Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(563)
- Faculty Publications (234)
- February 2024
- Article
Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry
By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano
An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable”, resources and point to redeployment of... View Details
- January 2024
- Case
BWX Technologies
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Yuan Zou and Aldo Sesia
Rex Geveden and Robb LeMasters, CEO and CFO of BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT), were concerned that investors and analysts did not fully appreciate the company's transformation from a nuclear reactor provider to the US Navy and Canadian utilities to a multi-product line... View Details
- October 2023
- Case
To Fizzle Out or Heat Up? PepsiCo and Coca-Cola’s SodaStream and Costa Coffee Acquisitions
By: David Collis and Haisley Wert
U.S. beverage giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola shared many similarities by August 2018—both were founded by pharmacists in the 1890s, grew to offer hundreds of drink brands, and championed rival flagship products that drove loyalists into taste-testing wars. That month,... View Details
- October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Fantuan
By: Feng Zhu and David Lane
In 2023, CEO Randy Wu was considering the optimal growth strategy for Fantuan, a restaurant food delivery platform that had expanded from its 2014 founding in Vancouver, Canada to serve the Chinese demand for Asian cuisine in urban markets across Australia, Canada, the... View Details
Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Growth Management; Business Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; United Kingdom; Australia
- 2023
- Book
The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card
Pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Your parents’ advice to focus on one career path? It doesn’t work anymore, for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global... View Details
- Working Paper
Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry
By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano
An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable,” resources and point to redeployment of... View Details
- December 2022
- Case
Mission Produce in 2022
By: Forest Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
Founded by CEO Steve Barnard in 1983, California-based Mission Produce was a leading supplier of Hass avocados with a global sourcing, marketing, and distribution network and $892 million in 2021 sales. Barnard had been influential in the global avocado trade’s... View Details
- November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group
By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein
This case describes the efforts of City Football Group (CFG) to purchase Esporte Clube Bahia (Bahia), a Brazilian professional soccer club. CFG’s strategy was to acquire under-performing clubs worldwide, invest money in high-profile players, and improve the teams’... View Details
Keywords: Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Conglomerates; Geography; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Sports Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; England; South America; Brazil
- October 2022 (Revised September 2024)
- Case
To SFO or Not To SFO: The Tolman Family Selects a Family Office Strategy
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Victoria Alvarez-Arango, Grace Headinger, Mili Sanwalka and Anna Yuan
Peter Tolman, a first-generation investment professional, debated which family office strategy to adopt for managing his family’s assets. As the sole steward of his family’s wealth, he sought to conserve and grow his family’s wealth for him, his wife, and his two very... View Details
- June 2022
- Case
Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace
By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim and Tonia Labruyere
With Amazon's entry into Portugal, Miguel Mota Freitas, CEO of Portuguese electronics chain Worten, is reflecting on their strategy of building a competitive marketplace. View Details
- April 2022
- Case
Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash
In late 2021, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach and Chairman and former CEO Ajaypal “Ajay” Banga considered how Mastercard could best position itself for continued success in the years to come. Since Mastercard’s initial public offering in 2006, the company had grown and... View Details
Keywords: Technological Innovation; Leadership; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Change; Change Management; Money; Cash; Credit; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Central Banking; Financial Instruments; Credit Cards; Financial Markets; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Information Technology; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US)
- March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
Pakistan Rising: Bazaar's Growth Story (A)
By: Paul A. Gompers and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in September 2021 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are contemplating whether the year-and-a half old startup should also venture into offering financing to... View Details
- March 2022
- Supplement
Pakistan Rising: Bazaar's Growth Story (B)
By: Paul A. Gompers and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in January 2022 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are looking over the performance of the newly launched “buy now, play later” feature. The traction looks... View Details
- February 2022
- Case
US Foods: Driving Post-Pandemic Success?
By: David E. Bell, Olivia Hull and Amy Klopfenstein
In November 2021, US Foods CEO Pietro Satriano must decide his company’s trajectory following the COVID-19 pandemic. US Foods suffered due to business closures and social distancing during the height of the pandemic. While the situation improved following the return of... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Food; Goods and Commodities; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Offer; Labor; Employment; Human Capital; Wages; Working Conditions; Operations; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Diversification; Product Design; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain Management; Social Psychology; Motivation and Incentives; Transportation; Truck Transportation; Transportation Networks; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Distribution Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Transportation Industry; United States
- February 2022
- Teaching Note
Linda Oubré at Whittier College
By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-057. View Details
- December 2021 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher
At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,... View Details
- October 2021
- Case
Yildiz Holding's Corporate Strategy: Managing Diversification for Growth
By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin
The case opens in May 2018 with Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi, chief strategy and growth officer of Yıldız Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, reflecting on the group’s diversification journey. In ten years, the group had achieved a remarkable growth through diversification: seven... View Details
- 2021
- Working Paper
Saving for a Dry Day: Coal, Dams, and the Energy Transition
By: Michele Fioretti and Jorge Tamayo
Renewable generation creates a tradeoff between current and future energy production as generators produce energy by releasing previously stored resources. Studying the Colombian market, we find that diversified firms strategically substitute fossil fuels for... View Details
- August 2021
- Case
BYJU’S: EdTech Giant Investing in Brick and Mortar
By: John J-H Kim and Rachna Tahilyani
The founder and CEO of BYJU’S, India’s largest edtech firm and one of the world’s most valuable edtech companies, is considering acquiring Aakash Educational Services (Aakash), one of India’s largest brick-and-mortar test-prep firms, for $1 billion. Is this a good... View Details
Keywords: Edtech; Business Strategy; Diversification; Investment; Acquisition; Education Industry; Asia; India; United States
- May 2021
- Case
Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham
By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull
Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details
Keywords: Inclusion; Innovation; Invention; Gender; Business Startups; Investment Funds; Private Equity; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Research; Research and Development; Diversification; Technology; Health Industry; Massachusetts; Boston