Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(507)
- Faculty Publications (45)
- Summer 2014
- Article
Taiwan's PC Industry, 1976–2010: The Evolution of Organizational Capabilities
By: Howard H. Yu and Willy C. Shih
The stellar growth of Taiwan's personal computer (PC) industry over the past three decades represents a paradox. Participating in the global production system, local firms in Taiwan grew in association with established firms in the West. Despite their technical... View Details
Keywords: Personal Computer; PC; PC Industry; Taiwan PC Industry; Taiwan PC Manufacturers; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Clusters; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Mobile Technology; Information Technology Industry; Taiwan
- January 2014 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
StepSmart Fitness
By: Robert J. Dolan, Benson P. Shapiro and Alisa Zalosh
StepSmart Fitness, a manufacturer of exercise equipment, is undergoing a sweeping reorganization. The new CEO has terminated the District Sales Director and Regional VP and promoted 30-year-old Benjamin Cooper to manage the underperforming New England district. A... View Details
- July 2013
- Case
Jackson Automotive Systems
By: William E. Fruhan and Wei Wang
Jackson Automotive Systems produces automotive parts for advanced heating and air conditioning systems, engine cooling systems, fuel injection and transfer systems, and various other engine parts and it supplies them to the automotive industry primarily in Michigan.... View Details
- February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?
By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai
Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details
Keywords: Plastics; Injection Molding; Toys; LEGO; LEGO Group; Tools; Additive Manufacturing; 3D Manufacturing; Toolmaking; Patenting; Spillovers; Knowledge Spillovers; Change; Trends; Engineering; Machinery and Machining; Intellectual Property; Patents; Operations; Production; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Europe; Denmark
- August 2012
- Case
Polar Sports, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester and Wei Wang
Polar Sports, Inc. is a fashion skiwear manufacturing company in Littleton, Colorado. The company has a unique design for skiwear using a special synthetic material that improves insulation and durability. The ski apparel industry is highly competitive and the best way... View Details
- July 2012
- Case
Owen's Precision Machining
By: Ramana Nanda and James McQuade
For the second time in fourteen months, Christopher Owen, the second-generation owner of Owen's Precision Machining (OPM), found himself running out of cash. Owen wondered what he was doing wrong. How much additional money would he need to raise to get OPM through the... View Details
- September – October 2011
- Article
The Manufacturer's Incentive to Reduce Lead Times
By: Santiago Kraiselburd, Richard Pibernik and Ananth Raman
It is generally a well acknowledged fact that, ceteris paribus, reducing the lead times between downstream and upstream parties in a supply chain is desirable from an overall system perspective. However, an upstream party (e.g., a manufacturer) may have strong... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
Haier: Taking a Chinese Company Global in 2011
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Phillip Andrews
In 2011, Haier, China's leading appliance manufacturer, had over $20 billion in worldwide sales and had just been named the leading refrigerator manufacturer worldwide. Describes Haier's rise over three decades from a defunct refrigerator factory in China's Qingdao... View Details
- March 2011 (Revised November 2011)
- Case
Harmonic Hearing Co.
By: Howard H. Stevenson and Craig H. Stephenson
Harmonic is a small, privately held manufacturer of hearing aids. Harriet Burns and Marc Davis, two employees at Harmonic, have an opportunity to purchase the company from the founder. As well-informed insiders who understand the industry, Burns and Davis believe the... View Details
Keywords: Debts; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Small Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Manufacturing Industry
- November 2010
- Case
Spudnik, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth A. Kind
This case describes the plan to finance a revolutionary new television set manufacturing business in late 2009. Yatin Mundkur, a venture capitalist at Artiman Ventures, has recruited a team of veteran eecutives from the optical disk drive business, to design large... View Details
- August 2010
- Case
Flash Memory, Inc.
By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson
The CFO of Flash Memory, Inc. prepares the company's investing and financing plans for the next three years. Flash Memory is a small firm that specializes in the design and manufacture of solid state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for the computer and electronics... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised January 2011)
- Case
Carrot or Stick? Getting Paid for Innovation at Tessera Technologies
By: Willy C. Shih
Tessera Technologies has been very successful developing technologies for the semiconductor and mobile device industry, and then licensing them broadly to manufacturers. In addition to licensing patents, it also supplies know-how to help manufacturers move into... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
Malden Mills (A) (Abridged)
By: Nitin Nohria and Thomas R. Piper
CEO Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills decided to pay idled workers after a massive fire at his mill in 1995. Focuses on the decisions made post-fire and the rebuilding process and eventual bankruptcy of the company. Also outlines creditors' struggle to decide whether to... View Details
- September 2009
- Case
Intel NBI: Image Components Organization
By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston
The Image Components Organization (ICO) was an internal venture that was part of Intel's New Business Initiatives. It sought to initially develop and sell a high performance integrated CMOS image sensor module for cellular phones. ICO's opening assumptions were that it... View Details
- November 2006 (Revised March 2012)
- Case
Clocky: The Runaway Alarm Clock
By: Elie Ofek and Eliot Sherman
Gauri Nanda is the creator of an innovative new product: an alarm clock named Clocky that, in addition to ringing, rolls around the room in order to force its owner to get out of bed. Beset by media attention and consumer interest but still at least a year away from... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Corning, 2002
By: Malcolm P. Baker and James Quinn
Corning, with large investments in fiber optic technology, was hit particularly hard by the collapse of the telecommunications industry in 2001. With over $4 billion in debt, the firm's survival appears to rest on raising additional equity capital. The protagonist is... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised December 2007)
- Case
Motion Computing, Inc. -- 2004
By: William A. Sahlman and Caroline Perkins
Scott Eckert, the co-founder and CEO of Motion Computing, must decide whether to raise additional capital to support growth. Motion manufactures and distributes Tablet PCs. If the company opts to raise money, it must decide on the source and terms of the financing. View Details
- April 2005 (Revised June 2005)
- Compilation
Boeing 787: The Dreamliner
By: Richard L. Nolan and Suresh Kotha
Boeing dominated the commercial airline manufacturing business since bringing out the first commercial airline jet airliner. But in 2005, it delivered fewer new planes than its fast-moving competitor, Airbus. Boeing responded by transforming its manufacturing business... View Details
- December 2003 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Malden Mills (A)
By: Nitin Nohria, Thomas R. Piper and Bridget Gurtler
CEO Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills decided to pay idled workers after a massive fire at his mill in 1995. Focuses on the decisions made post-fire and the rebuilding process and eventual bankruptcy of the company. Also outlines creditors' struggle to decide whether to... View Details
- September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Bharti Tele-Ventures
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Ingrid Vargas
Following the liberalization of India's telecommunications service industry in the early 1990s, Bharti Tele-Ventures grew from a small entrepreneurial telephone equipment importer and manufacturer to become India's largest private-sector telecommunications service... View Details