Publications

June 2009 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Crosley

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In October 1941, a top secret envoy from the U.S. military was sent to Crosley Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio to request their assistance to construct a weapon that would drastically strengthen the defenses of U.S. troops: the proximity fuze. Such a fuze would allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; History; Production; National Security; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Creativity; Innovation and Invention; Ohio

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

they experienced from growth prior to the 1960s. Download the working paper from SSRN ($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w14539 The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention Authors:William R. Kerr and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

How Europe Wrote the Rules of Global Finance

Finance, forthcoming from Harvard University Press, Abdelal discusses the rise and diminishment of capital controls in the 1900s, the coming influence of China and India on global financial markets, and a conspiracy theory that U.S.... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

Web

Curriculum - Case Method Project

told from the perspective of the Cherokee Nation, as its various political factions lobby for and against the Treaty of New Echota, which, if ratified by the U.S. Senate, would remove the Cherokee from their native lands. Coverage:... View Details

11 Aug 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The Evolution of Digital Cameras

Keywords: by Mary J. Benner & Mary Tripsas; Electronics

2023
Working Paper

LALIGA—From a Soccer Competition Organizer to a Global Player in the Sports and Entertainment Industry

By: Stephen A. Greyser, Kenneth Cortsen and Juan Fuentes Fernández

LALIGA, the first- and second-tier professional soccer league (known as “football” outside of the U.S. and Canada) in Spain, enters its 100th soccer season later this decade. The most popular game in the world (Giulianotti, 2012) has gone through many changes since... View Details

Keywords: Soccer; ＂Sports Organizations,; Business History; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Technology Adoption; Sports Industry

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Site Map

Impact Collaboratory U.S. Competitiveness 50 Years of Women in the MBA Program Centennial Publications HBS Magazine Business History Review Harvard Business Review HBS Working Knowledge Recruit Alumni... View Details

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Faculty & Advisors | MBA

Research and Development, including as Vice President, Global Clinical Development, Nephrology & Metabolic Therapeutic Area and Vice President, U.S. Medical Organization, a group she established and grew to assume responsibility for the... View Details

July 2005 (Revised September 2016)
Case

24 Hour Fitness (A): The Rise, 1983–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2004, Mark S. Mastrov, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, reflected on how far his company had come in just over 20 years. From humble beginnings in 1983 in San Leandro, California, 24 Hour Fitness had grown to become the largest privately-owned health-club chain in... View Details

Keywords: 24 Hour Fitness; Mark Mastrov; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Sales Force Compensation; Incentive Systems; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Private Equity; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Operations; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Capital Structure; Performance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

February 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Lehman Brothers

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In 2008, the U.S. financial system was in a state of crisis and Lehman Brothers went from a major Wall Street investment bank to an insolvent institution. It was a swift end for a firm that had its beginnings over 150 years prior. What would be the firm's legacy? And... View Details

Keywords: History; Business History; Development Economics; Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment Banking; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; United States

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Get In Touch | About

Business & Environment Initiative +1.617.495.6886 bei@hbs.edu Business History Initiative +1.617.495.1003 bhi@hbs.edu Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard +1.617.496.8274 d3@harvard.edu Entrepreneurship Rock Center for... View Details

2019
Working Paper

The Consequences of Invention Secrecy: Evidence from the USPTO Patent Secrecy Program in World War II

By: Daniel P. Gross

This paper studies the effects of the USPTO's patent secrecy program in World War II, under which over 11,000 U.S. patent applications were issued secrecy orders that halted examination and prohibited inventors from disclosing their inventions or filing in foreign... View Details

Keywords: Invention Secrecy; Invention Disclosure; Trade Secrecy; Secrecy Orders; Cummulative Innovation; Wold War 2; Patents; National Security; History; Innovation and Invention; Outcome or Result; Intellectual Property; Policy; Commercialization; United States

SSRN

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February 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Labor, Capital, and Government: The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

In late October 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt felt relieved after months of anxiety and uncertainty. Workers in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal industry had been on strike for five months, threatening to leave eastern cities in the cold without enough heating fuel... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Labor; Law; Policy; Mining; History; Mining Industry; Pennsylvania

19 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 19, 2010

charitable giving, crowding out intrinsic motivations to give by corrupting a purely social act with economic considerations. Purchase the Book: http://www.psypress.com/the-science-of-giving-9781848728851 Americans Do I.T. Better: U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2016 (Revised February 2018)
Case

The Battle over the Initiative and Referendum in Massachusetts (1918)

By: David Moss and Dean Grodzins

On Election Day in 1918, Massachusetts voters would have to decide not only on their preferred candidates for governor and U.S. Senator, but also whether or not to approve 19 proposed amendments to the state constitution. By far the most controversial of these would... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; Government Legislation; Power and Influence; History; Massachusetts

June 2002 (Revised November 2004)
Compilation

John Maynard Keynes: His Life, Times, and Writings

By: Huw Pill and Ingrid Vogel

Discusses the life, times, and writings of John Maynard Keynes. Consists of three parts. First, it summarizes Keynes' life by reproducing his 1946 obituary from The Times of London. Second, it recalls the dramatic economic events of the times in which he lived by... View Details

Keywords: History; Personal Development and Career; Economics; Theory; Macroeconomics

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Initiatives & Projects - Faculty & Research

seeks to deepen business leaders' understanding of today’s environmental challenges and to assist them in developing effective solutions. Business History The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate... View Details

December 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Corporate Purpose and Responsibility

By: Lynn S. Paine

Presents several conceptions of corporate purpose and responsibility as articulated by a variety of groups and individuals during the period 1970-95. Included are materials from the Business Roundtable, the American Law Institute, the Royal Society of Arts and... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; History; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact