Publications

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April 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

OneTen: One Million Opportunities in Ten Years

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

In the wake of George Floyd's killing in May 2020, and widespread protests for social justice in the United States, OneTen was formed by a coalition of 40 large companies to provide one million jobs for African-Americans in 10 years. The case describes the background... View Details

Keywords: Labor Market; COVID-19 Pandemic; Diversity; Race; Jobs and Positions; Opportunities; Social Issues; Employment; Equality and Inequality; Equity; United States

2012
Working Paper

The Spatial Diffusion of Technology

By: Diego A. Comin, Mikhail Dmitriev and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

We empirically study technology diffusion across countries and over time. We find significant evidence that technology diffuses slower to locations that are farther away from adoption leaders. This effect is stronger across rich countries and also when measuring... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Knowledge Dissemination; Technology Adoption

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December 2011 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Aviva Investors

By: George Serafeim

The Aviva Investors case describes the challenge of integrating sustainability considerations into the strategy and business practices of companies and into the decision making process of the investment community. Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Investment Management; Shareholder Activism; Disclosure; Stock Exchanges; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Sustainability Reporting; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Social Impact; Activism; Investment; Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; United Kingdom

March 2011 (Revised April 2018)
Case

1366 Technologies: Scaling the Venture

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Ramana Nanda, David Kiron and Evan Richardson

For some time, 1366's co-founders, Frank van Mierlo and Ely Sachs, had faced a choice, which was now made all the more stark: 1366 could expand to produce silicon wafers itself, raising the required capital from "friendly" investors and building shipment volume slowly,... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Innovation Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Intellectual Property; Management Teams; Renewable Energy; Financial Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Finance; Energy Industry; Technology Industry; United States

July 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Sustainable Conservation--Where Next?

Sustainable Conservation (SusCon) is an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco that works collaboratively with the private and public sectors to achieve positive environmental change. The organization forms partnerships with industry and government agencies to devise... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost vs Benefits; Expansion; Environmental Sustainability; San Francisco

December 2000
Background Note

Online Market Makers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Chris Hackett

Describes the business model for online market makers, firms that use the Internet to organize a marketplace, providing participants with a virtual "place" to trade, rules to govern their exchanges, and infrastructure to support trading. First it proposes a definition... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Web Services Industry

28 Apr 2020
News

Coronavirus apps: the risk of slipping into a surveillance state

26 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises

cost.” During the two vulnerable weeks before government relief kicked in, Lawson delivered 200,000 prepared meals to victims, including onigiri rice balls, bread, and cups of noodles. The company also took care of its own in an area... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Dec 2023
News

In My Humble Opinion: Plugged In

In a career spent investing in innovative startups at Intel, leading National Grid’s innovation and investment operations, and founding a nonpro t dedicated to advancing women and minorities to positions of top corporate leadership, Lisa Lambert (MBA 1997) always has... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Restoring a Global Economy, 1950–1980

1970s, but its governments systematically discouraged wholly owned FDI [foreign direct investment], and restricted it to a low level. During the 1940s and early 1950s only the U.S. dollar was available as a major convertible currency.... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

November 2020 (Revised February 2022)
Case

CommonSpirit Health: Integrating a Merger of Equals

By: Robert S. Huckman, Hise Gibson and Nicole Gilmore

Soon after closing the 2019 merger of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Dignity Health to create CommonSpirit Health, Lloyd Dean and Kevin Lofton-–jointly appointed to the role of CEO—must make several operational and strategic decisions related to the integration... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Delivery; Hospital; Merger; Merger Integration; Hospital Mergers; Health Information Technology; CEOs; Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Leadership; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance; Information Technology; Health Industry; United States

Web

Nonprofit Board Service - Alumni

Executive Education programs on nonprofit leadership: Governing for Nonprofit Excellence , Accelerating Board Capacity for School District Board Members and Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation . Faculty book: Effective... View Details

August 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Gazprom (A): Energy and Strategy in Russian History

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Sogomon Tarontsi and Alexander Jorov

Critics have accused Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, of eschewing market principles in favor of the foreign policy priorities of the Russian government, ever since the energy giant cut off the supply to Ukraine in January of 2006. The purported... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Trade; Energy Industry; Russia; Soviet Union; Ukraine; Europe

February 2019 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Christina R. Wing, Emilie Fournier and Anna Resman

This case covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2004 to revolutionize the blood testing industry by creating a device that could provide from a small finger prick the same results and accuracy as intravenous blood draws. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Entrepreneurship; Lawsuits and Litigation

21 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Did Pandemic Stimulus Funds Spur the Rise of 'Meme Stocks'?

The US government set out to support consumers and jolt the economy when it issued federal stimulus checks during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. But actually, that money helped propel questionable investments in “meme stocks,”... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

December 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Codevasf

By: David E. Bell, Marcos Fava Neves, Luciano Thome e Castro and Natalie Kindred

With many countries facing scarcity of freshwater and farmable land, Brazil decided to leverage its wealth of both resources to attract global agribusiness players to the historically poor Sao Francisco Valley (SFV) in the country's northeast. To do so, Brazil was... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Resource Allocation; Bids and Bidding; Infrastructure; Supply Chain; Business and Government Relations; Natural Environment; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil

2009
Chapter

Behavioral Aspects of Price Setting, and Their Policy Implications

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper starts by discussing consumers' cognitive and emotional reaction to posted prices. Cognitively, some consumers do not appear to make effective use of price information to maximize their consumption-based utility. Emotionally, prices can induce regret and... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Price; Policy; Laws and Statutes; Demand and Consumers; Business and Government Relations

2022
Article

Pills in a World of Activism and ESG

By: Guhan Subramanian and Caley Petrucci

Easterbrook and Fischel’s The Economic Structure of Corporate Law advances their now famous passivity thesis, which posits that managers should remain passive in the face of an unsolicited tender offer for the company’s shares. Consistent with the broader... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Governance Controls; Business and Shareholder Relations