Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(9,077)
- Faculty Publications (3,127)
- December 23, 2022
- Article
What the World Cup Can Teach Business Leaders About Top Performers
By: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Abhijit Naik and Harry Krueger
Our people are our greatest source of competitive advantage." This sentiment is often heralded in companies by everyone from middle managers to HR professionals to CEOs. It is a great sound bite. The problem: It is not true—at least, not entirely. View Details
- December 7, 2022
- Article
Why Decentralized Crypto Platforms Are Weathering the Crash
By: Shai Bernstein and Scott Duke Kominers
In the past year, crypto markets dropped from $2.9 trillion in value to around $800 billion. In the wake of the collapse, crypto lenders and exchanges have been accused of fraud and other wrongdoing. What went wrong? One factor is competition. In theory, competition... View Details
- 2022
- Article
Becoming a Learning Organization While Enhancing Performance: The Case of LEGO
By: Thomas Borup Kristensen, Henrik Saabye and Amy Edmondson
Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with
leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a
knowledge work context for the purpose... View Details
- 2022
- Article
Before Plagiarism: Lawyers and Copynorms in Europe, 1300–1600
By: Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert
This essay uses the concept of 'copynorms', social norms about copying expressive works that can be distinct from legal norms about the same, in order to understand the meaning of intellectual property among Roman law and canon law jurists from the fourteenth through... View Details
- December 2022
- Article
Competition, Contracts, and Creativity: Evidence from Novel Writing in a Platform Market
By: Yanhui Wu and Feng Zhu
A growing number of people today are participating in the gig economy, working as independent contractors on short-term projects. We study the effects of competition on gig workers' effort and creativity on a Chinese novel-writing platform. Authors produce and sell... View Details
- December 2022 (Revised February 2025)
- Module Note
How Do You Compete and Cooperate? Understanding Strategic Interactions
By: Jorge Tamayo
This module examines how firms interact strategically, both competitively and cooperatively, as they create and capture value. Although the module focuses on strategic interactions between competitors, an organization's relationships with buyers, suppliers, and... View Details
- December 2022
- Article
I Don't 'Recall': The Decision to Delay Innovation Launch to Avoid Costly Product Failure
By: Byungyeon Kim, Oded Koenigsberg and Elie Ofek
Innovations embody novel features or cutting-edge components aimed at delivering desired customer benefits.
Oftentimes, however, we observe the need to recall new products shortly after their introduction. Indeed, a firm
may rush an innovation to market in an attempt... View Details
- December 2022
- Article
When and How Should Firms Differentiate? Quality and Advertising Decisions in a Duopoly
By: Dominique Olié Lauga, Elie Ofek and Zsolt Katona
A prominent hallmark of competitive interaction is the desire to differentiate from rivals. In this article, the authors examine under what conditions firms will differentiate through product quality versus advertising intensity. Firms select quality in a first stage,... View Details
- November–December 2022
- Article
Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now.
By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau
Space is becoming a potential source of value for businesses across a range of sectors, including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and tourism. To understand what the opportunities are for your company, the authors advise you to consider the four ways in... View Details
- November 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
OneSmart
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin
At the end of 2021, Xi “Steve” Zhang was facing an existential crisis for himself and his business. OneSmart was a premium educational company founded in 2008 offering K-12 afterschool tutoring for students nationwide under a number of brands. The company was founded... View Details
- November 2022 (Revised April 2023)
- Supplement
HTC and Virtual Reality (B)
By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins
In April 2023, Cher Wang, CEO and Chairwoman of HTC, reflected on her time as a leader in the virtual reality industry from her office high above Taoyuan City, Taiwan. It had been a roller coaster ride of new product introductions and unexpected challenges for HTC and... View Details
Keywords: VR; Virtual Reality; Strategy; Metaverse; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Technology Industry; Taiwan; China; United States
- November 2022
- Case
The Battle Among Channels for Marketing Pharmaceuticals: UpScript, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Direct-to-Consumer Sales
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Tiffany Farrell
Can an online, direct-to-consumer pharmacy both improve the quality and speed of care for patients who need branded drugs and stabilize profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers? UpScript, after years spent achieving legal and regulatory compliance and simultaneous... View Details
- November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group
By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein
This case describes the efforts of City Football Group (CFG) to purchase Esporte Clube Bahia (Bahia), a Brazilian professional soccer club. CFG’s strategy was to acquire under-performing clubs worldwide, invest money in high-profile players, and improve the teams’... View Details
Keywords: Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Conglomerates; Geography; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Sports Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; England; South America; Brazil
- October 2022
- Supplement
The SAH Group: The Time is Right, Instructor Spreadsheet
By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar
In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019, it expanded... View Details
- October 2022
- Supplement
The SAH Group: The Time is Right, Spreadsheet Supplement
By: Juan Alcacer and Alpana Thapar
In January 2021, Jalila Mezni, CEO of the SAH Group, was preparing to present the company’s future growth plans to its board of directors. The Tunisian company was a leading producer and distributor of personal care and packaged hygiene products. In 2019, it expanded... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Afrigen Biologics: Vaccines for the Global South
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau
The majority of vaccines used on the continent of Africa (99%) are produced offshore. This makes African nations reliant on the West for major health care needs, a problem which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Afrigen Biologics (in partnership with the WHO)... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Star Magnolia Capital: Becoming Experts at Finding Experts
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, River Ewing and Grace Headinger
Shinya Deguchi, Founder and Managing Partner of Star Magnolia Capital, a Shanghai-based multi-family office (MFO), considered how to convince a new prospective family that the MFO’s endowment model approach would best suit their needs. In recent decades, there has been... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Adjusting Prices in the Long-tail: The Role of Competitive Monitoring
By: Ayelet Israeli and Eric Anderson
Most e-commerce retailers offer a long-tail of very low demand products. Individually, these items may have low sales but collectively they are critical to the overall e-commerce business model. Because of their minimal sales, pricing is a constant challenge. The... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
Coordination and Incumbency Advantage in Multi-Party Systems: Evidence from French Elections
By: Kevin Dano, Francesco Ferlenga, Vincenzo Galasso, Caroline Le Pennec and Vincent Pons
In theory, free and fair elections can improve the selection of politicians and incentivize them to exert effort. In practice, incumbency advantage and coordination issues may lead to the (re)election of bad politicians. We ask whether these two forces compound each... View Details
- 2022
- White Paper
The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement
By: Matt Sigelman, Joseph Fuller, Nik Dawson and Gad Levanon
The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement is a new effort to give companies and other stakeholders a set of robust tools that measure how well major employers are doing in fostering economic mobility for workers and how they could do... View Details