Publications

Web

A New Vision – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

HBS Home HBS Index Contact Us Next A New Vision An Essay by Professors Michel Anteby and Rakesh Khurana A New Vision Fritz J. Roethlisberger, ca. 1958. Yousuf Karsh, photographer. © YOUSUF KARSH The Hawthorne Studies began in 1924 as an attempt to improve worker View Details

16 Nov 2020
Blog Post

Flatiron School: Reflections from Summer 2020

In the summer of 2020, HBS Career & Professional Development (CPD) partnered with Flatiron School to provide students with an opportunity to gain practical skills, statistics fundamentals, and real-life data science project... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

18 Jul 2023
News

The First Five Years: Brooke Biederman (MBA 2019)

eye-opening glimpse under the hood of an industry I love. Coupled with my time on movie sets and in production offices, I saw the industry’s huge potential for innovation. During business school, I also noted that some entertainment had a... View Details

Keywords: Robert Bochnak

April 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Shanzhai! MediaTek and the "White Box" Handset Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Jyun-Cheng Wang

The term "white box" is often used to describe products without a brand name. Such products are assembled from standardized parts, and they became a very popular category of desktop PCs. Hsinchu, Taiwan based MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company that unleashed a... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Competitive Advantage; Wireless Technology; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

administrative background for the other two cases. This case deals with the problems facing the head of a start-up division responsible for developing and bringing to market a new product based on technology... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 1999
Case

Project Dreamcast: Serious Play at Sega Enterprises Ltd. (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Andrew Robertson

Focuses on the ongoing competitive battles in the global home video game market that is estimated to exceed $15 billion by 1999 in the United States and Japan alone. Describes how Sega Enterprises has redesigned its development processes to create a revolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Product Development; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Sales; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Computer Industry

April 2012
Article

Broadening Focus: Spillovers, Complementarities and Specialization in the Hospital Industry

By: Jonathan R. Clark and Robert S. Huckman

The long-standing argument that focused operations outperform others stands in contrast to claims about the benefits of broader operational scope. The performance benefits of focus are typically attributed to reduced complexity, lower uncertainty, and the development... View Details

Keywords: Performance Capacity; Operations; Advertising; Production; Corporate Strategy; Relationships; Medical Specialties; Complexity; Risk and Uncertainty; Experience and Expertise; Diversification; Quality; Health Industry

August 2008
Article

Ethnic Scientific Communities and International Technology Diffusion

By: William R. Kerr

This study explores the importance of knowledge transfer for international technology diffusion by examining ethnic scientific and entrepreneurial communities in the US and their ties to their home countries. US ethnic research communities are quantified by applying an... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Ethnicity; Production; Integration; Knowledge Sharing; Patents; Employment; Performance Productivity; Entrepreneurship; Change; Developing Countries and Economies; Immigration; China; United States

Read Now

July – August 2010
Article

Are You Ignoring Trends That Could Shake Up Your Business?

By: Elie Ofek and Luc Wathieu

Virtually all managers in consumer businesses recognize major social, economic, and technological trends. But many do not consider the profound ways in which trends--especially those that seem unrelated to their core markets--influence consumers' aspirations,... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Product Development

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/616032-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 816-048 Intuit: Turbo Tax Personal Pro—A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs The case tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2025
Case

PayJoy: Financing for the Next Billion

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

PayJoy, an impact-driven financial technology company founded in 2015, provides smartphone financing and other financial products to customers who lack access to traditional credit products. As of early 2025, PayJoy had issued $2.5 billion in loans to 13 million... View Details

12 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

How Can Financial Advisors Thrive in Shifting Markets? Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

How can financial planners expand their businesses as their core population ages and young investors flirt with novel financial products like cryptocurrency? The most profitable path forward is to follow the very advice they often give... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Financial Services

01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

bloggers are buzzing with guidance about ways to sustain employee engagement and productivity in the chaos of a pandemic. Unfortunately, most Management 101 advice does not recognize that in times like these, the manager's toolkit must... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

October 2014
Article

Hidden Structure: Using Network Methods to Map System Architecture

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Alan MacCormack and John Rusnak

In this paper, we describe an operational methodology for characterizing the architecture of complex technical systems and demonstrate its application to a large sample of software releases. Our methodology is based upon directed network graphs, which allows us to... View Details

Keywords: Architecture; Modularity; Dominant Designs; Complexity; Product Design; Software

August 2018
Case

MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha

By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States

01 Dec 2023
News

Thinking Ahead

As we wind down 2023, there’s talk everywhere of generative AI and how it will fundamentally alter the world as we know it; but how does that translate for your corner of the business world? Is TikTok something you need to take seriously? (Is it time to dance?) We... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

November 1994 (Revised September 1996)
Case

RiceSelect

By: Alvin J. Silk and Mary Shelman

In August 1994, Robin Andrews, President of RiceTec, Inc., faces a critical decision that will affect his firm's future: what policy should RiceTec follow for supplying grocery retailers with private label merchandise? RiceTec, a small privately owned firm engaged in... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Research and Development; Conflict Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry

November 2017
Teaching Note

Amazon.com, 2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-402. On January 28, 2016, Amazon announced record 2015 operating profits of $2.2 billion on $107 billion of sales, and the markets responded with cautious optimism. For years, founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos had prioritized growth and... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Market Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Competition; Internet; Corporate Strategy; Online Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Hardware; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Price; Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle