Publications

December 2018
Case

First Utility Ltd.

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

At the end of 2017 First Utility Ltd. was the largest of the middle-tier domestic energy suppliers in the United Kingdom, serving 808,000 of the country’s 27 million households with electricity and gas. In Q1 2017 First Utility captured 3% market share. The company had... View Details

Keywords: Rapid Growth Stage; Power/Energy; Energy Efficiency Standards; Energy; Competition; Diversification; Acquisition; Expansion; Growth Management; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

February 2011
Case

oDesk: Changing How the World Works

By: Boris Groysberg, David A. Thomas and Jennifer M. Tydlaska

It is 2010, and Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, is contemplating the next steps for his organization. Founded in 2004 in California, oDesk operates an online marketplace which matches Employers with Contractors. oDesk provides fact-based information on Contractors, including... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consulting Industry

11 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 11, 2009

contemporary regulatory designs, which rely heavily on regulated entities to monitor and assure their own regulatory compliance. We investigate whether self-reporting, or the voluntary disclosure of legal violations, can serve as a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2010
Working Paper

Performance Tradeoffs in Team Knowledge Sourcing

By: Bradley R. Staats, Melissa Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This research examines how teams organize knowledge sourcing (obtaining access to others' knowledge or expertise) and investigates the performance trade-offs involved in two approaches to knowledge sourcing in teams. One approach a team can take is to specialize, such... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Quality; Groups and Teams; Information Technology Industry; India

Read Now

18 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas, April 18

March 27, 2017 Harvard Business Review How the Water Industry Learned to Embrace Data By: Cespedes, Frank V., and Amir Peleg Abstract—Most current talk about “big data” seems to assume the disintermediation or replacement of physical... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

two breathing exercises in a room heated to 105°F. Hundreds of cease-and-desist letters were slapped on competing studio owners. The Indian government, meanwhile, took umbrage with Bikram's legal claims, arguing that yoga was part of the... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Sep 2007
News

Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Remembered

examined four U.S. industrial giants from the 1900s to the 1940s, focusing on the executives who devised the decentralized, multidivisional structure of the large corporation. In Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of View Details

January 2009 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Who Broke the Bank of England?

By: Niall Ferguson and Jonathan Schlefer

In the summer of 1992, hedge fund manager George Soros was contemplating the possibility that the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) would break down. Designed to pave the way for a full-scale European Monetary Union, the ERM was a system of fixed exchange rates... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Financial Services Industry; European Union

06 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

The Innovator’s Battle Plan

technology so it could be useful to Western Union's most profitable real-time long-distance data customers. When an existing firm tries to insert a product or service with disruptive potential into its processes, what comes out the other... View Details

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

04 Jun 2001
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of the Subscription Model?

value of their lifetime revenue streams, can provide a strong incentive for continued product and service excellence. At the same time that former manufacturing enterprises are adopting the subscription model, it appears that media and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

8 Stories from PRIDE for National Coming Out Day - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

01 Nov 2019
What Do You Think?

Should Non-Compete Clauses Be Abolished?

business interest other than merely competition. In the US, all but a handful of states allow them, but with a variety of laws and legal interpretations. Making the arguments The argument for NCCs goes something like this: When people... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

of firm-level total factor productivity (TFP), sales and cash-flow, higher probabilities to engage in R&D, and export. We find no significant effects for firms from industrialized economies and negative effects for firms in other... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of millions of single-use take-out food... View Details