Publications

September 2023
Teaching Note

Apple’s iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy

By: George Serafeim

Teaching Note for HBS Case 123-089. The case describes the Trade-In system for iPhones that allow iPhones to be refurbished and reused or to be recycled. The case provides information for the students to analyze the financial attractiveness of the Trade-In system and... View Details

Keywords: Iphone; Smartphone; Technology; Business Model Innovation; Carbon Emissions; Recycling; Business Model; Product Design; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Technology Industry

05 Nov 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Medium Term Business Cycles in Developing Countries

Keywords: by Diego Comin, Norman Loayza, Farooq Pasha & Luis Serven

April 2024
Article

An Integrative Model of Hybrid Governance: The Role of Boards in Helping Sustain Organizational Hybridity

By: Anne-Claire Pache, Julie Battilana and Channing Spencer

Hybrid organizations must sustainably attend to multiple goals embedded in different institutional spheres. Past research has highlighted the value for hybrids in recruiting board members representing different logics to avoid attentional drifts; yet, diverse boards... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business or Company Management; Organizational Structure

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February 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Teaching Note

Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics

By: Leslie K. John and Michael Norton

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Making sticK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics (514019). The case focuses on a... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Behavior Change; B2B Vs. B2C; Human Resource Management; Marketing Of Innovations; Health ＆ Wellness; Weight Loss; Charitable Giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States

December 1999 (Revised April 2002)
Case

International Business Machines Corporation (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

Perform financial ratio analysis to identify changes in IBM's business mix and profitability. Teaching purpose: Ratio analysis. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Capital Structure; Performance Efficiency; Business Earnings; Business Model; Private Sector; Commercialization; Computer Industry; Accounting Industry

20 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Risky Business with Structured Finance

percent of its revenues came from rating structured finance products, versus the 32 percent of revenues generated from its traditional business of rating corporate bonds. A simulation is "still a model... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

2016
Working Paper

Diversified Business Groups in the West: History and Theory

By: Asli M. Colpan and Takashi Hikino

This working paper examines the historical origins, evolutionary paths, and long-term resilience of diversified business groups in contemporary developed economies of Western Europe, North America, and Oceania. It aims to come up with a new theoretical understanding of... View Details

Keywords: History; Diversification; Business Divisions; Theory; Oceania; North America; Europe

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April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Apple's iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy

By: George Serafeim

When asked to identify an example of a circular economy business model that has generated billions in revenues for a company, ChatGPT, the famous chatbot that in 2022 rocked the world with its ability to perform a variety of tasks, immediately identified and... View Details

Keywords: Iphone; Smartphone; Waste Management; Recycling; Innovation; Product Upgrade; Product Life Cycle; Sustainability; Climate Impact; Digital; Business Model Innovation; Climate Change; Information Technology; Business Model; Electronics Industry; Information Technology Industry

2020
Book

Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments

By: Stefan Thomke

Don’t fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you. When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition,... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Experiments; Market Research; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Customers; Research

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06 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Updating a Classic: Writing a Great Business Plan

Sean Silverthorne: "How to Write a Great Business Plan" has been one of the most downloaded articles on Harvard Business Publishing since you wrote it in 1997. Why do you think you hit a nerve?... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

27 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Creating Leaders for Science-Based Businesses

some of the unusual, fresh thinking—such as IBM's radical collaboration model in semiconductor R&D—that business leaders are using to approach the challenges associated with science-based businesses. We... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Biotechnology; Health

2015
Chapter

The Fourth Wave: Business Management and Business Education in the Age of the Anthropocene

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and John Ehrenfeld

Sustainability has become mainstream in both management practice and management research. Firms incorporate sustainability strategies into their core mission. University administrators promote sustainability as central to their curricula. Scholars pursue sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Natural Environment; Leading Change; Management Systems

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21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

scientific reasoning and method appear to be applicable to business, thus helping to legitimate the study of business as an activity within the university. Yet what exactly a "science" of management should study would be puzzled... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

22 Oct 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Estimating Causal Effects in the Presence of Partial Interference Using Multivariate Bayesian Structural Time Series Models

Keywords: by Fiammetta Menchetti and Iavor Bojinov

04 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Global Poverty

is increasingly being called on to be part of the solution. How business can do this most effectively is the focus of the GPP's research and scholarly activity. Multinationals Leading The Way While GPP faculty note that it is too early to... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

05 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Business and the Global Poor

are very different consumers from the more affluent. What kind of business models are needed? A: There are three major challenges. First, there is the issue of cultural distance between corporate decision... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2010
Working Paper

Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological Model (PDF File of PowerPoint Slides)

By: Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen and Kari Granger

This presentation is based on our research program over the last seven years in which our objective has been to rigorously distinguish leader and leadership and to create a technology for providing access to being a leader and exercising leadership effectively (in... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Invention; Leadership Development; Goals and Objectives; Research and Development; Attitudes; Perception; Technology; United States

SSRN

03 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Business History around the World

driving the wealth of nations. It also demonstrates that there has never been a single model for successful or unsuccessful capitalism. To give only one example, business and economic historians have often... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

January 1983 (Revised September 1983)
Case

E.T. Phone Home, Inc.: Forecasting Business Demand

By: John F. Cady and Frank V. Cespedes

Describes a process for forecasting market demand for an emerging technology--cellular radio. The student must critically evaluate the demand model and the market estimates, and modify them as appropriate in order to develop a marketing plan and budget. View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Business Processes; Technology