Business Models - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Feb 2023
Op-Ed

Building an Inclusive Workplace? Prepare to Shield It from Economic Fears

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, business leaders vowed to change organizational culture to increase diversity and inclusion. Some companies established more robust employee affinity groups, others diversified the voices on... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and Nicole Gilmore

25 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 25, 2008

Harvard Business School Case 708-418 Nearly all environmental organizations have a similar aim: to stop the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies which environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

The Innovator’s Battle Plan

interference from an incumbent that views the opportunities as unattractive. They have the potential to develop legitimately different skills and business models . There are three factors that contribute to... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony & Erik A. Roth

01 Sep 2021
What Do You Think?

Can We Train for Trust?

academics call transactional “friction.” As a result, decisions are made and implemented faster and at lower cost, something critical in an age where speed takes on greater and greater value. At a 2019 business conference, Brian Chesky,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 May 2020
Research & Ideas

The One Good Thing Caused by COVID-19: Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly influenced the lives of most people on the planet. It has changed daily activities; something as simple as a walk in the park is perceived very differently now. The same is true for businesses. Many View Details

Keywords: by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso

07 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 7, 2017

model for integrating diverse values offers some grounds for thinking about parallel virtues in the business case. Our goal is not to offer any general prescription for organizational democracy at this stage... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2024
Case

FIGS: Scrubbing the Status Quo

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Nicole Tempest Keller

In October 2023, FIGS had revolutionized the medical scrubs industry with its fashionable and functional designs, but the venture was at a critical juncture. The digitally native vertical brand (DNVB) had gone public in a successful IPO in 2021 and reached $500 million... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Corporate Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; Europe; Canada

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10 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 10, 2009

previously lived outside India rely significantly more on diaspora networks for business leads and financing. This is especially true for entrepreneurs who are based outside software hubs—where getting leads to new View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2017
Book

Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Managerial Roles; Job Search

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06 Dec 2016
First Look

December 6, 2016

rationalize these findings in a stylized model with segmented investor clienteles and habit formation. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51958 Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Widening Rift Between Corporations and Society

(UPS has already made significant strategic moves in this direction.) Other early moves are likely to involve the reconfiguration of fragmented and mutually adversarial businesses that dramatically suboptimize wealth creation. The classic... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Sep 2023
News

End Game

passionate about the notion that business could be a force for good. Within a few decades, many of the success stories were acquired by large corporations (L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Colgate-Palmolive, and Amazon, in the case of the companies... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

May 2016
Case

The Inexorable Rise of Walmart? 1988—2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2015, Walmart surprised investors by announcing that it expected flat sales growth for 2015 and growth of only 3% to 4% over the coming three years. Profits would also fall due to significant investments in people and technology. The company’s stock price... View Details

Keywords: Asda; Costco; David Glass; Convenience Stores; Discount Retailing; Dollar Stores; Doug McMillon; E-commerce; Online Retail; General Merchandise; Grocery; Lee Scott; Mike Duke; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Neighborhood Market; Sam Walton; Sam's Club; Store Formats; Supercenter; Supermarket; Warehouse Clubs; Merchandising; Walmart; Wal-Mart; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Units; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Banks and Banking; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Global Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Business History; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Wages; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Web; Web Sites; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Distribution Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Arkansas; Bentonville

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2007
Working Paper

Acting Globally but Thinking Locally? The Influence of Local Communities on Organizations

By: Christopher Marquis and Julie Battilana

We develop an institutional theory of how local communities continue to matter for organizations, and why community factors are particularly important in a global age. Since globalization has taken center stage in both practitioner and academic circles, research has... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Local Range; Globalization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Power and Influence

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22 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 22

over 600 multibusiness corporations in seven countries (France, Germany, Holland, U.K., Japan, U.S., and Chile), the paper describes the differences among countries and then applies a model of the factors determining the size of corporate... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Jan 2018
Blog Post

Tiffany Nida’s Amazon Journey: “I Continue to Grow Because They Keep Giving Me Responsibility.”

At Amazon, Tiffany Nida (HBS MBA 2012) leads a fifteen-person team in her current role as Senior Manager, Product Management, in one of the company’s frontier business segments, Amazon Transportation. Her five-and-a-half year tenure... View Details

Keywords: Technology

04 Jan 2021
Blog Post

The First Alumni of the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program

influential technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Waymo, or starting their own technology-based companies. This broad support network enables students to liaise with both executive-level alumni advisors on high-level strategy or View Details

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

pricing model ($0.99 per tune) that held for years. In retrospect, do you think the music companies missed the boat to rethink their digital music business at the very start? Are there lessons here for other... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

07 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 8, 2018

collaborate with on this effort? Can this model be replicated at scale across the country? Purchase this case: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/218110-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 518-079 Membership... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Pharmaceutical Industry, The: Challenges in the New Century

By: Stephen P. Bradley and James Weber

Provides a broad overview of the numerous internal and external forces that were driving change in the global pharmaceutical industry in 2003. These forces--including downward price pressures, political and social pressures, increased development costs, new... View Details