Strategic Decision Making - Publications - Faculty & Research

20 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Consumers Value Global Brands

them on those dimensions while making purchase decisions. We found that one factor—American values—didn't matter much to consumers, although many companies have assumed it is critical. Quality Signal. Consumers watch the fierce battles... View Details

Keywords: by Douglas B. Holt, John A. Quelch & Earl L. Taylor

2012
Working Paper

Platform Competition under Partial Belief Advantage

This paper considers platform competition in a two-sided market that includes buyers and sellers. One of the platforms benefits from a partial belief advantage, in that each side believes that it is more likely that the other side will join the advantaged platform. We... View Details

Keywords: Two-Sided Platforms; Competition; Business Model; Decisions

Citation

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07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

liability encourage the practice of "overly-safe" and expensive medicine, (9) providers have fragmented and often incomplete information, and (10) consumers either have too little information with which to make rational View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

08 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Negotiate “Yes” Across Cultural Boundaries

international negotiations, I've seen numerous promising deals fail because people ignored or underestimated the powerful differences in processes across cultures... . . . What are the informal influences that can make or break a deal?... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius

26 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Where is Home for the Global Firm?

[PDF]. To start, responding strategically to these changes requires a reconceptualization of what a corporate home is, says Desai. "Managers need to make conscious choices about how to unbundle the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

January 2019 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Ribbon Home: iBacking for Real Estate

By: Marco Di Maggio and Sarah Gulick

In November 2018, Shaival Shah, the founder and CEO of Ribbon Home had to decide on the next steps for the company. Ribbon had introduced a program that backs consumers with cash offers without creating a loan structure in order to help them compete with iBuyers, such... View Details

Keywords: Consumers; Real Estate; Property; Finance; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Decision Making; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry

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03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

points to study after study that show that layoffs have hidden costs that make companies less profitable, innovative, and productive. Senior leaders may be saying, “If companies I know and admire are doing this, it can’t be that bad, or... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

Web

Program Requirements - Doctoral

Learning (Statistics 195) Probability Theory (Statistics 210) Statistical Inference (Statistics 211) Bayesian Data Analysis (Statistics 220) Incomplete Multivariate Data (Statistics 232) Sequential Decision View Details

May 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Newton-Wellesley Hospital

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Natalie Kindred

How will Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) preserve its private practice tradition while remaining effective and competitive in a healthcare industry demanding increasing integration between physicians and hospitals? This is the decision facing Newton-Wellesley Hospital... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Profit; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Integration; Health Industry; Massachusetts

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11 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

The First 90 Hours: What New CEOs Should—and Shouldn't—Do to Set the Right Tone

When you enter an organization as its new leader, forget about plotting out the first 90 days. Focus on the first 90 hours. Why are those initial hours on the job so important? Because you don’t get a second chance to make a first... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

career decisions Who Should Attend General managers who lead companies, business units, divisions, or other large-scale organizations, as well as executives with cross-functional responsibilities Change management executives Leaders... View Details

23 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Are Great Teams Less Productive?

as a process of cascading team learning activities—independently carried out but interdependent in their impact on company performance. Different types of teams or groups face different learning needs and challenges. A leadership team may face the need to View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

Program

Building a Legacy

insights to build a professional family office Establish the right structure, governance, and organizational design for a family office Make savvier financial decisions based on a deeper understanding of... View Details

09 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 9

and inspiring work; and the environment, by becoming carbon neutral. The case covers the decisions that Warby Parker must make at the beginning of its third year of existence as a consequence of growth and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2025
Case

Arsenal Capital Partners' Refinancing of Pinnacle

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Arsenal Capital Partners’ portfolio company, Pinnacle, a leading producer of high-performance adhesive technologies, has experienced rapid growth under Arsenal’s ownership. Over just two years, Pinnacle's EBITDA increased from $13.5 million to $60 million. By mid-2021,... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth Management

Citation

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April 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

RTY Telecom: Network Expansion

Requires real option analysis to analyze a capital expenditure decision by a large regional telecommunications firm. The firm needs to add network capacity for its broadband offering and is trying to decide on how to do this. One approach is simply to purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

Citation

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21 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Common Strategy Mistakes

and more pervasive obstacles to clear strategic thinking and how challenging it is for companies to maintain their strategies over time. There are so many barriers that distract, deter, and divert managers from View Details

Keywords: by Joan Magretta

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

Citation

Purchase

12 Aug 2017
News

Doing well in order to keep doing good

January 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Virtualis Systems (Condensed)

By: Michael J. Roberts and Jay O. Light

Focuses on a graduating HBS MBA who has been working part-time with a Web-hosting firm in California. Discusses the question of which of several "business models" make the most sense for the company to pursue. View Details