Publications

February 2014
Background Note

Raising Startup Capital

By: Jeffrey Bussgang

Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Developing expertise in raising capital is more than a necessary evil, it is a competitive weapon. Master it and you will be in a... View Details

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

Rem Koning is the Mary V. and Mark A. Stevens Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship, exploring the biases and frictions that shape how founders and markets learn. His current research explores... View Details

Keywords: high technology; software; biotechnology

October 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd.

Li & Fung, one of the largest export trading companies in Asia, works primarily as an agent to connect U.S. and European manufacturers and retailers of nondurable, mass-market consumer goods with suppliers located all over East Asia who manufacture products according... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Marketplace Matching; Supply Chain Management; Trade; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States; Europe

Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after... View Details

Keywords: advertising; arts; broadcasting; communications; consumer products; e-commerce industry; electronics; entertainment; fashion; home video games; information; marketing industry; motion pictures; music; publishing industry; sports; telecommunications; video games

April 2000 (Revised December 2001)
Case

AirTex Aviation

By: Brian J. Hall and Carleen Madigan

Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. As a case in control systems, there is ample detail for a discussion of design issues, control of independent profit centers,... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Management Systems; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Air Transportation Industry

20 May 2015
News

Are You Solving The Right Business Problem? Here Are 5 Ways To Get To Your Question Zero

January 2023
Module Note

Network Effects in Technology

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins

In business and strategy contexts, network effects are often accompanied by bandwagon (or herding) effects, positive feedback loops (or accumulated advantage effects), and market tipping (or winner-take-all dynamics). Though these phenomena are often grouped together... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Network Effects

23 Sep 2011
News

Environmental policy globalisation means better reporting

August 2017
Case

RoboTech: Storming into the U.S. Market

By: Christopher A. Bartlett, Rachel Gordon and John J. Lafkas

This case describes the challenges facing the CEO of a small, Singapore-based industrial robotics company that decides to diversify away from its core industrial robot business by leveraging its expertise into the medical-devices industry. It launches an innovative... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Diversification; Product Launch; Competitive Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; Singapore; United States

January 1990 (Revised November 1990)
Background Note

Note on Compensation and Incentive Systems

Provides a brief analysis of issues in the design of an effective compensation system, with particular emphasis on incentives. Provides an analytic framework for thinking about compensation. Topics covered include the composition of the pay package, fringe benefits,... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits

May 1978 (Revised October 1994)
Supplement

Cumberland Metal Industries (B): Model Year 1978 Results with Beta Motors

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Designed as a class hand-out after discussion of the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Auto Industry

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Property Finder's Strategy for Online Classifieds in the MENA Region

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Gamze Yucaoglu and Fares Khrais

The case opens in 2020 as Michael Lahyani, founder and CEO of Property Finder, Dubai’s leading online real estate classifieds portal, contemplates the company’s five-year growth strategy.
Since its founding in 2005 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Property... View Details

Keywords: General Business; Real Estate; Entrepreneurship; Property; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Growth Management; Online Technology; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Egypt; Turkey

March 2007
Article

Authority, Risk, and Performance Incentives: Evidence from Division Manager Positions inside Firms

By: Julie Wulf

I show that performance incentives vary by decision-making authority of division managers. For division managers with broader authority, i.e., those designated as corporate officers, both the sensitivity of pay to global performance measures and the relative importance... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Globalization; Measurement and Metrics; Status and Position; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Divisions

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Research Summary

Enduring Success

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Harvard Business School graduates have achieved many different kinds of success as leaders of businesses, as entrepreneurs and in their public and private lives. After authoring or co-authoring 150 cases, serving on many corporate and non- profit boards, Howard... View Details

November 2005
Case

Inventec Corporation

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Ingrid Vargas

Inventec Corp., with $4.5 billion in annual revenues, was one of Taiwan's leading original design manufacturers (ODMs). Inventec designed and manufactured electronic products such as computers, servers, MP3 players, PDAs, and cellular telephones for client companies... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; China; India

29 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 29

among adults around the world, and the warm glow of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are most likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more core human needs (relatedness,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Tarun Khanna

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School. For almost three decades, he has studied entrepreneurship as a means to social and economic development in emerging markets. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton... View Details

September 2016 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Pi Investments

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Tony L. He

Pi was a large family office pioneering the concept of 100% portfolio impact investing. Tasked with preserving capital, generating moderate returns and advancing the family’s social justice goals – Pi’s Managing Directors had to identify appropriate products across... View Details

Keywords: Investment Fund; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Investment Funds