Publications

31 Mar 2020
News

The Case for Cryptocurrencies as a New Category of Regulated Non-Sovereign Fiat Currency

August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Coursera

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim

By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Strategy; Competition; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Higher Education; Competitive Advantage; Education Industry

07 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing

Marshall Fisher of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Ananth Raman of HBS and their colleague Anna Sheen McClelland recently completed a survey of 32 retail companies focusing on their practices and progress in four areas critical to what they call... View Details

Keywords: by Marshall L. Fisher, Ananth Raman & Anna Sheen McClelland; Retail

2021
Book

Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategic Planning; Value; Analysis; Competitive Advantage; Performance Effectiveness

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

February 2022
Case

Toraya

By: Lauren Cohen and Akiko Kanno

Mitsuharu Kurokawa was the 18th generation leader of a family firm that produced and sold premium Japanese sweets, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. He had succeeded the business from his father, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa who had led the firm for thirty years. Mitsuharu was... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Luxury Brand; Succession; Family Business; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing; Expansion; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Customer Satisfaction; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Japan

October 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

United Electric Controls

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jody H. Gittell and Sylvie Ryckebusch

United Electric Controls (UE) was a small, traditional family-owned manufacturing company when Dave Reis, the youngest member of the Reis family, took over the business. This case describes Reis's efforts to change UE's traditional work practices in order to make the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Family Business; Production; Business Strategy; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

April 2017
Case

Yushan Bicycles: Learning to Ride Abroad

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Paul S. Myers

Yushan Bicycles, one of Taiwan's leading bicycle manufacturers, is pursuing an international expansion strategy by increasing demand for its range of traditional and electric bicycles and shifting its product mix toward higher-margin models sold through specialty... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Conflict Management; Learning; Bicycle Industry; Taiwan; Australia

10 Dec 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Platform Competition: Betfair and the U.K. Market for Sports Betting

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Neil Campbell; Entertainment & Recreation

04 Sep 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Investing Outside the Box: Evidence from Alternative Vehicles in Private Capital

Keywords: by Josh Lerner, Jason Mao, Antoinette Schoar, and Nan R. Zhang

22 Jul 2020
News

High Turnout and Ratings for Virtual Spring Reunions

November 2018 (Revised January 2022)
Case

JUUL and the Vaping Revolution

By: Michael W. Toffel, John Masko and Sarah Mehta

In late 2019, San Francisco-based electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) maker JUUL Labs (pronounced “jewel”) faced intense pressure. Sales of JUUL products exceeded $1 billion in 2018, dominating the e-cigarette category. While JUUL Labs’ stated goal was to help current... View Details

July–August 2016
Article

Beyond the Holacracy Hype: The Overwrought Claims—and Actual Promise—of the Next Generation of Self-Managed Teams

By: Ethan Bernstein, John Bunch, Niko Canner and Michael Lee

Holacracy and other forms of self-organization have been getting a lot of press. Proponents hail them as "flat" environments that foster flexibility, engagement, productivity, and efficiency. Critics say they're naive, unrealistic experiments. We argue, using evidence... View Details

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September 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Western Technology Investment

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Nicole Keller

Based in Portola Valley, California, Western Technology Investment (WTI) specialized in a hybrid form of debt and equity financing for early-stage companies. Like traditional venture capital and private equity firms, WTI raised funds from institutional investors and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Equity; Finance; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; California

31 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Art of Business: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Felipe Ceron (MBA 2022)

The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore career opportunities in roles or regions where compensation is generally lower than the traditional MBA level. This summer, we are... View Details

24 Mar 2021
News

Inflation Is Harder to Measure After a Year of Pandemic Spending

March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Whole Foods Under Amazon

By: Dennis Campbell, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett and Christine Snively

In August 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods was struggling with high costs and faced growing competition from traditional supermarkets offering more organic products. Prior to the acquisition, Whole Foods began rolling out a new... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Employee Relationship Management; Acquisition; Change Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry