Publications

June 2017
Article

Options Compensation as a Commitment Mechanism in Oligopoly Competition

By: Jun Ishii and David Hao Zhang

We analyze how CEO stock options compensation can be used as a commitment device in oligopolistic competition. We develop a two-stage model where shareholders choose managerial compensation to commit their managers to being aggressive in equilibrium. Our results may... View Details

Keywords: CEO Compensation; Ceo Risk-taking; Strategic Delegation; Stock Options; Executive Compensation

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March 2013
Article

Financial Development, Fixed Costs and International Trade

Exporting firms face significant up-front costs in product design, marketing, and distribution, which likely would be difficult to finance externally. We argue that a developed financial system can facilitate exports, and we test three implications. First, a more... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Finance

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21 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Public Procurement and the Private Supply of Green Buildings

Keywords: by Timothy Simcoe & Michael W. Toffel

15 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger & Andrew F. Newman

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

Article

Friends or Foes? Examining Platform Owners' Entry into Complementors' Spaces

By: Feng Zhu

As platform owners continue to expand their ecosystems, many of them have started to provide consumers with their own complementary applications. These moves position the platform owners as direct competitors to their complementors. This paper surveys empirical studies... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Complementors; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

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October 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Software Associates

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The president of a small consulting firm has just seen his second-quarter profit and loss statement, showing an increase in revenues but a substantial decline in profits. He asks his chief financial officer to explain the results. The CFO works hard to accumulate... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost; Financial Statements; Production; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

November 2018 (Revised January 2022)
Case

JUUL and the Vaping Revolution

By: Michael W. Toffel, John Masko and Sarah Mehta

In late 2019, San Francisco-based electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) maker JUUL Labs (pronounced “jewel”) faced intense pressure. Sales of JUUL products exceeded $1 billion in 2018, dominating the e-cigarette category. While JUUL Labs’ stated goal was to help current... View Details

March 2012
Article

Does America Really Need Manufacturing?

By: Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih

Too many U.S. companies base decisions about where to locate production largely on narrow financial criteria. They don't consider whether keeping manufacturing at home makes more sense strategically or take into account the impact it might have on their ability to... View Details

Keywords: Production; Geographic Location; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Advantage; Product Design; Risk Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States

2014
Teaching Note

Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run By Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD. (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li

Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details

Keywords: Internet; China; Mobile Devices; Finance; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; China

2014
Case

Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run by Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD.

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li

Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Internet; China; Mobile Devices; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; China

2015
Discussion Paper

The Roles of Import Competition and Export Opportunities for Technical Change

By: Claudia Steinwender

A variety of empirical and theoretical trade papers have suggested and documented a positive impact of trade on the productivity of firms. However, there is less consensus about the underlying mechanism at work. While trade papers focus on access to export markets,... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Trade

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15 May 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

The Promises and Limitations of Big Data

services firms are using digital information about their customers to offer them a whole new range of customized products under the category of fintech. Cities are using data from Google Street View to guide economic development. And... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Utilities; Public Administration; Health

March 2008 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Corning: 156 Years of Innovation

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

The executive team at Corning has committed to double the rate of new business creation per decade, while at the same time growing the company's current businesses, including glass substrates for LCD displays. Their strategy, built on more than 150 years of successful... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Industrial Products Industry

December 2024
Case

Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good

By: Ray Kluender, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin Roth and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Arjan Schütte, founder of Core Innovation Capital, faced a decision on whether to invest in Hugo Insurance, an auto insurance startup. Core, an early-stage social impact VC firm, focused on “fintech for good,” by investing in financial services for low- to... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Insurance; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Insurance Industry; United States

March 1994 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Raychem Corp.: Interconnection Systems Division

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes the highly successful efforts of a management team to turn around the performance of a $30 million Raychem division that manufactures electronic connectors. The original manufacturing system was a batch operation, with a broad product line, high inventories,... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Time Management; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Success; Performance; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Electronics Industry

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

superior to those with darker skin colors, are marketers crossing a line? Cream makers say they are merely meeting a market need, but social activists argue that these companies have an ethical responsibility to avoid marketing products... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

June 2019
Case

The Shale Revolution: America's Energy Independence?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Howaida Kamel

The shale revolution has upended oil and gas markets for nearly a decade and has positioned the U.S. to become a net energy exporter by 2020. Technological improvements pushed productivity forward which has had positive overall positive affects for the U.S. economy.... View Details

Keywords: Shale Oil; Shale Gas; LNG; Energy Policy; Drilling Technology; Energy; Trade; Economics; Macroeconomics; Policy; Energy Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Middle East