Publications

30 Nov 2018
What Do You Think?

What’s the Best Administrative Approach to Climate Change?

Summing Up: Should a 'Montreal Protocol' for Administering Global Warming Be Pursued? Climate change and how to manage it is a daunting subject. Nevertheless, several readers of this month’s column were willing to venture a model or two for administering a system... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Energy

2015
Book

The Impact of Globalization on Argentina and Chile: Business Enterprises and Entrepreneurship

By: Geoffrey Jones and Andrea Lluch

This book compares the effects of globalization on two Latin American countries, Argentina and Chile, over time. The chapters examine the impact of multinationals, the growth of business groups, and the conflicted relations between business and government. The book... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Business Groups; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Globalization; Growth and Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Banking Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; Latin America; Argentina; Chile

2003
Case

E-Business Innovation at Cisco

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Philip Anderson, Chris Trimble and Katrina Veerman

As of March 2001, Cisco Systems prides itself as an "end-to-end networking company." The phrase describes not only their product line but the way they run their business. They created many of the e-business practices that later became cornerstones of the software... View Details

Keywords: Technology Networks; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Business Strategy; Web Services Industry

10 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 10, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=507024 Lobbying Harvard Business School Note 707-471 Describes how companies engage the political and legal system and the rules and ethics associated with doing so. Focuses... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 28, 2014
Article

A Better Route to Tech Standards

By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole

Technological standards are ubiquitous, whether they allow consumers to communicate seamlessly across wireless networks or manufacturers to procure goods across complex global supply chains. These standards—shaped by standard-setting organizations (SSOs) and... View Details

Register to Read

September 1994
Case

BayFunds

By: Alvin J. Silk, Lisa Klein Pearo and Jamie Harper

In June, 1994, the Senior Vice President of BayBank's Investment Management Group is preparing a strategic plan for her organization's line of mutual funds. Sixteen months earlier, BayBank, Massachusetts's leading retail bank, had entered the mutual fund business by... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Investment Funds; Product Marketing; Integration; Financial Services Industry

Educators

14 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Difficulties for Women Bridging Racial, Generational, and Global Divides

one reader in the comments section of Oprah.com. "Oprah—you should be ashamed of yourself!" “Let's replace our judgment with curiosity” Among scholars, it's called "intersectionality"—the obvious yet complex idea that gender interacts... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 2001
Case

Bobbie D'Alessandro and the Redesign of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School

By: Linda A. Hill, Kristin Doughty and Ellen Pruyne

Bobbi D'Alessandro, the superintendent of the school system in Cambridge, MA, has just hired a new principal to lead a major redesign effort in the city's only high school. The need for reform had been evident since the late 1980s when school statistics highlighted... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Performance Improvement; Change Management; Secondary Education; Selection and Staffing; Leading Change; Education Industry; Cambridge

Research Summary

Railroads and the Making of Modern China

My current book project is entitled Railroads and the Making of the Modern China and explores China’s economic and socio-political transformation from the last decades of the empire to the present using railroad infrastructure as a focus. Based on a large... View Details

2007
Working Paper

The Impact of Component Modularity on Design Evolution: Evidence from the Software Industry

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

Much academic work asserts a relationship between the design of a complex system and the manner in which this system evolves over time. In particular, designs which are modular in nature are argued to be more "evolvable," in that these designs facilitate making... View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Adaptation; Software; Information Technology Industry

2008
Working Paper

The Architecture of Platforms: A Unified View

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard

The central role of "platform" products and services in mediating the activities of disaggregated "clusters" or "ecosystems" of firms has been widely recognized. But platforms and the systems in which they are embedded are very diverse. In particular, platforms may... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Industry Clusters; Infrastructure; Information Infrastructure; Digital Platforms

January 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Target Malaria: Editing Mosquitoes through Gene Drives

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

Target Malaria, a non-profit research consortium, is exploring the application of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to combat malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its approach uses gene drives, a revolutionary tool, to suppress the population of malaria-carrying... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Strategy; Genetics; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States; United Kingdom; Burkina Faso; Africa

Educators

December 2020
Article

Multinational Firms and the Politics of International Trade in Multidisciplinary Perspective

By: Grace A. Ballor and Aydin B. Yildirim

From the technical analyses of wide ranges of scholars to the public discourse backlashes against globalization, there is a huge volume of work historicizing, quantifying, and problematizing the complex role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in international trade.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporations; International Trade; Big Business; Economic Governance; Global Value Chains; Trade Policy; Corporate Regulation; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Policy; Governance; Globalization

24 Jun 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Entrepreneurial Gap: How Managers Adjust Span of Accountability and Span of Control to Implement Business Strategy

Keywords: by Robert L. Simons

2007
Report

Competitiveness at the Crossroads: Choosing the Future Direction of the Russian Economy

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

The report synthesizes, interprets, and draws implications about Russia's economic progress, applying the Porter competitiveness framework. It is part of a Strategic Audit of the Russian Federation, a broader set of research activities coordinated by CSR to provide a... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Globalized Economies and Regions; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Russia

September 1998 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Mark J. Cotteleer

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Complexity; Information Management

Educators

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

upon which to dramatize the advantages of the American system of free enterprise." Foremost among the more than forty company exhibitors was the nation's largest industrial corporation, General Motors. Still smarting from the... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

2015
Book

Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy

By: Karthik Ramanna

There are certain institutions underlying our modern market-capitalist system that are largely outside the interest and understanding of the general public—e.g., rulemaking for bank capital adequacy, actuarial standards, accounting standards, and auditing practice. In... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Financial Institutions; Financial Reporting; GAAP; IFRS; Lobbying; Capitalism; Sustainability; Accounting; Finance; Business and Government Relations; Leadership; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; China; India

October 2024
Module Note

Purpose of the Firm

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Purpose of the Firm (PoF) is a short module designed to explore how, and under what circumstances, business leaders can harness the power of capitalism and markets to “make a difference in the world”—that is, to address a significant societal problem as a commercial... View Details

Keywords: Social Accounting; Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; Leadership