Publications

January–February 2019
Article

Cracking Frontier Markets

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon

Executive Summary:
With emerging-market giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China experiencing slowdowns, investors, entrepreneurs, and multinationals are looking elsewhere. They’ve been eyeing frontier economies such as Nigeria and Pakistan with great... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Innovation and Invention; Development Economics

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Spring–Fall 2015
Article

Whither Uber? Competitive Dynamics in Transportation Networks

By: Benjamin Edelman

Transportation Network Companies offer notable service advances—but do they comply with the law? I offer evidence of some important shortfalls, then consider how the legal system might appropriately respond. Though it is tempting to forgive many violations in light of... View Details

Keywords: Transportation Network Company; Uber; Lyft; Regulation; Lawfulness; Transportation Networks; Laws and Statutes; Law Enforcement; Transportation Industry; Information Technology Industry

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January 2008 (Revised August 2011)
Case

ProntoWash: Washing the World's Cars to a Tango Beat

ProntoWash management considers whether franchising and the Balanced Scorecard could be combined to help customer-facing employees provide consistent service across the world and capture relevant management information. In 2007, ProntoWash, an international car-wash... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Franchise Ownership; Performance Consistency; Argentina

June 2010
Article

Leadership Competencies for Implementing Planned Organizational Change

By: Julie Battilana, Mattia Gilmartin, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul and Jeffrey A. Alexander

This paper bridges the leadership and organizational change literatures by exploring the relationship between managers' leadership competencies (namely, their effectiveness at person-oriented and task-oriented behaviors) and the likelihood that they will emphasize the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Competency and Skills; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Planning; Relationships; Business Processes; Projects; Theory; Change; Behavior; Health Industry; United Kingdom

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May 2007 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Warburg Pincus and emgs: The IPO Decision (A)

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Two partners of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, are trying to decide whether to take a portfolio company public, and on what exchange. The company, Norway-based ElectroMagnetic GeoServices (emgs), has developed a market-leading technology that determines... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Globalized Firms and Management; Norway; England; United States

September 2003 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Virgin Mobile USA: Pricing for the Very First Time

Dan Schulman, the CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, must develop a pricing strategy for a new wireless phone service targeted toward consumers in their teens and twenties, many of whom are believed to have poor credit quality and uneven usage patterns. Contrary to conventional... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

June 1995
Case

Polaroid Corporation: European Distribution System

By: Janice H. Hammond and Afroze A Mohammed

Describes distribution operations in Polaroid Europe. In the late 1980s, Polaroid senior management in the United States proposed moving from a system of 12 decentralized warehouses to a centralized distribution system in which all inventory for European retailers... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Operations; Risk Management; Distribution Channels; Logistics; Transition; Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Industry Structures; Consumer Products Industry; Europe; European Union; United States

The microfinance revolution has transformed access to financial services for low-income populations worldwide. As a result, it has become one of the most talked about innovations in global development in recent decades. However, its expansion has not been without... View Details

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

Her Gender Shades project with Joy Buolamwini found that facial recognition services offered by IBM, Microsoft, and other companies misidentified Black women as much as 35 percent of the time while performing nearly perfectly with white... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

July 2022
Case

boAt Lifestyle

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Initial Public Offering; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; India

February 2009 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Exeter Group, Inc. (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman

Jonathan Kutchins and Mark Cullen, managing partners of IT consulting firm Exeter Group, Inc., are considering four potential client engagements. Three of them involve prominent universities, an area of market strength for the firm, and one involves a top-tier strategy... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Resource Allocation; Market Entry and Exit; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Consulting Industry

Web

About Us - HBS Working Knowledge

Senior Associate Editor Dimitri Siavelis , Associate Director of Product and Strategy Ariana Cohen-Halberstam, Growth Editor Kim Kohatsu, Growth Editor Baker Library Kenneth J. Peterson, Executive Director Contact HBS Working Knowledge Baker Library | Bloomberg Center... View Details

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

lack of trust in government officials," he explained. "There is no point in adding services over a foundation we don't trust. The number-one priority of Data.gov should be to restore confidence in our government. The average... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

07 Nov 2023
News

Love and Money

more efficient. And so concierge services like matchmakers or dating coaching or consulting services, they're very expensive. It's a luxury good that you can buy to make it more efficient, so that when you show up for an actual date, you... View Details

Profile

Jean Luo

After two years with Goldman Sachs, Jean Luo landed the kind of job millions dream of: developing games as a product manager at Zynga. “I really enjoyed being a PM; it's like being a mini-general manager with your own P&L. I loved the creative aspect of the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Services; Financial Services

Joseph L. Bower

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School during its first decade. He has served in many administrative roles... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

July 2011
Article

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Open Source Distribution; Profit; Sales; Applications and Software; Service Operations; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Quality; Value Creation