Publications

August 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Omnitel Pronto Italia

By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

Describes the situation faced by Omnitel soon after launching its mobile telecommunication services in Italy in December 1995. Competing against the Italian monopoly, TIM, Omnitel had positioned its services to be better on the quality dimension. However, sales were... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Product Development; Sales; Competition; Segmentation; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry; Italy

April 2014
Case

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.: Taking on Seasonal Starvation in Latin America

By: Christopher Marquis and Zoe Yang

A company with a strong commitment toward corporate social responsibility since its founding days, Green Mountain faced an ethical decision point in 2007 as new information from the field uncovered a chronic dire problem facing coffee communities—seasonal starvation.... View Details

Keywords: Fair Trade; Coffee; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; Central America; Mexico; Guatemala; Nicaragua

March 2020
Case

Hotstar

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey

Hotstar was an online video streaming platform owned by Star India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation. Since its launch in 2015, the platform had grown to offer over 100,000 hours of TV content, movies in nine Indian languages... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Television Entertainment; Disruption; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; India; Mumbai

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

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

says Hall, paraphrasing Albert Einstein. It’s hard to do, but Hall advises building into any incentive plan values like teamwork or culture or customer relations that are difficult View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Rohit Deshpande

Rohit Deshpandé is a Baker Foundation Professor and Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he has been teaching in the Advanced Management Program,... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; airline; banking; beauty products; beverage; financial services; home video games; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals; telecommunications; tourism; video games

March 1994 (Revised June 1999)
Background Note

Real Options: Valuing Managerial Flexibility

Provides a basic understanding of real options in corporate finance. Traditional discounted cash flow techniques (NPV) do not deal well with managerial flexibility or future response to uncertainty. The value of this flexibility can be significant and is handled well... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Finance

March 2017
Supplement

eBay vs. Carl Icahn, 2014: Interview with John Donahoe, eBay CEO 2008-2015

By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Tom Ryder

This video, a supplement to HBS Case No. 717-417, features an interview with former eBay CEO John Donahoe, providing his perspective on eBay's response to activist investor Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, which began in January 2014. After giving some of his own... View Details

Keywords: Activist Shareholder; Activist Investors; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry

01 Oct 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Negative Shocks and Innovation: Evidence from Medical Device Recalls

Keywords: by George P. Ball, Jeffrey T. Macher, and Ariel Dora Stern; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

July 2010 (Revised September 2011)
Background Note

The Profession of the Law

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad Carr

This note reviews the professional responsibilities and obligations of lawyers In the United States, explains how those standards affect client relationships and, by summarizing rules for resolution of conflicts and withdrawal, sets the stage for a discussion of the... View Details

Keywords: Attorney and Client Relationships; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Ethics; Standards; Legal Services Industry; United States

Web

The Five Forces - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

industry profitability. If there are only one or two suppliers of an essential input product, for example, or if switching suppliers is expensive or time consuming, a supplier group wields more power. Bargaining Power of Buyers Powerful View Details

14 Oct 2020
News

Why Congress should invest in open-source software

June 1989 (Revised May 1993)
Supplement

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill, Inc. (C)

By: John A. Quelch

Teaching objectives: 1) to consider legal and other obligations advertising agencies owe to their clients, 2) to show how aggressive marketing can lead to allegations of misconduct, 3) to explore conflicts of interest which may arise for professional service companies... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; New England

January 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Yamato Transport: Valuing and Pricing Network Services (A)

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Tarun Khanna and Masako Egawa

Yamato Transport is the leading Japanese parcel delivery company and has dominated its industry for more than two decades. In response to new competitive challenges, Yamato must decide how to reposition itself in the industry and optimize the size of its network. The... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Competition; Transportation Networks; Monopoly; Shipping Industry; Japan

November 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Florida Department of Citrus

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Benedict Pearcy

The Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) is a state agency responsible for the welfare of the Florida citrus industry. This case describes the FDOC's efforts to turn around grapefruit juice consumption. Using a health message, Dan Santangelo, the FDOC's new director,... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Management Teams; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Food and Beverage Industry; Florida

Find at Harvard

23 Aug 2019
News

Can Capitalism Be Made Better By Corporate Social Responsibility?

March 2024
Article

Being Together in Place as a Catalyst for Scientific Advance

By: Eamon Duede, Misha Teplitskiy, Karim R. Lakhani and James Evans

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated social distancing at every level of society, including universities and research institutes, raising essential questions concerning the continuing importance of physical proximity for scientific and scholarly advance. Using customized... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Power and Influence; Body of Literature; Research

Read Now

January 2023
Case

Thomas Buberl: Refounding AXA

By: Hubert Joly, Mihir Desai and Amram Migdal

In 2022, AXA and its CEO Thomas Buberl faced new types of challenges, including systemic risks such as climate change, geopolitical instability, public health crises, and social tensions caused by economic risks. AXA was one of the world’s largest insurers. Since... View Details