Publications

Read Now

November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Zespri Grows

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

Controlling about a third of global kiwifruit exports by volume and nearly half by value in 2018, Zespri was a grower-owned “corporatized cooperative” with the exclusive right to export New Zealand-grown kiwifruit (except to Australia). Zespri did not grow fruit but... View Details

November 2008 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Transformation of COFCO in a Changing Environment

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Kefei Yang

China's COFCO, the country's leading edible oil and food importer and exporter and its largest food manufacturer, had in its 50-plus years of operation undergone four stages of transformation and was about to embark on a fifth. The global agriculture system was... View Details

Keywords: Food; Leadership; Change Management; Transformation; Globalization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry; China

May 2003 (Revised May 2009)
Case

ZARA: Fast Fashion

Focuses on Inditex, an apparel retailer from Spain, which has set up an extremely quick response system for its ZARA chain. Instead of predicting months before a season starts what women will want to wear, ZARA observes what's selling and what's not and continuously... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Spain

November 1992
Case

PPG: Developing a Self-Directed Work Force (A)

By: David A. Garvin and Norman Klein

PPG has built a state-of-the-art glass plant in Berea, Kentucky. The plant is pursuing the goal of a "self-directed workforce." The case describes the progress to date and the unresolved issues faced by management. These include questions about shift rotation,... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Managerial Roles; Management Style

13 May 2015
News

Small Wins Go a Long Way in Improving U.S. Rail Transportation

26 Sep 2014
News

Has Capitalism Reached A Turning Point?

January 2011
Case

AIC Netbooks: Optimizing Product Assembly

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Sunru Yong

AIC Systems, located in Taichung, Taiwan, is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, primarily for motherboards and video cards for personal computers. The firm is considered an original design manufacturer (ODM) and takes an active role in innovating and designing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Quantitative Analysis; Manufacturing; Production Planning; Production Management; Diversification; Production; Performance Efficiency; Product Design; Performance Improvement; Mobile Technology; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Taiwan

27 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 27

PublicationsThe Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System Authors include:David S. Scharfstein Publication:Princeton University Press, N.J.: 2010 Abstract In the fall of 2008, fifteen of the world's leading economists—representing... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Brazil Teaches About Investor Protection

your field? Aldo Musacchio: When I wrote the book, most of the discussion on corporate governance was focused on the legal system and the corporate laws of countries. The conclusions were a bit deterministic. If a country followed the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Banking; Financial Services

Research Summary

Overview

By: Aiyesha Dey

Professor Dey’s research explores governance and agency conflicts, board structure, governance regulation and corporate behavior, ownership structure, and the relation between executives’ characteristics and corporate behavior. In analyzing corporate governance... View Details

July 2024
Article

Mass General Brigham’s Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement System: A Decade of Learnings

By: Jason B. Liu, Robert S. Kaplan, David W. Bates, Mario O. Edelen, Rachel C. Sisodia and Andrea L. Pusic

This article describes the strategies that leaders at the Mass General Brigham (MGB) health system have used in launching a standardized patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) collection program in 2012, a major step in the value-based transformation of health care.... View Details

Keywords: Patient-reported Outcomes; Value Based Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Outcome or Result; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

May 2009
Article

The Empirical Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on Innovation: Puzzles and Clues

By: Josh Lerner

Economists have long seen the patent system as a crucial lever through which policymakers affect the speed and nature of innovation in the economy. It is not surprising, then, that the profound changes which have roiled the global patent system over the past 20 years... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Business and Government Relations

Find at Harvard

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

example, AI has fundamentally shifted the nature of Wall Street trading. It determines credit scores for existing and potential customers, screens applicants, assists in hiring, responds in real time to queries, and suggests new courses of action. "AI View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

V.G. Narayanan

Professor Narayanan is the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, and Senior Associate Dean of Executive Education and HBS Online. His research focuses on management accounting with an interest in performance evaluation and incentives... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; banking; service industry; telecommunications; health care

March 2011
Article

Zoom In, Zoom Out

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Zoom buttons on digital devices let us examine images from many viewpoints. They also provide an apt metaphor for modes of strategic thinking. Some people prefer to see things up close, others from afar. Both perspectives have virtues. But they should not be fixed... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cognition and Thinking; Perspective; Leadership; Opportunities; Decisions

Find at Harvard

November 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Supplement

China Resources Corporation (B): China Resources Microelectronics

By: Dennis Campbell and David Lane

Supplements the (A) case. Late in October 2006, China Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (CRC) CEO Charlie Song Lin, CFO Jiang Wel, and Information Center GM Derek Cheng were traveling from Hong Kong to Wuxi, China to attend the first ever meeting of China Resources... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Conglomerates; Profit; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Business Strategy; China

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

limbic system of your brain. And then you deliver that information into your prefrontal cortex and you decide how to act on it. And once you understand how that process works, which is what we're writing about in this book. Look, this... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

September 8, 2015
Article

Making Better Decisions in Your Family Business

By: Josh Baron, Rob Lachenauer and Sebastian Ehrensberger

Family businesses face complex decisions, from CEO succession to business strategies. A "four-room" model helps structure decision-making in these businesses: Owner Room (ownership goals and board election), Board Room (performance monitoring and CEO appointment),... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Decisions; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Management Succession; Talent and Talent Management

Register to Read

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America