Publications

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12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

long-term business histories of all other large countries, has been one of intense and incessant competition. Americans have persistently shown themselves willing to follow market forces with relatively... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas K. McCraw

November 2022
Case

GE: A New Way Forward?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

One of the most iconic American companies, General Electric (GE) was founded in 1892 in New York state. Named among the original dozen companies on the Dow Jones index in 1896, it was the list’s most tenacious holdout, maintaining its “blue chip” stock status for over... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; GE; Conglomerate; Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Management; History; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Transformation; Strategic Planning; Value Creation; New York (state, US)

03 Nov 2014
News

Tim Cook And Being Out At Work In America

09 Feb 2017
News

A New Approach to Civics Education

Democracy

To all who declare that American democracy is broken—riven by partisanship, undermined by extremism, and corrupted by wealth—history offers hope. In nearly every generation since the nation’s founding, critics have made similar declarations, and yet the nation is... View Details

May 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Brand Storytelling at Shinola

By: Jill Avery, Giana M. Eckhardt and Michael B. Beverland

Detroit, Michigan, aka “The Motor City,” is most known as the birthplace of most of the American classic automotive brands. It is a city filled with the rich history of the industrial age, the pride of American manufacturing, and of the soulful sounds of Motown music.... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Luxury; Consumer Products Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Detroit; United States; North America

Marco Tabellini is an assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy unit and is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the Centre for Research... View Details

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Setting the Stage: A Young Scholar at HBS

understand the transition I mentioned earlier. We can't begin to comprehend why and how banks began to develop financial services for middle-class Americans in the first place. I see this eclectic approach to my topic as reflecting... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard; Banking; Financial Services

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurs Who Invented Economic Forecasting

chronicles a host of academics, businessmen and, yes, charlatans who ultimately failed to foresee the biggest economic event of the twentieth century: The Great Depression. In an e-mail interview, Friedman, director of the HBS Business View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

William C. Kirby

William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He serves as Chairman of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: education industry; wine

March 2024
Case

Katharine Graham: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a “doormat wife” after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; News; Newspapers; Media; Gender; Publishing Industry

Research Summary

The Panama Canal

The Big Ditch is the first quantitative economic history of the Panama Canal and its effect on Panama, the United States, and the world economy. It makes three general arguments. First, that the Panama Canal was very important to... View Details

21 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Bio-Piracy: When Western Firms Usurp Eastern Medicine

In May 1995, two scientists at the University of Mississippi were granted an American patent for the use of turmeric to treat flesh wounds. Soon thereafter, an Indian research organization won a lawsuit challenging the novelty of the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Legal Services; Biotechnology

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

business and society. In its Winter 2008 issue, Business History Review included five articles on salesmanship: "Selling the American Way: The Singer Sales System in Japan, 1900-1938" (by Andrew Gordon)... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

26 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 26, 2007

Management as a Profession Author:Rakesh Khurana Publication:Princeton: Princeton University Press, in press Abstract Is management a profession? Should it be? Can it be? This major work of social and intellectual history reveals how such... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Case

A Nation Divided: The United States and the Challenge of Secession

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

Americans elected Abraham Lincoln as the nation's first Republican president in November of 1860. Northern political leaders had formed the Republican Party only a few years before, in large measure to combat the spread of slavery. Southerners had long been wary of... View Details

Keywords: Governance; War; Government and Politics; History; United States