Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,866)
- Faculty Publications (431)
- 2010
- Working Paper
Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster
By: Nelson P. Repenning and Rebecca Henderson
Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive... View Details
- June 2010 (Revised October 2010)
- Course Overview Note
Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise
By: Willy C. Shih
This Module Note for Instructors outlines the structure and content of the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise MBA second year elective course at the Harvard Business School. The course focuses on giving students a solid grounding in the construction of... View Details
- June 2010
- Article
The China Rules: A Practical Guide for CEOs Managing Multinational Corporations in the People's Republic
By: Lynn S. Paine
To achieve growth and profitability in the world's third-largest economy, multinationals need strong leadership--but China is tough on top executives. Pulsating with opportunity, China attracts foreigners, yet HR professionals continue to rank it as one of the most... View Details
- May 2010 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
Delta Electronics Hybrid Power Train
By: Willy C. Shih and Jyun-Cheng Wang
Delta Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of switching power supplies, hoped to enter the market for gasoline-electric hybrid power trains for automobiles by being a major component and subsystem supplier. While most public awareness of hybrid vehicles fell... View Details
- May 2010 (Revised June 2012)
- Case
From Imitation to Innovation: Zongshen Industrial Group
By: Willy Shih and Nancy Hua Dai
As Zuo Zongshen drove the transformation of the Zongshen Industrial Group from an early imitator in the motorcycle business to a company that increasingly focused on innovation as a way to get out of the hyper-competitive commodity business, he continually faced new... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Multinational Strategies and Developing Countries in Historical Perspective
By: Geoffrey Jones
This working paper offers a longitudinal and descriptive analysis of the strategies of multinationals from developed countries in developing countries. The central argument is that strategies were shaped by the trade-off between opportunity and risk. Three broad... View Details
- February 2010
- Background Note
Millipore Background Note
By: Elie Ofek and Natalie Kindred
This note provides background on Millipore Corporation, a global provider of products and services used primarily in the discovery, development and production of therapeutic drugs. With a track record of quickly adapting to the evolving needs of its customers,... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
- Case
Transforming ASUSTeK: Breaking from the Past
By: Willy C. Shih, Ho Howard Yu and Hung-Chang Chiu
What happens when an original design manufacturer (ODM) firm tries to transform itself into a branded goods seller? The case traces the evolution of ASUSTeK from a motherboard supplier, to an ODM of desktop and notebook PCs, through its split into three companies that... View Details
- Article
The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How We Innovate
By: Gary P. Pisano
Science has long been connected to innovation and to business. As early as the late 19th century, chemical companies, realizing the commercial potential of science, created the first industrial research laboratories. During much of the 20th century, large-scale... View Details
- December 2009
- Case
Philips versus Matsushita: The Competitive Battle Continues
Describes the development of the global strategies and organizations of two major competitors in the consumer electronics industry. Over four decades, both companies adapt their strategic intent and organizational capability to match and counter the competitive... View Details
- November – December 2009
- Article
Learning by Design: Developing an Engine for Transforming Your Company
By: Michael Beer and Magnus Finnstrom
Traditional leadership development programs often fail to achieve the desired results because they don't focus on learning linked to the company's business strategy and the real day-to-day challenges facing managers. The experience of Sweden-based industrial... View Details
- October 2009
- Case
Low-k Dielectrics at IBM
By: Willy C. Shih and Giovanni Carraro
Innovations at the frontiers of technology carry enormous risk of making wrong choices. This case examines a decision made by IBM in its semiconductor process technology strategy: a material to use as a dielectric insulator in its leading edge silicon chip technology.... View Details
- August 2009
- Case
Global Wine War 2009: New World versus Old
The case contrasts the tradition-bound Old World wine industry with the market-oriented New World producers, the battle for the US market, the most desirable export target in 2009 due to its large, fast-growing, high-priced market segments. The case allows analysis of... View Details
- 2009
- Chapter
Creating Superior Customer Value in a Connected World
By: Ranjay Gulati
"In the early twenty-first century, customers are more demanding than ever, and difficult economic times make them all the more so. As customers tighten their wallets and increase their demands, firms face greater pressure to provide superior customer value. Reducing... View Details
- July – August 2009
- Article
Restoring American Competitiveness
By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih
For decades, U.S. companies have been outsourcing manufacturing in the belief that it held no competitive advantage. That's been a disaster, maintain Harvard professors Pisano and Shih, because today's low-value manufacturing operations hold the seeds of tomorrow's... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised July 2009)
- Module Note
Delivering Personally on Responsibility
How can individuals equip themselves to exercise leadership in the face of moral adversity? This six-session module aims to prepare students to meet moral responsibility when it is simultaneously most essential and most difficult. Moral adversity refers to situations... View Details
- April 2009
- Journal Article
Perspectives on the Productivity Dilemma
By: Paul S. Adler, Mary Benner, David James Brunner, John Paul MacDuffie, Emi Osono, Bradley R. Staats, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Michael Tushman and Sidney G. Winter
For more than a century, operations researchers have recognized that organizations can increase efficiency by adhering strictly to proven process templates, thereby rendering operations more stable and predictable. For several decades, researchers have also recognized... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
Addleshaw-Goddard LLP
By: Robert G. Eccles, Amy C. Edmondson and James Weber
Addleshaw-Goddard (AG), the 15th largest law firm in the U.K., is seeking ways to serve larger clients on more important legal matters. Part of this strategy involves its "Client Development Centre (CDC)," an innovative idea and set of services launched by Dr. Jim... View Details
- Article
How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?
By: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
Ratings of corporations' environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of "socially responsible" investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Jieliang Phone Home! (A)
By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria
At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details