Publications

20 Apr 2022
Blog Post

How HBS Prepared Me to Lead a Company on Day One

A few months after graduating from HBS, I drove my Buick halfway across the country and moved to a state I’d never visited. When I arrived in Oklahoma, I became CEO of a union heating and air business. I soon discovered that HBS prepared... View Details

November 1990 (Revised August 1992)
Case

American Airlines (B): Compensation and Cost Reduction

American Airlines' strategy in the 1990s calls for continued growth, improvements in customer service, and cost reduction. Central to cost reduction efforts is the need to contain labor costs. After having signed a very expensive new contract with its pilots' union in... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Labor Unions; Compensation and Benefits; Air Transportation Industry; United States

March 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Opening Dot EU (A)

By: Benjamin Edelman

EURid considers possible market mechanisms to allocate initial domain names within the Internet's newly-created "dot EU." European Union regulations and community norms substantially constrain EURid's approach, preventing the use of the most natural economic mechanisms... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Resource Allocation; Auctions; Internet; Information Industry; Europe

21 Jun 2016
News

Britain's Brexit Vote Goes Beyond The Economy: It's About Fear of the Future

03 Jun 2015
Video

Hakeem Belo-Osagie

Hakeem Belo-Osagie, head of United Bank for Africa,... View Details

October 1976 (Revised October 1985)
Case

Washington Post (A)

Concerns the 1975 strike of the pressmen against the Washington Post. Illustrates the importance of past practices of both unions and management and collective bargaining. Also illustrates implementation problems associated with new technologies as well as problems... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Labor Unions; Journalism and News Industry; District of Columbia

September 2013
Article

Testimonials Do Not Convert Patients from Brand to Generic Medication

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Gwendolyn Reynolds

Objectives: To assess whether the addition of a peer testimonial to an informational mailing increases conversion rates from brand name prescription medications to lower-cost therapeutic equivalents, and whether the testimonial's efficacy increases when... View Details

Keywords: Testimonial; Peer Information; Social Proximity; Communication; Generic Medication; Familiarity; Marketing Communications; Decision Choices and Conditions; Identity; Health Care and Treatment; Marketing Reference Programs; Power and Influence; Brands and Branding; Health Industry

Read Now

June 1999 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Zucamor S.A.: Global Competition in Argentina

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Describes the evolution of Zucamor and its business strategy, particularly after the opening of the Argentine economy in 1992 and 1993. Traces the action that led to its association with U.S. paper giant Union Camp. Poses some of the critical challenges faced by the... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Global Strategy; Value; Problems and Challenges; Business or Company Management; Goods and Commodities; Alliances; Pulp and Paper Industry; Argentina; United States

Research Summary

Inflation Uncertainty and the Wage Bargain

Joint work with Hans-Joachim Voth, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Trade unions often seem to behave in a more militant fashion when inflation rises. We provide the first theory as to why this should be so. We argue that uncertainty about the rate of inflation... View Details

27 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

UK Competitiveness after Brexit

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter

April 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Chile: The Latin American Tiger?

Examines Chile's development strategy since 1973. Following a series of domestic economic reforms, the country must decide whether to join a regional trading block. Considers the advantages and disadvantages of regional trade agreements and examines the differences... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Chile

April 1984
Background Note

Export Controls

By: David B. Yoffie

Explores the problems and opportunities associated with export controls--one of the most widely used tools of international trade policy in the 1970s and early 1980s; and the role of the United States and Soviet Union as major players in the international economy.... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities; Soviet Union; United States

April 1982 (Revised September 1986)
Case

Ideal Standard France: Pat Paterson

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

A newly appointed country subsidiary manager must decide on action for an operation losing $1 million per month. He is constrained by price controls on one hand and sensitive union relations on the other. Furthermore a major loss-contributing plant has recently been... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Transition; Cost Management; Management; Crisis Management; Labor and Management Relations

April 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Creation of the European Union, The

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull

Describes the emergence of the European Union (EU). Focuses on a critical stage in European integration--the period in the early 1990s when member states negotiated the terms of the Maastricht Treaty. This agreement set in motion the project that would eventually lead... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Alliances; System; Negotiation Participants; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Money; Cooperation; European Union

June 2008
Case

Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Plant

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Treadway Tire's plant in Lima, Ohio must confront strong job dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The foremen are caught in the middle of an adversarial relationship between the union and management, and they must cope with the needs and interests... View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Management; Leadership; Retention; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Selection and Staffing; Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Labor and Management Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Ohio

31 Jan 2011
News

Laissez-Faire, Picking Winners, and Other Myths of National Competitiveness

March 2017 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Oligarchs

By: Geoffrey Jones, Rachael Comunale and Kate Lazaroff-Puck

This case examines the career of the Russian business oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky was one of a small group of business tycoons that became fabulously rich after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the new Russian government, advised by prominent... View Details

Keywords: Business ＆ Government Relations; Government and Politics; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Privatization; Soviet Union; Russia

April 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Stalin’s Capitalists: American Business and Soviet Industrialization

By: Jeremy Friedman, Jingyu Liu and Christine Riggle

In the late 1920s and early 1930s when Joseph Stalin, leader of the world’s first Communist state, sought to industrialize his largely peasant country on an unprecedented scale, he turned for help to those who had the most experience constructing on such a scale:... View Details

Keywords: Communism; Industrialization; Socialism; History; Industry Growth; Economic Systems; Soviet Union