Publications

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

geographically by rolling up other companies in adjacent territories. Usually, the operating unit remains local if the relationship with local customers is important. What the acquiring company brings is some combination of lower... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

August 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Systems Design West

By: Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Jenn Braus (HBS 2013) was halfway through the 90-day exclusivity period for her proposed acquisition of Systems Design West (SDW). She had completed her business and accounting due diligence. Just as she was about to ask her lawyer to begin drafting the purchase... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Price; Negotiation Offer; Decision Making

11 Jul 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Deconstructing 'Customer Experience'

sector. Break Your Addiction to Service Heroes It's possible for organizations to reduce costs while dramatically enhancing customer service. The key? Don't try to be good at everything. Research Papers... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Service

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

increase the cost of capital, reduce the availability of external finance, and lower firm-level investment. Download working paper: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/15-016_dffd8931-f668-4e0c-80d1-0560cea51e19.pdf How Does... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November–December 2024
Article

Scaling Up Transformational Innovations

By: Peter Koen, Ananya Sheth, Mike DiPaola and Linda A. Hill

For large companies operating in mature sectors—such as Procter & Gamble in consumer goods, Apple in consumer electronics, and Adobe in cloud software—driving growth is a perennial challenge. Growth through acquisition is always an option, but companies often quickly... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

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05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

non-democracies. The Value of First Impressions: Leveraging Acquisition Data for Customer Management By: Padilla, Nicolas, and Eva Ascarza Abstract— Managing customers... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

20 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

Bankruptcy Spells Death for Too Many Businesses

acquisitions costing creditors more than $2 billion per year, Antill finds. "If you could just get all the creditors to agree to lower that debt load, to accept a write-down, then the equity in that company... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

July 2021
Article

Information Transparency, Multihoming, and Platform Competition: A Natural Experiment in the Daily Deals Market

By: Hui Li and Feng Zhu

Platform competition is shaped by the likelihood of multi-homing (i.e., complementors or consumers adopt more than one platform). To take advantage of multi-homing, platform firms often attempt to motivate their rivals’ high-performing complementors to adopt their own... View Details

Keywords: Platform Competition; Multi-homing; Information Transparency; Daily Deals; Groupon; LivingSocial; Digital Platforms; Information; Competition

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June 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Innovation and Growth (A)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Michael Beer and James Weber

In late 2015, CEO Vince Forlenza was reviewing Becton Dickinson’s transformation efforts designed to enable the company to innovate and grow in a changing environment. Becton Dickinson had been a successful medical device company for over 100 years. In recent years,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

Srikant M. Datar became the eleventh dean of Harvard Business School on 1 January 2021. During his tenure as a faculty member, he served as Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs (including Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab), for Research, for... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; airline; automobiles; banking; biotechnology; communications; consumer products; e-commerce industry; health care; high technology; investment banking industry; management consulting; manufacturing; pharmaceuticals; venture capital industry

26 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

responsibility of finance and operations, while marketing and sales focus on value generators. But the only way to maximize the space between customer value generated and the selling company's costs is to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Consumer Products

2013
Teaching Note

The COFCO Group (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

2013
Case

The COFCO Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

12 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 12, 2019

experts in the selection and development of early-stage ideas. Our context is the movie industry, in which customer appeal is difficult to predict and investment costs are high. The Black List, an annual... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

purchasing life. The CLV formula incorporates metrics that capture the outputs of three key customer strategies that firms employ: asset acquisition (attracting new customers... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

28 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Do Display Ads Influence Search? Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

Keywords: by Pavel Kireyev, Koen Pauwels & Sunil Gupta; Advertising

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details