Publications

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

Second, we compare patenting by venture‐backed startups and incumbent firms. Using a variety of measures, we find that VC‐backed startups are engaged in more novel and more highly cited innovations compared to incumbent firms. Incumbent... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Social Enterprise - Faculty & Research

Battilana Allen S. Grossman Geoffrey G. Jones Brian L. Trelstad Dutch Leonard Forest L. Reinhardt See All HBS Working Knowlege 09 Apr 2024 Sustaining a Legacy of Giving in Turkey Re: Christina R. Wing 05 Dec... View Details

Article

Organizational Innovation in the Multinational Enterprise: Internalization Theory and Business History

By: Teresa da Silva Lopes, Mark Casson and Geoffrey Jones

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Internalization; Multinational Strategy; Business History; Organization And Management Theory; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Governance; History; Organizations; Theory; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America

Find at Harvard

10 Aug 2017
News

Ideal Beauty: An Imagined State of Mind

2016
Working Paper

Historical Change and the Competitive Advantage of Firms: Explicating the 'Dynamics' in the Dynamic Capabilities Framework

By: Geoffrey Jones and R. Daniel Wadhwani

This working paper aims to deepen the scholarly dialogue between strategy and history. It does so by examining how historical models of change can contribute to theory and research on the competitive advantage of firms during periods of rapid innovation. Focusing on... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Dynamic Capabilities; Innovation; Temporality; Context; Microfoundations; Business History; Competitive Advantage; Change; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

July 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Vicky Tsai and Tatcha: Confronting Stereotypes

By: Geoffrey Jones and Veronica Tong

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 323-007. This case examines the career of Vicky Tsai, the creator of San Francisco-based TATCHA, a Japanese-themed luxury beauty brand launched in 2009. It explores how Tsai developed the concept, assembled management, and successfully... View Details

Keywords: Cosmetics Industry; Japan; Startup; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Product Development; Product Marketing; Acquisition; Identity; Brands and Branding; Ethnicity; Gender; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

June 2010 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Guggenheims and Chilean Nitrates

By: Geoffrey Jones and Felipe Tamega Fernandes

The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the... View Details

Keywords: History; Venture Capital; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Foreign Direct Investment; Financial Crisis; Mining Industry; Chile

February 2008
Article

Blonde and Blue-eyed?: Globalizing Beauty, c.1945–c.1980

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article examines the globalization of the beauty industry between 1945 and 1980. The industry grew quickly. Firms employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Markets and Industries; Product Marketing; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Find at Harvard

Web

Commodities, Currencies, and Balancing of the Trade Deficit - A Chronicle of the China Trade

Commodities, Currencies, and Balancing of the Trade Deficit Augustine Heard & Co.’s formation occurred during the First Opium War (1839–1842). The conflict broke out between the United Kingdom and China in part over the transport and sale of opium View Details

June 2009 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Christian Dior: A New Look for Haute Couture

By: Geoffrey Jones and Veronique Pouillard

The case describes the foundation of Christian Dior, the leading Parisian fashion house, in 1946 and its subsequent globalization strategy. After explaining the historical origins of France's preeminence in upscale fashion, the case explores the challenges to this... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Luxury; Fashion Industry; France; New York (city, NY)

May 2005 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Hans Wilsdorf and Rolex

By: Geoffrey Jones and Alexander Atzberger

Explores the creation of the Rolex watch by Hans Wilsdorf. Provides a case study of how one of the world's leading luxury brands was created and, more generally, provides a vehicle for exploring the competitive advantage of Switzerland in watchmaking (and other... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland

2022
Chapter

Crises and International Business

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter uses the intellectual journey of the author to suggest that crises have been the norm rather than the exception in the history of international business. Over the last 100 years world wars, regional conflicts, the Great Depression, and decolonization are... View Details

Keywords: Crisis; Multinational Companies; International Business; Emerging Market; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; System Shocks; War; Emerging Markets; Crisis Management

2017
Chapter

Gapponshugi in Global Perspective: Debating the Responsibility of Capitalism

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter places the concepts of ethical capitalism developed by the 19th century Japanese venture capitalist Shibusawa Eiichi in a global historical perspective. The chapter reviews the similarities and differences over time and between countries of proponents of... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility; Business Ethics; Ethics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business History; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

Find at Harvard

Web

Courses - Private Capital Project

Lecturer Jo Tango & Senior Lecturer Archie L. Jones FALL; Q1Q2 This course focuses on venture capital and private equity. It is designed for students who are either new to VCPE or interested in its strategic issues, not for those with... View Details

Web

HBS Entrepreneurship Summit - Alumni

Jones Jr. (MBA 1998), Senior Lecturer of Business Administration Panelists: Przemek Gotfryd, Capchase Lara Hodgson (MBA 1998), Now Avani Patel, The Ember Company 1:45–3:15 p.m. Founders & Builders Track: Small Group Discussions (Moderated... View Details

2011
Working Paper

Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914-1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski

This working paper examines corporate strategies of political risk management during the twentieth century. It focuses especially on Beiersdorf, a German-based pharmaceutical and skin care company. During World War I the expropriation of its brands and trademarks... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk Management; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Strategy; Intellectual Property; Cooperation; Business and Government Relations; Germany

01 Aug 2014
News

A closer look at the industry of beauty

The global beauty business is a $450 billion industry, yet it received little serious scholarly attention until Geoffrey G. Jones, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at HBS, published Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global... View Details

July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed

This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details

Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East