Publications

November 2010
Supplement

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (B)

By: John A. Quelch

By 2009, Hikma Pharmaceuticals operated 13 manufacturing plants in 8 countries of which 5 were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hikma tracked its sales revenues over the period to show where the largest contributors were from. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Sales; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 2011 (Revised April 2011)
Case

TripAdvisor

By: Sunil Gupta and Kerry Herman

By 2010, TripAdvisor was the largest travel site in the world operating in 24 countries and 16 languages, with listings for 455,000 hotels, 92,000 attractions and 564,000 restaurants in over 71,000 destinations worldwide. It had over 40 million reviews from 35 million... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Growth and Development Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet; Service Industry; Travel Industry

April 2008
Article

A New Approach to Measuring Technology with an Application to the Shape of Diffusion Curves

By: Diego Comin, Bart Hobijn and Emilie Rovito

This paper documents the sources and measures of the cross-country historical adoption technology (CHAT) data set that covers the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to explore the shape... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Measurement and Metrics; Technology Adoption; Logistics; Knowledge Dissemination

02 Apr 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics

Keywords: by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo; Fashion

October 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Background Note

Reverse Engineering, Learning, and Innovation

By: Willy C. Shih

This background reading looks at reverse engineering in the context of piracy and knock-offs in emerging markets like China. It first considers legal aspects of reverse engineering in strong property rights regimes like the United States as a way of unpacking the legal... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Learning; Engineering; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Emerging Markets; China; United States

May 2011
Article

Overconfidence by Bayesian Rational Agents

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Knowledge Acquisition; Risk Management; Prejudice and Bias

September 2014
Supplement

Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Stephanie Healy Pokrywa and Greta Friar

This supplemental case follows up on the Netflix Prize Contest described in Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A). In the A case, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings must decide how to organize a crowdsourcing contest to improve the algorithms for Netflix's movie... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Prizes; Digitization; Algorithms; Recommendation Software; Disruption; Transformation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Applications and Software

June 2023
Article

The Effect of Firms' Information Exposure on Safeguarding Employee Health: Evidence from COVID-19

By: Lisa Yao Liu and Shirley Lu

We show that information exposure through international business networks enables firms to take proactive measures that benefit employees and potentially the local community. Specifically, in the early days of COVID-19, firms that have business networks with China and... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Networks; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Health Pandemics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

2010
Working Paper

Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors

By: Rebecca Henderson and Richard G. Newell

A combination of concerns about climate change and energy security has recently led to significant increases in public funding for energy R&D. Some commentators are suggesting that these increases need to be sustained, and are advocating for increases of as much as... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Research and Development; Pollutants; Climate Change; Energy Industry

May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Creating Meaning for the Customer: The Case of GMACI

Excellence in exploiting customer information and leveraging its affiliation to the GM group are among the strategic options that GMAC Insurance CEO Gary Kusumi is considering. GMAC Insurance, the wholly-owned auto insurance subsidiary of General Motors, formed through... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy; Auto Industry; Insurance Industry

11 AM – 12:30 PM EDT, 12 Mar 2025
Virtual Programming

"Storrowed": Getting Hands-on with Generative AI

"Storrowed" is a Generative AI session created and led by HBS professor Mitch Weiss to build that proficiency. In a lively, interactive fashion he introduces the latest in generative AI techniques for innovation and more broadly. View Details

Profile

Lindsay Steinmetz

Why was earning your MBA here important to you? After working for a small, entrepreneurial organization I wanted to build a stronger foundation in general management. HBS expanded my knowledge of industries,... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

March 2011
Exercise

Customer Intelligence Advantage: Module 2 Assignment

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

This exercise directs students to analyze a customer-centric firm by first understanding the elements that characterize a customer-centric organization, then by capturing and comparing this firm's approach to customer-centricity. Students interview three levels in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Competitive Advantage

Profile

Lauren Burrows

is truly a remarkable educational approach. At its best, it teaches one to listen carefully and critically, to articulate one’s views effectively to build consensus, and to change one’s own mind when the evidence clearly indicates it is warranted. HBS has helped me... View Details

Keywords: Energy / Extractive Minerals; Manufacturing; Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services

2011
Working Paper

The Impact of Forward-Looking Metrics on Employee Decision Making

By: Pablo Casas-Arce, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and V.G. Narayanan

This paper analyzes the effects of providing forward-looking metrics on employee decision making. We use data from a southern European bank that, in April 2002, started providing its branch managers with customer lifetime value (CLV) information about mortgage... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mortgages; Employees; Information; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Service Delivery; Banking Industry; Europe

Career Coach

Mo Fong

founder of LeiFongCoaching, LLC focused on supporting women of color in tech to lead with confidence and joy. Mo is a current board member for Develop for Good, Televisit.org, Starfish Institute,... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Education; Government; Social Enterprise; Consumer Finance; Financial Services (All); Commercial Banking; Financial Services (All)

April 2009 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Gucci Group: Freedom within the Framework

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Elena Corsi and Vincent Marie Dessain

Gucci Group's CEO had to decide if his decentralized management style was the most effective philosophy in an economic downturn. The sharing of customer information across units and its use in the creative process are key initiatives analyzed in the case. CEO Robert... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Globalized Firms and Management; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership; Management Style; Management Systems; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry

2017
Article

Refugees Misdirected: How Information, Misinformation and Rumors Shape Refugees’ Access to Fundamental Rights

By: Melissa Carlson, Laura Jakli and Katerina Linos

The global refugee regime represents one of the few generous commitments governments offer to outsiders. Indeed, few persons fleeing armed conflict actually claim international protection upon first arriving in Europe, even though the benefits of legal protection are... View Details

Keywords: Refugees; Knowledge Dissemination; Trust; Risk and Uncertainty; Rights; Europe

June 2010
Article

The Circulation of Ideas across Academic Communities: When Locals Re-import Exported Ideas

By: Julie Battilana, Michel Anteby and Metin Sengul

The circulation of ideas across academic communities is central to academic pursuits and has attracted much past scholarly attention. As North American-based scholars with European ties, we decided to examine the impact of Organization Studies in North American... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Dissemination; Organizational Structure; Learning; Archives; Civil Society or Community; North and Central America; Europe