Publications

December 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Matthew G. Preble

The four founding members of Bazaart—a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images—face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding... View Details

Keywords: Growth Hacking; Customer Acquisition; Startup Marketing; Startup; Startup Nation; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Customers; Marketing; Social Marketing; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

12 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Pay Workers More So They Steal Less

Bigger paychecks for retail employees could generate significant payoffs for employers by reducing worker theft and raising the level of moral behavior in the workforce, a new study shows. Tatiana Sandino, an associate professor in accounting and View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

December 2005 (Revised April 2011)
Case

General Electric's 20th Century CEOs

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Style

May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Lowe’s: Improving the Total Home Strategy

By: Elie Ofek, K. Shelette Stewart and Alicia Dadlani

In 2023, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe’s, contemplated enhancements to the company’s Total Home Strategy to accelerate performance and grow market share. In the last five years since becoming CEO, Ellison had championed a turnaround of the company, completing a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Competition; Brands and Branding; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; North Carolina

2011
Working Paper

What Do Development Banks Do? Evidence from Brazil, 2002-2009

By: Sergio G. Lazzarini, Aldo Musacchio, Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello and Rosilene Marcon

While some authors view development banks as an important tool to alleviate capital constraints in scarce credit markets and unlock productive investments, others see those banks as conduits of cheap loans to politically connected firms that could obtain capital... View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Credit; Equity; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Investment; Government and Politics; Data and Data Sets; Resource Allocation; Markets; Performance; Banking Industry; Brazil

Read Now

01 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Bad At Your Job? Maybe It's the Job’s Fault

person’s performance be tracked, and what factors will be evaluated to determine success? Evaluation measures could include sales or revenue goals, the number of patents filed or products launched, or customer satisfaction levels. 3. Who... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Strategy in the Twenty First Century Pharmaceutical Industry: Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc.

By: David J. Collis and Troy Smith

The global pharmaceutical industry has gone through substantial changes in the last few decades and pharmaceutical firms face major challenges including headline-grabbing litigation, imminent patent expirations, new technologies, rising drug development costs, generic... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Research and Development; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

10 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Do You Have Change Fatigue?

Chances are you've got a story like Andrea Zintz's. Now president of Andrea Zintz & Associates, a consulting firm in Pennington, N.J., she was working for a health-care concern in 1997 when the firm's executive committee decided to launch an innovation initiative... View Details

Keywords: by Nick Morgan

Web

Disruptive Innovation Online Course | HBS Online

buy your products and why, and predict when disruption will happen. The course equipped me with new ways to think about problems, products, businesses, and just everything in life. Daniella Patrick Innovation Lab View Details

01 Mar 2024
News

On the Radar

Illustration by Brian Stauffer Illustration by Brian Stauffer Our planet is teeming with trillions of viruses and bacteria, most of which are innocuous or even helpful, but some pose a significant risk to public health, animals, and crops. In recent decades,... View Details

Keywords: Janine White; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

06 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 6

Strategic Management Product Market Strategy By: Menon, Anoop, and Dennis Yao Abstract—Product market strategy is the collection of choices, actions, and activities of a firm that determines how it positions... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2022
Teaching Note

BTS & ARMY

By: Doug J. Chung and Kay R. Koo

Industry leaders must define a particular outcome of interest (i.e., an objective) to establish an organization’s strategy. BTS’s initial objective was to increase brand recognition and to acquire a solid fanbase. The proliferation of social network platforms... View Details

Keywords: Cultural Diversity; Brand Equity; Go-to-market Strategy; Social Network; Entertainment Industry; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Music Industry

15 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2021

surprisingly, the 10 most-read articles on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge reflected the mood swings of another challenging, complex year for managers and employees everywhere. The 10 most popular articles 1. COVID Killed the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

27 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Rituals Strengthen Couples. Here’s Why They’re Good for Business, Too

can benefit What business leaders might find especially interesting about the research results: Many rituals that couples perform involve some form of joint consumption of products or services. In one study, 64 percent of the rituals... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

30 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Health Care Under a Research Microscope

formidable research and teaching talents on bringing business-focused solutions and perspectives to address these problems. Some examples: In Zambia, Nava Ashraf and several colleagues conducted field studies to determine if charging for the water purification View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Biotechnology

June 2010 (Revised September 2010)
Case

athenahealth: Innovating in Response to a Crisis in Healthcare

When Jonathan Bush and his partner, Todd Park, realized that their revolutionary approach to delivering clinical care was being stymied by the inefficiencies in the healthcare system and insurance red tape, they turned their proprietary technology, athenaNet, to a new... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Health Industry; United States