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November 2018
Case

The National Hockey League

By: Robert F. Higgins, John Masko and James Weber

In 2015, National Hockey League (NHL) commissioner Gary Bettman was weighing two major decisions: whether to expand the league to a new city, and whether to conclude a digital media rights deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM). Expansion required a... View Details

Keywords: NHL Expansion; Digital Media Rights; Sports; Expansion; Media; Decisions; Sports Industry; Canada

November 2017 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Kurt Summers: Investing in Our Chicago (Abridged)

By: Joshua Margolis and Michael Norris

In 2016, Kurt Summers, the Chicago City Treasurer, considered his future in Chicago politics. With an unpopular governor and mayor soon up for reelection, should Summers consider running for higher office? Summers reflects on his time growing up in gang-controlled... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development; Career Journey; Career; Career Management; Leadership; Leadership Development; Government and Politics; Personal Development and Career; Public Administration Industry; United States; Chicago

May 2017
Case

Street League Skateboarding

By: Robert F. Higgins and Christine Snively

In 2013, Street League Skateboarding, a professional skateboarding league founded in 2010, just concluded its annual Street League World Tour. The growing action-sports property had purchased time on ESPN2 to air its events, and though ESPN was the most-watched sports... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Television Entertainment; Sports; Product Launch; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

May 2015
Case

Venture Republic, 2011

By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki

In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; MBO; Valuation Methodologies; Financing Decisions; Conflicts Of Interest; Governance; Japan; Search Engines; Going Private; Conflict of Interests; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Privatization; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Web Services Industry; Japan

September 2014 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Samuel Colt: An American Gun Maker

By: Tom Nicholas and Casey Verkamp

Samuel Colt not only perfected and patented the technology for a gun that could fire multiple times without reloading, but he also developed and applied early principles of mass production more completely than anyone had done before. Until the nineteenth century,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Machinery and Machining; Production; Independent Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; United States

2012
Article

Wider dem sauren Mund. Beiersdorfs U.S.-Geschaeft mit der Zahnpastamarke Pebeco

By: G. Jones and Christina Lubinski

This article examines the growth and ultimate demise of the toothpaste brand Pebeco, which was created by the German personal care company Beiersdorf in 1903. The brand was an enormous international success, becoming for a time the largest toothpaste brand in the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Problems and Challenges; Marketing Strategy; Markets; Change; Customers; Social Psychology; Science; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Germany

November 2011
Case

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?

By: Michael J Roberts and Paul E. Morrison

The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with... View Details

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Performance Capacity; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation Industry

2008
Working Paper

On Best-Response Bidding in GSP Auctions

By: Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna R. Karlin, Claire Mathieu and Michael Schwarz

How should players bid in keyword auctions such as those used by Google, Yahoo! and MSN? We model ad auctions as a dynamic game of incomplete information, so we can study the convergence and robustness properties of various strategies. In particular, we consider... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods; Competitive Strategy

Read Now

July 2000
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (C1)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

This version of the (C) case can be taught independently of the (A) and (B) cases. Dawn Riley, CEO/Captain of America True, the first coed syndicate to race for the America's Cup, is based in Auckland, New Zealand, where racing will begin in six weeks. Riley has built... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Management Teams; Sports; Business Startups; New Zealand; North and Central America

February 1987 (Revised January 1989)
Case

SmithKline Consumer Products: The Contac Relaunch

In March 1986, a tamperer contaminated CONTAC Cold Capsules, SmithKline Consumer Product's most popular product. To relaunch CONTAC after withdrawing it from the market, the management team had to present a plan of action to the corporation board. They knew CONTAC's 25... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Crisis Management; Product Launch; Pharmaceutical Industry

15 Apr 2015
News

2015 Best 40 Under 40 Professors: Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School

06 Oct 2017
News

Making Patients and Doctors Happier — The Potential of Patient-Reported Outcomes

World Reimagined: The Power of Connection with Dr. Vivek Murthy and Tsedal Neeley

In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by President Biden's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and award-winning author, Tsedal Neeley to discuss how humans will thrive in... View Details

Preparing High-Earning Athletes for their Post-Play LIves

The average NFL player makes upwards of a million dollars a year. Even rookies are guaranteed a minimum of $325,000, which is seven times the average starting salary of a college grad. It’s a lot of money, but with the career of an NFL player averaging just... View Details

Wall Street Research: Past, Present, and Future

Wall Street Research: Past, Present, and Future provides a timely account of the dramatic evolution of Wall Street research, examining its rise, fall, and reemergence. Despite regulatory, technological, and global forces that have transformed equity... View Details

2024
Working Paper

The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States

By: Paola Giuliano and Marco Tabellini

We study the long run effects of immigration on American political ideology. Exploiting cross-county variation in the presence of European immigrants between 1900 and 1930, we establish a novel result: historical European immigration is associated with stronger... View Details

Keywords: Political Ideology; Preferences For Redistribution; Cultural Transmission; Immigration; History; Values and Beliefs; Welfare; United States