Publications

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America

2014
Chapter

The Language of Global Management

By: Tsedal Neeley

Over the last two decades, organizations seeking global expansion have been mandating an English lingua franca, or common language to facilitate global collaboration regardless of the country location of their headquarters. This article explains why stipulating a... View Details

Keywords: Language; Lingua Franca; Networks; Governance; Information Technology; Management; Ethics; Emerging Markets; Innovation and Invention

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

ratios. Conversely, peer firms identified by Google and Yahoo Finance, as well as product market competitors gleaned from 10-K disclosures, turned in consistently worse performances. We contextualize these... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Globalization Hasn’t Killed the Manufacturing Cluster

the federal government to create new clusters in the United States. He points to the rise of biotech in Harvard's backyard, which began despite government opposition in the... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Manufacturing; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

Publications August 2013 pub Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the U.S. Concert Industry By: Bennett, Victor Manuel, Robert Seamans, and Feng Zhu Abstract—We examine how reducing search frictions View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 13, 2008

knowledge production can be conducted in an emerging economy, at a distance from buyers of the knowledge. Purchase this supplement: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=708483 Sony... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Nov 2018
Blog Post

"There's No Substitute for Finding the Right Role": James Correa, MBA 2015

substitute for finding the right role: what you want, what you're good at, what meets customer needs. I found it. In nine months I have gone from launching one market to managing four," James says.... View Details

22 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist

policy. “You have to acknowledge that [Gleason] was trying to fix prices. This is antithetical to how most Americans think of the US market operating” “I thought, who is this plucky woman amongst men?” Sawyer recalls after seeing... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Health; Legal Services

September 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Friendster (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In January 2006, the president of Friendster needs to choose between two strategic options to revive the company. Friendster started the social networking industry in 2003, but has been overtaken by MySpace and Facebook. The two options are: 1) offer new features to... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social and Collaborative Networks; Brands and Branding; Service Industry

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

management of Vale, a Brazilian diversified mining company and the largest iron ore producer in the world, was under pressure from at least two fronts. First, the emergence of China as the most important... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2003 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Office Depot, Inc.: Business Transformation (A)

By: James L. Heskett, Dan Maher, Daniel F. OBrien, Thomas Watson and Jeffrey F. Rayport

The company's management is considering the possibility of launching a rebranding campaign around the promises "What you need. What you need to know." The questions are whether and when to launch the campaign in view of the large number of training efforts and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Advertising Campaigns; Brands and Branding; Business Strategy; Technology Adoption; Transformation; Market Timing; Growth and Development; Training; Retail Industry

21 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Altruistic Capital: Harnessing Your Employees’ Intrinsic Goodwill

professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. "In an organization, all the employees already have some of this, in varying... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 27, 2018

stage entrepreneurial ventures. Given the inherent uncertainty surrounding a decision to invest in these ventures, prior research has found that experienced investors rely heavily on their investor gut feel—dynamic expertise-based... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman

By: Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

At age 47, with two decades of experience as a lead designer for a Fortune 500 fashion company, Liz Claiborne put her life savings on the line to form Liz Claiborne, Inc., a partnership that included her husband. A decade later, in 1986, Claiborne was CEO of her own... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Leadership; Gender; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry