Publications

17 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of Business History: A Handbook

overview of business history research worldwide aimed at both researchers and practitioners, addressing challenging issues such as globalization, entrepreneurship, corporate governance, technology and innovation, and View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)

By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg

Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Oil Prices; Oil Companies; Asset Impairment; Predictive Analytics; Sustainability; Environmental Impact; Innovation; Disclosure; Accounting; Valuation; Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Reporting; Energy Industry

June 1997
Background Note

The Normative Foundations of Business

What is the appropriate role for business to play in a capitalist society? In analyzing responses to this question, this note distinguishes two separate dimensions. The first involves the distinctive objective of business as a social institution, considers the pros and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Economic Systems

2025
Chapter

Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter argues that since the nineteenth century capitalism has created much wealth, but at the cost of massive ecological destruction, which has been particularly severe in Latin America. During the first global economy before 1929, considerable wealth was... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business History; Globalization; Economic Growth; Latin America

19 Oct 2012
Other Presentation

Building a Competitive Mexico: The Role of Business

By: Michael E. Porter

This presentation draws on ideas from Professor Porter's articles and books, in particular, The Competitive Advantage of Nations (The Free Press, 1990), "Building the Microeconomic Foundations of Competitiveness," in The Global Competitiveness Report... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Mexico

Read Now

2000
Manual

Globalization and Growth: Cases in National Economic Strategies - Teaching Manual

By: Robert E. Kennedy and Richard H. K. Vietor

Keywords: Globalization; Business Growth and Maturation

October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Souqalmal: The Choice Is Yours (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Alpana Thapar

This case describes how Ambareen Musa, Founder and CEO of Souqalmal, a Dubai-based online comparison aggregator of banking and insurance products launched her business in 2011 and rapidly grew it over next couple of years. However, by 2017, the Mauritian entrepreneur... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Finance; Accounting; Competitive Strategy; Financial Statements; Insurance Industry; Middle East

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Biotech Work as a Business

create safer and more effective treatments and, of course, reap profits—industry executives, like hopeful patients, still restlessly wait for relief. Given its scientific potential, said Pisano, biotech continues to bump against several View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Biotechnology; Health; Technology

05 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Niall Ferguson and the Certainty of Uncertainty

Editor's Note: This is a summary of an HBS Business Summit presentation. View a full summary and video of the event on the HBS Centennial Web site linked below. Date of Event: October 13, 2008 Speakers: Niall Ferguson, HBS facultyJohn... View Details

Keywords: Re: John A. Quelch

2008
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Business History

By: G. Jones and Jonathan Zeitlin

The Handbook of Business History contains 25 original chapters from around the world to present a comprehensive, critical and interdisciplinary examination of current research in business history. The Handbook reveals business history as a wide-ranging and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Research; Economics; Government and Politics

21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

disciplines from which such a model could be produced—foundered for many years on disagreements about the nature of business firms and the ultimate purpose of business. The decision (made very early in the history of university-based... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

23 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity at Scale

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca

February 2018
Case

The Golden Triangle: Back in Business (A)

By: Joseph Fuller, William Kerr, Manjari Raman and Donald Maruyama

The Golden Triangle Region (GTR) is a three-county area in rural Mississippi that suffered a steep decline as manufacturing companies faced pressures from automation and overseas competition. Between the mid 1980s and late 1990s, several textile, toy, and tubing... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Development Economics; Change; Leadership; Success; Mississippi

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

in the demand response space, and Johnson Controls, in the energy performance contracting space, are business that create financial value from stretching resources farther. Everyone benefits. E1: Economic... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

05 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

It’s Alive! Business Scholars Turn to Experimental Research

was a hunger to find people who were doing that kind of research. And business schools started hiring more and more social psychologists—including me." Indeed, behavioral experiments are often especially colorful, even fun, piquing the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2006
Case

Finance Leadership in Novartis Consumer Health Businesses

By: Boris Groysberg and Ingrid Vargas

Describes and contrasts the roles and challenges of three high-performing finance heads at Novartis Consumer Health businesses in Australia, Japan, and Venezuela. All three faced tremendous pressures in terms of managing time and limited resources, but the particular... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Financial Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Leadership Style; Health Industry; Japan; Australia; Venezuela

16 Feb 2018
Working Paper Summaries

A New Categorization of the US Economy: The Role of Supply Chain Industries in Innovation and Economic Performance

Keywords: by Mercedes Delgado and Karen G. Mills; Manufacturing

December 2002
Article

Business Enterprises and Global Worlds

By: G. Jones

The role of business enterprise in integrating economies is one of the central historical themes of the last two centuries. Although globalization—both in its current iteration and in its nineteenth-century form—has been widely studied, the role of the firm, as opposed... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizations; Emerging Markets; Behavior; Business Ventures; United States