Publications

September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Supplement

Keroche (C): The Excise Tax Increase

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding

This case discusses the Kenyan government’s decision to increase excise taxes on wines in 2007. The tax increase would cause an average increase in price of 367% on Keroche’s fortified wines. Meanwhile, Keroche’s competitor EABL had effectively lobbied the government... View Details

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

In this excerpt, Nohria and Leestma outline the challenges and rewards awaiting businesses that target the mobile-commerce customer. The best place to start? Develop a thorough knowledge of consumer... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

30 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 30

throughout the company. During his time at Volkswagen, de Meo focused on transforming the marketing department into an engine of innovation. De Meo and his team in marketing worked together View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

technology and improved digital communication have been explored in a variety of contexts, the impact on economic activity—from consumer and entrepreneurial behavior to the ways in which governments... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

The Acquirers

companies would bid more for an acquisition target than would undervalued acquirers—and that overvalued targets would be more willing to accept takeover offers, leading to waves of M&A activity during a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

August 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

By: Leslie John and Mitch Weiss

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case serves as a microcosm of issues of digital privacy: the availability of data – personal data in particular – has tremendous potential to improve people’s lives... View Details

Keywords: Privacy; Privacy By Design; Privacy Regulation; Platforms; Data; Data Security; Behavioral Science; Analytics and Data Science; Safety; Entrepreneurship; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Behavior; Digital Platforms

Person Page

Read excerpts from DENIAL

By: Richard S. Tedlow

The Edifice Complex: Denial at Sears

Book Excerpt: Denial at Sears (BusinessWeek.com, February 26, 2010)

From Denial: Why Business... View Details

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

11 Jun 2018
Blog Post

Meet the 2018-2019 Blavatnik Fellows in Life Science Entrepreneurship

to work with Harvard inventors to promote the commercialization of life science technologies with significant market potential. Harvard's i-lab serves as the hub, providing... View Details

22 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 22, 2007

chapter as one of the great marketing companies, in league with Kraft Food or Coca-Cola. The job of the next CEO would be to unlock the enterprise value of the company in the face of continuing customer... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

agrees, of course. Comparing the simplicity of (especially short-term) responses to the complexity of the pay-for-performance challenge, Ravindra Edirisoorlya went so far as to say that "Current P4P... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Linden Lab: Crossing the Chasm

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

In early 2008, managers at Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's growth strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Infrastructure; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms

2013
Working Paper

Separating Homophily and Peer Influence with Latent Space

By: Joseph P. Davin, Sunil Gupta and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

We study the impact of peer behavior on the adoption of mobile apps in a social network. To identify social influence properly, we introduce latent space as an approach to control for latent homophily, the idea that "birds of a feather flock together." In a series of... View Details

Keywords: Social Influence; Social Network; Mobile App; Peer Effects; Latent Homophily; Latent Space; Proxy Variables; Familiarity; Behavior; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Social and Collaborative Networks; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Power and Influence; Social Media

Read Now

2009
Working Paper

Why Do Countries Adopt International Financial Reporting Standards?

By: Karthik Ramanna and Ewa Sletten

In a sample of 102 non-European Union countries, we study variations in the decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). There is evidence that more powerful countries are less likely to adopt IFRS, consistent with more powerful countries being... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Globalized Economies and Regions; Network Effects; Standards; Adoption

SSRN

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April 1991 (Revised July 1991)
Case

RJR Nabisco Board: Guardians of the Gate? (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Charles Hugel, the chairman of RJR Nabisco, receives a call from RJR Nabisco's CEO, Ross Johnson; Johnson plans to present an LBO plan to the board of directors at the board meeting the following week. The case details Hugel's actions as chairman, and describes the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Situation or Environment; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Managerial Roles; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

26 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Effect: Cheaper Rooms for Travelers, Less Revenue for Hotels

performance of hotels versus Airbnb, the researchers used hotel data from STR, which tracks more than 161,000 hotels, as well as proprietary data provided by Airbnb, creating "the perfect setup to study View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Travel

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

Toward this end, they obtained the rights to their own copyrights back from Island Records; they oversaw the vast majority of decisions about touring, record production, graphics, and packaging themselves; they focused on touring and a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

December 2010
Case

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Claire Qureshi

This case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT treated extreme dehydration caused by diarrhea, which was a leading... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia