Publications

February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Boston.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jon K Rust

How aggressively should an incumbent move when developing an online business that threatens its core product? With Internet competitors taking direct aim at the traditional print newspaper business model, the Boston Globe fought back with its own web initiative,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Change Management; Internet and the Web; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Publishing Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Program

Rising Generation in the Family Enterprise

critical decisions. Learning alongside a select group of generational peers, you will crystallize priorities and develop a plan of action to guide the next phase of your life and career—and the next phase of the business. Details Address the responsibilities that come... View Details

July–August 2025
Article

Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?

By: William Kerr

To remain competitive in the internet-of-things era, should the CEO of SolidTech Innovations, a fictional elevator company, invest a lot of money in reskilling its entire staff? The industry is moving from hardware to software in the form of smart, connected elevators.... View Details

Keywords: Training; Competency and Skills; Employees; Change Management; Leading Change

Find at Harvard

Read Now

02 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 2

legacy labor and health care costs-is seriously incomplete and that GM's share collapsed for many of the same reasons that many of the other highly successful American firms of the 50s, 60s, and 70s were forced from the market, including... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the 'New Competition,' 1890-1940

American Fair Trade explores the contested political and legal meanings of the term fair trade from the late nineteenth century through the New Deal era. This history of American capitalism argues that business associations partnered with... View Details

18 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 18, 2018

that bargaining between GPs and LPs leads to gradation in investment performance based on the parties’ outside options. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54888 After the Carnival: Key Factors to Enhance Olympic View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

March 2007 (Revised October 2008)
Case

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics

By: Anita Elberse, Catherine Anthony and Joshua Callahan

It is February 2007, exactly three years before Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Olympics. Judy Rogers, City Manager for the City of Vancouver and a member of the Board of Directors for Vancouver's Organizing Committee (VANOC), is keen to ensure the Games will have a... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Social Marketing; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Sports; Public Administration Industry; Sports Industry; Vancouver

Article

How to Launch Your Digital Platform: A Playbook for Strategists

By: Benjamin Edelman

The ubiquity of Internet access has caused a sharp rise in the number of businesses offering platforms that connect users for communication or commerce. Entrepreneurs are particularly drawn to these platforms because they create significant value and have modest... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Launch; Mobilization Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Adoption; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry

Read Now

Serial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal their revolutionary playbook for igniting growth inside established companies.

Most established companies face a... View Details

11 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-periphery Structures Dominate?

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin & John Rusnak; Video Game; Web Services

2018
Working Paper

When to Take the Leap: The Antecedents and Consequences of Leapfrog CEOs

By: J. Yo-Jud Cheng

Much of the prior research on CEO successions focuses on differences between CEOs appointed from within the firm and those appointed from outside; however, this dichotomy neglects significant heterogeneity in CEOs’ career trajectories. In this study, I examine the... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Management

2018
Book

American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the 'New Competition,' 1890–1940

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

American Fair Trade explores the contested political and legal meanings of the term fair trade from the late nineteenth century through the New Deal era. This history of American capitalism argues that business associations partnered with regulators to... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Competition; Policy; Fairness; History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

October 2013
Case

Mitch Daniels and the State of Indiana

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Wendy K. Winer

Mitch Daniels, Governor of the State of Indiana, knew he had to make a difficult choice as he sat in his office in December 2010. Should he aggressively push the state legislature to pass comprehensive education reform—a major priority of his administration—or,... View Details

Keywords: Education Reform; Priorities; Leadership; Education; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; Indiana

Research Summary

Job Market Paper

When to Take the Leap:
The Antecedents and Consequences of Leapfrog CEOs

Much of the prior research on CEO successions focuses on differences between CEOs appointed from within the firm and those appointed from outside;... View Details

June 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Time Out: The Evolution from Media to Markets

By: Kate Barasz and Eva Ascarza

In February 2020, Time Out’s chief executive officer Julio Bruno is evaluating the strategic direction of the company. Over the span of five decades, Time Out — the global media and entertainment brand — had gone from a self-published counterculture publication in... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Media Businesses; Hospitality; Hospitality Industry; Digital; Brands and Branding; Media; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Article

Management Practices, Relational Contracts and the Decline of General Motors

By: Susan Helper and Rebecca Henderson

General Motors was once regarded as one of the best managed and most successful firms in the world, but between 1980 and 2009 its share of the U.S. market fell from 62.6% to 19.8%, and in 2009 the firm went bankrupt. In this paper we argue that the conventional... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States