Publications

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September 2017 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Tempur Sealy International (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Lauren G. Pickle

This case explores the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms enjoyed a mutually beneficial and commercially prosperous... View Details

June 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Innovation and Growth (A)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Michael Beer and James Weber

In late 2015, CEO Vince Forlenza was reviewing Becton Dickinson’s transformation efforts designed to enable the company to innovate and grow in a changing environment. Becton Dickinson had been a successful medical device company for over 100 years. In recent years,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

January 1995 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Cybertech Project (A), The

Describes the development and exploitation of a radical new computer-integrated technology in the largely manual meat-processing industry. The technology has been developed by the meat industry's research organization over a period of 15 years and is now ready for... View Details

Keywords: Production; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Information Technology; Product Marketing; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

06 Sep 2017
What Do You Think?

Summing Up: What Are the Limits of CEO Activism?

American Manufacturing Council, citing the president’s failure to condemn “hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.” Frazier's action triggered a mass exodus of other CEOs from two business advisory groups created by the president. One of the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

asset accumulators of the future” A new breed of financial technology companies, known collectively as fintech, has taken advantage of these traits to disrupt an unexpected industry: personal investing. Just as manufacturing companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

12 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Private Sector, Public Good

two wars, and you have a hobbled government that is not making investments in the commons," Rivkin said. Many companies have recognized the problem and are already making investments in public goods, he said. For example, Southwire, a View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

05 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

The Changing Face of American Innovation

development and manufacturing growth of their home countries. The most recent work here, with my HBS colleague Fritz Foley, studies how U.S. ethnic inventors aid the FDI and foreign R&D sourcing of U.S. multinationals in their home... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Technology

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Lessons from a Nasty Trade Dispute

It was in the late 1990s that the finger pointing began between Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and its Brazilian competitor, Embraer. Each company alleged that the other was receiving government support that provided an unfair... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

19 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 19, 2007

alignment in supply/demand planning. We model the interaction between a sales and a manufacturing function within a firm, or between an upstream and downstream firm. We claim that misalignment is costly both to the involved... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 2, 2018

Abstract—Liability laws designed to compensate for harms caused by defective products may also affect innovation. We examine this issue by exploiting a major quasi-exogenous increase in liability risk faced by U.S. suppliers of polymers used to View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

Electronics: TV in an Era of Convergence From the late 1990s to 2006/2007, Samsung Electronics moved from one of 170 TV manufacturers to gain dominant TV market share year over year from 2007 to 2013. As digital technologies increasingly... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 9, 2008

Purchase this case: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/ b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=809019 AMD Dresden: Copy Inexactly! Harvard Business School Case 609-004 The establishment and growth of AMD's Dresden, Germany View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 14

accelerated economic growth since adopting an outward-oriented market strategy. The services sector has largely driven GOP while manufacturing has expanded and foreign direct investment has become robust. Now, the country faces both... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Feb 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Delivering Information Services: A 30-Year Perspective

into the high-tech companies' use of technology to see what lessons may apply, and then we examine the differences that the grocery chain, manufacturing firm, or other type of organization, might engender. EE: How have companies like H.E.... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2010
Supplement

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Details and evaluates results in Esquel's 2002 initiative to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Outcome or Result; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

26 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Where is Home for the Global Firm?

in my MBA elective course International Financial Management, students are required to write a paper. Two really great students—Billy Rahm and Stefan Kowski (both MBA '06)—wrote a paper on the "repotting" of the manufacturer Celanese.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2024
Case

Innovation at Master Kong Beverages

By: David E. Bell and Shu Lin

Hong-Chen Wei (HBS MBA 2014), Chairman of KSF Beverage Holding Co., Ltd. (KSFB), was steering the company toward the premium segment with the launch of “InheriTea,” a premium, sugar-free tea product. Traditionally, KSFB’s flagship brand, Master Kong, catered to the... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Trends; Behavior; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Product Development; Segmentation; Organizational Culture; Product Positioning; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; China