Publications

November 2010
Case

Bling Nation

By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind

Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their... View Details

Keywords: Culture

21 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

People Trust Business, But Expect CEOs to Drive Social Change

Public trust in business remains relatively unshaken amid economic turbulence and a lingering pandemic, even as faith in the media and government falters, but leaders could do more to address social issues, a new global opinion survey shows. However, not everyone... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

April 2020 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Uber: Competing Globally

By: Alexander J. MacKay, Amram Migdal and John Masko

This case describes Uber’s global market entry strategy and responses by regulators and local competitors. It details Uber’s entry into New York City (New York), Bogotá (Colombia), Delhi (India), Shanghai (China), Accra (Ghana), and London (United Kingdom). In each... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Geography; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Globalization; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Law; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Emerging Markets; Market Design; Market Entry and Exit; Market Participation; Supply and Industry; Industry Structures; Planning; Strategic Planning; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Labor and Management Relations; Networks; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Transportation; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Ghana; Asia; China; Shanghai Shi; Shanghai; India; New Delhi; Europe; United Kingdom; England; London; Latin America; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US); South America; Colombia

Educators

2009
Working Paper

The Devil Wears Prada: Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making

By: Roy Y.J. Chua and Xi Zou

Although the concept of luxury has been widely discussed in social theories and marketing research, relatively little research has directly examined the psychological consequences of exposure to luxury goods. This paper demonstrates that mere exposure to luxury goods... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Marketing; Behavior; Power and Influence; Luxury

27 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning to Make the Move to CEO

participants understand how to orient their businesses in increasingly dynamic markets and provides strategies to help them recognize and respond to threats in the marketplace. Simons and Professor Michael... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

September 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Bohemian Crowns: Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (A)

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Vincent Dessain and Monika Stachowiak

Tells the story of the Czech transition from a centrally planned to a free market economy, describing the first economic reforms, the fixed-exchange rate regime, and the voucher privatization. Also explains why, in the middle of the 1990s, the Czech Republic... View Details

Keywords: History; Currency Exchange Rate; Credit; Government Administration; Decisions; Economic Systems; Expansion; Mergers and Acquisitions; Developing Countries and Economies; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Czech Republic

Educators

Article

Divide and Conquer: Competing with Free Technology under Network Effects

By: Deishin Lee and Haim Mendelson

We study how a commercial firm competes with a free open source product. The market consists of two customer segments with different preferences and is characterized by positive network effects. The commercial firm makes product and pricing decisions to maximize its... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Product Launch; Network Effects; Open Source Distribution; Adoption; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Biotech Work as a Business

dubbed "a market for know-how." The new entrants became sellers; established pharmaceutical companies became buyers of the technology. This market for know-how reduced the barriers to entry.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Biotechnology; Health; Technology

September 2013
Article

Do Short Sellers Front-Run Insider Sales?

By: Mozaffar N. Khan and Hai Lu

We study the behavior of short sellers as informed market participants and examine potential sources of their information. Using a newly available dataset with high-frequency short sales data, we find evidence of significant increases in short sales immediately prior... View Details

Keywords: Information; Consumer Behavior; Accounting; Financial Services Industry

15 May 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Women Find New Path to Work

What's happened in the world of marketing in the past five years? What new tools are out there? What avenues are people using to reach customers in new and different ways? How are they even thinking about the customers? [HBS View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

April 2021
Exercise

Valuing Employment Exercise

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and Katie Panella

The Valuing Employment exercise can be used to show the importance of impact measurement in designing incentives and contracts. The exercise has two phases. In the first phase, participants play the role of managers at the State of Massachusetts Infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: Bid Evaluation; Workforce; Impact Measurement; Bids and Bidding; Contracts; Design; Measurement and Metrics

Fall, 2024
Article

Sixty Years of the Voting Rights Act: Progress and Pitfalls

By: Andrea Bernini, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini and Cecilia Testa

We review the literature on the effects of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which removed formal restrictions to Black political participation. After a brief description of racial discrimination suffered by Black Americans since Reconstruction, we introduce the goals... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Equality and Inequality; Race; Political Elections; Voting; Policy; Outcome or Result; Government Legislation

02 Nov 2015
HBS Seminar

Kevin Boudreau, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School

Fall 2019
Article

Du « défi américain » à l’expansion européenne: Les relations économiques transatlantiques des années cinquante aux années soixante-dix

By: Grace A. Ballor

Economic histories of post-war transatlantic relations have focused on two predominant narratives: US aid for European reconstruction through the Marshall Plan, and the threat of American business investment in Europe. But little research has linked these two elements.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporations; Economic History; International Relations; Business History; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management

2015
Working Paper

Staggered Boards and Shareholder Value: A Reply to Amihud and Stoyanov

By: Alma Cohen and Charles C.Y. Wang

In a paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2013, we provided evidence that market participants perceive staggered boards to be on average value-reducing. In a recent response paper, Amihud and Stoyanov (2015) “contest” our results. They... View Details

Keywords: Staggered Boards; Takeover Defense; Antitakeover Provision; Firm Value; Agency Costs; Delaware; Chancery Court; Airgas; Governing and Advisory Boards; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Delaware

SSRN

17 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Dispensing Justice: The Case for Legalizing Cannabis Nationally

in states like Massachusetts to be unduly expensive and prevents growers in states like California from achieving economies of scale because of limited market size. Small, fragmented markets also limit... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda and Tabatha Robinson

September 1995 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Philip Morris: Marlboro Friday (A)

By: Alvin J. Silk and Bruce Isaacson

On April 2, 1993 Philip Morris USA launched an elaborate integrated program of consumer and retail promotions of unspecified duration that effectively slashed the retail price of its flagship brand, Marlboro, by 20% in the U.S. market. This program represented a major... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Price; Marketing Strategy; Market Participation; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Educators