Publications

15 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2021

surprisingly, the 10 most-read articles on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge reflected the mood swings of another challenging, complex year for managers and employees... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

2012
Case

Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd.

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao and Yuren Fang

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasing integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting the foreign brands... View Details

Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Management Controls; China; China

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community

By: Jill Avery

Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content; fueled by community.” The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was... View Details

October 2004 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Making China Beautiful: Shiseido and the China Market

By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Akiko Kanno and Masako Egawa

Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Competition; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China; Japan

27 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Build 'Scaffolds' to Improve Performance of Temporary Teams

"Four minutes," a triumphant Amy C. Edmondson exclaims as she arrives at her Harvard Business School office, clutching a bike helmet and explaining that her commute is 10 minutes faster by bicycle than by car. Edmondson, the... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

January 2018
Case

Scaling Swagbucks (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In early 2014, Chuck Davis (HBS '86) has joined Swagbucks as its first professional CEO to scale a successful and profitable brand promotion and consumer research business. Davis came into the job while serving as a venture partner at TCV, a growth stage VC firm,... View Details

Keywords: Loyalty Management; Scaling; Scale; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Leading Change; Growth Management; Religion; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Transition; Leadership; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry

15 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Free Software

recent research at Harvard Business School. In "The Business of Free Software: Enterprise Incentives, Investment, and Motivation in the Open Source Community," the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

March – April 2008
Article

Identity Incentives as an Engaging Form of Control: Revisiting Leniencies in an Aeronautic Plant

By: Michel Anteby

Research has long shown that organizations shape members' identities. However, the possibility that these identities might also be desired and that members might benefit from this process has only recently been explored. In a qualitative study of a French aeronautic... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Culture; Identity; Motivation and Incentives; Aerospace Industry; France

Find at Harvard

Read Now

01 Mar 2010
Op-Ed

A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM

too few consumers. Mulally's first act was to borrow $23.5 billion by mortgaging the entire company to give Ford the runway necessary to retool its aging lineup. Mulally moved fast, trimming unpopular lines, cutting View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto

May 2016 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World

By: Geoffrey Jones and Essie Alamsyah

This case considers the entrepreneurial career of Olivia Lum, who founded the Singaporean water company Hyflux in 1989. An orphan born in Malaysia, Lum provides a rare case of an entrepreneurial success in a country whose economic success has primarily rested on... View Details

09 Sep 2016
News

MaiTai Global and Kiteboarding

switches hubs, which I started funding a bunch of companies there. I set up one of the first internet companies in Asia, in 1994. View Details

31 Oct 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017

issues in business history concerned how business enterprises innovated and created wealth as well as patterns of success and failure in that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Feb 2000
News

Tales Out of School

Baltimore-based company that provides before- and after-school programs at eighty schools in nine states. Half the programs are in poorer school districts and are supported by... View Details

February 2024
Case

ReSpo.Vision: The Kickstart of an AI Sports Revolution

By: Paul A. Gompers, Elena Corsi and Nikolina Jonsson

This case study explores the growth journey of Polish computer vision sports start-up ReSpo.Vision in an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. By providing 3D data and analysis to soccer clubs, ReSpo.Vision achieved significant milestones with a €1 million seed round, an... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Plan; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Business Strategy; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; Poland; Europe

March 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Case

IBP and the U.S. Meat Industry

By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue

IBP, the largest U.S. beef and pork processor, is facing deteriorating earnings and undertakes a fundamental strategic review in 1990. Having grown from its founding in 1961 to its current position as a low cost, innovative producer of boxed beef, and more recently... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Product; Competition; Business Earnings; Geography; Vertical Integration; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States