Publications

29 Aug 2018
News

The Value of Valleys

in, in terms of with lower costs and freedom of entry and all those things. So, the question was how do you develop a strategy that is going to give you a fighting chance in this new environment? That's where C. Rowling Christensen, who... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

Leading by example at a global company

Hiroshi Mikitani (MBA 1993), CEO of Rakuten, talks about leading a global company and the competitive advantages of speaking English. (Published April 2014) View Details

October 2000
Background Note

Sustaining Value

By: Robert J. Dolan

Describes the challenges a firm faces in building and sustaining a value proposition over time. Describes major ways in which the marketing environment changes over time and the methods a firm can use to protect its market position. View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Competition; Situation or Environment

January 2018 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Collage.com: Scaling a Distributed Organization

By: Christopher Stanton and Shikhar Ghosh

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-038. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Employees; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy

April 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Vale: Global Expansion in the Challenging World of Mining

By: Tarun Khanna, Aldo Musacchio and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

In 2009 the management of Vale, a Brazilian diversified mining company and the largest iron ore producer in the world, was under pressure from at least two fronts. First, the emergence of China as the most important consumer of iron ore in the last few years had... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Investment; Global Strategy; Risk Management; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Mining Industry; Brazil

August 2001
Case

Aurora Health Care: Finding "a Better Way"

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Kevin M. Dwyer

The largest hospital system in Wisconsin is trying to respond to new threats from nontraditional care providers. This case presents the hospital's dilemma as it tries to create change from within. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; SWOT Analysis; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry

14 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

Should You Bring Advertising Expertise In-House?

If Mad Men advertising hotshot Don Draper was operating on Madison Avenue today, he would find competition coming from more than just other ad firms. A recent study by Harvard Business School professor emeritus Alvin J. Silk and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

June 2007
Teaching Note

SAP: Industry Transformation (TN)

By: Andrei Hagiu and Pai-Ling Yin

Teaching note to 707435. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Competitive Advantage; Problems and Challenges; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry

February 1995 (Revised July 1995)
Case

Power Play (A): Nintendo in 8-bit Video Games

The home video-game industry began in 1972 with the founding of Atari. After riding a dramatic boom and bust in the early 1980s, most players left the business. Nintendo of Japan then rebuilt the industry--establishing a commanding worldwide position by the end of the... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Lawfulness; Competitive Advantage; Monopoly; Video Game Industry; Japan

1 Jan 1994
Conference Presentation

Alliances as Learning Races

By: T. Khanna, R. Gulati and N. Nohria

Keywords: Alliances; Competition

November 1985 (Revised November 1987)
Case

General Electric Trading Co.--1985

By: David B. Yoffie

Keywords: Trade; Competition

Find at Harvard

August 1995
Teaching Note

State Street Boston Corporation: Leading with Information Technology TN

By: Richard L. Nolan, Donna B. Stoddard and Chiara Francalanci

Teaching Note (5-196-058). View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Financial Institutions; Transformation; Technology Adoption; Information Management; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

March 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Groupon

By: Sunil Gupta, Ray Weaver and Dharmishta Rood

On November 4, 2011, Groupon, a marketing services company that promoted local businesses by selling deeply discounted vouchers for their products and services, completed its initial public offering that valued the company at $17 billion. Within a year Groupon's share... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customers; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Marketing Channels; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation

April 2001
Teaching Note

Microsoft Carpoint

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Steven Silverman and William A. Sahlman

Teaching Note for (9-898-280). For book only - not listed on case. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customers; Web Services Industry

April 2005
Teaching Note

Boeing 787: The Dreamliner (TN)

By: Richard L. Nolan and Suresh Kotha

Teaching Note to (9-305-101). View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Competition; Production; Transformation; Service Operations; Air Transportation Industry

13 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Trust

financial success of companies. In fact, I am teaching a second-year elective, titled Strategies Beyond the Market, in which we investigate these linkages. Trust is obviously an important example for a factor beyond the market. Many... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Service

20 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Moving from Supply Chains to Supply Networks

competitive advantage.EE: How is Managing the Supply Chain: The General Manager's Perspective unique from other supply chain programs offered in recent years? Shapiro: Traditionally, the supply chain has been taught at the level of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

30 Oct 2018
News

Paths of Victory

Reflecting HBS’s standing as the top school for entrepreneurs (according to the most-recent PitchBook rankings), the annual HBS New Venture Competition has helped Harvard Business School students and alumni launch dozens of new... View Details

Keywords: Alumni New Venture Contest; Support Activities for Transportation; Transportation; Machinery Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

2025
Working Paper

Bringing Science to Market: Knowledge Foundations, Inventor-Founders, and Performance

By: Justine Boudou and Maria Roche

In this paper, we examine how a startup’s knowledge foundations—embedded in its core technology—influence its performance in the exit market. Using a dataset of 1,006 biomedicine startups founded between 2005 and 2015, we focus on two key factors: (1) the degree of... View Details

Keywords: Firm Performance; Knowledge Foundations; Exits; Academic Startups; Inventor-founder; Specialized Scientific Knowledge; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Research; Information Publishing; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship