Publications

March 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Gotong Royong: Toward Sustainable Palm Oil

By: Rebecca Henderson, Hann-Shuin Yew and Monica Baraldi

In late 2015, Jeff Seabright, chief sustainability officer at Unilever, had to report to Unilever CEO Paul Polman on the effort to transform palm oil cultivation. Historically, palm oil was produced using unsustainable methods that included burning large tracts of... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Environment; Industry Self-regulation; Corporate Image; Corporate Strategy; Indonesia; Malaysia

06 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: June 6, 2017

survival of only the most productive domestic firms. We investigate the roles of the two different mechanisms in determining the aggregate productivity gains by exploring their distinct predictions on the distributions of domestic firms:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2018 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Revenue Recognition at HBP

By: Paul Healy and Siko Sikochi

In early 2014, Paul Bills, CFO of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), sat down with David Wan, the company’s CEO, to discuss budget preparations for the coming year. Bills noted that the performance of Corporate Learning, one of HBP’s three business units, would be... View Details

Keywords: Accrual Accounting; Budgets and Budgeting; Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Publishing Industry; Education Industry; United States

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50652 How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions? By: Gompers, Paul A.,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 12, 2007

Moskowitz, and Annette Vissing-Jørgensen Abstract We provide new evidence on the success of long-run risks in asset pricing by focusing on the risks borne by stockholders. Exploiting micro-level household... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 16, 2008

platform and its evolution. We describe three ways of representing platform architectures: network graphs, design structure matrices, and layer maps. We conclude by addressing a number of fundamental strategic questions suggested View Details

10 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 10

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2358110 Cases & Course Materials Harvard Business School Case 413-097 Unilever's Paul Polman: Developing Global Leaders No abstract available. Purchase this case: http://hbr.org/search/413097-PDF-ENG Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 30

theorists differ as to whether exploitation undermines or enhances exploration. The debate reflects a gap—the missing theoretical mechanism by which organizations break free of old routines and discover new ones. We propose that the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Covisint (A): The Evolution of a B2B Marketplace

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler--the three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that dominated the automotive industry throughout the 20th century--launched Covisint in February 2000 as an industry supply chain exchange that would drive out cost... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Supply Chain Management; Business Startups; Management Teams; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

Harm By: Minor, Dylan Abstract—We explore the relationship between managerial incentives and environmental harm. We find that high-powered executive compensation packages can increase the odds of environmental law breaking by 40%–60% and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

2025. July 2025 Teaching Note Greenwood Online: A Fin-Tech Service for Culture and Community By: James Riley and Bernal Cortés In 2020, Ryan Glover and Paul Judge launched Greenwood, a fintech startup designed to counter systemic racial... View Details

13 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 13, 2010

to each strategy. By "inviting in the lions" to critique your idea—and being prepared for them—you'll capture busy people's attention, help them grasp your proposal's value, and secure their commitment to implementing the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Nov 2015
First Look

November 10, 2015

innovation, by encouraging workers to cultivate their individual strengths and to speak up when they have ideas for improvements. And they can develop and empower their employees to solve problems instead of turning automatically to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States