Publications

June 1996 (Revised January 1999)
Case

XcelleNet, Inc. (A)

By: Stephen P. Bradley, Richard L. Nolan and James Leonard

XcelleNet, a $35 million system software company based in Atlanta, was founded in 1986 to address the computing needs of a class of remote and mobile users and data that were rarely connected to a network. Though the clear first mover and leader in the remote... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Opportunities; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Technology Networks; Computer Industry; Atlanta

August 1988 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Dunkin' Donuts (E): 1988 Distribution Strategies

Dunkin' Donuts is exploring various methods of increasing distribution. Possibilities involving new outlets include area development contracts, subfranchising, regional rollout strategies, and an increase in company owned stores. Possibilities focusing on existing... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Franchise Ownership; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

September 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

InterSoft of Argentina (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Stacy Palestrant

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the vice president and director of InterSoft's Systems Software Lab, must manage a creative, cross-cultural, "virtual"... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict Management; Information Technology Industry; Argentina; Russia

December 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Dan Gordon

Describes Dan Gordon's first month on the job as Chief Operating Officer of Club Sports International (CSI), a chain of 7 health and fitness clubs. Describes the company's strategy and organization. The company needs Dan to tighten up its operations and create a base... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Controls; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Design; Health Industry

14 Sep 2017
News

How to fix US politics? Maybe start by seeing it as an ‘industrial complex.’

June 2021
Case

Mobileye 2021: Robotaxi and/or Consumer AV?

By: David B. Yoffie, Danielle Golan and Nicole Tempest Keller

In March 2021, Amnon Shashua, co-founder and CEO of Israel-based Mobileye, was preparing to meet with Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, to review plans for the future. Mobileye had been acquired by California-based Intel in 2017, but still operated independently.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Companies; Robotics; Autonomous Vehicles; Strategy; Decision Making; Transportation; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry; Auto Industry; Transportation Industry; Israel

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

newness. 10 Related to the age effect, there is also the strong, but difficult to quantify, possibility that foreign firms experienced management problems because of idiosyncratic features of the U.S. economy, including not only its size but also the regulatory View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

Web

MBA Experience | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

building, and funding supports students in exploring social entrepreneurship and alumni to be successful in the early stages of launching their ventures. New Venture Competition Blog Introducing a New Free HarvardX Course: Social Entrepreneurship and View Details

March 2008
Article

When Growth Stalls

By: Matthew S. Olson, Derek C. M. van Bever and Seth Verry

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. An abrupt and lasting drop in revenue growth is a crisis that can strike even the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Revenues; Crisis Management; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy

03 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

When Showing Know-How Backfires for Women Managers

Most of us would like to impress the people we work with. But new research from Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Alexandra Feldberg finds that, for women managers, this aspiration can undermine performance. Feldberg discovered that women managers in a... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Consumer Products

Research Summary

The Impact of ABC on Managerial Decisions

In this type of research, Ratna Sarkar seeks to determine whether, in fact, new cost systems such as ABC (Activity Based Costing) have a measurable effect on managerial decisions regarding product and customer mix.

The theory of ABC is now academically established,... View Details

Research Summary

Managing Innovation

I continue to study the disruptive processes by which innovation transforms -- or fails to transform -- industries and companies. There are three elements to these transformations. The first is a technological enabler -- an innovation that makes complicated, expensive... View Details

April 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Project Restart: Deciding the Future of English Football

By: Nour Kteily and Deepak Malhotra

In March 2020, the English Premier League football (soccer) season was suspended partway through due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two months later the season remained in limbo, with a looming deadline to decide whether to attempt to complete the season or curtail it—and... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Sports; Health Pandemics; Decision Making; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Outcome or Result; Perception; Negotiation; Sports Industry; United Kingdom

Summer 2018
Article

CSR needs CPR: Corporate Sustainability and Politics

By: Thomas Lyon, Magali A. Delmas, John W. Maxwell, Pratima Bansal, Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, Patricia Crifo, Rodolphe Durand, Jean-Pascal Gond, Andrew King, Michael Lenox, Michael W. Toffel, David Vogel and Frank Wijen

Corporate sustainability has gone mainstream, and many companies have taken meaningful steps to improve their own environmental performance. But while corporate political actions such as lobbying can have a greater impact on environmental quality, they are ignored in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Communication; Policy; Business and Government Relations

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September 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

LabCDMX: Experiment 50

By: Mitchell Weiss and Maria Fernanda Miguel

There were probably 30,000 public buses, minibuses, and vans in Mexico City. Though, in 2015, no one knew for certain since no comprehensive schedule existed. This was why el Laboratorio para la Ciudad (or LabCDMX) had spawned an effort to generate a map of the... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Experimentation; Lean Startup; Government; Innovation; Crowdsourcing; Open Data; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Government Administration; Transportation; Transportation Industry; Mexico City; Mexico

June 1999 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Sirona

By: Walter Kuemmerle and Chad S Ellis

Sirona, the dental systems business of Siemans AG is being sold through an auction. In September 1997, buyout firm Schroder Ventures has to decide whether to make a binding offer for the business. Schroder has done extensive due diligence with support from a team of... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Valuation; Health Industry; Germany

October 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

Shared Decision Making

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Karen Sepucha and Laura Feldman

The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision-Making has created an interactive videodisc system that provides patients with customized support regarding medical treatment or screening decisions when they face a choice between two equally effective courses of action.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Product Marketing; Distribution Channels; Production; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Information Technology