficiency; Sales; Business Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management

December 2021 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Diversification; Corporate Governance; Leading Change; Performance Evaluation; Valuation; Investment Activism; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

June 2018
Case

The Grommet in 2018

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Karen Gordon Mills and Lena Goldberg

The Grommet, an online product launch platform, was at the brink of scaling its business. The Grommet's daily launch and sale of innovative consumer products, using personal videos created by product makers, had led to its initial success. In 2014, the company launched... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Value Capture; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Value; Retail Industry

November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities

By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Leading Teams; Strategy Formulation; Strategy And Execution; Innovation; Corporate Culture; Industry Analysis; Organizational Alignment; Entrepreneurs; Sales Channels; Leadership; Strategy; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Sales; Retail Industry; United States

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

When most people think of innovation, they envision developed-world companies such as the U.S.A.'s IBM, Japan's Sony, South Korea's Samsung, Finland's Nokia, or Switzerland's Novartis, technology leaders that have stayed at the cutting... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

21 Nov 2015
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Stella McCartney Combines High Fashion with Environmental Values

focus on when we talk about sustainability. It creates a lot of debate in class. This is an industry where you can really make an impact because there is so much to do. Q: Tell us about the way Stella tried to infuse these values... View Details

Keywords: by Brian Kenny; Fashion

20 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It

Keywords: by Kash Rangan, Lisa A. Chase & Sohel Karim

January 1992
Teaching Note

American Telephone and Telegraph Company (1983) TN

By: Richard S. Ruback

Teaching Note for (9-284-047). View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Equity; Value; Management Practices and Processes; Decisions; Telecommunications Industry

21 Aug 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively

depth, and accessibility—it has become clear it is key to helping companies develop sustainable competitive advantage. “The new attention being given to data today is because suddenly, everywhere, it’s become much cheaper to measure,”... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

2001, the once-profitable company lost 8.3 billion euros (equal to $15.1 billion today)—the second-biggest loss of any French company ever. A year later, the company’s debts totaled 71 billion euros, three... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

The Network Effect: Why Companies Should Care About Employees’ LinkedIn Connections

the value they produce. The researchers correlated the network data to measures of success in innovation, such as investments in research and development and the number of awarded patents and their impact. The study found that View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

December 2021
Case

Bunge: Building a Sustainable Future?

By: Forest Reinhardt, David E. Bell, Pedro Levindo and Ruth Costas

Bunge, one of the world’s leading agribusiness traders and processors, strives to comply with its commitment to having a deforestation-free value chain by 2025 while it considers potential new business growth areas. After a complex turnaround, which involved one of the... View Details

Keywords: Deforestation; Value Chain; Agribusiness; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

2015
Chapter

Leading Socially Responsible, Value-Creating Corporations

By: Daniel A Brown, Rakesh Khurana and James O'Toole

We explore the role of the corporate leader in creating value for stakeholders throughout three eras: one of naïve idealism, one of naïve cynicism, and an emerging era of rugged idealism. We explain how the role of the corporate leader and society's perceptions of this... View Details

Keywords: Stakeholder Management; Value; Shared Value; Institution; Business School; Stakeholder Engagement; Value Creation; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Alignment; Business Education; Business and Stakeholder Relations

January–February 2023
Article

Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility

By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson

A lot of leaders believe that the formula for attracting and keeping talent is simple: Just ask people what they want and give it to them. The problem is, that approach tends to address only the material aspects of jobs that are top of employees’ minds at the moment,... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Recruitment; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Satisfaction

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September 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Global Health Strategy

By: Mark R. Kramer and Sarah Mehta

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) was a medical technology firm headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, with 43,000 employees and 2016 revenues of $12.5 billion. For several years, the company had pursued developing products that created shared value, defined as... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Creating Shared Value; Odon Device; Medical Technology; Value Creation; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Africa; Asia; Middle East