Publications

Educators

24 Oct 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Startup or Established Company? Which Is Best for You?

at scale. Win-win. Conversely, someone with a lot of startup experience may have a hard time adjusting to a mature company. A hiring manager at a mature company may question whether a candidate with only... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

01 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Immigrant Innovators: Job Stealers or Job Creators?

arguing since the creation of the program more than 20 years ago: Is the program helpful or hurtful to American workers? “What's not debated is that immigrants are extremely important to innovation" The program enables US employers to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

September 1986 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Eastern Electric Apparatus Repair Company (A)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Harry Gruner

As principals engaged in structuring leveraged buyouts for a well-capitalized risk arbitrage firm, Bob Meehan and George Schwartz are preparing to bid for the business and assets of a Westinghouse subsidiary. The case focuses on the value of the opportunity, methods of... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Bids and Bidding; Opportunities; Business Subsidiaries; Strategy; Valuation; Equity; Electronics Industry

Research Summary

Understanding and Managing Information Intermediaries

Brian Bushee is investigating whether information intermediaries such as institutional investors and financial analysts are sophisticated and efficient users of accounting information and whether these intermediaries' decisions influence the choices made by... View Details

December 13, 2022
Article

6 Ways Companies Fail to Help Workers Grow

By: Joseph Fuller, Matthew Sigelman and Nik Dawson

The authors recently studied Fortune 250 companies and ranked them based on the lived experience of three million of their U.S. workers. One of their key findings was that even top-ranked firms fail to deliver consistently on worker advancement. To understand why this... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Training; Business Model; Outcome or Result; Performance Evaluation; Opportunities

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Article

MIT Roundtable on Corporate Risk Management

By: Robert C. Merton

Against the backdrop of financial crisis, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners discusses the contribution of financial management and innovation to corporate growth and value, along with the pitfalls and unintended consequences of such innovation.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Market Participation; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Value; Distribution; Capital Structure; Risk Management; Business Ventures; Business Model; Strategy

29 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

CasPhotography What Can the Harley-Davidson Case Teach Us About Managing in a Politicized Environment? The advice to Harley-Davidson’s management from respondents of this month’s column is to (1) ensure that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto

29 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

Companies that let their workers decide where and when to do their jobs—whether in another city or in the middle of the night—increase employee productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs,... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

October 1998
Case

CRA Managed Care, Inc. (A)

By: Myra M. Hart and Jennifer Starr

Silverman and her co-founder, Don Larson, own the largest privately held injury-management and cost-containment services firm in the United States. When their $80+ million company attracts substantial interest of investment bankers and venture capitalists, the two must... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leadership Development; Venture Capital; Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment; Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Service Industry; United States

June 2008
Case

Starbucks Coffee Company in the 21st Century

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Marya Lisl Hill-Popper Besharov and Katherine Miller

The case explores the opportunities and challenges confronting Starbucks in the early 21st century. For more than 15 years, Starbucks has grown swiftly and successfully, helping create a large, dynamic market for specialty coffee, building one of the world's most... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Economy; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competition

Educators

December 2000 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Promise (A): Building a Consumer Finance Company in Japan

Describes Promise, the third-largest consumer finance company in Japan. Promise was created in 1963 by an entrepreneur and has grown rapidly, especially in the 1990s when commercial banks struggled. Promise's core business consists of providing unsecured loans of up to... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry; Japan

27 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Creating Leaders for Science-Based Businesses

Education offerings that teach scientists business and organizational fundamentals? What about joint MBA/Ph.D. programs? How about science/business seminars, more science-based cases, and more science-savvy faculty to teach them? We don't... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Biotechnology; Health

23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

"If I am a tobacco manufacturer seeing my sales cannibalized by e-cigarettes, I have two choices: develop my own e-cigarette brand or buy an e-cigarette company," says Quelch. Number three tobacco View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Supplement

Vertex Pharmaceuticals: R&D Portfolio Management (A)

By: Gary P. Pisano, Lee Fleming and Eli Strick

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a drug discovery company that recently decided to pursue a vertically integrated business model, chose to build up its clinical development and commercial capabilities and infrastructure. For the first time in its history, Vertex will... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Investment Portfolio; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2001
Background Note

Dot com Business Models

By: Richard L. Nolan

Describes dot com business models. Intended to be used as a handout with a case about dot com companies following case discussion. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Web Sites; Web Services Industry

July 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Global Knowledge Management at Danone (A) (Abridged)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and David Lane

This case explores French consumer goods company Danone's novel approach to knowledge management. In 2007, Human Resource Chief (Executive Vice President) Franck Mougin assesses the company's knowledge-sharing tools and considers his options going forward. Through... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Employee Relationship Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Social and Collaborative Networks; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; France

Educators