Publications

2005
Article

Increasing Exploration: Evidence from International Expansion

By: Juan Alcacer, Heather Berry and Wilbur Chung

While firms balance exploitation and exploration to maximize profits, specifics of how firms pursue this balance are scarce. We focus on how firms increase their exploration after obtaining greater capabilities and experience via sequential international expansion.... View Details

Keywords: Price Bubble; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Growth; Research and Development; Profit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Disruptive Innovation; Five Forces Framework; SWOT Analysis; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

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March 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C)

By July 2000, Madison Avenue had experienced extraordinary growth in sales, employees, clients, and service offerings. From late 1999 to July 2000, the company had taken several initiatives to redesign its internal processes so that the firm could continue to grow,... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Advertising Industry

22 May 2019
Blog Post

What is FIELD Global Immersion?

meet in person with their GP and local consumers. To maximize the experience, students are asked to travel to a city and country in which they have no significant prior work, travel or life experience. See members of the Class of 2020... View Details

August 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry

06 Oct 2003
What Do You Think?

Is “the Innovator’s Solution” to Sustained Corporate Growth an Unnatural Act?

Summing Up In the judgment of respondents to the October column, repeating the development of disruptive technologies is an admirable but elusive target. Respondents commonly asked whether it is a process disrupted by too many... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2003 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Weetman Pearson and the Mexican Oil Industry (A)

By: Geoffrey Jones and Lisa Bud-Freirman

Taught in the MBA Evolution of Global Business course, a business history course on the growth of multinationals. Explores the role of the British entrepreneur Weetman Pearson in developing the Mexican oil industry before 1914. Shows this entrepreneur's evolution from... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk and Uncertainty; Non-Renewable Energy; Growth Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Industry; Mexico

October 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Symbian: Setting the Mobility Standard

By: Fernando F. Suarez and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Symbian, a joint venture owned by companies who collectively sold a dominant share of the world's cell phones, faced competition from Microsoft in developing the operating system for "smartphones," which integrated mobile communications and computing functions. In... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Joint Ventures; Information Technology; Software; Wireless Technology; Mobile Technology; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

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July 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Valentina Tereshkova: Conquering Space

By: Boris Groysberg and Annelena Lobb

On June 13, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova of the USSR became the first woman to fly in space on Vostok 6. Soviet leaders publicly espoused gender equity, but also sent Tereshkova on her mission in order to be the first country to send a woman to space, a milestone they... View Details

Keywords: Gender Equity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Personal Development and Career; Aerospace Industry; Soviet Union; United States

January 2020 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Platforms; Digital Labor; Labor; Human Resources; Management; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Industry; Australia; United States; Philippines

14 Apr 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps

Keywords: by Ernest Liu and Benjamin N. Roth; Financial Services

2009
Other Unpublished Work

Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns

By: William R. Kerr

This study tests the importance of Ricardian technology differences for international trade. The developed panel includes both emerging and advanced economies, and particular attention is devoted to the variation exploited in empirical tests. The elasticity of export... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Immigration; Competitive Advantage; Integration; Technology; United States

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November 1987 (Revised June 1988)
Case

ServiceMaster Industries, Inc.

By: James L. Heskett

The CEO of ServiceMaster Industries has convened an internal task force to come up with ideas for reorganizing the company to accommodate unusually fast growth. In developing both alternatives and criteria for appraising them, the task force has to keep in mind the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture

January 2011
Case

Serious Materials

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elizabeth A. Kind

Serious Materials is a start up who is moving into clean tech markets. The company's first product, QuietRock, originated the sound proofing drywall category and created a steady stream of revenue. It was now considering how to expand its product line to compete in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Green Technology Industry

01 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making

decision-making toward the bottom of the corporate ladder. Communication systems, such as e-mail and instant messaging applications, will push the decision-making process toward the top. And that means developing an IT View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

acquisition of a large group of primary care clinics. The discussion centered on how best to build further on and integrate Humana’s successes to date in value-based care delivery. Keywords: Business Model ; Business Units ; Financing and Loans ; Innovation View Details

February 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Doing Business in Seoul, South Korea

By: Sara Fleiss, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Seoul, South Korea. It highlights South Korea's economic development in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Strategy; Management; Social Enterprise; Technology Industry; Consulting Industry; South Korea; United States

Dorothy Leonard*, the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita, joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 after teaching for three years at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taught MBA courses in... View Details

Keywords: computer; consulting; education industry; electronics; federal government; high technology; information technology industry; software; venture capital industry

August 1995 (Revised July 1997)
Case

H.E. Butt Grocery Company: A Leader in ECR Implementation (A) (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes the industry context that has resulted in the development of efficient consumer response (ECR) within the grocery industry and its adoption by H.E. Butt Grocery Co. View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Adoption; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

November 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Vallourec's Venture into Metal Injection Molding

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Vallourec, a leading maker of seamless tubing, developed a radically new technology that used steel powders to create the tubes. To ensure a supply source, Vallourec ultimately had to acquire its supplier of metal powder, and then, to build the volume required to... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Business Model; Diversification; Innovation and Management; Manufacturing Industry