Strategy For Multi-business Firm - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

It used to be that you risked detention for disrupting an elementary school classroom. Nowadays, disrupting the entire school system can earn you millions of dollars in startup funding. Consider AltSchool, the idea of entrepreneur Max... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate what empiricists... View Details

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Your Customers: Use Them or Lose Them

her course for Harvard MBA students, Managing Service Operations, which explores interactions between firms and customers. Defy Conventional Wisdom Commerce Bank entered a mature industry where the overall... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

27 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad

the strategy shifted, and they happened to be on the favored side of that strategy” Harvard Business School Associate Professor Tsedal Neeley and her research colleagues call this "unearned status gain," which can cause problems View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

21 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Are Crummy Products Your Next Growth Opportunity?

have owned started out as a disruptive company.— Clayton M. Christensen Copying the management best practices of leading firms isn't necessarily the answer, Christensen said. When inventors in the Middle Ages tried to invent a contraption... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Porsche’s Risky Roll on an SUV

A decade ago, Porsche, the luxury car company, found itself at a crossroads. Renowned for its classy (and expensive) sports cars, the firm had taken a hit in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Auto; Manufacturing

26 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 26, 2019

appeared to be growing, the new Super 8 reflected the culture and identity of a firm originally rooted in film and consumer products. Sentiment aside, Clarke needed to decide if the new Super 8 fit into the company’s overall View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

06 Sep 2016
First Look

September 6, 2016

full, clear, and succinct narrative for hiring managers. 2. “Borrow” reputation and legitimacy from others in your network, establishing innocence by association. Executive search firms can also act as... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

zones As companies expand operations across the globe, they must grapple with time gaps during which employees cannot collaborate (i.e., lost productivity). To study this phenomenon, a research team studied communication patterns among 250 offices of a multinational... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

Rebecca Henderson lays out three ways for firms to profit from investing in environmental sustainability: forestalling risk, increasing operational efficiency, and selling to the environmental niche. Build a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

24 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility

ESG—factors), both because of its importance to socially conscious investors and as an indicator of long-term corporate health. Firms such as Morgan Stanley Capital International crunch hundreds of factors from carbon emissions to the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

28 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

A Dedication to Creation: India's Ad Man Ranjan Kapur

I can personalize it—one of my former students built a company that can customize a video for a million different versions. So that part has all changed: targeting, personalization, measurability. The second thing that changed is that in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Advertising

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Value Judgments: Business Ethics Across Borders

possibilities for an effective resolution. Instead, she urges managers to look beyond differences in practice to underlying principles. In many instances, this approach can help managers find a strategy that... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

12 Apr 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: The Trouble with Tariffs

force them to move production destined for China to somewhere else. Such unintended consequences make businesses uneasy. Firms conduct business under a set of accepted rules, just like athletes want to... View Details

Keywords: by Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing; Auto; Steel; Air Transportation; Technology; Telecommunications

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

American Auto’s Troubled Road

For decades, the U.S. auto industry ruled America's economy, shaped the country's development, and influenced American culture and social mores. Now, buffeted by globalization and other powerful forces, it faces a moment of truth. The... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

William Wrigley, and two years later the sale of its candy business to the Swiss firm of Jacob Suchard. In 1986 the Ecko housewares line was divested to the Packaging Corporation of America for $388.2... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Chemical; Health; Manufacturing; Pharmaceutical

31 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 31, 2009

sample of private firms for which there is financial data available in the years before and after their initial public offering (IPO), I differentiate between those that have private equity sponsorship... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

define a proper strategy for the design language of their products. An empirical analysis was conducted on the product language strategies in the Italian furniture industry; in... View Details