Publications

May 2025
Teaching Note

Boutiqaat: Influencing Retail in MENA

By: Juan Alcacer and Noor Al Qadhi

Boutiqaat, a Kuwait-based e-commerce platform, scaled an influencer-driven beauty retail model across MENA and now faces critical strategic choices about offline expansion and globalization. Founded in 2015, Boutiqaat combined social commerce, localized logistics, and... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Digital Strategy; Growth and Development; Expansion; Global Strategy; Distribution Channels; Business Model; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Retail Industry; Kuwait; Saudi Arabia; Middle East; North Africa

January 2011
Case

Masdar and Tianjin: Eco-Cities

By: John D. Macomber

Compares Masdar City and Tianjin Eco-City, two high profile "sustainable cities." Each showcases technological and financial innovation. Is it real? Is it replicable and defensible? The case is intended to introduce main concepts and tradeoffs with respect to rapid... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business Model; Development Economics; Urban Development; Cash Flow; Project Finance; Competitive Advantage; Environmental Sustainability; City; Infrastructure

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

differences in the price of capital across countries. Our strategy is motivated by the fact that most countries import the bulk of machinery equipment (from a small number of industrialized countries). We find the price of imported... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2010
Teaching Note

Transforming ASUSTeK: Breaking from the Past (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [610041]. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Transformation; Contracts; Production; Product Design; Customers; Competition; Management Practices and Processes; Value; Performance Effectiveness; Brands and Branding; Disruptive Innovation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Dragon's Teeth Vineyards

By: Alan D. MacCormack, Marius Leibold, Sven Voelpel and Kerry Herman

Dragon's Teeth Vineyards (DTV) is a South African wine producer that is considering whether to use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its wine-making process. GMOs promise to lower the costs of wine production significantly through increased yields and reduced... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Genetics; Transition; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Product Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Food and Beverage Industry; Biotechnology Industry; South Africa

15 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Business IT Innovation is so Difficult

and Operations Management Unit at HBS. "The longer we take to figure this out, the more likely we're going to have a few of the best firms pulling way ahead based on this competitive advantage." More Likely To Go Radical In her research,... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles, Papers of the Decade

concerned about cash, and employees worry about their jobs. But a downturn is no time to stop spending on marketing. The key, says professor John Quelch, is to understand how the needs of your customers and partners change, and adapt your View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 1998
Case

Electronic Commerce at Air Products

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

In 1998,chief information officers (CIOs) in the highly competitive international gases and chemicals business faced the reality that electronic commerce capability was a strategic necessity. The results of annual surveys of technology officers in the chemical industry... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Information Technology; Globalized Markets and Industries; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States

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10 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

Reinventing the Industrial Giant

could save a great deal of money through this B2B exchange, and Chairman John Smith Jr. claimed that "we think e-business will have an even greater impact on the way we operate than e-commerce." 85 Besides saving money,... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, Davis Dyer & Frederick Dalzell; Manufacturing

05 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 5, 2008

may not be a pure-strategy equilibria. In the standard case where marginal costs are weakly positive, there is no pure strategy where the lower quality B firm obtains positive market share. We also consider the case where A has negative... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Sep 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Capitalism Works Better When I Can See What You're Doing

your messages after they are read. The problem: The memory of your uninhibited behavior lingers. Research Papers Surfacing the Submerged State with Operational Transparency in Government ServicesCitizens who see the work that government... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

this a scam?' For us, the most important thing we've done is build trust with the community," said James DeJulio, co-founder and chief product officer of Tongal. "Our marketing strategy was to pay people as fast as we possibly could. If... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2008
Case

Procter & Gamble Brazil (A): 2 1/2 Turnarounds

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

Juliana Azevedo Schahin, a local marketing director for Procter & Gamble in Sao Paulo, had worked closely with Tarek Fahahat, a regional executive based in Caracas, to solve the growth and profitability problems of P&G Brazil. They did so through the creation of... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Caracas

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

November–December 2015 Operations Research Active Postmarketing Drug Surveillance for Multiple Adverse Events By: Goh, Joel, Margrét V. Bjarnadóttir, Mohsen Bayati, and Stefanos A. Zenios Abstract—Postmarketing drug surveillance is the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2010
Journal Article

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Corporate Hierarchies

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of product market competition on various characteristics of organizational design. Using a unique panel-dataset on firm hierarchies of large U.S. firms (1986-1999) and a quasi-natural experiment (trade liberalization), we find... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Product; Markets; Competition; Organizational Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Rank and Position; Organizational Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Change; Trade; United States

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Read Now

July 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

BMG Entertainment

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Gerrit Meier

As dramatic changes in technology and customer tastes roil the music industry, the top executives of BMG Entertainment, one of the world's largest record companies, must decide how to organize for digital distribution of music. This case includes a brief history of the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Distribution Channels; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Industry Structures; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

December 1999
Case

Agrochemicals at Ciba-Geigy AG (A)

By: Michael L. Tushman, Wendy Smith and Daniel Radov

After spending five years to develop a revolutionary product, the director of Ciba-Geigy's fungicide research department is handed an unfavorable market study. The case details the R&D process for the new product, including information on corporate partnerships,... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Product Launch; Marketing Channels; Change Management; Product Development; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Corporate Accountability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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December 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Exporting Spanish Olive Oil to the U.S. Market

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Hal Hogan and Miguel Angel Llano Irusta

Spain is the largest olive oil producer, yet it sells much of its product to Italy, where it is repackaged as Italian olive oil. The decision maker in the case wants to develop Spain as the olive oil leader not just in production but in quality and value added. He... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Trade; Goods and Commodities; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Brands and Branding; Decisions; Customization and Personalization; Product Design; Product Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Spain; United States; Italy

January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence

By: Leslie John, John Quelch and Robert Huckman

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from a societal, public policy, and firm... View Details