Publications

February 2018 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Hikma Pharmaceuticals Governance Journey

By: Lynn Paine, Suraj Srinivasan and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens with Said Darwazah, chairman and CEO of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the multinational generics company, anticipating the company’s 2017 AGM and reflecting on changes made over the previous year to address concerns expressed by proxy advisors and some... View Details

Keywords: Jordan; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Boards Of Directors; Pharmaceuticals; Remuneration; Shareholder Engagement; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Business Growth and Maturation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Jordan

August 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Supplement

InsideSales.com (B)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Business Organization; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Design; Salesforce Management; Talent; Talent Management; Sales; Growth and Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Technology Industry; United States

June 5, 2015
Article

How Banking Analysts' Biases Benefit Everyone Except Investors

By: George Serafeim, Joanne Horton and Shan Wu

Keywords: Banking; Sell-side Analysts; Financial Analysis; Financial Analysts; Career Management; Career Advancement; Labor Market; Prejudice and Bias; Investment Banking; Personal Development and Career

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March 2019 (Revised July 2020)
Case

MoviePass: The 'Get Big Fast' Strategy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

In August 2017, MoviePass dramatically lowered its subscription price from $50 per month to just $10 for up to one movie per day. The idea was to rapidly scale the business to the point where they could generate incremental revenue streams from related businesses... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry; Growth Strategy; Profit Vs. Growth; Subscription Business; Cash Burn; Data Analytics; Get-big-fast; Buyer Power; Strategy Implementation; Movie Industry; Racing; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Disruption; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; United States

Ayelet Israeli is the Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School Marketing Unit. She is the co-founder of the Customer Intelligence Lab at the Digital Data Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard Business School. She teaches... View Details

Keywords: retailing; e-commerce industry; internet; automotive

Livia Alfonsi

Livia is a development economist whose research focuses on labor market frictions and determinants of labor market participation in low-income settings, with a particular emphasis on barriers to youth employment and female labor market participation. In a separate line... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

Abigail's research to date has focused on the financial accounting standard setting process. Specifically, her current projects investigate the impacts of regulator backgrounds, constituent preferences, and lobbying incentives in the determination of US GAAP. Her... View Details

Keywords: Financial Accounting; Political Economy; Capital Markets; Fair Value Accounting; Disclosure; International Accounting Standards

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Political Economy; Labor History; Gender; Marketing; Sales Force Management; Direct Sales; United States

January 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Teaching Note

Amgen Inc: Pursuing Innovation and Imitation? (A), (B)

By: Ian Mackenzie

Keywords: Strategic Change; Biosimilars; Medical Biotechnology; Emerging Markets; Industry Structure; Uncertainty; Strategy Development; Implementation; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

May 2016
Case

The Inexorable Rise of Walmart? 1988—2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2015, Walmart surprised investors by announcing that it expected flat sales growth for 2015 and growth of only 3% to 4% over the coming three years. Profits would also fall due to significant investments in people and technology. The company’s stock price... View Details

Keywords: Asda; Costco; David Glass; Convenience Stores; Discount Retailing; Dollar Stores; Doug McMillon; E-commerce; Online Retail; General Merchandise; Grocery; Lee Scott; Mike Duke; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Neighborhood Market; Sam Walton; Sam's Club; Store Formats; Supercenter; Supermarket; Warehouse Clubs; Merchandising; Walmart; Wal-Mart; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Units; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Banks and Banking; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Global Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Business History; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Wages; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Web; Web Sites; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Distribution Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Arkansas; Bentonville

January 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

ByteDance: TikTok and the Trials of Going Viral

By: William C. Kirby and John P. McHugh

In 2020, TikTok became the most valuable start-up ever. The short-form, video-sharing social media platform emerged as the crown jewel of the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, realizing 850 million monthly users and an estimated worth of $180 billion. However, a... View Details

November 2014
Teaching Plan

Diageo: Innovating for Africa

By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin, Mary Shelman and Andrew Otazo

This teaching plan is designed to help students understand the challenges and opportunities of launching products and building businesses in developing markets. View Details

June 2023
Simulation

Artea Dashboard and Targeting Policy Evaluation

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza

Companies deploy A/B experiments to gain valuable insights about their customers in order to answer strategic business problems. In marketing, A/B tests are often used to evaluate marketing interventions intended to generate incremental outcomes for the firm. The Artea... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Israeli utilizes econometric methods and field experiments to study pricing and channel management. Her current research examines how the prevalence of the online channel affects both the interactions between manufacturers and their downstream channel... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Pricing Policies; Channel Management; Online Marketing; Online Retail; Field Experiment; Analytics; Econometric Analysis

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Israeli utilizes econometric methods and field experiments to study pricing and channel management. Her current research examines how the prevalence of the online channel affects both the interactions between manufacturers and their downstream channel... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Pricing Policies; Channel Management; Online Marketing; Online Retail; Field Experiment; Analytics; Econometric Analysis

Article

CDS Trading and Nonrelationship Lending Dynamics

By: Jung Koo Kang, Christopher Williams and Regina Wittenberg-Moerman

We investigate how credit default swaps (CDSs) affect lenders’ incentives to initiate new lending relationships. We predict that CDSs reduce adverse selection that nonrelationship lead arrangers face when competing for loans. Consistently, we find that a loan is... View Details

Keywords: Credit Default Swaps; CDS Market; Non-relationship Lending; Debt Contracts; Adverse Selection; Lending Monitoring; Cross-selling

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December 2015 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Chicken Republic

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Deji Akinyanju, founder of Nigerian fast-food chain Chicken Republic, and Ayo Oduntan, founder of an integrated Nigerian poultry operation (Amo Byng Group), are among a growing cadre of skilled food-industry entrepreneurs for whom the opportunities to serve the... View Details